Section 3 of 6
Queen City
The cultural institutions, music and sport that gave the name its meaning — from the 1869 Red Stockings to King Records.
Syd Nathan Pressed Everything on Brewster Avenue — the piece this section opens with.
Photo: Guohua Song / Pexels6 pages in this section
- Syd Nathan Pressed Everything on Brewster AvenueKing Records, founded by Syd Nathan in Cincinnati in 1943, recorded country, R&B and gospel under one roof at 1540 Brewster Avenue and released James Brown's first records in the mid-1950s. Covers Nathan's deliberate genre-mixing, the physical plant on Brewster, and the argument that King's catalogue made it one of the most significant independent labels in American recording history.
- The First Team That Admitted It Was Paying EveryoneThe 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first openly all-professional baseball club, going undefeated through 57 games under Harry Wright. Covers the decision to go fully professional, the 1869 roster, the cross-country tour and the loss to the Brooklyn Atlantics in June 1870 that ended the streak.
- Riverfront Stadium, 1970–76: What the Machine Actually WasThe Cincinnati Reds teams of 1970–1976 — the Big Red Machine — won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976 at Riverfront Stadium. Covers the roster as a documented record, the stadium's artificial turf context and Pete Rose's place in the documented history of that club.
- Maria Longworth Nichols and the Kiln on Eastern AvenueMaria Longworth Nichols founded Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati in 1880 in a former schoolhouse on Eastern Avenue, producing art pottery that won a gold medal at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle. Covers Nichols's founding of the enterprise, the standard glaze and tiger-eye techniques developed by 1890, and the Rookwood tile installations still visible in the Carew Tower lobby and Union Terminal.
- Eighteen Years on the Ohio Bank Before She Wrote the BookHarriet Beecher Stowe lived in Cincinnati from 1832 to 1850, crossing into Kentucky and witnessing the operations of the Underground Railroad before writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. Covers her time at the Lane Theological Seminary household, the specific Cincinnati episodes that entered the novel and the Walnut Hills house where she lived.
- 24 May 1935: Crosley Field Turns the Lights OnThe first night game in major league baseball history was played at Crosley Field, Cincinnati, on 24 May 1935, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington to switch on 632 floodlights. Covers the technical installation, the Reds' 2–1 win over the Phillies that night and what the event meant for attendance figures across the league.
The other five