Eden Park, Cincinnati

Perched high in the Walnut Hills neighborhood, Eden Park is one of Cincinnati’s most iconic urban green spaces. Spanning 186 acres, this hilltop retreat serves up sweeping views of the Ohio River Valley and a blend of nature, history, and culture that’s hard to beat.

Joseph Longworth, son of horticulturist Nicholas Longworth, once owned the land and called it the “Garden of Eden.” In 1869, the city purchased it and had landscape architect Adolph Strauch transform it into a public park.

Eden Park’s past includes an impressive 96-million-gallon reservoir built in the late 1800s. Though the reservoir was removed in the 1960s, its dam, pumping station (Eden Park Station No. 7), and standpipe still stand as architectural echoes of the park’s utility days. The old site has since transformed into Mirror Lake and nearby baseball fields.

Among the park’s many landmarks is the whimsical Elsinore Arch (1883), a castle-like gateway, and the Spring House Gazebo (1904), the oldest structure in Cincinnati’s park system and the symbol of the city’s Park Board. The board’s administration building is also located nearby, at the Gilbert Avenue entrance.

Culture lovers will find their fix at the Cincinnati Art Museum, reachable via a wooded stairway from Elsinore Arch. The park also hosts the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Seasongood Pavilion, a 1959 amphitheater still in use today.

The Krohn Conservatory, completed in 1933, brings Art Deco and Gothic Revival architecture together in a glass house filled with tropical and desert flora. Steps behind it lead to the Presidents’ Grove, where each U.S. president is honored with a tree—starting with a Washington oak planted in 1882.

Once a quarry, the Twin Lakes area now offers footbridges, quiet ponds, and statues from Rome and Gifu, Japan. Rustic structures built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937 remain. A path leads over the Melan Arch Bridge to the Eden Park Overlook and the Ohio River Monument, dedicated by President Hoover in 1929.

Annual events keep the park lively, including EdenSong, a summer concert series every Friday in July, and Balluminaria, a glowing November spectacle of hot air balloons reflected in Mirror Lake.