The Cincinnati Art Museum

Located in scenic Eden Park, the Cincinnati Art Museum features an unparalleled art collection of more than 60,000 works spanning 6,000 years. In addition to displaying its own broad collection, the Art Museum also hosts several national and international traveling exhibitions each year. 


The Taft Museum

The Baum-Longworth-Taft House, a National Historic Landmark built about 1820 for Martin Baum, is the oldest domestic wooden structure in situ locally and is considered one of the finest examples of Federal architecture in the Palladian style in the country. Other residents of this important villa included Nicholas Longworth, who extensively redecorated the interiors and hired African American painter Robert S. Duncanson to paint landscape murals in the foyer, now considered as one of the finest suites of domestic murals dating from before the Civil War. After Longworth's residency, the villa with a copper roof was purchased by David Sinton, father of museum co-founder, Anna Sinton Taft. Anna Taft lived in the mansion with her husband Charles Phelps Taft from 1873 until their respective deaths in 1931 and 1929. In 1908, Charles Phelps Taft's half-brother, William Howard Taft accepted the nomination for U. S. president underneath the house's portico. The Tafts bequeathed their historic home and private collection of 690 works of art to the people of Cincinnati in 1927. After extensive remodeling and updating, the Baum-Longworth-Taft House opened as the Taft Museum in 1932.The Taft Museum of Art reopened on May 15, 2004, following a major renovation and expansion, which includes a parking garage, the Fifth Third Gallery for special exhibitions, Dater Education Room, Luther Hall performance/lecture facility, larger Museum Shop, and a Café.
 

            Glendower Mansion

Glendower is a restored Greek Revival mansion, one of the five built during the 19th century, on a hill south of the center of Lebanon. John Milton Williams, a framer of the state's constitution, employed Amos Bennett to build the rectangular central unit in the 1840's. Flanking wings were added prior to the Civil War.

The mansion's distinctiveness is partly due to its classic cornices and porticoes, its fluted Ionic and unfluted Doric columns, and a low, hipped roof capped by a captain's walk. The 13 rooms include a formal drawing room with two fireplaces. All rooms, furnished with Empire and early Victorian style pieces, reflect the skilled local craftsmen and gracious living of the residents. General Durbin Ward, a brigadier general in the Civil War, lived in the house following the war.

The James Ruppert House

James Urban Ruppert (born March 29, 1934), the son of Leonard and Charity Ruppert, was responsible for the deadliest shooting inside a private residence in American history. On March 30, 1975, Easter Sunday, Ruppert murdered 11 family members in his mother's house at 635 Minor Avenue in Hamilton, Ohio in what is referred to as the Easter Sunday Massacre. He is serving two life sentences at the Allen Correctional Institute in Lima, Ohio.

Thurber House is a living museum. We allow visitors to experience Thurber's life by becoming a guest of the Thurber family. While in the house museum, visitors are invited to sit on the chairs, play a tune on the downstairs piano, touch the typewriter that was Thurber's while he was at the New Yorker, and become a part of literary history. (Stories about the time Thurber lived in this house are included in his My Life and Hard Times and The Thurber Carnival.)Thurber House is furnished in the style of the 1913-1917 period that Thurber lived in the home with his parents, two brothers, and several canine companions. The first two floors are open daily for tours. Next door to Thurber House is the Thurber Center, a contemporary classroom and conference facility. Between the buildings is the Centennial Reading Garden, complete with sculptures of five Thurber dogs, a fountain, and three Central Park benches.

Visitors to Thurber House have reported a number of ghostly encounters, from James Thurber's own experience with the mysterious footsteps running up the back stairs, to books throwing themselves on customers, to shadowy figures moving across lighted windows.  You can take a haunted tour of Thurber House and other ghostly Columbus spots each October through the Columbus Landmarks Foundation. It all began with the night the Ohio Lunatic Asylum burned on November 17, 1868. The Asylum covered several blocks of downtown Columbus, including the area where Thurber House now stands. Seven people died in the fire, and their spirits are said to be many of our ghosts. The night of James Thurber's ghostly experience was exactly 47 years after the Ohio Lunatic Asylum burned. According to his story "The Night the Ghost Got In," Thurber was in the upstairs bathroom washing his face when he heard the heavy footsteps of a man pacing around the dining table downstairs. He thought a burglar had broken in and tiptoed to his brother William's room to wake him. Thurber and his brother approached the head of the stairs just as the footsteps ceased. Suddenly, they heard the footsteps launch up the steps two at a time, coming straight for them! When they glanced down, there was nobody there, though they heard the footsteps rapidly approaching. Thurber's brother ran to his bedroom, and Thurber ducked into the bathroom and slammed the door at the moment the invisible figure would have reached him. Some of our recent visitors have ghost stories of their own. One of our Writers-in-Residence saw the shadow of a hefty man cross the window of the attic apartment. When she reached the apartment, there was nobody there, and no sign of a break in. This same Writer-in-Residence also claimed to hear the kitchen cabinets rattling at night throughout her stay.

