VISIT OUR
NEW WEBSITE: www.TheBettsHouse.org
The
Betts House makes its past exhibits available for loan to museums,
historic sites, libraries, community centers, cultural centers, and
other venues.
For information, please contact Julie Carpenter at 513-651-0734 or
BettsHouseRC at fuse.net
From
Tenements to Townhouses: Multi-Family Housing in Cincinnati
On view at Venue 222
From Tenements to Townhouses:
Multi-Family Housing in Cincinnati explores an often-overlooked
area of history. Today, most people have experienced apartment life;
yet a century ago, apartment living was considered immoral by many
people. The exhibit will examine the physical structures and social
context of multi-family housing in Cincinnati and how it evolved over
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Cincinnati
has numerous architecturally distinctive multi-family buildings built
by talented local designers, as well as some associated with architects
of national reputation. Whether in the central business district,
streetcar suburbs, factory neighborhoods or close-in suburban
communities, these buildings represent a remarkable variety of
architectural styles and hosted a diverse array of residents.
The
historic rowhouses and apartments in Cincinnati represent a thriving
city with a remarkably diverse transit system including, at various
times, streetcars, inclines and cable railways, as well as the nation's
largest interurban network. Some were experiments in enlightened city
planning and progressive responses to social problems and hard
times. As a tool for modern development, they provide a template
for re-populating and re-densifying the city, and more sustainable,
less-auto-centric ways of life.
From Tenements to Townhouses is
curated by Margo Warminski, the Preservation Director of the Cincinnati
Preservation Association. She was the primary author of the 2002 book,
Historic Resources of Boone County, Kentucky, published by the Boone
County Historic Preservation Review Board. In addition, Ms. Warminski
was curator of the 2006 Betts House exhibit, Endangered Cincinnati: Can These Buildings
Be Saved?, which won an Education Award from the Ohio Historical
Society.
This exhibit is made possible,
in part, by grants from The Louise Taft Semple Foundation and the
Bettman Prize administered by AIA Cincinnati, and sponsorships from
LPK, York Vision, and anonymous donors. The public programs held in
conjunction with the exhibit were sponsored by The
National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in
the State of Ohio.
From Tenements to Townhouses received
an Outstanding
Achievement Award for History Outreach from the Ohio Association
of Historical Societies and Museums.
MORE GREAT CINCINNATI FAMILIES AT HOME
Available
for loan
The exhibit
includes the residences of the Emery, Gamble-Werk-Oskamp,
Longworth-Anderson, and Maxwell-Schmidlapp-Graydon families.
The twenty houses
featured in More Great
Cincinnati Families at Home represent over 100
years of domestic architecture in Cincinnati. Their architectural
styles include austere Colonial Revival, highly ornamented
Chateauesque, and the organic simplicity of Mid-Century Modern. Some
residences are familiar, such as Belmont, now home to the Taft Museum;
others, including the eclectic James N. Gamble Homestead in Westwood,
are less so. Several of the houses in the exhibit have been lost to
demolition.
These
families selected well known local and national architects -- including
Burnham & Root, Grosvenor Atterbury, Delano & Aldrich, Samuel
Hannaford, Elzner & Anderson, and Woodie Garber – to design their
residences. Some preferred traditional styles and techniques, others
adopted the latest innovations, including a Tudor half-timber house
that is constructed of reinforced concrete.
The
residences also represent many Cincinnati neighborhoods including
Avondale, Downtown, East Walnut Hills, Hyde Park, Indian Hill,
Mariemont, Montgomery, and Westwood. Over time, many of these
families lived in multiple neighborhoods, reflecting how the
desirability of a community changes over time. The streetcars,
inclines, commuter trains, and the automobile opened up new
neighborhoods for development and Cincinnati’s notable families both
led the way and followed the trends as they chose where to live.
More
Great Cincinnati Families at Home is curated by
Walter E. Langsam, architectural historian and teacher at the
University of Cincinnati, and author of Great Houses of the
Queen City (1997);
and historic preservation consultant Beth Sullebarger of Sullebarger
Associates and contributing author of Architecture in
Cincinnati (2006).
The exhibition features images of the exteriors and some interiors
using historic prints and photographs as well as recent photographs by
Alice Weston.
This
program is made possible, in part, by the Ohio Humanities Council, a
state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The
exhibit is also funded by the Jeanne R. Anderson Trust.
