25 Wild Historical Facts About Cincinnati
Cincinnati might call itself the Queen City, but honestly, it's more like that friend who seems normal until you get to know them and realize they're absolutely unhinged in the best possible way. Sure, you probably know about the chili on spaghetti thing (which we'll get to), but did you know the city is crawling with Italian lizards, houses America's most useless subway system, and literally buried a guy in his own invention? Cincinnati has been quietly collecting bizarre stories and historic firsts for over 200 years, and frankly, it's about time someone put them all in one place...
1. The inventor of the Pringles can is buried in one
Fredric Baur designed the iconic Pringles can in 1966, and when he died in 2008 at age 89, his family honored his final wish by placing part of his cremated remains inside an Original flavor Pringles container before burial. Because apparently when you create something that revolutionary, you want to take it with you. The man spent his career thinking about optimal snack storage and decided his own optimal storage was the thing he invented.
2. Thousands of Italian lizards have taken over the city
In 1951, a kid named George Rau Jr. smuggled ten Italian wall lizards from Lake Garda in his socks and released them in his Cincinnati backyard. Today, their descendants number in the tens of thousands, making Cincinnati home to one of the most successful reptile invasions in North America. These "Lazarus lizards" thrive in the warm microclimates around the city's brick buildings, of which there are plenty.
3. Big Joe is too darn loud to ring
St. Francis de Sales Church houses Big Joe, the largest swinging bell ever cast in the United States at 35,000 pounds. When they first rang it in 1896, it could be heard 15 miles away and shattered windows throughout the neighborhood. Church officials immediately decided this was a terrible idea and now strike it with a hammer instead of letting it swing. Big Joe is basically the municipal equivalent of that one friend who can't control their volume at restaurants.
4. Cincinnati has the largest abandoned subway system in America
The city started building a subway system in the early 1900s to upgrade from streetcars, but rising costs, political fights, and the Great Depression killed the project. Over two miles of tunnels sit beneath Cincinnati, never having carried a single passenger. It's the most expensive hole in the ground that nobody uses, which is pretty impressive when you think about government projects. The tunnels are still there, just hanging out underground like a municipal time capsule of poor planning.
5. Play-Doh started as wallpaper cleaner
In the 1930s, Noah McVicker at Kutol Products created a putty-like substance to clean coal soot off wallpaper. After World War II, when people stopped needing to clean soot off everything, teacher Kay Zufall suggested the stuff might work as modeling clay for kids. They rebranded it as Play-Doh, and suddenly Cincinnati had invented one of the most successful toys in history.
6. Music Hall was built over a cemetery and is genuinely haunted
Cincinnati's Music Hall sits on top of a former Potter's Field where unclaimed bodies, asylum patients, and cholera victims were buried. Construction crews regularly uncover bones during renovations, and the building is considered one of America's most haunted venues. The Cincinnati Pops conductor Erich Kunzel and countless employees have reported supernatural encounters. When you build your concert hall on top of a mass grave, you're basically asking for ghost stories.
7. Cincinnati created the world's first professional fire department
In 1853, Cincinnati established America's first fully paid, professional fire department after a series of devastating fires proved that volunteer firefighting wasn't cutting it. Before this, every city relied on volunteer brigades with questionable training and coordination. Cincinnati looked at this system, said "this is dumb," and created the model that every other city would eventually copy.
8. The Ingalls Building was the world's first reinforced concrete skyscraper
Completed in 1903, the 16-story Ingalls Building was the first skyscraper made entirely of reinforced concrete. Skeptics predicted it would collapse under its own weight or crumble in the wind. One reporter allegedly stayed awake all night waiting to witness its predicted destruction. The building is still standing 120 years later, which must be pretty embarrassing for all those structural engineering pessimists.
9. Jerry Springer was Cincinnati's mayor
Before becoming famous for hosting television's most chaotic talk show, Jerry Springer served as Cincinnati's mayor in 1977. He was elected to city council earlier in the decade and remained involved in local politics despite a brief scandal. The man who would later referee fights between people who had complicated family drama once ran Cincinnati.
10. Cornhole was invented in Cincinnati and spread through football
The backyard game originated in Cincinnati's west side in the 1960s, named for the feed corn stuffed in the bags. It spread nationwide largely because Cincinnati Bengals fans brought it to opposing teams' tailgates, introducing the bean bag tossing game one parking lot at a time. Cincinnati exported its casual backyard entertainment to the entire country through the power of football fandom and portable games.
11. The city was nicknamed "Porkopolis" because pigs roamed the streets
In the 1800s, Cincinnati was the world's largest pork-processing center, and pigs literally wandered through downtown streets. The city processed so much pork that it earned the nickname "Porkopolis," which sounds like either a theme park or a dystopian nightmare depending on your feelings about bacon. This legacy lives on in the Flying Pig Marathon and pig statues scattered around downtown, because Cincinnati is committed to never letting anyone forget about the pig thing.
12. The Red Stockings were America's first professional baseball team
The Cincinnati Red Stockings, founded in 1869, were the first team to pay all their players salaries instead of relying on amateur athletes. They launched professional baseball in America and were also the first Major League team to play under electric lights, hosting the first night game in 1935. Cincinnati invented both professional baseball and the concept of staying up past sunset to watch it.
