Clifton, Cincinnati, Ohio

Clifton, incorporated as a village in 1850, is now a neighborhood in the north central part of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. [Generally, when Cincinnatians refer to Clifton, they include its surrounding neighborhoods.] The area includes the Ludlow Avenue Shopping and Dining District. Clifton is situated around Clifton Avenue, north of Dixmyth Avenue, approximately three miles north of Downtown Cincinnati. Today Clifton is populated by people from many racial and ethnic backgrounds. Several historic buildings and homes remain in the neighborhood.

In the nineteenth century mansions set in extensive grounds of gardens, parkland and woodlands dominated the northern section of Clifton, farther from the city. Their gates and gatehouses were spaced at intervals along Lafayette Avenue. In the southern section, denser settlement flanked a growing business district along Ludlow Avenue, centered on its juncture with Clifton Avenue.

Many of the estate grounds were designed by the landscape designer Adolph Strauch, who served as the Superintendent of Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum in the 1850s, who later revised plantings when estates became public parkland, such as Eden Park and the 89 acres of Burnet Woods, the former property of Jacob Burnet.

The estates have found new uses in the twentieth century, or have been demolished, like Alexander McDonald's baronial mansion designed by Samuel Hannaford, the pre-eminent estate architect in later nineteenth-century Cinicinnati; it was demolished in the 1960s to make way for an annex to the Clifton School: only a 150-year old yew ("Taxus cuspidata capitata" on the grounds of Fairview-Clifton German Language School [ [http://www.glaserworks.com/Fairview/Revisions%20For%20Blackwell.pdf (pdf file)] ] and the carriage house remain. [ [http://www.cliftonculturalarts.org/carriagehouse.html Clifton Cultural arts Center] ]

The city of Cincinnati annexed Clifton in 1896. The University of Cincinnati relocated to Burnet Woods Park. Today the University is located in Clifton Heights, University Heights, Avondale, and Corryville, neighborhoods that surround Clifton. The presence of Hebrew Union College, settled near the University, and the Sacred Heart Academy in Clifton helped to contribute to the intellectual and bohemian atmosphere of the neighborhood.

The Ludlow Avenue business district has been designated Cincinnati's first "Main Street neighborhood" in a program sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation; the Gaslight District contains many independent shops, restaurants and a movie theater specializing in independent and foreign films. Side streets are lit using original gas lamps, hence the name "Gaslight District." There is a great diversity of retail outlets and dining and drinking establishments situated along Ludlow and intersecting streets.

Clifton is situated on the hill overlooking Northside, Cincinnati.

References

*Miller, Zane L. "Vision of Place: The City, Neighborhood, Suburbs, and Cincinnati's Clifton, 1850-2000" (Columbus: Ohio State University Press), 2001.

External links

* [http://www.cliftoncommunity.org/ Clifton Community]

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External links

* [http://www.cliftonculturalarts.org/ Clifton Cultural Arts Center]
* [http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/branches/clifton.html/ Clifton Branch library]