Our mission

Described as the “General Store of the Future” by CityBeat, Park + Vine offers a wide variety of eco-friendly merchandise that minimizes the use of natural resources and animal byproducts. Products include reusable bottles, bags and food carriers, non-toxic cleaning and paint supplies, natural baby and parenting supplies, a growing selection of foodstuff, and lots more.

Since our opening in May 2007, we have encouraged people to become more aware of the environmental impacts of their consumption choices through a nice variety of events that, according to CityBeat, show “struggling wannabe-greenies the way to environmental salvation.”

Our storefront

According to local historical researchers, Betty Ann Smiddy and Connie Menefee, the earliest tenant at 1109 Vine Street was Charles Doerr, born in Saarbrucken, Germany in 1818. He immigrated to Cincinnati in 1839, founding The Charles Doerr & Sons Co. in 1858. Doerrs always had a reputation for setting fair prices, manufacturing excellent products, and dealing honorably in business. As was the custom of the times, the family lived in this Queen Anne style building above their store. The Doerrs produced bakery goods, confectionaries, and were dealers–both wholesale and retail–of ice cream and chocolate. The business was known to “use nothing whatever but the purest and best” ingredients. The Doerr sons ran the company after the death of their father.

Keifer’s Restaurant operated here during the 1940s until 1960, before the building was purchased and occupied by the A. G. Hauck Co., contractors and fire restoration experts, in the early 1960s. They remained until the late 1980’s. Partial storefront operations included the Goth Manufacturing Co., which was a florist supply business, and an interior decorator.

Doerr Alley runs parallel to Race and Vine Streets and ends on 12th Street. The alley was named to honor the entrepreneurial spirit of Charles Doerr. Its name carries the echoes of a time when, over a century ago, Doerrs was the gateway to the Over-the-Rhine entertainment district, which began at the Canal and ended at Wielert’s Beer Garden near Fourteenth Street. The four blocks encompassed 17 beer gardens.

Photo credit: Dan Becker

Our neighborhood

Over-the-Rhine lies across Central Parkway (previously the Miami & Erie Canal, the “Rhine” in the neighborhood’s name) from downtown Cincinnati on 362 acres of narrow streets and mostly Italianate architecture listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It provides a geographic link between downtown and the area surrounding the University of Cincinnati.

Findlay Market, located six blocks north of Park + Vine, is Ohio’s oldest continuously operated public market and one of Cincinnati’s most cherished institutions. The Main Street district to the east continues to revive the neighborhood as a venue for converted lofts and apartments, popular entertainment, and art galleries. Music Hall stands as home to the symphony and opera on the western edge, while the Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati, Know Theater of Cincinnati and the Art Academy of Cincinnati are located at the intersection of 12th and Vine streets.

There are many private developers rehabbing individual buildings in Over-the-Rhine. Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) is infusing new life into the neighborhood through several ambitious restoration-based redevelopment projects within one block of the corner of 12th and Vine Streets and in the Washington Park area. Plans are in the works for the construction of a new K-12 School for the Creative and Performing Arts just south of the park. The Cincinnati Park Board is in the process of planning the expansion and renovation of Washington Park, to serve as the anchor for extensive future development.