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Tour # 1       Behind-the-Scenes Factory Tour

Rookwood Pottery — Cincinnati, Ohio

Rookwood Pottery is one of the most important names in American art pottery, and it has a particularly strong connection to Cincinnati.

A little history

Rookwood was founded in 1880 by Maria Longworth Nichols Storer, a Cincinnati heiress and arts patron. The first kiln was fired in November 1880. The name Rookwood came from her father’s country estate in Cincinnati’s Walnut Hills.

The company became famous for:

• • Art pottery and vases
  • Highly developed glazes
  • Hand-painted decoration
  • Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts designs
  • Architectural tile
  • Work by important American artists and decorators

Rookwood’s innovative glazes became particularly famous, and pieces from the late 19th and early 20th centuries can be highly desirable to collectors.

1920 Race Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202

It is in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, next to historic Findlay Market. The facility is still a working pottery and architectural-tile operation.

Rookwood Pottery official website

Tour # 2    Cincinnati’s Brewery Tunnels

Cincinnati has a remarkable underground brewing history. During the 19th century, German immigrants transformed Cincinnati into one of America’s major brewing centers. By the mid-1800s, the city had dozens of breweries, many of which built underground lagering cellars beneath their breweries and surrounding hillsides.

Why were the tunnels built?

Before mechanical refrigeration, brewers needed a way to keep beer cool and at a relatively constant temperature while it fermented and matured.

Cincinnati’s hillsides provided an ideal solution. Brewers excavated large rooms and passageways into the hills beneath their breweries. These became lagering cellars, where newly brewed lager could be stored for extended periods.

The German brewing tradition of lager was particularly important. The word lager comes from the German lagern, meaning “to store.”

Cincinnati’s underground brewing world

At its height, Cincinnati had an extensive network of brewery cellars. More than a dozen historic lagering cellars are known today, and historians believe additional underground spaces remain undiscovered.

Some of the historic breweries associated with underground cellars include:

• • Jackson Brewery
  • Schmidt Brothers / Crown Brewery
  • Gerke Brewery
  • Kauffman Brewery
  • Bruckmann Brewery
  • Christian Moerlein Brewery

These weren’t simply small storage rooms. Some were substantial underground complexes connected to the brewery buildings above. Workers used them for fermentation, cold storage, transportation and other brewery operations.

The Jackson Brewery tunnels

One of the best-preserved examples is the Jackson Brewery cellar. The underground lagering cellar dates to the 1850s and was excavated directly into the hillside. Today, visitors can walk through portions of the original underground space.

An interesting feature of the Jackson cellars is that visitors enter from street level, so there are no stairs required to enter or leave the cellar. That makes it one of the more accessible underground brewery experiences.

Other tunnels

The Schmidt Brothers/Crown Brewery has subterranean lagering cellars and tunnels that are included on the Brewing Heritage Trail’s Brewers & Barons Trail Tour.

The former Bruckmann Brewery is particularly interesting because much of the original brewery complex survives. The site includes the brewhouse, malthouse, bottling building, stables, family residence, power plant and underground lagering cellars.

Why they disappeared

Cincinnati’s great brewing era declined dramatically with Prohibition, which forced the major breweries to close or change their businesses. Over subsequent decades, urban redevelopment, filling of spaces and changes to buildings caused many of the underground cellars to be forgotten.

Some tunnels were rediscovered much later through old brewery blueprints and historical investigation.

Cincinnati’s German brewing heritage makes this especially appropriate for Stein Collectors International. Cincinnati developed an extensive network of underground lagering cellars because German-American brewers used the naturally cool underground spaces to ferment and store lager beer.