Originally published in the 2024 Cincy Region Visitors Guide. Interview by Ann Fazzini.
What makes our region special? Hear it straight from one of our local experts: Dr. Anne Delano Steinert, assistant professor of history at the University of Cincinnati and founding board chair of the Over-the-Rhine Museum.
Credit: Dr. Anne Delano Steinert
What will visitors experience at the Over-the-Rhine Museum when it opens?
We are rehabilitating a historic tenement building that will contain six families' apartments, spanning from the 1860's to the 2000's. We have researched more than 150 families that lived in the building, including German immigrants who had a stone cutting business on the ground floor, a family of Russian Jewish immigrants who owned the building during World War II and a biracial family who lived there in the '90s.
Visitors will have immersive experiences in these time capsule apartments, engaging all their sense - feeling the size of the rooms, smelling and seeing the objects in the rooms - to help transform their understanding of the past. We are currently focused on fundraising, and I encourage everyone to sign up for our newsletter at otrmuseum.org to get updates.
What drew you to the field of history and historic preservation?
I grew up in Cincinnati and have always been fascinated by the stories held within our city's historic buildings. The city itself drew me to historic preservation.
Now I work to preserve Cincinnati's built environment as a document of our history. Once buildings are gone, there is nothing left to jog our collective memory, and soon it's as if they've never been there.
History is all around us and it's valuable. Some may think it's a hindrance, but it actually drives economic development. People want to live in walkable, connective urban neighborhoods surrounded by a sense of the past. History is what is driving people to places like Over-the-Rhine.
What are some of your Cincy must-sees?
Everyone should go to the Burlington Antique Festival in Kentucky, take a ride on the Anderson Ferry and go to The Comet for Sunday Night Bluegrass and great Mexican food. Sign up for a walking tour with the Over-the-Rhine Museum and check out the cool new map of Cincinnati public stairways created by Spring in our Steps.
For more interviews with locals and other useful, trip-planning information, request your own copy of the Official Cincy Region Visitors Guide!
