Queen for a Day
FOUND, a community-produced, month-long celebration of a city founded during the holiday season, offers the chance to learn more about the city’s past and present.
From shows to light installations, sales to Santa, FOUND is a way to discover all there is to experience each day during the holiday season. (Details below.)
Beyond Porkopolis
Cincinnati thrived during the Gilded Age (from the 1870s to about 1900), with industry and the arts both flourishing.
15+ – Railroads connected Cincinnati to other parts of the United States.
130 – The number of newspapers and magazines in the city.
200 – The number of churches in the city.
37,143 people / square mile – The city had the densest population of any city in the United States.
80,000 – Books in the public library
103,325 – People employed by Cincinnati's industries (among those iron production, meatpacking, cloth production, and woodworking).
$200 million – Value of good produced by those industries.
But before you begin your adventure in our fair city, be sure you know some of the finer points of our history.
24 – The first chapter of Cincinnati history took place during the holiday season, as 24 pioneering families settled in an untamed frontier they called Losantiville. Founded on the banks of the Ohio River on Dec. 28, 1788, flatboats traveling down the Ohio River landed at what would later be Sycamore Street, directly across from the Licking River. Israel Ludlow, Matthias Denman, and Robert Patterson purchased eight hundred acres from John Cleves Symmes along the Ohio River at the Licking River's mouth. Denman provided the necessary funds; Patterson found settlers; and Ludlow surveyed the land to make sales and also establish a town.
1790 – Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory, changed the name of the settlement to “Cincinnati” in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati.
1824 – Allen Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in as the first Black church in Ohio.
1850 – First city in the U.S. to publish greeting cards at the Gibson Greeting Card Company.
1853 – The city of Cincinnati started the first full-time professional fire department in the United States. Two Cincinnati inventors also developed the first practical steam fire pumper, making the city famous for the design and manufacturing of firefighting apparatus.
1869 – The Cincinnati Reds, originally known as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, became the first all-professional baseball team in 1869 with 10 salaried players and have been alternately thrilling and breaking our hearts ever since.
1870 – First city in the U.S. to establish a municipal university – University of Cincinnati.
1875 – First city to establish a Jewish theological college – Hebrew Union College.
1903 – The Ingalls Building opens as the world’s first reinforced concrete skyscraper. (This was once a Jeopardy! question, we hope you got it right!)
1930s – WLW is the first to broadcast at 500,000 watts.
1935 – The Reds played in Major League Baseball’s first-ever night game at the former Crosley Field.
1952 – First heart-lung machine- makes open heart surgery possible. Developed at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
1954 – First licensed public television station, WCET.
2003 – The Contemporary Arts Center is first U.S. museum to be designed by a woman, designed by Zaha Hadid.
2017 – The most famous hippo in the world, Fiona, is born at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.
– Thanks to cincinnatiusa.com/article/region-superlatives for much of this information.
Finding FOUND
FOUNDERS FOREST: Founders Forest illuminates the renovated community space, Imagination Alley in Over-the-Rhine. The public art installation will feature 50 lit trees and movie programming.
FINDING LOSANTIVILLE: Designed by an expert team of game creators, this four-week-city-wide scavenger hunt takes contestants on a journey to find the key to Losantiville. Each week a new clue is released with physical challenges throughout the city. One lucky winner will find the key to Losantiville and a grand prize and weekly prizes will be awarded as well.
WINDOWS OF WONDER: For most of the last century, Downtown Cincinnati has transformed into a holiday wonderland each year. FOUND is bringing back a piece of this loved tradition with Windows of Wonder, a visual holiday-scape which will expand across windows throughout the city. Each window will be logged on a digital walking map for guests to venture out and discover them all.