Welcome to the interactive map of Covington. Explore all the fascinating locations that Covington has to offer.
Bordering both the Licking and the Ohio Rivers, Licking Riverside is one of the few remaining residential riverside communities in the area. Its history began when Thomas Kennedy purchased 200 acres at the confluence of the Licking and Ohio Rivers and built a house there in 1791. He operated a ferry to Cincinnati. By the 1850s, the area was the most desirable residential neighborhood in Covington. Although the neighborhood experienced an era of neglect and decline, today it has been revitalized and is once again a charming riverside community. Its walking tour encompasses a variety of architectural gems. Highlights of the neighborhood are the Baker Hunt Art and Cultural Center, the Daniel Beard House, the Statue Tour, and the Amos Shinkle Townhouse.
Covington's Downtown Commercial National Register Historic District includes 200 buildings built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The district is significant as the historic financial, commercial, and legal center of the city. Several structures in the Downtown Commercial District are individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places, including the Roebling Bridge, Trinity Episcopal Church, and the Odd Fellows Building. Other sites of interest are the Artisans' Enterprise Center, the Coppin's Building, Motch Jewelers, the Ascent, Madison Theatre, and the mosaic benches. Matt Langford's statue of Abraham Lincoln is in front of the Kenton County Public Library, and his statue of Frank Duveneck is in the Arts District.
The centerpiece of the Mutter Gottes district is the Mother of God Church (Mutter Gottes Kirche). The district was settled between 1840 and 1860 by large numbers of German immigrants fleeing the unrest in Germany that eventually led to the revolution of 1848. German immigrants arrived in Covington at the rate of 200 per day by 1840, many building homes in the Mutter Gottes District. By the late 1870s, the present neighborhood was well established, with a concentration of mid-nineteenth century architecture, predominantly Italianate. The district fell into decline in the 1950s, but in the 1970s, a consortium led by Mutter Gottes Church began a concentrated effort that has revitalized the neighborhood.
Fueled in part by European revolutions of the mid-1800s, many Europeans, particularly Germans, immigrated to Covington. At the time, the primary commercial district was on Main Street near Sixth Street, the area now known as "Mainstrasse." In 1861, the city established a public market in the center of the street with traffic lanes on either side. Then in the 1970s, a group of businessmen proposed developing the neighborhood into a tourist attraction with eclectic shops, eateries, pubs and festivals. Highlights of the neighborhood include Chez Nora, the Carroll Chimes Bell Tower, and the Goose Girl Fountain (featured on its Gateway Mosaic sign). Mainstrasse is best known for its festivals, including Mardi Gras, Maifest, Goettafest, and Oktoberfest.
Botany Hills, Kenton Hills, and Lewisburg are hillside neighborhoods in northwestern Covington. Botany Hills was named by Edwin Forrest, who purchased 45 acres along the Ohio River in 1839 and was struck by the rich variety of plant life. The Lewisburg National Register Historic District encompasses a wide variety of architectural styles. The "spaceship house" can be found in Botany Hills. Kenton Hills includes the 500 acre Devou Park, donated to the City of Covington in 1910 by the Devou family. In addition to a golf course, the park has tennis courts, a nature trail, an amphitheater for concerts, and spectacular views of Cincinnati and Covington. The Devou family also donated their home, which is now the Behringer-Crawford Museum.
Historically the West Side was a working class neighborhood housing many trades persons and artisans. The trades practiced are commemorated in the mosaic gateway sign designed by residents. The sign also depicts Victorian era row houses built to accommodate the influx of population to the city - many of which have been attractively rehabilitated. Highlights of the neighborhood include Linden Grove Cemetery, Farny Art Park, Glier's Goetta, and the Anchor Grill. The West Fifteenth Street Historic District, located at the intersection of Fifteenth and Madison, is significant for its architecture, which includes an intact group of seven Italianate row houses. The area developed in the 1880s and 1890s.
The Western Baptist Theological Seminary, established in 1840, was a school for young ministers from the North and South with divergent views of slavery. It was the issue of slavery that tore the institution apart only fifteen years after its inception. To fund construction, the Seminary had subdivided some of its land. This subdivision continued to develop, and by the late nineteenth century the neighborhood had become a fashionable neighborhood, characterized by the consistent style, scale and setback of its structures. Basically unaltered by the hands of time, this neighborhood still retains the character of an affluent and prosperous nineteenth century urban community.
Although it is a large neighborhood, Peaselburg is a tight knit community with a very active neighborhood association. According to local tradition, Peasel is German for "goose droppings," and the community derived its name from the goose farms that were here in the early days. Peaselburg's gateway mosaic sign features three geese, and a statue of a goose stands proudly in front of the flowers at the sign's base. The sign also has tiles laid to simulate the brick patterns found in the homes, churches, and buildings of the area. Churches play an active role throughout Peaselburg. One, St. Augustine, is featured on the Faith Tour. Another interesting Peaselburg site featured on the Faith Tour is the Garden of Hope.
Before 1909, Latonia was an independent city, named after a nearby ante-bellum spa. Although the L & N Railroad played a great role in the community's history, Latonia is best known as the home of the Latonia Racetrack, located here from 1880 to 1930. With the opening of the racetrack, Latonia experienced a population explosion, and the original modest structures at Rittes Corner were replaced by handsome two and three story brick buildings. Ritte's Corner, continued to grow until World War II. After the war, the decline in railroad passenger service and the closing of the racetrack took their toll. Thanks to efforts of local citizens, Ritte's Corner has retained much of its original urban and architectural character.
Like Wallace Woods, Levassor Park was originally an estate belonging to a gentleman farmer named Eugene Levassor, an immigrant from France. He sold part of his estate to Daniel Holmes, who had been raised by the Levassor family. Holmes built a a 32-room red brick English-Gothic mansion known as "the castle" on the grounds in 1867. After Holmes' death, the family sold the estate to the Covington Board of Education. In 1932, the mansion was razed to make room for a new high school building. The Levassor estate was subdivided in the 1930s and developed into a middle, upper middle class neighborhood.
Located near the Licking River, Wallace Woods was founded in the late nineteenth century by prominent Covington gentleman farmers and entrepreneurs Daniel Henry Holmes, Eugene Levassor, and Robert Wallace Jr. By the 1920s the neighborhood was thriving. Today the Wallace Woods Neighborhood Association is one of the most active in Covington. With monthly meetings and a community newsletter called THE OWL, Wallace Woods residents gather throughout the year for events such as the annual neighborhood yard sale, pie and cake auction, bluegrass dinner, neighborhood block parties, corn roasts, contests, house tours, and Easter egg hunts.
The Eastside Neighborhood is proud to include Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, The Frank Duveneck Arts and Cultural Center, the Lincoln Grant building, 9th Street Baptist Church, and the Cathedral Basilica. Helentown has a concentration of Victorian architecture, enhanced by street scapes with wrought iron fences and brick sidewalks. The history of Austinburg began in the 1840s when Seneca Austin bought land along the Licking River and subdivided it a decade later. The railroad, which originally ran at the edge of Austinburg, played a significant role in shaping the community. In 1908, St. Benedict Church was built. This district developed after 1867, when completion of the Roebling Bridge caused a building boom in Covington.
