Sedamsville River Road Historic District
The small, self-contained neighborhood of Sedamsville [1] occupies a steep hill that rise above the heavily traveled River Road and the Boldface Creek Valley. With its narrow streets, clustered houses, and a church atop the summit, Sedamsville evokes a unique urban image and exudes a strong sense of time and place. It maintains a high level of visual integrity and cohesiveness through retention of features such as mature trees, original stone retaining walls, steep hillsides, narrow lots and compact physical boundaries. Sedamsville also encompasses a cohesive array of mid-19th and early 20th century residential and institutional buildings, including many fine examples of building types and styles common in the city's oldest neighborhoods. The neighborhood's remarkable collection of institutional buildings includes an excellent Gothic Revival parish church, one of Cincinnati's few surviving Romanesque Revival public schools, and Fire Company No. 26, one of the city's oldest firehouses.
Sedamsville was annexed into the city in 1869, by the turn of the century more than 100 businesses had developed on either side of today's River Road between Steiner and Sedam Streets. Following the flood of 1937 and the realignment of River Road in the 1940s, most businesses disappeared, transportation and the economy changed affecting people's lifestyle and the social interaction in the neighborhood.
The Sedamsville River Road Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
- Cincinnati Department of Transportation and Engineering, Sedamsville Community Development Plan, 2003, www.plancincinnati.org, accessed August, 2015.
Street Names
Delhi Avenue • Eatondale Drive • Fairbanks Avenue • Halsey Avenue • Mt Echo Road • River Road • Sedam Street • Steiner Avenue
