By Paul A. Tenkotte
Special to NKyTribune
Have you ever found yourself lost?
Lost has many different connotations, often very positive. For example, you can be lost in a good book. Or you can lose yourself in a pleasant memory. Being lost, in fact, can sometimes be quite rewarding. Some of your favorite vacations may have occurred when you “got off the beaten path,” and allowed yourself to get a “little lost.”
After all, when we are lost, we often make the greatest discoveries.
Lost Northern Kentucky, a new book by Robert Schrage and David E. Schroeder, does all of that and more. It allows us to lose ourselves in a bygone era. This engaging book guides us on a journey to rediscover for ourselves, through text and illustrations, the demolished buildings and places of Northern Kentucky’s past.
The cover page begins our journey, with an illustration of the Ludlow Lagoon Amusement Park, one of the nation’s great historic entertainment venues. Weary city residents from Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky traveled in streetcars to the park to partake of boating, swimming, dancing, eating, and enjoying rides. The amusement park borrowed many ideas from the nation’s widely successful World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. In fact, Lagoon officials even purchased that world fair’s electric boat launches. Like the Chicago world’s fair, the Lagoon had a Midway “that featured games of chance and food booths,” as well as “a carousel, shooting gallery, bumper cars and an Edisonia exhibit, which displayed many of Thomas A. Edison’s inventions” (p. 74).
The Lagoon’s roller coaster traveled across the park’s lake. It was designed by LaMarcus Adna Thompson, the “father of today’s modern roller coaster,” (p.75) and the designer of a coaster at the famed Coney Island in New York City. Other rides included a Ferris Wheel, a Shoot-the-Chutes that propelled boat passengers quickly down a ramp into the lake, an elevated automobile track, model battleships that reenacted historic battles with fireworks, a Japanese teahouse, and a Motordrome featuring auto racing.
Lost Northern Kentucky also examines the nationally known Beverly Hills and Lookout House supper clubs, where Hollywood entertainers played. Also of national significance was the Latonia Racetrack, featuring horse races with purses once rivaling the Kentucky Derby. A section on Northern Kentucky’s beaches along the Ohio River in Bellevue and Dayton further makes for entertaining reading.
Lost Northern Kentucky also recounts lost businesses, breweries and distilleries of the region. Readers will enjoy the information about Wiedemann Brewery in Newport and the old Petersburg Distillery in Boone County.
Another chapter details beautiful architectural masterpieces, as represented in lost Christian churches, as well as the old Temple Israel Synagogue of Covington. This chapter, like the others, is generously illustrated, allowing the reader to travel back in time in true style. The story of the region’s religious architecture also parallels that of its immigrant heritage, told here in vivid detail.
The final chapter is entitled, “Saved Northern Kentucky,” an introduction to the region’s many legacy buildings, examples of Northern Kentuckians’ steadfast commitment to historic preservation. Many of these buildings exemplify how adaptive reuse can give new life to structures. For example, my favorite is the old Booth Hospital at 323 East Second Street in Covington. This general hospital, formerly operated by the Salvation Army, features condominiums in one of Northern Kentucky’s most cherished historic neighborhoods, Licking-Riverside. On a daily basis, visitors, tour buses, limousines, photographers and their subjects tour and wander about this beautiful neighborhood, experiencing firsthand the benefits of historic preservation.
Published by the History Press of Charleston, South Carolina in 2018, Lost Northern Kentucky is a tribute to a region proud of its heritage. It is available at many regional bookstores and retail outlets, as well as from online distributors.
We want to learn more about the history of your business, church, school, or organization in our region (Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky). If you would like to share your rich history with others, please contact the editor of “Our Rich History,” Paul A. Tenkotte, at tenkottep@nku.edu. Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD is Professor of History at NKU and the author of many books and articles.
