City - Cincinnati OH - Price Hill Incline 1906

by Mike Savad

Title

City - Cincinnati OH - Price Hill Incline 1906

Artist

Mike Savad

Medium

Photograph - Colorized Photo

Description

Colorized photo from 1906
Original title: Price's Hill incline
Photographer: Detroit Publishing
Location: 8th Street and Glenway Ave, Cincinnati, OH

This is the Price Hill incline (often called Buttermilk Mountain). It was built in 1874, demolished in 1943. The track was 800ft in length, with a rise of 350ft. It was located at the very end of 8th St, just where the mountain starts.

This incline was unusual, it contained two separate funiculars. The one on the left was for passengers only, it had 2 sets of cars, that had enclosed boxes that contained people. The fare was 5 cents a person which is about $1.46 today. The one on the right was for industrial and commercial purposes. Each one had the capacity to hold 3 to 4 fully loaded carts with people. It cost 85 cents a cart, which is about $25 today. The entire trip took 5 minutes to go up or down.

The right half had a 200hp poppet valve duplicate engine, with a winding drum of 13ft in diameter, I believe the passenger had a 10ft wheel. Each set of inclines had their own station, that's why the architecture changes at the top and bottom. There was also no streetcar rails on this, it was strictly for carts and people.

In its day this incline was known as Buttermilk Mountain, because that is all they served at the top. The builder of this was William Price, he borrowed money from his deeply religious father, and he promised his father that he wouldn't serve any alcohol, which he also said attributed to all sorts of accidents. As a result bars at the bottom would rename themselves, the "Last chance saloon", because there are no drinks at the top of the hill. Many inclines had drinking, clubs etc at the top, people came to expect that. However you could get the latest fashions, have a nice meal and such. They also built a special hospital to research tuberculosis.

There was also an accident here:

It seems that maintenance was not a priority, and the 1" thick cables they used were never replaced since they opened in 1875. On October 2nd 1906, the cables were rusted and falling apart, thanks to the animals contents they left behind. The car at the top had two wagons, both pulled by two horses. The top most car was almost at the top, when 6ft away, the cable snapped, sending that car down the mountain. Each driver jumped into their wagons one was sand, the other horse manure. They landed at the bottom, and both drivers survived thanks to the soft contents they were carrying. The horses did not fare as well, and were injured so badly, police had to shoot them on site to put them out of their misery.

At the top, the operator was nearly killed by the cable whipping back, and the car on the bottom that was sent to the top, nearly flattening the guy. If he hadn't jumped into the stairwell when he did, he wouldn't have survived that.

Uploaded

October 10th, 2021

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