Famous Cincinnati Photograph Tells A Tale Of Power, Money & Public Relations
Among the most commonly viewed images of old Cincinnati is the so-called “Wienerwurst” photograph. Reproduced in almost every book on Cincinnati history, the image portrays a sidewalk full of men standing near a couple of saloons and a tobacco shop. Prominent in the center of the image is a big sign offering “A Wienerwurst With Each Drink.”
This image is occasionally misidentified as portraying the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Not so. The photograph was taken on the west side of Vine Street a little south of Fifth. It portrays the block where the Carew Tower stands today. At the time, it was known as the Nasty Corner, obviously an insulting nickname. How it got that name is a story about money and power and public relations.
The earliest mention of the term "Nasty Corner" to designate the southwest corner of Fifth & Vine streets is the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette of Sunday 14 April 1889. A front page item reports the passage by the Ohio General Assembly of a bill authorizing the "incorporation of companies to construct buildings for hotels, businesses, houses, offices & c." This bill, it is stated, is intended to wipe out the "Nasty Corner."
The real story begins with the arrival in Cincinnati of Joseph T. Carew in 1877 as advance man for Christopher Richards “C.R.” Mabley, a Detroit clothier who wanted to expand into the Queen City. Carew succeeded so well he was made partner and eventually president in 1885, when the company was renamed Mabley & Carew.
Carew opened his first store on the corner of Fifth and Lodge (a long-abandoned street running north-south halfway between Vine and Walnut). Eventually, he bought up all the property on the north side of Fifth Street from Lodge Street westward to Vine. At the northeast corner of Vine and Fifth, he built a very modern six-floor department store.
That store became famous for its marketing events to bring in customers, including Yuletide pantomime performances. The Cincinnati Art Museum displays a delightful painting by Joseph Henry Sharp portraying dozens of people packed onto the Fountain Square esplanade to watch one of these Mabley & Carew shows.
For Joseph Carew, the problem was, from his new vantage point on the northeast corner, the dilapidated buildings on the southwest corner, known as the Este Block. He spent his days fuming about the "Este Corner" and he knew that his customers were offended by it. The Cincinnati Commercial Gazette [15 Dec 1889] summed up Mr. Carew’s distaste:
"There is no more prominently located spot in the city. It faces the widest part of Fifth Street and nearly all of the car lines of the city pass either close under its shadow or within a square of it. The Fountain is at its door and the ceaseless tides of Vine and Fifth streets mingle beneath its walls. For years it has been the eyesore to everyone who liked to see Cincinnati advance. It has been a synonym for all that is foul and unsightly. The visitor to the city has marveled at such squalor crouching in the middle of such opulence. People have passed by on the other side to avoid its stenches and unwashed loafers."
Although photographs and newspaper drawings reveal that the Nasty Corner housed other businesses including a sign painter, a ticket broker, and even a shop selling lemonade and milk shakes, complaints centered on the saloons. There must have been five or six watering holes crammed into that corner, and they attracted nothing but lowlifes. The Commercial Gazette [23 June 1889] nails it:
“The lower floors are, it has been said, occupied by saloons. Here a wienerwurst or a hard-boiled egg accompanies a drink. The ceilings are low and blackened with the product of many a cheap cigar. The floors are stained with the liquid combination of many a plug of tobacco with the outpouring of many a salivary gland. Near the door of each saloon stands a table, covered with a cloth, the original gay red and white pattern of which is lost beneath innumerable coats of spattered lunch. On the cloth is set forth a lunch which would scarcely tempt a maggot.”
It goes without saying that Mr. Carew spent a lot of money advertising in the pages of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. He lobbied all of Cincinnati's daily newspapers. He lobbied the owners of the Este Corner. He lobbied the Ohio General Assembly. He lobbied City Hall. He lobbied anyone with any influence so that he could buy the property and put up a building that would not offend his customers.
It was only at this time that news reports began referring to the property as the "Nasty Corner." As far back as the 1860s, newspapers consistently called this property the Este Corner or Este Block. The evidence is strong that it was Mr. Carew who coined the disparaging epithet. He found a catchy rhyme on "Este" to call attention to the blighted block – an action that today we would call a public relations strategy.
The "Nasty Corner" fell into decrepitude because the previous owner, David K. Este, had died in 1876, leaving a great number of heirs who could not seem to agree on anything. In particular, they could not agree on what sort of building to construct on this increasingly valuable plot of downtown real estate.
Joseph T. Carew corralled all seven heirs and convinced them to sign a lease with option to purchase for $360,000, a payment of $39,000 as "consideration," and a guarantee that he would construct a building costing no less than $100,000. According to the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette [16 June 1889]:
"'Yes,' said Mr. Carew of Mabley & Carew to a Commercial Gazette man last night, 'I propose to erect a handsome building on the Este Corner and the new structure will cover all the ground exactly as my sign says on the old building, which reads, as you may see, like this, "Joseph T. Carew of Mabley & Carew will erect a handsome building over this entire property from Fifth Street to the Emery Hotel - and don't you forget it."'"
The Carew Building opened in 1891. Not quite 40 years later, it would be demolished to make way for the new Carew Tower. The Nasty Corner lives on only in antique photographs.