Over-The-Rhine, Cincinnati – August 9, 2015 © Frank H. Jump
I returned to Cincinnati after sixteen years on our cross-country trip we took this summer. Again, I visited my friend and mentor Tod Swormstedt, founder of the American Sign Museum. In 1999, the museum was just an idea Tod had and today it is a fully realized dream. I searched for this sign, hoping it was still untouched and it was.
Cincinnati’s Over-The-Rhine neighbor surely has changed as it has morphed from a quasi-abandoned and under-served ghetto into a trendy, upscale dining and drinking strip surrounded by squalor. On our trip across this great nation, the stark differences between the “haves & have-nots” has never been more evident. Within several blocks of profitable tourist trade are communities, both African-American and Euro-American poor living side by side in utter poverty, many of whom have been displaced by gentrification. The tension was palpable.
Dominating this scenario are the anachronistic remnants of a former German immigrant commercial district, touting products that were luxury items in their day.
June 1999 © Frank H. Jump
June 1999 © Frank H. Jump
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History Museum Canada
From what I can read it looks like: “Stofhelberg’s Havana Seconds- Cigars” Possibly Henry Straus was the distributor. – Fading Ad Campaign, June 1999
