SOCIAL - POLITICAL COMMENTARY: Transitions: Abandoned

Constructed in 1850 as the First German Reformed Church in Cincinnati's West End neighborhood along Freeman Avenue, only blocks away from downtown Cincinnati. The church served a community, which at the time, was a largely German-American immigrants. The church became known as the First Reformed Church in 1918 due to the spreading anti-German sentiment following WWI. The church building was sold in 1970 after the congregation of German immigrants dwindled. It became known as the Freeman Avenue United Church of Christ in 1970, to serve the now largely African American community, which lasted five years before closing, The property was then transferred to Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses, Inc. on November 18, 1993.The church, once a splendid example of Gothic Revival architecture, was constructed with a front limestone exterior with the remainder in brick, a limestone-fronted steeple, and a bay of four large, stained glass windows on the southern and northern front of the building. The former beauty and scale that the church once possessed shows the level of importance it once had to German immigrant community. The current squalid conditions show just how much those things have changed after decades of neglect.
Abandoned

Constructed in 1850 as the First German Reformed Church in Cincinnati's West End neighborhood along Freeman Avenue, only blocks away from downtown Cincinnati. The church served a community, which at the time, was a largely German-American immigrants.  

 

The church became known as the First Reformed Church in 1918 due to the spreading anti-German sentiment following WWI. The church building was sold in 1970 after the congregation of German immigrants dwindled. It became known as the Freeman Avenue United Church of Christ in 1970, to serve the now largely African American community, which lasted five years before closing, The property was then transferred to Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses, Inc. on November 18, 1993. 

 

The church, once a splendid example of Gothic Revival architecture, was constructed with a front limestone exterior with the remainder in brick, a limestone-fronted steeple, and a bay of four large, stained glass windows on the southern and northern front of the building.  

 

The former beauty and scale that the church once possessed shows the level of importance it once had to German immigrant community. The current squalid conditions show just how much those things have changed after decades of neglect.