Fountain Square

This is one of my happy places here in the "Nati". This is a place where the OGs (old gangsters in real talk) gather to reminisce about their way back in the day, where youngsters make memories with their selfie worthy fashions, and where families gather to enjoy some iconic favorites such as Graeter's ice cream. This is the mecca of memories.

Many of us know the general history of this iconic spot. The Tyler Davidson Fountain was a gift from
Henry Probasco to the people in Cincinnati in honor of his brother-in-law and business partner Tyler Davidson and was designed by the von Miller family of Munich, Germany (P.S. and BTW, it is one of Cincinnati's nine sister cities). The fountain was dedicated to the people in 1871 and renovated in 1971 for its centennial.

Flashback to the 1840s. Fountain Square was also the site of the former Fifth Street Market, one of nine public markets that operated in the city at that time. African Americans found this place an oasis of tranquility, and they had hopes of finding employment and prosperity in this new area.

However, their peace did not last very long. September 1841 brought about one of the earliest race riots, all due to a long drought filled with unemployment. A mob of unemployed white Cincinnatians attacked blacks. According to local authorities at the time about 300 black men, some who escaped slavery weeks and even months before, were rounded up, arrested and put in jail "for their own protection", and there would be a series of these race riots before the start of the World War I.

Well, that's today's history lesson. Happy Saturday!