Cincinnati’s first-ring suburbs face unique challenges. Changing demographics, economic stability, and issues regarding resources and security are common threads among these jurisdictions.
The ways the 49 Hamilton County cities, villages, townships, and municipal corporations not only adjust but thrive is the focus of this series, First Suburbs—Beyond Borders. The series explores the diversity and ingenuity of these longstanding suburban communities, highlighting issues that demand collective thought and action to galvanize their revitalization.
A hundred years ago, Mary Emery, accompanied by a host of dignitaries, formally broke ground on a dream of the 79-year-old widow: a village modeled after English garden cities, an alternative to the crowded urban core, yet with the benefits of a small town that would be attractive to the working class as well as to the well-heeled.
The village of Mariemont was born.
Today, more than a hundred years later (Mary Emery’s groundbreaking was on April 23, 1923), the village has marked its centennial with new developments in tune with her vision.
“Part of Emery's dream for a place like Mariemont was open spaces, parks and recreational facilities for children, so they can get out and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air,” says Bill Brown, Mariemont’s mayor. “So, sticking with that theme, we thought it would be a good time to revitalize some of our parks.”
Thomas Emery, an industrialist and real estate developer, died while traveling, and left his $20 million estate (equivalent to about $700 million today) to his wife, Mary. She spent a considerable portion of it buying hundreds of acres of land and hiring an architect to design the community. The architect, John Nolen, was a student of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., the renowned landscape architect known for his work with national parks and public plazas. Nolen in turn hired two dozen noted architects from around the country to design portions of what would become a national model for well-planned communities.
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Mary Emery, center, at the formal 1923 groundbreaking for the village of MariemontNolen and his team had a virtually blank slate to work with and made use of the natural landscape in their designs. On the higher ground, they designed athletic fields and playgrounds linked to a network of parks near schools and within easy walking distance of homes.
Mariemont’s biggest park is Dogwood Park, at more than 20 acres. It holds athletic fields,
playground equipment, nature trails, a swimming pool, and a memorial to the Native Americans who once occupied the area. It’s also home to a symbol of the village, the bell tower,
a working carillon and a gift to the village from Mary Emery’s sister, Isabella Hopkins.
To commemorate the centennial, and at the same time leave a lasting legacy in the village, Mariemont leaders focused on these shared community assets, improving them, making them more accessible to the public, and preserving them for future generations. The work includes building a walking path around the perimeter of the park that connects to existing hiking trails that lead to Whiskey Creek; repositioning and rebuilding three baseball diamonds to improve drainage and add new fencing and backstops; and
expanding a parking lot, adding drop-off area and another entrance.
The bell tower is a focus of the work. “Originally, it was intended that you would have an unobstructed view of the bell tower,” Brown says. “So we're going to be widening the pathway that goes back to the tower and create a more formalized entrance to the park.”
The main walkway leading to the tower will be widened from five feet to 10; a parking area at the northeast corner will be eliminated along with some trees and bushes to provide a clear vista to the tower. All fencing around the tower will be removed, along with a hedgerow along the front, to create an unobstructed view.
“Essentially, you will have a clean, unobstructed view of the bell tower, which is what I believe the original architects’ intention to be,” Brown says.
Another project is a series of three sculptures in Dale Park that are known as the “family statuary.” In the 1920s, a model of the statuary was found in Paris by a business adviser of Mary Emery’s. The central figures are a mother and father doting over a small child, flanked at either end by a loving grandmother holding a small baby and a grandfather engaging with a small grandchild. The model was for a piece called “L’Enfance” (childhood) by French sculptor Lucien Alliot, whose work was shown at an art competition at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. According to Mariemont history, Mary Emery’s adviser felt the concept epitomized her vision for Mariemont as an ideal place to raise a family. The full-sized sculptures were carved from French limestone, delivered to the U.S., and installed in Dale Park.
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The Family Statuary was carved by a French sculptor and imported from Paris in the 1920s.French limestone, however, is susceptible to weathering from rain and the other elements so, after a hand cleaning by a restoration company removed grime and algae, the plan is to cover them with a shelter to protect from further weathering and preserve the historic work for future generations. The shelter plan includes limestone, stucco and brick, and will be accentuated by new landscaping in the surrounding park. The preservation plan, which had been in the works before the centennial planning was started, is moving forward with the momentum and fund-raising behind the centennial commemoration.
Funding for these projects, and others marking the centennial, is coming from a variety of sources. Mariemont is an affluent community with a median household income of $135,000. But the cost for the projects is about $3 million, beyond what the village operating budget of approximately $5.5 million can handle. “Turns out, these are very expensive projects,” Brown says.
The centennial committee started by seeking donations from individuals and local businesses, then used that money to leverage grants from local, state, and federal sources to pay for the projects, Brown says.
With community participation, planning, strategic use of government grants, and an eye focused on keeping the vision of its founder alive, Mariemont has marked its first hundred years with additions that should last another hundred.
The First Suburbs—Beyond Borders series is made possible with support from a coalition of stakeholders including the Murray & Agnes Seasongood Good Government Foundation - The Seasongood Foundation is devoted to the cause of good local government; Hamilton County Planning Partnership; plus First Suburbs Consortium of Southwest Ohio, an association of elected and appointed officials representing older suburban communities in Hamilton County, Ohio.