 
The Sorg Opera House

The Sorg Opera House in Middletown was built in 1891. It showed opera until 1915, when it switched to movies. In 1985 it was changed back into a stage theater. At some point the second of the two balconies was hidden behind a false ceiling, and remains up there, just the same as it was back in the 1930s, when it was the colored section.
The theater''s original owner, Paul J. Sorg, haunts the theater in his 1890s formal clothing. Witnesses who have seen him there identify him by a portrait which hangs in the theater lobby. He was an incredibly wealthy man, locally known as "the last of the robber barons," and he built the theater for his young wife, who was in love with drama and opera. Early on, Bob Hope performed here.
Footsteps are the most common occurrence here, along with the sighting of Sorg''s ghost. He paces backstage and on the catwalks overhead.
Another ghost belongs to a black man who is supposed to sit in the closed-off balcony for every performance, despite the fact that a ceiling blocks his view. The technical people who work at the theater leave programs for him sometimes.

                      
The Loveland Castle

Chateau Laroche was built as an expression and reminder of the simple strength and rugged grandeur of the mighty men who lived when Knighthood was in flower.It was their knightly zeal for honor, valor and manly purity that lifted mankind out of the moral midnight of the dark ages and started it towards the gray dawn of human hope.
Present human decadence proves a need for similar action.  Already the ancient organization of Knights have been re-activated to save society.
Any man of high ideas who wishes to help save civilization is invited to become a member of the Knights of the Golden Trail,  whose only vows are the Ten Commandments.Chateau Laroche is the World headquarters of this organization, started in 1927. They have a ghost there, of course. Every regular castle has its ghost- the ghost at the Loveland Castle is named "Casper Poltergeist". Casper comes from the funny papers, and his last name is the German for friendly ghost. No one has ever seen him. They say that is because he died a natural death. It is only the ghosts of murdered people whose ghosts can be seen. He will not harm anybody unless you get him angry. Then he will touch you and give you an electric shock, sometime a hard one. Recently a girl sat on his bed and made fun of him and called him names. Suddenly she leaped almost to the ceiling, and yelled like bloody murder. She got a real shock, and would not sit there again. This ghost stays in the day bed until midnight. Then he gets up and wanders about the place sometimes playing tricks. He often pounds on a door, and/or rings the doorbell. One evening at the castle, there was about a half-inch of fresh snow on the ground. About one o’clock in the morning, there was a loud knock on the back door upstairs.  Upon investigating, there were no signs of human footprints to be found in the snow.  

     Cincinnati Observatory

Situated atop the rolling hillsides of Mt.Lookout, the Observatory is home to the world's oldest telescope still in use nightly by the general public.  The Cincinnati Observatory was founded by Ormsby McKnight Mitchel, who, as a Professor at Cincinnati College in 1842.  In 1842, Mitchel inspected a 12 inch objective lens of the highest quality in Munich, at the optical institute formerly run by Fraunhofer, and ordered it for the observatory. Upon his return to the US, Mitchel undertook the supervision of the construction of the observatory.  The site of the future observatory was a 4 acre lot at the top of Mt. Ida, some 400 feet above the city of Cincinnati, which was given to the Astronomical Society by its owner, Nicholas Longworth. On the 9th of November, 1843, the cornerstone was laid by John Quincy Adams, former President of the United States.  It was at the dedication that Adams gave his last public speech. Mt Ida was renamed Mt. Adams following this event.  In 1871 the University of Cincinnati took over control of the Observatory, and began its move to a new location at Mt. Lookout, a few miles away. The move was complete in 1873, and the original cornerstone of the old observatory became part of the new building. The old telescope lens was refigured in 1876 and the original tube shortened. The telescope was then moved once more in 1904 into a newer building, and its place in the older building was taken by a larger instrument, a 16 inch refractor built by Alvan Clark & Sons.  The Cincinnati Observatory, located in Cincinnati, Ohio on top of  Mt. Lookout.  It consists of two observatory buildings housing an 11 inch and 16 inch refracting telescope. It is the oldest professional observatory in the United States.

