The Clyffside and Kauffman Breweries

Steve had been kind enough to invite us along for more secret tunnels and forgotten breweries. A couple weeks ago he let me tag along while he and a group of volunteers worked on preparing the former Crown Brewery for this years Prohibition Resistance Tour. This week, Seicer and I were meeting up with him and his crew outside the former Clyffside Brewery in the heart of Over-The-Rhine.

- The former Clyffside Brewery on West McMicken.
We were joined by Steve Hampton, the guy working hard to organize the tour and a really cool group of volunteers whom he and his staff were training to give tours. Steve and his guys were kind enough to give us free roam of the building and show us around.

- One of the brewery's main rooms.
The Clyffside Brewery had originated as the Hamilton Brewery in 1846. It was established as the Clyffside in 1933 and was finally used as the headquarters for the Red Top Brewing Company from 1945 until they ceased operations in 1957. In the 1990's it served as "illegal housing," as in the owner had renovated part of the building into lofts and residential units, but didn't really have permits to do so. In 2008 it was announced that the building would undergo $3 million worth of renovations to be turned into a 19 unit residential building. The project has since stalled.

- One of the Clyffside's rooms modified with makeshift residential lofts and graffiti.
Despite the alterations made since the building ceased being a brewery, many hints and features can be found in the construction details. From the decorative brickwork outside, to the details on all the pillars and supports, even down to the barrels found in the railings:

- Barrels worked into the design of the hand rails.
Remains of belt fed machinery could still be found throughout the building as we crossed and climbed over it's wooden floors and ladders.


By far, the building's most impressive architectural feature though its its cupola on the top floor.

- Panoramic view of the top floor and cupola.

The top floor also features a beautiful view of the surrounding OTR neighborhood.


With the help of a guide, we ventured down into the brewery's basement where just like the Crown Brewery down the street, there were cellars for storing the products. These cellars though, had been graffitied over by former residents.

- The Clyffside Cellars.
If you attend this years Prohibition Resistance Tour, you'll get to see everything you just saw above, except the Jimi Hendrix/Yellow Submarine cellars. Don't worry though, because what you're about to see (and what you will get to see on the tour) more than makes up for it at the Kauffman Brewery.


Nearby, down Vine Street, the former Kauffman Brewery displays a banner bearing the building's new name: "The Guild Haus." While the upper floors of the building have been renovated into swanky, new apartments...

- Photograph of the renovated upper floors. Image courtesy of City Center Properties.
...while the lower floors contain a historical secret:


When the Kauffman Brewery switched from storing its beer in cold cellars beneath the ground to mechanized refrigeration, the basement floor was cemented over, sealing the cellars below. When the building was renovated, the floor again had to be raised and cemented over to accommodate the elevator. As seen in the above photo, a jack hammer had to be utilized to access the cellars and tunnels hidden below.

After navigating the narrow stairs into what seemed like an archeological excavation site we were beneath the city streets in one of three massive lagering cellars.


Over the years, trash and debris had fallen and been thrown through vents at the street level. As seen in the above photo, the debris has piled up like a mountain to the tiny hole in the ceiling.

- The tunnel running beneath Hamer St.
Beneath Hamer street, a tunnel running to more lagering cellars has also filled with debris from the street above. Over time, asphalt and bricks that had once been used to pave the road were just carelessly tossed down the old brewery vents, instead of being properly disposed of. The basement floor is littered with bricks that used to once dot the cobblestone streets of OTR.


The Kauffman Brewing company was founded in 1863, while the building seen here was constructed in 1886.

- Another lagering cellar beneath the Kauffman Brewery/Guildhaus Building.
The amount of history hidden beneath the city streets and behind the industrial facades of Over-The-Rhine is astounding. Through the work of people like Steve and the OTR Brewery District, this forgotten history is being preserved and shared with others. As Cincinnati works towards reclaiming a small portion of its brewing traditions through the re-launch of the Hudepohl and Burger brands, as well as the opening of the Moerlin Lager House, this proud brewing tradition can be celebrated at this years Bockfest.


