Walking Cincinnati. Danny Korman

Cincinnati Masonic Center complex. Walk these remaining blocks of Fifth Street past the Procter & Gamble towers on the left and turn right on Pike Street.

Around the corner is Lytle Park Historic District, one of the oldest areas in the city. The 2.31-acre park, updated in 2018, is known for its seasonal floral displays and an 11-foot-tall bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln. East of the park is the Taft Museum of Art. Built in 1820, the house was home to several prominent Cincinnatians, including Charles P. Taft, half-brother of President William Howard Taft. Charles Taft donated the house in 1917 and the park’s statue of President Abraham Lincoln in 1932 to the city. On the north edge of the park is the Literary Club, at 500 E. Fourth St., an excellent example of Georgian-style architecture from 1820. On the southwest edge is Guilford School, 421 E. Fourth St., the original site of Fort Washington.

      Turn right on Fourth Street, which is Cincinnati’s version of Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue and New York’s Fifth Avenue. One mile long, it starts with the ease of Lytle Park behind you and then gradually becomes the city’s main financial thoroughfare before terminating at its increasingly residential western edge. Cross Broadway Street and continue west on Fourth Street. Christ Church Cathedral, 318 E. Fourth St., was completed in 1835 and rebuilt in 1957; it remains the street’s only church. Cross Sycamore Street and continue west past Atrium I and II office buildings. Garber & Woodward designed the Classical Revival–style Duke Energy building, completed in 1929, at the southwest corner of Fourth and Main Streets. Next door on Fourth Street is a tiny row of three buildings dating to 1870.

      Walk to Walnut Street for a view of downtown’s most towering historic corner. Significant buildings include (from the southeast corner, clockwise) Fourth & Walnut Centre, designed by Daniel H. Burnham (1903); Dixie Terminal (1921), with a grandiose barrel-vaulted lobby offering a view of Roebling Suspension Bridge; Bartlett Building, also designed by Daniel H. Burnham (1901) and reborn as a Renaissance Hotel in 2014; Formica Building (1971); and Mercantile Library Building (1905). North of the library at the southeast corner of Fifth and Walnut Streets is Tri-State Building (1902), another Burnham building. Cross Fourth Street and walk to Fourth National Bank Building (1905), on the north side of the street. It was the last one built of four early 20th-century downtown skyscrapers designed by the Chicago firm headed by Burnham.

On the northeast corner of Fourth and Vine Streets is the 15-story Ingalls Building, the world’s first reinforced concrete skyscraper, built in 1903. On the southwest corner is the 34-story PNC Tower, designed by the same architect (Cass Gilbert) behind Manhattan’s Woolworth Building. Finished in 1913, it was once the tallest building west of the Hudson River. Cross Vine Street and walk to Race Street. This block was historically department store territory and a hive of activity up through the late 1990s. Today, it’s a mix of other commercial and residential uses. Continuing west is West Fourth Street Historic District, the finest intact remnant of Cincinnati’s turn-of-the-19th-century downtown streetscape. Turn right on Race Street and walk to the entrance of Carew Tower Arcade. Inside are about two dozen shops and restaurants, including two Cincinnati classic restaurants in the midst of Art Deco colors and floral motifs: Hathaway’s Diner (since 1956) and Frisch’s. Exit the arcade at Vine Street and return to Fountain Square.

      Points of Interest

Booksellers on Fountain Square 505 Vine St., 513-258-2038

Carew Tower/Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza 441 Vine St., 513-579-9735

84.51ϱ 100 W. Fifth St., 513-632-1020, 8451.com

The Cincinnatian Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton 601 Vine St., 513-381-3000, cincinnatianhotel.com

Covenant First Presbyterian Church 717 Elm St., covfirstchurch.org

Isaac M. Wise Temple 720 Plum St., 513-793-2556, wisetemple.org

St. Peter in Chains 325 W. Eighth St., 513-421-5354, stpeterinchainscathedral.org

Cincinnati City Hall 801 Plum St., 513-591-6000, cincinnati-oh.gov

Cappel’s 917 Race St., 513-621-9499, cappelsinc.com

Scotti’s Italian Restaurant 919 Vine St., 513-721-9484

Hamilton County Courthouse 1000 Main St., courtclerk.org

Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County 800 Vine St., 513-369-6900, cincinnatilibrary.org/main

St. Louis Catholic Church 29 E. Eighth St., 513-263-6621

Arnold’s Bar and Grill 210 E. Eighth St., 513-421-6234, arnoldsbarandgrill.com