WHAT’S IN STORE: RENEWING 3 WEST MCMICKEN
Since the 1860s, this property at 3 West McMicken in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood has been home to over 150 families and at least 500 individuals. Today this building and the one behind it are owned by the Over-the-Rhine Museum. The museum was founded in 2015 to inspire understanding and respect for the people who have created and lived in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood by working with community members and visitors to uncover, present, and preserve their stories. The core of our work will be the interpretation of these two buildings, telling the stories of real people that lived here.
The storefront exhibition is our first public display in this space and will form the foundation of our future museum. We have spent over six years researching families who have lived here and are finally ready to start telling their stories!
The project included:
Uncovering boarded windows
Replacing and repairing the storefront glass
Restoring front door
Restoring the stained glass
Creating the Biography in Bricks exhibition in the storefront windows
The first building on this lot was built just before the Civil War, when Cincinnati reigned as the sixth largest city in the nation and German Americans built Over-the-Rhine into a densely populated German-speaking enclave. Over 144 years of occupancy this two-building complex was home to urban Cincinnatians from a range of cultures, including a diverse group of European immigrants, migrants from Appalachia, and African Americans displaced by urban renewal in Cincinnati’s West End. The Over-the-Rhine Museum will tell their stories.
Our buildings sit on a lot purchased by stone carver Carl Leopold Fettweis. He built the first building at 12 Findlay Street in 1862 and the building on McMicken by 1870. For their first ninety years, these buildings had just two owners, both of whom lived here with their families while renting out unused space to tenants. In the last seventy years, the buildings have had seven additional owners. This exhibition provides a small introduction to these owners and their known tenants. Their stories are unique, but also universal narratives of the strengths, struggles, and survival of all Americans. This brief exhibition is the beginning of what we believe are the amazing stories Over-the-Rhine has to tell.
The Biography in Brick exhibit is made possible in part by Ohio Humanities, A State Affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Storefront Restoration was funded by the W. E. Smith Foundation, Ed and Joann Hubert Family Foundation, Michael Ibold Wilger Foundation, and the Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation in addition to many, many individual donors. Thank you!