For more abandoned breweries from Cincinnati's past, check out the Crown and Hudepohl Breweries.

EDIT: The tickets for the 2010 Prohibition Resistance Tour have sold out, so if you want to see these places for yourself you'll have to wait till next year. However, there will still be plenty of fun stuff to do at this years BOCKFEST!

Previous Update :: February 16, 2010 - "How Things Came to Be - Part 2: The Ballad of Ben, The Birth of Queen City Disco(very)"

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How Things Came to Be - Part 2: The Ballad of Ben, The Birth of Queen City Disco(very)

"The other night I was on top of a parking garage listening to the Reds game with a friend. Three years earlier I had been at the same parking garage with the same friend. We had gone there after setting out with my first digital camera with one goal in mind; to explore. I've been doing the same thing ever since then. As we overlooked the nearby suburban shopping center and cinema, I made the remark: "You know? Shit never really got better.""

From: "Why Does Anyone Take Pictures?" - August 9, 2009.

This is part 2 of a look at the people, places and events that have shaped who I am as a photographer and as a person up to this point in my life. My Grandfather and my Father first showed me how to use a camera. In high school Mrs. Metz and Mrs. Palmer taught me a lot about creativity, expression and art. Mr. Rains taught me about how to not take shit from anybody. Ben though, is the friend mentioned in the above quote from an update this past summer and he's the one not only responsible for the name of Queen City Discovery, but for teaching me to do what I do.

It started with Peters Cartridge Company in the Spring of 2006...

- The imposing smokestack of the Peters Cartridge Company in Kings Mills, Ohio.
Ben was a year older than me, but we had been friends since I was in the eighth grade. We became really good friends the summer after my sophomore year in High School when we both worked on "The Beast" roller coaster at Kings Island in 2005. One day in the Spring of 2006, with nothing better to do, Ben suggested we go out and shoot photographs after school. It was a nice day, but when I asked what we were going to go shoot, Ben didn't have any idea. He just wanted to go out and go around. So we did. We met up, got in the car and got out on the highway with no exact plan, destination or goal in mind. We remembered the abandoned Peters Cartridge Company near where we worked, so after a bite to eat, we headed there.


The factory is partially active as a storage facility and the bike path next to it was plenty active on what was a beautiful spring day, so we didn't try to venture in. We just walked around and checked it out.

Kings Island had recently closed its campground for the construction of the Great Wolf Lodge, a new resort by the park. Since we were nearby, we decided to go take a look at the construction, finding a random path into the woods behind Kings High School and the amusement park.

- The Kings Island skyline as viewed from Kings High School in 2006.
We walked for awhile until we came to a clearing. A large barbed wire fence clearly displayed where the Kings Island property line began, but a nearby clearing outside of the fence contained some old tractor trailers. The trailers were mostly empty aside from a few bee nests and clothing racks.


Had they been used to store things for the park? Who owned them? Did anyone know they were still sitting back here?

We walked back through the woods to where we had parked my car. Some kids playing in the yard nearby waved to us. The little girl asked: "What are you doing?" That was a good question. We were out exploring. Not just abandoned buildings, but the environment around us.


We hopped back on the highway, traversing I-275 through the northern suburban wilderness of Greater Cincinnati where we had grown up. A parking garage and office complex called "Pictoria Tower" marked the skyline of Springdale, Ohio. With the office complex not fully occupied, the parking garage was partially closed off to automobile traffic. As we found out, even though you couldn't drive your car to the top floor, the elevator still brought you there.

- Ben on the top floor of the Pictoria parking garage.
The view from the top is nowhere near as impressive as the hills that overlook downtown Cincinnati, but it overlooked the neighborhoods and suburban cities we had grown up in. The lack of cars and people on the top floor made it a quiet place for us to relax and get away from the world for awhile. In the setting sun, even suburban office complexes can look nice.


