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.

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.

Endangered Cincinnati: Can These Buildings Be Saved
Now on view at the Cincinnati Preservation Association

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. 

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.

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. 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).

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