Burnet Woods
Park building in the United States really started to take off in the middle of the nineteenth century.2 The cholera epidemic of 1832 was what really set the park building phase in motion.2 It was originally thought that the epidemic was caused by impure air created by congestion in poverty stricken areas.33 Parks were built to give the city an open area of clean and fresh air for public health and recreation.33 These motives likely played into the formation of Burnet Woods as it opened in 1874 on what was then the northern edge of the expanding city.
Two prominent Cincinnatians, Robert W. Burnet and William S. Groesbeck were responsible for the creation of Burnet Woods. Robert W. Burnet was born in 1808, the son of famous Judge Jacob Burnet.3 He entered West Point at 16 years of age, leading a successful military career that he later left for a job with the United States Sanitary Commission.3 Burnet married Margaret Groesbeck, sister of William S. Groesbeck.4
William S. Groesbeck was a born into one of the wealthiest families in Cincinnati in 1816.5 Groesbeck became a lawyer, served as professor and head at the Cincinnati Law School from 1844 to 1849, and served as counsel to Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial.6 He later became a prominent politician.7 Groesbeck married Elizabeth Burnet in 1837.7
In 1872, Robert W. Burnet and William S. Groesbeck leased 170 acres of their land to the City Cincinnati.1 Groesbeck was particularly motivated to donate this land for the idea of creating the park in memory of Jacob Burnet, Robert Burnet’s father and Groesbeck’s father-in-law. This land became what is now known as Burnet Woods. Ten years later, the city purchased 163 acres and sold 74 acres to the University of Cincinnati.1 The university relocated to this purchased land in 1895, and has remained there ever since.1 Burnet Woods lost more land to the University of Cincinnati in 1950, when UC exchanged 7 acres of land adjacent to Alms Park and $46,993 for 18 acres of Burnet Woods.8 The area acquired by UC is the area where Rieveschel, Langsam, and DAAP currently lie.8
Following the expansion of UC, Burnett Woods consists of nearly 90 acres enclosed by Clifton Avenue, Ludlow Avenue, Bishop Avenue, and Martin Luther King Drive, lying directly north of campus.10
Burnet Woods hosts a variety of activities for the enjoyment of the public. It includes a fishing lake (constructed in 1875), playgrounds, and walking trails.10 The construction of a bandstand reflects William Groesbeck’s interest in music.1 Shortly after the park’s creation, Groesbeck started a fund to bring music to the park, free for those walking its many trails.1 Other sites to note are the Nature Center and Trailside Museum, both designed by Carl Freund in the 1940’s.1 The Nature Center is home to Wolff Planetarium, the oldest planetarium west of the Allegheny Mountains.10 The H.H. Richardson Monument, constructed in 1972, has become a popular spot in the park.
The H.H. Richardson Monument is just one of the many ties between the University of Cincinnati and Burnet Woods. In 1894, the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Realtors invited six prominent architects of the day to design their new Chamber of Commerce building.11 H.H. Richardson, regarded as possibly the greatest architect of the time period, especially of Romanesque architecture, was chosen as the architect of the building.11 Unfortunately, Richardson died in 1886 before his masterpiece was constructed and completed.12 However it did receive high praise. The Cincinnati Chapter of the American Institute of Architects described the Chamber of Commerce Building as “the finest example of pure architectural design in the Romanesque school in this country.”13
In 1911, a fire started in the building’s kitchen and spread throughout other parts of the building.15 Later that year, a Chamber committee decided to sell the land the building was on to the Union Central Life Insurance Company and a new building was erected for the Chamber of Commerce to occupy.16
Although the building was scheduled for demolition, many people expressed interest in preserving the relatively undamaged granite blocks on the outside of the building. Many projects were considered for the blocks including a failed design for a new Hamilton County YMCA, construction of a castle-like museum near Eden Park that failed to get Park Board approval, and use in a new Oberlin College building that was abandoned due to the high cost of transporting the block.17 In late 1911, the Cincinnati Astronomical Society negotiated with the Municipal Art Society to acquire the stones for later use as walls of an Astronomical Observatory.17 Donations by hundreds of Cincinnatians, as well as $500 from the Municipal Art Society and $400 from the Optimist Club and the Queen City Club, helped the Astronomical Society transport and store the building blocks at a rail yard owned by Cincinnati Frog and Switch in Oakley.13, 17
The Astronomical Society never carried out its plan to use the stones. Construction of the observatory was interrupted first by World War I, then the Depression and the death of the Astronomical Society’s president, DeLisle Stewart.18 All 3,000 tons of Pink Melford granite remained at the proposed site after building ceased. In 1968, the University of Cincinnati held a design contest using 84 tons of granite known as Project Resurrection as a monument to H.H. Richardson and the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Building.19 The winning design was constructed in Burnet Woods in 1972, arranging several stones in a Stonehenge configuration we see today.19
Endnotes
1. Nancy Berlier, ed., Cincinnati: Days in History (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Post, 1988), p. 136.