Ben would go on to graduate later in the spring and we both continued to work at "The Beast." We remained good friends and hung out often, but we never really made the time to go out and explore like we had in the spring. Kings Island closed, work ended, school started and people go on with their lives. Looking back, a lot of the things and people I was frustrated with then really weren't that important in the grand scheme of things. At the time though, there were always those days when you wanted to get away. It wasn't a nice spring day, but Ben and I were both looking to escape the typical Wednesday afternoon. So on Valentines Day 2007 we once again headed out to Peters Cartridge Company.


Again, we didn't go in. While I had grown bolder in exploring abandoned buildings, the barking dogs made us somewhat reluctant to enter the complex. We just walked up and down the bike path which was now covered in snow and ice.


Just like last time, we traversed I-275. This time stopping in Sharonville as the sun set over the landscape of parking lots and highway.


Since this had become a tradition, we once again returned to the parking garage's top floor. This time it was covered in pure snow that hadn't been ruined by footprints or cars.


Later that year I graduated and Ben and I kind of had a falling out. Not in a bad way, we were still good friends, just had different priorities and obligations. We were both busy in our own lives. I left the area to go to school at Ohio University in Athens, Ben stayed to continue studying at Miami. Right around this time is when I started this website. I wanted to post pictures and share stories online, but I had no idea what to call it. That's when Ben suggested calling it "Queen City Disco," the "disco" being short for "discovery."

Being in Athens wasn't one of the greatest times of my life. There wasn't always an escape like the days where Ben and I would go out exploring, but when I was back in town we still tried to make time to catch up and visit the parking garage.

- The parking garage, some time in 2008.
Whenever we had time and whenever we wanted to get away, the parking garage became our place to go. We discussed politics, girls, the Reds, hockey, school and whatever was on our mind. Up there on the 7th floor, time and frustration cease to exist for awhile. It's a tradition we still continue to this day.

- The parking garage, summer 2009.
- The view from floor 7.

"...And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin.
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'."
- Bob Dylan

People come and go. Times change and people change. Sometimes the truth should be told sooner and sometimes you have to realize you may not have made the best decisions. Despite the people that have passed through my life that I may not know as well anymore, it doesn't mean I stopped caring. Sometimes though, you have to do what you think is best, even if no one wants to listen.

Ben and I never really followed up on our exploring tradition like we had in Valentines Day of 2007. We were at different schools and those later days were spent on other people, other priorities. Today he is still one of my best friends. This year, with no particular person or reason in each others lives to obligate the day too, we decided to follow up on our tradition. We didn't make it over to the parking garage, but we set out to explore with no particularly defined destination.

- Industrial Canal near Ivorydale.
- Railroad tracks and industry.
- Won't this view look great once The Banks project is complete?
- Is it April yet?.
- Future potential.
While some people use Valentines Day to be bitter and lonely, it reminds me of the days I truly started exploring and the people who have shaped who I am. For that, I will always be grateful.

-----------------------
Previous Update :: February 14, 2010 - "How Things came to Be - Part 1: Valentines Day 2006, Surf Cincinnati."

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How Things Came to Be - Part 1: Valentines Day 2006, Surf Cincinnati

It was February 14, 2006, Valentines Day. Most people were talking about the flowers they had received in homeroom that morning from significant others or friends, but Jon and I had other priorities. We were scouring the internet looking for any information or pictures on "Surf Cincinnati," a waterpark that had closed down a few years earlier. As people reveled in the excitement of the holiday during our first period journalism class, one of my best friends and I were planning what would be our first urban exploration. Information on the internet was scarce, it seemed no one had yet gone to photograph and explore Surf Cincinnati much less remembered it. We decided we would go immediately after school that day. Had it not been for Mr. Allen and his journalism class I might not have ever started writing about and photographing abandoned buildings. Nor would I have ever gotten to be good friends with Jon. Until Jon and I sat together in that class our junior year of high school, where we wrote for the Badin High School "Ramble," I found him to be incredibly annoying and didn't know him that well. The first time I met Jon he told me that "CKY [my favorite band] sucks!" Yet here we were, two years later, two friends sneaking into an abandoned waterpark.

