The area around Broadway and Pendleton Streets in the eastern portion of the district saw the last major subdivision and development of land in the Over-the-Rhine. It was primarily high-density residential in land use and still exhibits this distinctive characteristic. Numerous large-scale apartment buildings with Italianate and functional vernacular architectural styles, constructed circa 1860-1875, characterize the area.
This subarea has experienced an erosion of its built environment because of demolitions and neglect. The southern edge near Sycamore Street is near the Hamilton County Court House. Parking lots now break the once cohesive streetscape. Recreational areas associated with the School for Creative and Performing Arts, the former Peaslee School and Ziegler Park (named for Cincinnati's first mayor, David Ziegler) break the continuity of the streetscape and have physically and visually opened up the area to expose facades of buildings a block away. Housing abandonment has left many buildings vacant and in blighted condition. City-sponsored demolition activities along with private actions opened up an increasing number of vacant lots. The result is an increasing threat to the area's continuity and cohesiveness. During the late 1960's the city sponsored rehabilitation projects in this subarea, using federal funds, which resulted in the unsympathetic rehabilitation of several buildings that today exhibit missing cornices, louvered or blocked-down windows and damage due to sandblasting.
Thirteenth Street exhibits a distinctive streetscape composed of three- and four-story Italianate-style row houses. Its visual integrity is further accentuated by the undulation of the street, as it drops toward the west to expose an imposing view of Old St. Mary's Church in the distance. These simple brick structures feature decorative stone hood moulds above rectangular wood sash windows and bracketed cornices with paneled friezes.
Smaller scale residential buildings with Italianate and functional vernacular styling can be found just south of Liberty Street. They are mixed in height ranging from two to three stories, two or three bays wide, and have flat, low gable or mansard roof treatments. These buildings are representative of the smaller scale buildings found in this subarea and were constructed circa 1860-1875.
The old Woodward High School, now the School for Creative and Performing Arts, occupies the block bounded by Fourteenth, Broadway, Thirteenth, and Sycamore Streets. This Second Renaissance Revival-style structure, designed by local architect Gustav Drach, was completed in 1910 and boasted the most modern facilities of the time, including a 1,100 seat auditorium, swimming pool, and two gymnasiums. The school is a major focal point due to its large size, scale, and open setting. The five-story brick structure sits on a rusticated stone base and features stone quoins, multi-paned sash windows, a heavily modillioned belt course above the fourth story, and a parapeted roofline. A school building has been located on this site since 1831, when William Woodward donated land for the first school on this site.
Examples of several different styles stand on Fourteenth Street opposite the former Woodward High School. The three-story brick house at 316 Fourteenth Street has the six-over-six sash windows, plain lintels and lugsills, and unadorned cornice of the Greek Revival style. The Italianate-style structure at 318 Fourteenth Street rises three stories from a partially raised basement and features shaped hood moulds, two-over-two sash windows, and an elaborate bracketed and paneled cornice. Both of the three-story brick residences at 320 and 324 Fourteenth Street have mansard roofs with gabled dormers, bracketed cornices along the eaves line, and hood moulds above the sash windows.
The open rear or side porches found some apartment buildings add a distinctive architectural feature. These porches are usually found on the second and third floors, but can be found to the rear of four- or five-story buildings. They are almost always constructed of wood and frequently provide the only stairs to the upper floors of the buildings. As a rule, porches were not part of the front facades of buildings. They became a part of the visual scene only when demolition of an adjacent building opened up a view to the porch area.
On the southeast corner of Sycamore and Liberty Streets stands an old Cincinnati Inclined Railway Company barn. It served as a car house for the Mt. Auburn incline, the earliest of five lines that made outlying areas more accessible and led eventually to the decline of the older sections of the city.
Two churches stand in this portion of the district. The oldest is the former St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church at Spring and Twelfth streets. Constructed in 1848-1850 and designed by Cincinnati architect Seneca Palmer, the brick edifice features Classical Revival-style details, including Doric pilasters, a full entablature, a low-pitched pediment, and round-arched, windows. The church had an earlier Gothic Revival-style tower, but when a fire destroyed the roof in 1899, it was replaced by a Renaissance-style tower with a cupola roof and gilded cross designed by Samuel Hannaford and Sons. Other structures in the St. Paul's complex include the former boys' school (erected in 1862) and the girls' school (erected in 1908). The Verdin Company, a long-time Cincinnati manufacturer of bells, has renovated the church complex as a design center and church supply center. The Verdin Company has become a major factor in stabilizing the architectural character of this area and has assisted the rehabilitation of several other structures in the immediate vicinity.
The other church in this area is the Deutsch Evangelisch Reformirte Salem's Kirche (Salem's German Evangelical Reformed Church). This brick Gothic Revival-style structure stands on Sycamore between Orchard and Liberty Streets, and dates from 1867. Details include pointed-arch windows, buttresses, and an octagonal spire resting on a central buttressed Gothic Revival tower base. A gilded angel ornaments the spire and serves as a weathervane. The church was originally described as a replica of a church in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
