There has been a lot of change in the Downtown and Over-the-Rhine areas of Cincinnati within the past couple of years. One of the biggest and most ambitious of those projects is the Washington Park renovation. Washington Park is located next to one of the most prominent Cincinnati landmarks, Music Hall, and just north of the new SCPA. Before the renovation, Washington Park was in rough shape, and that’s putting it mildly. My father worked for the Cincinnati Park department for 30 years, and Washington Park was a park he once worked at. He remembers the park being littered with alcohol containers and drug paraphernalia on a daily basis.
This was a huge project by Cincinnati and 3CDC. When I first heard about this plan, even I was a little skeptical if they could pull it off. But much lake the recent developments at The Banks, Fountain Square and other areas of OTR, they hit a home run. It’s still brand new but based on what I’ve saw in person and from what I’ve heard from others, it’s just a fantastic park. I hope the park will continue to be well maintained in the future and its success can bring on more progress in the OTR area.
If you would’ve told me 10 years ago that I’d be visiting Washington Park and walking around there with my camera, I’d say you are crazy. But I did just that and enjoyed it. Good job Cincinnati. Here are some photos I took while visiting over the weekend. (Some of the other new park features not pictured here: a dog park and an event lawn with a performance stage)
