Art & Architecture in the Parks

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Explore Art and Architecture in Cincinnati Parks

Cincinnati Parks has a diverse array of architecture and sculpture that confirm the human desire to interact with nature. Scattered throughout the Parks system are seemingly simple stone buildings, erected during the Great Depression, whose unique architectural flourishes confirm their true craftsmanship. There are charming gazebos, stately pavilions, and classical-to-modern examples of sculpture throughout the Parks system. We think you'll enjoy exploring this characteristic of Cincinnati Parks just as much as our more natural features.

Cincinnati Park Board Public Art Registry: A Call to Artists

Art and Architectural Highlights of Cincinnati Parks

• Valley Park

  Valley Park(Camp Washington) • World War I Memorial: Designed by Chicago artist John Paulding, this war memorial was installed in 1920. An infantry soldier, or doughboy, is depicted in bronze atop a ...

• Wulsin Triangle

  Wulsin Triangle (Hyde Park) • Service Building: This triangular tract at Madison Road and Observatory is named after Lucien Wulsin (1845-1912), the principal donor. Wulsin went to work for the Baldwi...

• Washington Park

  Washington Park (Over-The-Rhine) • Music Pavilion: The circa-1910 music pavilion is the centerpiece of Washington Park, which began as a cemetery. The city began acquiring the land in 1855, and reint...

• Thornton Triangle

  Thornton Triangle (Sayler Park) • J. Fitzhugh Thornton Memorial: This sculpture of an eastern Woodlands Native American was created in 1912 by the J.L. Mott Iron Works of New York. The statue acquire... 

   

  • Theodore M. Berry International Friendship Park

    Theodore m. Berry International Friendship Park (Downtown) • International Mosaics (2003) • Crystalline Tower (2006) • Munich Pavilion "Castle of Air" (2004) • Seven Vessels Ascending/Descending (...

  • Stanbery Park

    Stanbery Park (Mt. Washington) • Caretaker's Residence: In the past, a charming Tudor Revival house was the home of Brigadier general Sanford B. Stanbery, the highest-ranking officer from Hamilton Co...

  • Seasongood Square

    Seasongood Square (Avondale) • This neighborhood park was donated in 1919 by heirs of General Lewis Seasongood. The whimsical comfort station takes the form of a stucco-surfaced turret with a conical...

  • Rapid Run Park

    Rapid Run Park (West Price Hill) • Set on a rise overlooking a reflecting pool, the Rapid Run Park Pavilion, built in 1941, consists of an open arcaded central block flanked by lower wings in a U-sha...

  • Owls Nest Park

    Owls Nest Park (O'Bryonville/East Walnut Hills) • Gateway: Owl's Nest Park takes its name from the homestead that once stood here. The property was donated in 1905 by Charles E. and Edward C. Perkins...

  • Piatt Park

    Piatt Park (Downtown) • Monument: Piatt was Cincinnati's first park (see Parks History), and this bronze sculpture honors an early Cincinnati hero: William Henry Harrison (1773-1841), ninth U.S. pres...

  • Mt. Storm Park

    Mt. Storm Park (Clifton) • Temple of Love: This is a gracious reminder of Robert Bowler's estate. In his magnificent home (razed in 1917) Bowler entertained the Prince of Wales, Charles Dickens and o... 

     

    • Mt.Echo Park

      Mt. Echo Park (East Price Hill) • Pavilion: Mount Echo Park was established in 1908, and improvements were made in the 1920s and '30s. Its pavilion is set on the eastern edge of the park and overlook...

    • Mt.Airy Forest

      Mt. Airy Forest (Mt. Airy, Westwood) At almost 1,500 acres, Mt. Airy Forest is Cincinnati's largest park. It was established in 1911 out of several unproductive farms, and was the first municipal ref...

    • Memorial Pioneer Cemetary

      Memorial Pioneer Cemetary (Linwood) • Memorial Pioneer Cemetery, the oldest in Hamilton County, marks the only restored remnant of the pioneer settlement of Columbia. Dating from 1790, when the Colum...

    • McEvoy Park

      McEvoy Park (College Hill) • Pavilion: This 27-acre park features grassy hills and a stone pavilion. The property was purchased in 1949 from Matthew McEvoy at significantly less than market value wit...

    • Lytle Park

      Lytle Park (Downtown) • Lytle Park's heroic bronze portrayal of Abraham Lincoln stands 11 feet in height. Artist George Grey Barnard (1863-1938) was commissioned by the Charles P. Taft family to crea...

    • Kennedy Heights Park

      Kennedy Heights Park (Kennedy Heights) • Shelter: Atop a hill, this one-story painted brick building has a cross-shaped plan and hipped roof with exposed rafter ends. The wood doors still retain thei...

    • Inwood Park

      Inwood Park (Mt. Auburn) • Pavilion: Inwood Park originated with the purchase of an old stone quarry in 1904. Built circa 1910, the pavilion is one of the earliest buildings extant in Cincinnati's pa... 

       

      • Hyde Park Square

        Hyde Park Square (Hyde Park) • Kilgour Fountain: In 1900, real-estate investor Charles Kilgour donated this fountain to the people of Hyde Park. Centrally located on Hyde Park Square, this bronze fou...

      • Hauck Botanic Gardens

        Hauck Botanic Gardens(Avondale) • The eight-acre Botanic Garden is the former estate of Cornelius J. Hauck (1893-1967). An avid horticulturist, Hauck planted 900 types of trees, shrubs, and evergreen...

      • French Park

        French Park (Amberley Village) • Herbert Greer French House: Once the home of Herbert Greer French, this rentable structure is the focal point of a 276-acre property bequeathed by French to Cincinna...

      • Fountain Square

        Fountain Square (Downtown) • Tyler Davidson Fountain: The centerpiece of downtown, the Tyler Davidson Fountain has come to symbolize the city as a whole. Cast at the Royal Bavarian Foundry in Munich,...

      • Fleischmann Gardens

        Fleischmann Gardens (Avondale) • This four-acre park features beautifully landscaped gardens and the largest ginkgo tree in the state. On the site of the home of Charles Fleischmann, founder of the F...

      • Fernbank Park

        Fernbank Park (Sayler Park) • Fernbank Park comprises more than 65 acres stretched across more than a mile along the Ohio River. Originally there were two small parks on the property as well as the F...

      • Eden Park

        Eden Park (Walnut Hills/Mount Adams) • The park was named for the Garden of Eden, as it was called by Nicholas Longworth, who owned most of the land in the mid-19th century. Eden Park currently compr... 

         

        • Drake Park

          Drake Park(Kennedy Heights) • Pavilion: Established in 1957, this 66-acre park was named in honor of Daniel Drake, Cincinnati's pioneer physician and scientist. Dr. Drake, who founded Cincinnati's fi...

        • Central Parkway

          Central Parkway(Downtown) • Central Parkway is one of the major parkways in a citywide network envisioned in the 1907 park plan by George Kessler (see Parks History). Extending for two miles along th...

        • California Woods

          California Woods(California) • Nature Center: The nature center was built in 1938 as a pool house consisting of the two-story center section. Over the years the building came to be used as a day camp...

        • Burnet Woods

          Burnet Woods(University Heights/Clifton) • Music Pavilion: Completed circa 1911, the gazebo-style music pavilion is the oldest structure in one of Cincinnati's oldest parks (Burnet Woods became a par...

        • Bellevue Hill Park

          Bellevue Hill Park(Clifton Heights) • Pavilion: Built in 1955 when outdoor dancing was the rage, this stone building has a circular domed core with a flat cantilevered roof