Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati

Over-the-Rhine (often abbreviated as OTR) is a neighborhood in Cincinnati. Historically, Over-the-Rhine has been a working-class neighborhood. It is among the largest, most intact urban historic districts in the United States.

The neighborhood's name comes from the predominantly German immigrants who developed the area in the mid-19th century. Many walked to work across bridges over the Miami and Erie Canal, which separated the area from downtown Cincinnati. The canal was nicknamed "the Rhine" in reference to the river Rhine in Germany, and the newly settled area north of the canal as "Over the Rhine". In German, the district was called über den Rhein.

Over-the-Rhine has been praised for its collection of historic architecture. The New York Times described the neighborhood as having "a scale and grace reminiscent of Greenwich Village in New York." Its architectural significance has also been compared to the French Quarter in New Orleans and the historic districts of Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. When Arthur Frommer, founder of the Frommer's travel guides, visited Over-the-Rhine he described it as the most promising urban area for revitalization in the United States, and claimed that its potential for tourism "literally could rival similar prosperous and heavily visited areas."

Most of Over-the-Rhine's ornate brick buildings were built by German immigrants from 1865 to the 1880s. The architecture of Over-the-Rhine reflects the diverse styles of the late nineteenth century—simple vernacular, muted Greek Revival, Italianate and Queen Anne. Most of the buildings in Over-the-Rhine are one of these styles, but other motifs include the Art Deco American Building on Central Parkway; the Germania Building at Twelfth and Walnut streets, ironically one of the few examples of German ornamentation in the neighborhood; Music Hall, a mixture of styles best described as Venetian Gothic; a handful of buildings with Gothic architecture; and the new SCPA on Central Parkway, the most notable example of Modern architecture in the neighborhood.