This is part 1 of a 2 part story on how Queen City Discovery came to be and how certain people around me have come to shape who I am as a photographer and as a person today.

- Remnants of a water slide left behind at the Surf Cincinnati Waterpark in Forest Park, Ohio.
In the future I'll have a more detailed article with the full history and better photographs of this place, but in short, here's what happened: Surf Cincinnati opened in the late 80's, thrived in the mid 90's and eventually closed, reopened and closed again for good in 2003.

Jon and I had both taken an interest in abandoned buildings while browsing the website Forgotten Ohio in our journalism class. For Jon it was just the thrill of seeing these places. For me, I didn't just want to see them, I wanted to document them. After weeks of talking about it, we were finally exploring something. These photographs are the originals from that day, untouched and unedited, hence why they're a little rough. Not to mention, I didn't know much about photography then and we were both pretty nervous as we ran through the abandoned waterpark and up a hill to make sure no one had seen us. At the top of the hill we found the remains of one of the parks water slides which emptied into a small pool (first picture, above).

- A "No Diving" sign left behind in one of the park's pools.
Although it was apparent on the internet that not many people had remembered this place and no one had yet posted pictures of its abandoned state, we were definitely not the first people to come here after it had been closed. Someone had filled the splash pool with new cement and a broken skateboard lay nearby. It was apparent that some folks had come up here and attempted to renovate the pool into a bowl for skating (see the first picture). They also had tagged up the place with graffiti.

- Graffiti sprayed on the parks decorative rocks. A humorous attempt at a primitive cave painting?
Once we were sure that no one had seen us climb over the fence, we began to relax. Our nerves settled and the childhood memories came flooding back. Both Jon and I had come here often as kids, each of us having grown up in nearby neighborhoods. I can remember coming here a lot. My uncle had taken my cousin and I once and he lost his glasses on one of the water slides. I thought that was absolutely hilarious when I seven. I remember eating popcorn chicken, which tasted terrible, from the concession stand with my mom. The most distinct memory though is of the wave pool. I can remember sitting in the calm water then hearing the bell go off. Black smoke rose from behind the pool building and everyone would scream and run into the water as the waves started. As a kid I always wondered where the black smoke had come from and what was behind the wave pool. Now Jon and I were going to find out as we made our way through the park.

- A locked, rusted door which kept unwanted visitors out of the Wave Pool buidling..
We rounded the corner of the wave pool building. Rusted pumps and pipes which presumably held the chemicals for the pool's water still remained.


The back of the building explained the reason for the black smoke that I had always wondered about as a kid. It seems that they had used propane to power the machines that made the waves for the pool. The smoke from the machinery over the years had stained the back of the structure.


We took a brief look into the inside of the building which had no lights and was pitch black. Nowadays we come armed with powerful flashlights and have no qualms about climbing rickety structures or going into dark, underground places. Four years ago though, we didn't want to enter the spooky wave pool building. We passed on the opportunity and went around to explore more of the park.

We found a maintenance shed that contained a clip board still hanging on the wall. It listed the instructions for turning on the water and chlorine pumps before the park opened in the mornings. It even still had the names of the park's attractions listed.

- Maintenance list instructing how to turn on the water pumps for "Bubble Beach," "Squirt City," "The Blue Bullet" and the parks other rides.
One of the most iconic structures of the park had been its two racing slides. The two tallest slides in the park could be seen from both directions of the nearby highway, I-275. However, once the park closed, they had been torn down and sold. All that remained of the racing slides was their wooden supports where riders would splash into a pool on the ground.

- What remained of the parks two racing slides.
A big component of Surf Cincinnati's operation was Group Sales. The park offered two locations for group gatherings, one of them being the "Emerald Isle," which was a picnic shelter and sand volleyball court surrounded by a "lazy river."

