CPA to celebrate completion of Walnut Hills tower restoration

After five years and more than $500,000 spent, the Cincinnati Preservation Association (CPA) will celebrate the completion of the restoration of the Walnut Hills Presbyterian Church Tower with a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 15 at 10 AM.

The tower, standing nearly ten stories tall at the corner of Taft and Gilbert, will serve as a constant reminder of the courageous stand for abolition and racial justice and will serve as the gateway to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Cultural Heritage District.

"It's an opportunity to celebrate a part of Cincinnati history that we can all be proud of," says CPA executive director Kendall Fisher.

Lyman Beecher, father of Stowe, was pastor at the First Presbyterian Church and the first president of the Lane Seminary, both established in the neighborhood by James Kemper in 1818.

In 1834, the seminary held the Lane Debates, the first public forum in which African Americans debated the issue of slavery, largely credited with swaying American social thought.

The church, designed by Samuel Hannaford and built in 1885, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

The Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation was enlisted as a project partner to preserve the tower after the main structure was razed in 2003, helping with the fundraising and managing the construction.

"We couldn't have done it without them," Fisher says.

CPA executive director Kendall Fisher says that they are currently looking for a not-for-profit foundation to take over the tower.

"Now that we've been able to do what we're best at - saving the architecture - now we'd like to see someone else do what they're best at, and that's telling the story," Fisher says.

Cincinnati mayor Mark Mallory will speak at the ceremony, along with representatives from the preservation team.

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Sources: Kendall Fisher, executive director, CPA; Gail Paul, director, Al Neyer, Inc.
Photography by Scott Beseler