RIP Martha, Sept. 1 1914

Martha, died 105 years ago today at the Cincinnati Zoo. The last of over a billion birds that once roamed America.

The New York Times NATHANIEL RICH wrote about Martha and he said;

"On Sept. 1, 1914, Martha, the last captive passenger pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. She outlasted George, the penultimate survivor of her species and her only companion, by four years. As news spread of her species’ imminent extinction, Martha became a minor tourist attraction. In her final years, whether depressed or just old, she barely moved. Underwhelmed zoo visitors threw fistfuls of sand at her to elicit a reaction. When she finally died, her body was taken to the Cincinnati Ice Company, frozen in a 300-pound ice cube and shipped by train to the Smithsonian Institution..."

Treehugger says she's stuffed but not on display at the Smithsonian.
From RoadsideAmerica;

Martha spent her last years in the Cincinnati Zoo, in a pagoda aviary that has been restored. It's an official National Historic Landmark... Perched on a rock in front of the hut is a life-size bronze likeness of Martha. Also here is the stuffed carcass of the last Carolina Parakeet, "Incus," who died in this same aviary in 1918, four years after Martha. That makes this place a uniquely bad spot in the history of bird extermination.

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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a junkyard for buildings

I tripped across this place by happenstance. U.C. is at least hanging on to interesting architectural features from buildings that have been demolished. Now we just need to see some interesting reuse of these pieces.





[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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RIP Martha, Sept. 1 1914

Martha, died 102 years ago today at the Cincinnati zoo. The last of over a billion birds that once roamed America.

The New York Times NATHANIEL RICH wrote about Martha and he said;

"On Sept. 1, 1914, Martha, the last captive passenger pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. She outlasted George, the penultimate survivor of her species and her only companion, by four years. As news spread of her species’ imminent extinction, Martha became a minor tourist attraction. In her final years, whether depressed or just old, she barely moved. Underwhelmed zoo visitors threw fistfuls of sand at her to elicit a reaction. When she finally died, her body was taken to the Cincinnati Ice Company, frozen in a 300-pound ice cube and shipped by train to the Smithsonian Institution..."

Treehugger says she's stuffed but not on display at the Smithsonian.
From RoadsideAmerica;

Martha spent her last years in the Cincinnati Zoo, in a pagoda aviary that has been restored. It's an official National Historic Landmark... Perched on a rock in front of the hut is a life-size bronze likeness of Martha. Also here is the stuffed carcass of the last Carolina Parakeet, "Incus," who died in this same aviary in 1918, four years after Martha. That makes this place a uniquely bad spot in the history of bird extermination.

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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an unfortunate chain of events, the Third Annual Preservation Ride

Once Cincinnati was filled with incredible historic buildings.
Now its filled with parking lots.
Now, nothing unfortunate happened on the ride fortunately, but how Cincinnati lost much of its buildings and history is unfortunate.
The Cincinnati Preservation Collective lead a slow ride around the downtown/OTR basin highlighting the buildings that used to stand in what are now parking lots. In addition they highlighted one happy ending, Washington Park and a couple buildings at present risk.

preservation is important, but first, coffee!
I had forgotten already that when I moved to Cincinnati half of Washington Park was a parking lot. A parking lot that has now been lost to gentrification!


waving at trains never gets old. we are the biggest dorks
at each stop pictures were revealed of what had existed before the bulldozers came.

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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RIP Martha, Sept. 1 1914

Martha, died 101 years ago today at the Cincinnati zoo. The last of over a billion birds that once roamed America.

The New York Times NATHANIEL RICH wrote about Martha and he said;

"On Sept. 1, 1914, Martha, the last captive passenger pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. She outlasted George, the penultimate survivor of her species and her only companion, by four years. As news spread of her species’ imminent extinction, Martha became a minor tourist attraction. In her final years, whether depressed or just old, she barely moved. Underwhelmed zoo visitors threw fistfuls of sand at her to elicit a reaction. When she finally died, her body was taken to the Cincinnati Ice Company, frozen in a 300-pound ice cube and shipped by train to the Smithsonian Institution..."

Treehugger says she's stuffed but not on display at the Smithsonian.
From RoadsideAmerica;

Martha spent her last years in the Cincinnati Zoo, in a pagoda aviary that has been restored. It's an official National Historic Landmark... Perched on a rock in front of the hut is a life-size bronze likeness of Martha. Also here is the stuffed carcass of the last Carolina Parakeet, "Incus," who died in this same aviary in 1918, four years after Martha. That makes this place a uniquely bad spot in the history of bird extermination.

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Cincinnati Observatory

The Cincinnati Observatory houses the largest and oldest telescope still in use, an 11" refractor made in Bavaria in 1843. Do you watch Cosmos? An episode or so ago Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about the Bavarians making the best glass in the world and closely guarding their secrets.
The observatory also houses a 16" refractor made in 1904. There is a lot of history here and like every other signification building in Cincinnati it was designed by Samuel Hannaford.




[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
2 comets

Rejoice!: A Retrospective of Avtar Gill, the Cincinnati Hat Man

"Rejoice!: A Retrospective of Avtar Gill, the Cincinnati Hat Man" opened Friday at the Thunder-Sky Gallery with remarks from City Councilman Chris Seelbach and County Commissioner Todd Portune.
I always think about Avtar whenever there is an event downtown, it doesn't seem right not seeing Avtar with the latest current event displayed on a homemade banner rubber banned to his hat. I've always thought that Avtar understood twitter and facebook before they were invented because what are those social media apps if not digital manifestations of Avtars hats?
Everyone had their own stories to tell and I have a couple. I still remember the first time I saw Avtar, I was walking off Fountain Square and the sun was shining through the skywalk. I glanced up and this character was walking through with that hat that I wouldn't understand until later. Plus there were these two antenna type things waving around his head with stars on them.
Wow, I thought, I'm not in Kansas anymore.
I'm kind of embarrassed to admit I saw Avtar so often that I took him for granted and stopped taking pictures. He wasn't a novelty anymore. Not for me at least.

Todd Portune telling us about the five stones that Avtar had given him over the years. Humorous and moving. Why stones? A mystery but Commissioner Portune felt it was because they were solid and had permanence.


"Some girls told me that there's an Indian girl who talks about me on the internet. Is that you?" Avtar as told to Maureen.
Maureen recounting her memories of Avtar to a news crew.
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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RIP Martha, Sept. 1 1914

Martha, died 99 years ago today at the Cincinnati zoo. The last of over a billion birds that once roamed America.
Treehugger says she's stuffed but not on display at the Smithsonian.
From RoadsideAmerica;

Martha spent her last years in the Cincinnati Zoo, in a pagoda aviary that has been restored. It's an official National Historic Landmark... Perched on a rock in front of the hut is a life-size bronze likeness of Martha. Also here is the stuffed carcass of the last Carolina Parakeet, "Incus," who died in this same aviary in 1918, four years after Martha. That makes this place a uniquely bad spot in the history of bird extermination.

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Christian Moerlein Brewery Tap Room

Christian Moerlein had their Tap Room grand opening along with tours of the brewery and old tunnels underneath it. Pretty cool spaces, I talked to Moerlein's Beer baron Greg Hardman and he seemed ecstatic about the excitement everyone had shown over the weekend. The tap Room will be open now on weekends Friday, 4 to 9 p.m., Saturday, Noon to 9 p.m.and Sundays Noon to 6 p.m.
This coming weekend they will again have tours running to give everyone another chance to see the tunnels.
Friday, tours at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Saturday, tours at 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m.
Sunday, tours at 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m.
Moerlein's Brewery Tap Room is located at 1621 Moore St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45202









[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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