The Glencoe Hole

The Glencoe Hole

Many Cincinnati residents, especially those of Clifton and Mt. Auburn know of the infamous Glencoe neighborhood. Built around 1890 and known as Cincinnati's first neighborhood, and even "Little Bethlehem," Glencoe Place started life off as an upscale neighborhood, but fell from status as Mt. Auburn financially declined over the years, until it eventually became known as the Glencoe Hole. This name stems from the steep hill it's sitting on, and the very high amount of crime that has plagued the area.

The place has served as a dumping ground for local residents for the last 15 years. Among furniture there's a surprisingly large amount of tires littered about

Outside view of the historic Glencoe Hotel

The painted doors and windows really add to the eeriness of the place.

Second Story street view.

I can only guess why the corner is missing. Looks like selective demolition.

This place is vaguely reminiscent of "Hey Arnold"

The area consists of the abandoned Glencoe Auburn Hotel, and 5 sets of row houses. Since being abandoned in the 1990s, years of rain leaking in has brought most of the houses to a state of severe dilapidation. Much of the flooring is very soft, and many of the ceilings have collapsed. Sometime since my last trip here in June 2009, one of the houses was badly damaged in a fire, and strangely one of the buildings has had a large chunk taken out of it that workers are repairing.

Second story bedroom in a red house.

Main hallway 1st story apartment, same house.

1st bedroom, same house.

2nd bedroom, same house.

Basement, Hotel.

This room was the most badly damaged I saw.

View north from third floor hotel.

View east from hotel.

There is currently a development plan to restore the hole to it's former glory and convert it to mid level condos. Work has already started. As I took my first trip there this week, there were a couple teams of workers finishing up for the day. I asked one of the workers what they were doing with it right now. I was told they're just stabilizing it, and that it's really falling apart. They've only been there a couple weeks but they're making strides. The entire roof has been tarped, and already there is complete new flooring in one of the buildings, and the chunk missing from the one house is mostly repaired. As the pictures show, they have a lot of work ahead of them.

I can easily step through this.

I'll be paying attention to this project. It is said it should be finished by next year.