- A wooden bridge over the lazy river which lead to the "Emerald Isle." Apparently "Delta [airlines?]" was the last group to have it's company picnic here.
Since the parks closing, the Lazy River had become more of a stagnant pond. Rainwater had filled up between the concrete walls and reeds began to grow from the stagnant, aquatic structure.

- The parks Lazy River. When it was open, park guests would rest on tubes as the flow of the water guided them around the concrete path.
In an effort to give the park a more tropical/beach feel, the owners had surrounded the area adjacent to the wave pool with real sand. I always remembered this being a hassle when my parents would take us here as little kids, the sand got into everything. After three years of neglect, weeds and other plants had begun growing out of the sand. We approached a wooden structure that had once been a bar and dining area. I can remember radio promotions that ran on Q102 in the mid 90's for parties and events that they had sponsored at the park. They would often have DJ's playing music from this area. The architecture of the bar combined with the sand really did help the atmosphere of the place, a contrast to it's industrial and suburban surroundings.

- The park's bar. The original sign for Surf Cincinnati can be seen on the right, covered up by the realty advertisement.
The bar area wasn't the only "adult" area. I seem to remember there being a pool that was strictly just for adults or maybe it was for parents with young children. Regardless, this was it:


We came around to the front of the wave pool which had also been partially filled with rainwater. This had been the park's signature attraction.

- The wave pool. For some reason I edited this photo into black and white in 2006 and could never find the original.
The kids area, like much of the rest of the park, had been partially dismantled. I guess they didn't want to keep most of the slides up in case people would sneak in and try to ride them. Not that, that would be fun or anything.

- The children's water play structure and pools.
We had basically done a full loop around the waterpark section. There was only one more building to check out. It had been the admissions/guest services/first aid/locker room building when it was open and it mirrored the same architecture as the park's other structures.

- The park's main office building where admissions, guest services, first aid and locker rentals had been housed.
We stepped inside and immediately felt uneasy. A pair of shoes, utensils and old food was scattered around a mattress on the floor. The wind from the outside was causing the front door to creak back and forth. We both had a very uneasy feeling as it seemed someone had been living here. We started to feel that we were not alone.

- Inside the main office building.
We started entering into another room when all of the sudden... "WHACK!" We heard a loud noise from the other end of the building. Jon and I looked at each other and without saying a word took off running for the way we came in. Was it a homeless person living there who had made the noise to scare us off? Was it the wind slamming a door? Had some animal knocked something over? Both Jon and I agreed that ghosts weren't real, but as we caught our breath we argued over the explanation. Jon still to this day swears he thinks it was another person who made the noise. I think it was just the wind or an animal. We crept back toward the building, hiding in the bushes and didn't see anyone, but decided it was time to go anyways. I chalk it all up to rookie paranoia.

On our way out we passed what remained of the other group picnic areas and "Fun City."

- A former above ground picnic area.
The group picnic areas still had barbeque pits beside them while plastic chairs and utensils were stored en masse beneath them. As we prepared to exit the park we passed through "Fun City." Fun City was another section of Surf Cincinnati which featured an arcade, go karts and miniature golf, three things that really sum up youth entertainment in the mid 90's.

- The now overgrown miniature golf course.
- The large wooden sign which had once adorned the outside of the "Fun City" arcade.
- The Figure-8 style go kart track.
We headed back to the fence which we had climbed over. It seemed our skateboarding friends had left us a gift. Haphazardly constructed wooden stairs made climbing over the fence from this side much easier as I noticed that I had torn my jeans right at the crotch on the way in. As we headed back to my car we were pumped up. It had been an adrenaline rush, a new experience. We were hooked. Despite the torn jeans, we knew this was the start of something.

- Our exit.
Since Valentines Day 2006, Jon and I would go on to explore plenty of more places. He is still to this day one of my best friends and is now serving in the Navy. Had it not been for Jon and Mr. Allen's first period journalism class, I may not have ever gotten into doing what I do now and for that I am eternally grateful.

Check back later in the week for Part 2, the "Birth of Queen City Discovery."


Previous Update :: February 8, 2010 - "The Cincinnati North Hotel".

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