The Ghost of a Train Station
Jan 5, 2025 · 2 minute readI now have LL Bean slippers. It is only a short time before I talk about “vacationing in Maine”. (Actually, it’s an attempt to find a pair of slippers than can last six months without me somehow boring a hole through the sole. Maybe a slightly-upscale quality brand might get us there. But my toes are merciless, apparently)
Anyway, new year, incoming winter storm, car won’t start (even before the storm hits), I landed on my ankle funny early on Saturday, and we’re all out of eggs in the area (one last betrayal by Biden, I’m sure). Overnight temperatures will nudge -20ºC by the end of the week and I’ve already eaten about 90% of the chocolate my family brought over. It’s an impending disaster!
It is definitely not a disaster at all, but I was a little sad standing in the ticket hall for the Cincinnati Museum Center on Tuesday morning. It once used to be a cathedral for trains, and it looks amazing. A masterpiece of Art Deco with a 100+ foot high ceiling that makes you think you’ve stepped into an episode of Batman: The Animated Series. It used to handle 15-30,000 passengers a day. Given that the entire complex could have been lost after it closed in 1972, it’s hard to be too churlish about its current state as a museum, but the sense of ‘this could have been the future’ hangs over you through every moment of being in the rotunda.
Happily, the museum is a good one, if a little different to the ones I’ve grown up with over the years. The V&A does not have an artificial cave system, for instance! Nor does the Ashmolean have an expansive toddler area with Duplo stations and magnetic walls. I think we barely saw half of the museum proper, but not to worry as we have passes for the rest of the year. I haven’t even seen the giant mouth yet!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to get my snow shovel ready…