History of Cincinnati

In 1884, one of the most severe riots in American history took place in Cincinnati. On Christmas Eve 1883 Joe Palmer and William Berner robbed and murdered their employer, a stable owner named William Kirk. The duo dumped his body near Mill Creek before they were captured. One of the men, William Berner, was spared the gallows in sentencing after his conviction, but the case had provoked outrage and an angry mob formed. The Courthouse Riots began on March 28 when thousands of citizens stormed the county jail and set the Hamilton County Courthouse on fire while seeking Berner. A small group of Hamilton County deputies, led by Sheriff Morton Lytle Hawkins, fought to save the jail from a complete takeover. After losing ground, they succeeded in protecting the inmates from the mob. Two deputies were killed in the conflict, including Captain John Desmond, whose statue stands in the Courthouse lobby. In total, 45 men were killed and 125 injured in the rioting. In 1889, the Cincinnati streetcar system began converting its horsecar lines to electric streetcars.

Cincinnati weathered the Great Depression better than most American cities of its size, largely because of a resurgence in river trade, which was less expensive than rail. The rejuvenation of downtown began in the 1920s and continued into the next decade with the construction of Union Terminal, the post office, and a large Bell Telephone building. The flood of 1937 was one of the worst in the nation's history. Afterward the city built protective flood walls.

After World War II, Cincinnati unveiled a master plan for urban renewal that resulted in modernization of the inner city. Like other older industrial cities, Cincinnati suffered from economic restructuring and loss of jobs following deindustrialization in the