Pogue's Garage
I always seem to luck into one crazy adventure or another, and one trip I will never ever pass up is a photo tour with the infamous super photg Gordon Bombay. Ronnie, aka Gordon Bombay was downtown to shoot Tower place mall and when he said it I mentally checked up and thought WHOOAAA, a mall isn't officially abandoned until it gets the full on Queen City Discovery treatment. Then you can stick a fork in it, its done. It did set me back for a second because I walk through Tower Place on an almost daily basis. Tower Place is still a living space for me. Except it really isn't. It withered up and died and I never even noticed. Like the flowers in the vase that one afternoon you realize are dried up but you have no idea how they got that way. The mall is so familiar I had no interest in shooting it, but I excitedly suggested Pogues Garage which I had never been in and wanted to explore.
Pogue's? Where the heck did that come from? Not being a native I hear all these names and never stop to think about them. It was always "that ugly garage on 4th" to me.
The H. & S. Pogue Dry Goods Company was a big deal back in the day it seems. And when the garage was built for the store, the 2nd floor walkway was called the ice cream bridge and a soda fountain of a demolished pharmacy from Mariemont was located on it. Every floor of the garage was named after a flavor of ice cream that they served.
Enough history, we walked around shooting pictures and eventually two security guards appeared to harass us.
I finally feel like I made it as a street photographer.
Harassed by the man! yeah!
High five me someone.
Ok whatever but it was a blast.
5 comments
I just always assumed that the parking garage was designed my M.C. Escher.
ReplyDeleteI know it's an eyesore, but I always have fond memories of coming downtown w/ my mom or grandma & parking on the grape level. Coming downtown always brought stories from mom about having to "dress up" to come into town. (Mind you, they were coming from College Hill, which hardly seems like a trip to the big city). The trip sometime included lunch at Hathaways, or just a walk through the Omni. I remember being a teenager, coming from Northern Ky & knowing how to manage my way around that garage so I could shop at Tower Place Mall. I'm anxious to see the improvements to this area. But, it's bittersweet as well. Glad you were able to document!
ReplyDeleteThe ice cream bridge you are mentioning actually looked out into the Carew Tower Arcade - it wasn't over Race Street. It connected two parts of Pogue's on the second floor. The bridge I believe you are referring to originally was the skywalk connection over Race Street connecting the garage with Pogue's by way of Closson's which was located on the first and second floors (second floor was the art gallery) of the garage building. It was enlarged to accommodate stores a short time after Tower Place was opened.
ReplyDeleteAll the names you hear - you should stop and learn about them because they are what this city is made on - they brought the "jewels" to this place and made it sparkle.
For more information on the H&S Pogue Company, check out Wikipedia and also Facebook "H&S Pogue Company of Cincinnati." The Pogue's Garage was immense, deliberately oversized so that monthly parkers on the upper levels were subsidizing "free" parking for customers on the lower levels. The floors were named for flavors of ice cream served in the Ice Cream Bridge which, as a poster above noted, physically connected the store's Fourth and Fifth Street buildings across the east end of the Carew Tower Arcade. Pogue's was the only downtown department store with a connected garage. As one crossed into the store from the garage you were greeted by "Pogue's Fine Services" which included fur cleaning and storage (actually taken up to 7), laundry/dry cleaning, and shoe repair.
ReplyDeleteCool info, thanks everyone!
ReplyDelete