The Observatory Historic District is a historic portion of the Hyde Park neighborhood of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Centered the

Cincinnati Observatory The Cincinnati Observatory, known locally as Mt. Lookout Observatory, is located in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio (United States) on top of Mount Lookout, Ohio, Mount Lookout. It consists of two observatory buildings housing an 11-inch (28&n ...

and strung largely along a single street, the district has been named a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

by both local and federal

historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK) is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

agencies.

In 1873, the Cincinnati Observatory was erected within the boundaries of the present district, with residential construction beginning in the following year; houses continued to be built until the eve of World War I.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 640-641. When the

Cincinnati and Eastern Railway The Cincinnati District is a railroad line owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway and operated by Cincinnati Eastern Railroad in the U.S. state of Ohio. The line runs from Cincinnati, Ohio, southeast to Portsmouth, Ohio, along a former Norfolk a ...

built a nearby rail line in 1882, housing construction began in earnest; the house at 3300 Observatory Place had already been built by Observatory director Ormond Stone in 1877, but most residences were built between 1886 and 1904.Conservation Guidelines: Observatory Historic District
City of Cincinnati Planning Commission, n.d. Accessed 2013-12-24. Given the forty-year span over which the houses were constructed, numerous architectural styles are found in the district, including the Neoclassical, the Second Empire, and various other

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

styles.National Register Historic Districts
, City of Cincinnati, 2013. Accessed 2013-12-24. Despite its varying styles, the neighborhood presents a unified theme — all of the residences feature architectural detailing typical of late Victorian period, and their orientation unambiguously focuses attention on the Observatory: the result is a cohesive late nineteenth century neighborhood, easily distinguished from other streets in the neighborhood. The residences are comparable in size and shape, generally built as two-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Narrative, an account of imaginary or real people and events ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting ** News story, an event or topic reported by a news orga ...

single-family houses with similar setbacks, while the district is surrounded by open land rather than closely packed residential neighborhoods in order to reduce

light pollution Light pollution is the presence of any unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting sources, during the ...

for the Observatory. The district comprises ten

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

, plus the Observatory: six buildings that are critical to the district and four that are peripheral, all along or near Observatory Place. Cincinnati's planning office has named the neighborhood a

, and it was named a federal historic district by addition to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in September 1978. The planning office has established provisions for continued preservation of the neighborhood including the district, including ensuring that any modifications be sympathetic (i.e. that the new construction minimize stylistic changes), preserving architectural details and windows, exercising care in painting and

repointing Repointing is the process of renewing the pointing, which is the external part of mortar joints, in masonry construction. Over time, weathering and decay cause voids in the joints between masonry units, usually in bricks, allowing the undesirabl ...

walls, emphasizing the importance of constructing any new buildings with the same shape and height as existing buildings, and avoiding the addition of signage, new fences or walls, and additional pavement.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Historic districts in Cincinnati National Register of Historic Places in Cincinnati Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio