So I'm visiting my friend Joe, and I say, "Hey Joe, let's go take some pictures. Know any good places to take pictures?" and as if this was some bizarre Godfather crossover Joe says, "I'll think about it." Luckily for Joe I'm not Clemenza--and luckily for me, Joe knows where to take some good pictures.
Our first stop is up in Mount Adams, specifically at the top of the Mount Adams steps, next to Holy Cross-Immaculata. A Good Friday tradition known as Praying the Steps has given this church another name, "Church of the Steps." Each year on Good Friday, pilgrims gather at the base of the Mount Adams stairway and pray at each step on the way to the crucifix pictured above. Some more background on that can be found here.
The views of the river are the best part of the Cincinnati landscape, in my opinion. This afternoon a snow storm was coming in added an interesting element. Chilly, but interesting all the same.
To the city's credit, Cincinnati does a good job preserving history, even as they revitalize parts of various neighborhoods. Signage on the landscape serves, to me at any rate, as physical footnotes to dig deeper--a clue that this spot was not always as it appears now. A place to start asking questions about what was.
The Mount Adams Steps originated as a path that Immaculata parishioners wore up the hillside to visit the church's construction site. The Archbishop Purcell put in a stair of wooden steps (probably a good thing from an erosion standpoint) and the city took over maintaining the thoroughfare sometime later. The most recent stairway was built in 2009.
When they built the landing with the markers, they included a photo of the skyline. Because there's very little reason not to, I took my own version.
I may not have been able to get the exact same angle and maintain the skyscraper focus but I don't think that really hurts the shot at all. I love how the sign pre-dates the Great American building.
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