2. David Schuyler, The New Urban Landscape (Baltimore: John Hopkins U, 1986), p. 59.
3. History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio : their past and present : including early settlement and development, antiquarian researches, their aboriginal history, pioneer history, political organization, agricultural, mining and manufacturing interests, a history of the city, villages and townships, religious,educational, social, military and political history, statistics, biographies and portraits of pioneers and representative citizens, etc (Cincinnati: S.B. Nelson, 1894), p. 477, accessed October 13, 2011, http://books.google.com/?id=a1QMAQAAMAAJ& City of
Cincinnati v. Andrew McMicken City of Cincinnati v. Andrew McMicken =PA477&lCity of Cincinnati v. Andrew
McMicken=PA477&dq=Robert+W.+Burnet&source=bl&ots=SQziUb1vuv&sig=mj2fK49ecipXC4s9Bj1WMk5BNEc&hl=en&ei=Kg-VTpSDJ4qctweOtsWKBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=William%20S .%20Groesbeck&f=false.
4. "Robert Wallace Burnet," Obituary Notice: Association of Graduates USMA, 1901, accessed October 13, 2011, last modified November 21, 2010, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/AOG_Reunions/32/Robert_Wallace_Burnet*.html.
5. History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, p. 544.
6. "Groesbeck, William Slocum, (1815-1897)," Biographical Directory of the United States, Congress 1774-Present, accessed October 13, 2011, http://bioguide.congress.gov//.pl?index=G000490.
7. History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, p. 545.
8. McGrane, p. 319
9. "Land Trade Gives 22 Acres in Return for Money and Alms Area," Cincinnati Enquirer, July 22, 1949.
10. "Burnet Woods," Cincinnati Parks, accessed October 5, 2011, last modified 2011, http://cincyparks.com/events/region/woods/.
11. J. William Rudd, "The Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Building," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 27, no. 2 (1986): p. 116.
12. Rudd, p. 118.
13. Cincinnati Astronomical Society, Richardson, the Architect and the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Building (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Astronomical Society, 1914), 113, accessed October 12, 2011, http://babel.hathitrust.org//?view=image;size=100;id=uc2.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft0gt5vm6m;page=root;seq=9;n um=3.
14. "Facade of Angoulême Cathedral, France," Wikipedia, accessed November 23, 2011,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Angouleme_cathedral_StPierre_a.jpg.
15. Rudd, p. 119
16. Rudd, P. 120
17. Cincinnati Astronomical Society, p. 111.
18. Rudd, p. 121
19. "H.H. Richardson in Cincinnati: The Chamber of Commerce Building." Glessner House Museum, accessed October 12, 2011, last modified 2011, http://www.glessnerhouse.org/.htm#Cincinnati.
20. "Project Resurrection," 1972, University of Cincinnati, Archives and Rare Books Library.