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Staff

Publisher / Editor

Suzy Weinland mariemonttowncrier@gmail.com

Advertising Manager Matt Weinland mariemonttowncrier@gmail.com

Production Designer Zachary Weinland mariemonttowncrier@gmail.com

Editorial Assistant / Distribution Manager Margaret Jevic amjevic@gmail.com

Contributors Matthew Ayer matt@ayerquality.com

Kim Beach kimbeach13@gmail.com

Aileen Beatty aileen.beatty@gmail.com

Peter McBride pete0948@gmail.com

Carol Sanger csanger1@me.com

Photographer Steve Spooner me@mariemontstuff.com

Junior Couriers

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Women's Art Club of Cincinnati Foundation

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February deadline: The deadline for the next Town Crier is January 10, 2024 All camera-ready ads and articles must be submitted by 5p.m. to MariemontTownCrier@ gmail.com. Articles should be sent via email in Microsoft® Word, with photos sent as .jpg files of at least 350KB.

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The Mariemont Town Crier, LLC, "The Voice of the Village of Mariemont," is published monthly from Sept. through Dec. and Feb. through May as a service to residents and organizations of the Village of Mariemont.

EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS: Press releases, photographs and event calendars are welcomed. Please contact Suzy Weinland at MariemontTownCrier@gmail.com to discuss article ideas. All submissions are due by the 10th of the month prior to publication. The editorial staff reserves the right to select and edit articles for both content and space. Photos sent as .jpg files via email are preferred, but originals also will be accepted and returned upon request. Signed letters to the editor are accepted and will be published as space allows. The Town Crier reserves the right to edit letters for length. Letters to the Editor reflect the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Town Crier Staff.

INSERTS: As a public service to the non-profit organizations of Mariemont, the Town Crier accepts inserts for a flat fee of $75, due at the time of delivery (check made out to Mariemont Town Crier). Inserts must be pre-approved and scheduled with the editor, printed and separated into stacks of 50, and delivered to Margaret Jevic, 6951 Nolen Circle by the 20th of the month prior to publication. Please contact Margaret ahead of delivery at 513-687-3224. Inserts and ads of a political nature are not accepted.

ADS: All camera-ready ads must be submitted by 5 p.m. on the 10th of the month prior to publication to Matt Weinland at MariemontTownCrier@gmail.com. Payment and advertising contracts should be delivered to Matt Weinland, 3914 Miami Rd. #207, Mariemont, Ohio, 45227, and must be received prior to publication. The Mariemont Town Crier, LLC. 2018 (c) style. However, Livingood seems to have made a “fourth quarter substitution” to select de Gersdorff, reputedly a Harvard classmate. tower resembles the campanile (bell tower) on countless Italian churches. Above the clock an open porch is decorated on each side with two pillars and three arches.

Park Service designated it a National Historic Landmark (NHL).

Practicing in New York, de Gersdorff designed elegant townhomes on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. A quick search found one – a beautifully renovated sixbedroom currently valued at over $10 million. He also designed a new home in Manhattan’s Upper West Side for the Three Arts Club, the nation’s first residential club for women artists (more specifically the three arts of music, drama and the fine arts). This eight-story building included an auditorium, rooftop painting studio and modest living quarters for female artists. This building is now being converted for senior living and has recently been nominated for state and national historic register status.

Constructed in 1929-1930, the Recreation Hall was the last major construction project of the Mariemont Company before it dissolved.

De Gersdorff’s design is characterized as “Italian Renaissance Revival” style by author, historian and Cincinnati Art Museum curator Millard Rogers in the nomination he prepared for our Village’s NHL status. A 1930 article in the Mariemont Messenger (predecessor of the Town Crier) described the influence of the Lombard Romanesque style, developed in northern Italy and parts of France in the 10th and 11th centuries.

As for the Mariemont project, Charles Livingood had indicated that a Cincinnati firm would be designing the recreation building. He had instructed Richard Dana, when designing his Chestnut Street group, to consider the relationship with Jallade’s Norman Revival church and the large recreation building, likely to be in colonial

Viewing this Mariemont landmark, not a copy of any other building, not what Charles Livingood had in mind, but an original from the Beaux-Arts trained mind of George B. de Gersdorff, you will note features that include:

Clock Tower: A dominant and now iconic feature of Mariemont, the seven-story clock

Romanesque Arches: Consistent in form with the arches at tower’s top, seven arches greet the visitor between six highly polished marble pillars with ornate capitals at the entrance to the building’s arcade. These seven arches are also repeated on each side at the top of the tower in decorative blind arcades,

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Mariemont Town Crier

3914 Miami Rd. #207

Mariemont, OH 45227 a common decorative motif inset into facades from the 11th century called “Lombard bands.” Five of these Lombard bands also add a decorative detail above the clock. Another band provides an arch directly above twin arched windows midway up the tower. Add in a few different sets of window designs and you will see that more than 40 Roman arches grace the building’s front side.

Textures and Colors: De Gersdorff beautifully and subtly harmonizes the earth tones and the textures of the building’s materials of construction. The variegated, red-toned terra cotta tiles are original, with pieces replaced periodically – manufactured still today from local clay at Ludowici Tile in New Lexington, Ohio. Red brick is the primary material of the façade, but artfully changes to stone and stucco in adjoining sections of the building. Brick quoins decorate the stucco sections’ edges and gables. Bedford limestone forms the arches at the arcade, keystones on brick arches of windows, and lintels throughout the building. A beautiful pair of wrought iron lantern stands frame the stairway to the front plaza. The main entrance features three pairs of massive oak doors in a honey-colored stain. Facing Plainville, doors at the south and north end feature Roman arches with a terra cotta canopy.

Semi-circular towers harken fortifications from a bygone age, as they protrude on the front side of the building and on the south side (i.e., facing the elementary school), surmounted with an open porch.