Walking Cincinnati. Danny Korman

Covenant First Presbyterian Church, which nicely terminates this end of Piatt Park with its elegant Gothic-style 1875 facade. Cross Eighth Street and turn left at Waldo apartments, 801 Elm St. Built in 1891, it’s one of four surviving late 19th-century apartment houses that brothers Thomas J. and John J. Emery built downtown.

Turn right on Goshen Alley and then left on Weaver Alley. An overlooked part of Cincinnati’s downtown, alleys serve as a safe space for bicyclists and pedestrians to navigate clear of motorized vehicles. Cross through the parking lot on the left and return to Eighth Street and walk west to Plum Street, another one of downtown’s great corners where politics and religion are represented. On the southeast corner is the Isaac M. Wise Temple, built in 1866 and a majestic example of Moorish Revival architecture. Under the leadership of Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, it was the site of the first ordination of rabbis in America and is one of Cincinnati’s most important buildings. On the southwest corner is St. Peter in Chains, completed in 1845 with a 200-foot steeple visible throughout much of downtown. Cincinnati City Hall takes the northwest corner with its massive facade of red granite stone and nine-story clock tower. Designed by Samuel Hannaford in Romanesque Revival style, it was completed in 1893. On the northeast corner, at 802 Plum St., is a modest Streamline Moderne building. It would likely be more at home on a more subdued street corner.

      Walk north on Plum Street and turn right into the Ninth Street Historic District, three blocks of more than 40 buildings from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. Walk to Elm Street and go to the northeast corner. Crosley Square (140 W. Ninth St.), was designed by Harry Hake and built in 1922. Originally home to the WLW radio station, this impressive Classical Revival–style building currently houses the Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.

      Continue walking east toward Race Street. While there’s an empty lot on the northeast corner, the other three compensate for the void with solid historic buildings listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places. On the southeast corner is The Phoenix, built in 1893 to accommodate Cincinnati’s first professional Jewish men’s club. On the southwest and northwest corners, respectively, are Saxony and Brittany apartment buildings, designed by Samuel Hannaford & Sons.

Turn left on Race Street and walk to Court Street. On the left is Cappel’s, one of four locations for the local retailer of party supplies and costumes, founded in 1945. Turn right and walk to Vine Street. On the left is the headquarters for Kroger (1104 Vine St.), a Cincinnati-based company founded in 1883. To the right is Scotti’s Italian Restaurant. Complete with red-checkered tablecloths and wax-covered wine bottles, Scotti’s menu hasn’t changed much since 1953.

Cross Vine Street and stay on the south side of Court Street. This block retains its 19th-century scale and is almost completely intact, with just one missing building. According to Ann Senefeld of Digging Cincinnati History, all of Court Street, from Central Avenue to Main Street, was once lined with market booths, while the market building stood between Vine and Walnut Streets. By 1912 the city declared the market building a health hazard, and it was torn down in 1915. Perhaps as a partial nod to Court Street’s market past, Kroger built a 45,000-square-foot supermarket below a parking garage and 139 apartments that opened in summer 2019 at the northeast corner of Court and Walnut Streets. Ahead is the Hamilton County Courthouse. This neoclassical megalith from 1919 is the easternmost terminus of Court Street.

Turn right on Walnut Street and look to the left at Homecoming (Blue Birds) ArtWorks mural on the side of Courtland Flats, at 119 E. Court St. It is based on a painting in Charlie Harper’s geometric style and depicts two bluebirds returning home. The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County fills the blocks on the right from Prior to Eighth Streets. The main library opened in the southwest building in 1955 and underwent expansions in 1982 and 1997. Established in 1853, the library system includes 40 regional and branch locations and is the 12th largest in the United States. Across from the library, on the southwest corner of Eighth and Walnut Streets, is St. Louis Catholic Church, headquarters for Cincinnati’s Roman Catholic archdiocese. The church parsonage is attached. Cross Walnut Street and walk east on Eighth Street. At 110 E. Eighth St. is a restored firehouse. Built in 1889, it now functions as an office building. Next door, at 114 E. Eighth St., is the Citadel, designed by the Hannaford firm and built in 1905 for the Salvation Army.

Proceed to Main Street. In the ground along Main Street is track for the reborn Cincinnati Streetcar, which opened in September 2016. Across Main Street (on the left behind the fabric awning with a large “A”) is Arnold’s Bar and Grill, the city’s oldest tavern. Turn right on Main Street and cross Seventh Street. On the right is the smallest of three theaters found inside Aronoff Center, a performing arts center designed by Argentine American architect Cesar Pelli that opened in 1995. The rest of the west side of the 600 block of Main Street is an intact row of late 19th-century commercial buildings, which date from when this was the city’s main commercial thoroughfare. The businesses here are a time capsule: Hathaway Stamp (1901), Bay Horse Cafe (1817, reopened 2015), Spitzfaden Office Supplies (1951), and Richter & Phillips Co. (1896). Famed architect Ernest Flagg designed the 12-story Gwynne Building (1904), Cincinnati’s most ornamental early skyscraper, on the northeast corner of Main and Sixth Streets.

Turn right on Sixth Street and enter Cincinnati’s reemerging restaurant row. Most notable are Sotto, Boca, and Nada—all three the product of the Boca Restaurant Group. At Sixth and Walnut Streets is the Zaha Hadid–designed Contemporary Arts Center, one of the oldest contemporary arts centers in the United States. Next door is 21c Museum Hotel, which opened inside the restored Hotel Metropole in 2012.

Turn left on Walnut Street and left again on Fifth Street. Walk through Government Square, Metro’s downtown transit hub. Dominating the left side of the square is Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse (100 E. Fifth St.), built in 1939. The next three blocks east of Main Street are where corporate Cincinnati functions. It’s a quiet place after office hours, with the exception of the Taft Theatre and