13. WLW radio was authorized to broadcast at 500,000 watts
In the 1930s, Cincinnati's WLW was the only AM station ever authorized by the FCC to broadcast at 500,000 watts, ten times more powerful than any other station. Its signal reached across most of North America and sometimes interfered with electrical appliances. People could literally hear the radio through their toasters and vacuum cleaners. The station was so powerful it became an accidental science experiment in electromagnetic interference.
14. The Roebling Suspension Bridge was the world's longest when it opened
Completed in 1867, the Roebling Bridge connecting Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky, was the longest suspension bridge in the world at 1,057 feet. It served as the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge, which was also designed by John A. Roebling. Cincinnati got the test run for one of America's most iconic bridges, which is either a huge honor or a terrifying responsibility depending on how you feel about being someone's rough draft.
15. Cincinnati chili was invented by Greek immigrants and is completely unique
Brothers Tom and John Kiradjieff created Cincinnati chili in 1922 by adapting a Mediterranean dish into a spiced meat sauce served over spaghetti. Unlike traditional chili, it's flavored with cinnamon and cloves and ordered in "ways" that include various combinations of cheese, beans, and onions. The result is something entirely unique to Cincinnati.
16. The Tyler Davidson Fountain is older than the Statue of Liberty
Dedicated in 1871, Fountain Square's centerpiece fountain predates the Statue of Liberty by 15 years. The "Genius of Water" figure is so iconic it appeared in the opening credits of WKRP in Cincinnati. Originally, visitors could drink from the rim statues, which means Cincinnati had interactive public art before anyone knew what interactive public art was.
17. The Cincinnati Observatory is America's oldest professional observatory
Founded in 1843, the observatory was dedicated with a speech by former President John Quincy Adams, who laid the cornerstone at age 77. It played a key role in early American astronomy and helped establish the foundations of weather forecasting. The observatory proved that Cincinnati was serious about looking up at the sky and figuring out what was happening up there, which was pretty forward-thinking for the 1840s.
18. Over-the-Rhine has the largest collection of Italianate architecture in America
This neighborhood contains the most intact set of 19th-century Italianate buildings in the United States. Originally settled by German immigrants, it's now a thriving area filled with shops, breweries, and cultural landmarks. The architecture survived urban renewal that destroyed similar neighborhoods in other cities, making Over-the-Rhine an accidental preservation success story.
19. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center features an actual slave pen
The museum houses the only known surviving rural slave jail in America, a 21-by-30-foot, two-story log building from 1830 that was discovered and moved from Kentucky. It serves as the museum's principal artifact, providing a tangible connection to the Underground Railroad history that made Cincinnati a crucial crossing point to freedom.
20. The Carew Tower inspired the Empire State Building
Built in the 1930s, the Art Deco Carew Tower was designed as a "city within a city" with offices, a hotel, and shopping all under one roof. Its successful layout influenced the architects of the Empire State Building, which opened just a year later. Cincinnati's design became the template for vertical mixed-use development.
21. Cincinnati hosts America's largest Oktoberfest celebration
Oktoberfest Zinzinnati attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually and is the second-largest Oktoberfest in the world after Munich. The festival once set a world record for the largest Chicken Dance with over 48,000 participants in 1994. Cincinnati took its German heritage seriously enough to convince nearly 50,000 people to flap their arms in unison, which is honestly an impressive level of civic coordination.
22. The Sultana steamboat disaster started in Cincinnati
The steamboat Sultana, built in Cincinnati in 1863, exploded on the Mississippi River in 1865, killing over 1,100 passengers in America's deadliest maritime disaster. Most victims were Union soldiers returning home from Confederate prison camps. The tragedy was largely forgotten because it occurred just days after President Lincoln's assassination.
23. Findlay Market is the only survivor of nine public markets
Founded in 1855, Findlay Market is the sole remaining municipal market from the nine public markets that operated in Cincinnati during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was among the first markets in the United States to use innovative iron frame construction technology and has been continuously operating for over 160 years. Findlay Market survived by adapting to changing neighborhoods and demographics while maintaining its essential function as a community gathering place.
24. Cincinnati's tunnel network extends beyond the subway
The city has an extensive network of underground passages, especially in Over-the-Rhine, that were used during Prohibition to secretly transport beer between breweries and speakeasies. These bootlegging tunnels operated alongside the abandoned subway tunnels, creating a layered underground infrastructure that most residents don't know exists. Cincinnati was committed to moving things underground, whether they were legal or not.
25. The last passenger pigeon died at Cincinnati Zoo
Martha, the last known passenger pigeon on Earth, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914. The species went from being the most numerous bird in North America to extinct in just a few decades due to excessive hunting. Martha's death marked the end of a species that once darkened skies with flocks containing billions of birds, making Cincinnati the final chapter in one of conservation's most sobering stories.
Cincinnati has spent over 200 years quietly accumulating the kind of stories that make you wonder what other cities are hiding. The Queen City has a talent for the unexpected that goes way beyond putting chili on spaghetti. The city that's been consistently ahead of its time, occasionally behind the times, and frequently just operating on its own timeline entirely. If you liked this post and want to marry Cincy facts with interior decor, check out our Cincinnati Map Print, which is a mix of infographic, trivia game and history.
If you enjoyed these Cincinnati surprises, you'll probably also dig our article about how old famous Americans were when they achieved greatness and our mind-blowing Olympic facts that'll make you the most interesting person at any sports viewing party.
Psst. If you live in Cincy and want to hang with 1/2 of FFC, check our our events.
