Queen City Underground

Queen City Underground Historic Walking Tour


Useful Information

Location: Cincinnati, Over-the-Rhine. Starting point: MiCa 12V, at the corner of 12th St. and Vine St.
Open: Memorial Day Weekend: Sat 10:30, 12:30, 14:30, 16:30, Sun 12:30, 14:30, 16:30, Sat 12:30, 14:30.
Arrive 15 minutes early for tour.
[2010]
Fee: Adults USD 15.
[2010]
Classification: SubterraneaCellar
Light: bring torch
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address: Queen City Underground Historic Walking Tour, Tel: +1-859-951-8560. E-mail: contact
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Geology


Description

Queen City Underground is a tour into the underground of Cincinnati. The quarter of Cincinnati called Over-the-Rhine became the most densely populated neighborhood of the U.S.A. during the mid-to-late 1800s. Vine Street offered more than 130 saloons, beer gardens, theaters and breweries. It was nicknamed Paris of the West.

The "underground" tour is dedicated to numerous kinds of underground. The tour starts with stories about Cincinnati's "Murder College". It also tells about the time when Cincinnati was controlled by George Bernard "Boss" Cox. And of course, there is the underground part, meaning subterranean. In the pre-civil war Kauffman building the tour descends into the tunnels below. The tunnels below this building were used by the numerous breweries for the storage of lager beer. At this time the city had the highest per capita consumption of beer in America, some 150 litres per year per person.

The nest underground stop is a crypt at the St. Francis Seraph Catholic Church on Vine Street. In the mid-19th century human remains from a former cemetery were re-interred here and the tombstones were used to pave the floor.