More Great
Cincinnati Families at Home received an Outstanding
Achievement Award for History Outreach from the Ohio Association
of Historical Societies and Museums.
GREAT
CINCINNATI FAMILIES AT HOME
Available for loan
Since Cincinnati’s
early days, the city’s leading families have sponsored the design and
construction of significant civic and residential architecture. The
Betts House is pleased to present Great Cincinnati Families at Home,
an exhibition showcasing the homes of four of these well known
Cincinnati families.
The
exhibition features the private residences of the Taft, Probasco-Rowe,
Hauck, and Huenefeld families. The nearly twenty homes included in Great Cincinnati
Families at Home exemplify a range
of architectural styles and time periods, ranging from an
early-nineteenth-century Greek Revival home to a late-twentieth-century
Late-Modern residence. The homes also represent many Cincinnati
neighborhoods including Avondale, Clifton, Downtown, East Walnut Hills,
Indian Hill, Mount Auburn, and the West End
The homes in the
exhibition represent the architectural trends of their eras, although
some express innovative styles that would have been considered quite
“modern” to their contemporaries. The individuals who commissioned
these homes chose well known local and national architects -- including
Gwathmey/Siegel, Samuel Hannaford, James W. McLaughlin, Bruce Price,
J.J. Rueckert, William Tinsley, and James K. Wilson -- to design their
primary residences, vacation homes, and “honeymoon cottages.” They also
recognized and used the impressive talent of local craftspeople such as
the Fry and Pitman art-carvers and the artists of Rookwood Pottery.
Several of the
homes featured in the exhibit are still private residences, while
others have been converted for alternate uses; only a handful are open
to the public as museums. The exhibition features images of the
exteriors and some interiors using historic prints and photographs as
well as recent photographs by Alice Weston.
Great Cincinnati Families at Home is co-curated by
Walter E. Langsam, architectural historian and adjunct associate
professor at the University of Cincinnati, and author of Great Houses of the
Queen City;
and historic preservation consultant Beth Sullebarger of Sullebarger
Associates and contributing author of Architecture in
Cincinnati.
The exhibit is made possible by grants from the John Hauck Foundation,
the William S. Rowe Foundation, the Jeanne Anderson Trust, and
contributions from anonymous donors.
Great Cincinnati
Families at Home received an Outstanding Achievement Award for
History Outreach from the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and
Museums.
Endangered Cincinnati:
Can These Buildings Be Saved
On view at Venue 222
The exhibit showcases a selection of our
endangered landmarks, the nature of the threats they face, their
importance to the social and physical fabric of our community, and what
could be done to save them. Among the building types featured will be
houses, schools, industries, commercial buildings, theaters, and
churches.
The exhibit is a collaboration between the Betts
House and the Cincinnati Preservation Association: Margaret Warminski,
the preservation director for CPA, will be responsible for selecting
the case studies, research and writing, and production of web pages.
Beth Sullebarger, Sullebarger Associates, will administer and
coordinate the production and the installation of the exhibit.
The exhibit is made possible by a grant from the
William S. Rowe Foundation, the Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati,
and a project grant from the Fine Arts Fund and other donations.
Endangered
Cincinnati received a Public Education and
Awareness Award from the Ohio Historic Preservation Office.
Lost Cincinnati: Why Buildings
Die
Available for
Loan
The award-winning exhibit, Lost Cincinnati: Why Buildings Die, created by The Betts House, features
some of Cincinnati’s lost landmarks including canals, parks, schools,
theaters, churches, and inclines. Lost
Cincinnati: Why Buildings Die
explores the reasons why these buildings no longer exist – fire,
natural disasters, the impact of the automobile, neglect and structural
failure, functional obsolescence, urban renewal, changing land uses,
and financial factors.
The exhibit was made possible by
a grant from the Luther Charitable Foundation, the Architectural
Foundation of Cincinnati, and a project grant from the Fine Arts
Fund. The exhibit was curated by historic preservation consultant
Beth Sullebarger of Sullebarger Associates and contributing author of Architecture in Cincinnati (2006).
Lost Cincinnati received an Educational Preservation
Award from the Cincinnati Preservation Association and a Public
Education and Awareness Award from the Ohio Historic Preservation
Office of the Ohio Historical Society.
