You will find the jewel of Cincinnati parks where Observatory Avenue terminates in the heart of Ault Park- the fourth largest park in Cincinnati with its 224 acres. Free to enjoy are picnic facilities, nature trails and children's play areas. Ault Park offers scenic attractions with a splendid Pavilion, lookout point and beautiful gardens. Must see!
Ault Park is named in memory of Ida May Ault and Levi Addison Ault, her husband, a former Park Commissioner who was prominently active in Cincinnati Parks development. The initial 142-acre tract in 1911 and 9 subsequent acquisitions were gifts of the Aults to the City of Cincinnati. Two other fractional acreage tracts were given by W.E. Harmon and Paul C. Kunkel and others.
A bronze placque of Levi Addison Ault, designed by the famous Cincinnati sculptor Clement Barnhorn, was presented to the city by the Commercial Club, of which Mr. Ault had been a member. The plaque, in commemoration of Levi Addison Ault's pioneer park work and generosity, is affixed to a glacier boulder of rose granite on the terrace to the south of the Pavillion.
In 1980 the Park Board asked its Park Board Volunteer organization, based at Krohn Conservatory, if it would organize an Adopt-A-Plot Garden at Ault Park. The challenge was accepted and the effort was successful. This concept soon won national recognition with the selection of the Adopt-A-Plot Garden for the first place trophy in the 1983 Daniel Flaherty Park Excellence Award competition presented by the Chicago Park District and the Great Lakes Park Institute.
Today, the Adopt-A-Plot Garden is still one of the most popular features of Ault Park.
In the fall of 1985, the Greater Cincinnati Tree Council dedicated its "Tree for Your Road Arboretum". This tree grove planted around the entire perimeter of the formal gardens provides the public with a collection of the currently recommended tree species for our area. The grove replaced the original flowering tree grove designed by A.D. Taylor.
The Pavilion, dedicated in 1930 with ceremonies arranged by the Mount Lookout Civic Club and other organizations in Cincinnati's East End, has an entrance consisting of a broad, double flight of steps, between which flows a water cascade. At the top of the steps you see the Pavilion's artistic baluster columns outlined against the sky. From the lookout on the Pavilion roof you can enjoy a 360 degree view- many miles of changing vistas. From the Lookout, one can see the Little Miami River flowing in its broad valley where once flowed the Ohio River itself in the pre-glacial age.
Photos by Jennifer Smith and Peter Wimberg