Hillforest Mansion

Hillforest, overlooking the Ohio River, was the home of industrialist and financier Thomas Gaff and his family between 1855 and 1891.
Shipping and riverboats were significant elements of the Gaff business enterprises and are reflected in the architecture of the home.
Note the third floor belvedere resembling a pilot house.  The style is Italian Renaissance, completely symmetrical and characterized by broad overhangs, ornately carved brackets, arched windows and graceful balconies and porches.
Hillforest is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992.
Period furnishings, including some original pieces returned by Gaff descendants, reflect the active lifestyle of  the former residents of this 12 room, split-level home during the period following the Industrial Revolution.
The mansion has been carefully restored to its original grandeur.  Trompe l'oeil wall paintings in the twin parlors and central hall, parquet flooring, elaborate plaster moldings and ceiling medallions, Venetian glass windows - are all representative of its period.
A museum room features changing displays, and the underground wine cellar off the first floor houses implements and utensils including an original pony keg from Gaff's Crescent Brewery.
The suspended staircase was patterned after those at the ends of the Grand Salon on the more elaborate riverboats of the time.  The Gaff children once rode a pony up these stairs and out the rear door.
The Hillforest Historical Foundation invites you to visit the mansion and enjoy the beauty and charm of the surrounding Ohio River Valley communities.

Bobby Mackey's Music World at 44 Licking Pike in Wilder, which is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, about 1.5 miles south of Covington on Highway 9. The dance hall is located just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. Country singer Bobby Mackey converted an old warehouse into a dancehall in 1976, and ever since he had it renovated, people have been seeing ghosts dressed in old-fashioned clothing and cowboy attire. Last year, a customer was accosted by a ghost in the men's restroom. The man was washing his hands at the basin when someone kicked the trash can, and he turned around to see who it was and encountered a tall ghost wearing a cowboy hat. He says the ghost threw him to the floor and broke his arm, and he's suing Bobby Mackey for not getting rid of the malevolent spirits in his building. That there are ghosts there comes as no surprise. The building was constructed in the 1850s and was used as a slaughterhouse. A deep well was dug in the basement to collect animal blood and body fluids, and when the slaughterhouse closed, Satanists used this Well of Blood for rituals. In 1896, two Devil worshippers beheaded a woman and used her head in their ceremonies. Before they were hanged, the men were offered life sentences in exchange for disclosing the whereabouts of the missing head, but both refused, claiming that to do so would bring the wrath of the Devil himself. The cursed building was a speakeasy in the 1920s, and several unsolved mob murders added more violence to the site. So far, 30 witnesses have signed affidavits testifying to ghostly phenomena at the nightclub, and one of the employees became possessed and had to undergo two exorcisms.


   Warren County Historical Society

The Warren County Historical Society Museum is housed in a three story, 28,000-square-foot brick building. It contains artifacts from prehistoric eras to the mid-20th century periods. Harmon Hall is the current home for Warren County history artifacts.It holds more than 30 exhibits on three floor levels displaying thousands of items that will interest both young and old alike.

The Warren County Historical Society can trace its roots to the late 1930s when a group of 19 Warren County residents decided that there needed to be a safe and controlled setting in which to store and exhibit the artifacts that define the history of the area. In 1945, this group acquired Glendower State Memorial to serve as the first museum. The society continued to operate from there for the next 15 years.

As the museum began to gather regional interest and more objects were acquired, it became obvious to all concerned that a larger facility was required. So in 1960, through arrangements with the Harmon Civic Trust, the society moved into Harmon Hall. This building was built in 1913 , to be a recreation center, and was then donated to the City of Lebanon, by Mr. Willam Harmon. In 1961, this building became the home of the Warren County Historical Society Museum. This stately three-story structure gave the society a more spacious area in which to exhibit artifacts and a more convenient l location for visitors.

The diversity of the society’s collection and historical documents grew with the move to Broadway. In a short time, additions to the collections stretched this building’s resources. The society decided that it would be impractical, from both a financial and a logistical standpoint, to move from Harmon Hall, so plans were made for a fund raising campaign to expand and remodel. This effort, which began in 1978, was completed in 1981 with the opening of the Shaker Gallery and the addition of 10,000 square feet on the back of the building. The Harmon Civic Trust deeded the building to the society to ensure that they would have a permanent home.

Lebanon Theater Company (The Shoe Factory)

The Lebanon Theatre Company, Inc. (LTC) is a quality, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation providing community theatre in Lebanon Ohio, physically located in the spacious fourth floor loft of The Shoe Factory Antique Mall in Lebanon Ohio.  Our vision is to become the leading live theatre in the area presenting professional quality entertainment, in an intimate setting, evoking emotion and wonder in our audiences.  The mission of the Lebanon Theatre Company is to organize, sponsor, produce and promote high-quality amateur theatrical shows and to provide education to the Warren County area by promoting and developing theatrical arts.