Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1973. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Covenant First Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located at 717 Elm Street at Eighth Street and Garfield Place in Cincinnati, Ohio. Two churches, the First Presbyterian and Covenant Presbyterian merged in the 1933 to become the Covenant First Presbyterian Church.”
Wikipedia article Covenant First Presbyterian Church, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 314 National Register listings in Hamilton County · listed in 1973 · category: Building · one of 9 National Historic Landmarks in Hamilton County.
National Register reference number.73001455- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The reader looks forward to this, the first history of Cincinnati that has yet found itself in print. The writers look back across its half-century of chapters and the century of years embraced by its annals, and have, chiefest of all, to regret many unavoidable errors, both of omission and commission. The more important of these, it is hoped, will appear in our page of errata; but there are still many, doubtless, that have escaped the compilers' attention. In a few cases, discrepancies appear between their statements and those of an extract immediately following. In those instances they must assure the reader that the former rest upon an authority believed to be superior to the other in regard to the matter in hand; but time and space could not always be taken for the discussion and settlement of points concerning which there are variant reports. In all really important matters, they believe the history will be found quite trustworthy, especially when corrected from the page of errata.
Within the decade whose annals have just been passed in review, fell the birth of Cincinnati township, to which was entrusted, for almost twelve years, the government of Cincinnati village, which it of course contained. The township was created, after Columbia, by the court of general quarter sessions of the peace, which then had jurisdiction in these matters, in 1791. To the time of the erection of these townships, the whole county, which contained but a few hundred white inhabitants, was most conveniently governed as one municipality.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 5,863 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Covenant First Presbyterian Church between 1819 and
1975: 2,843 Fungi, 1,724 Animalia, 947 Plantae, 298 Protozoa, 32 Unrecorded, 18 Chromista, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A Schwartz, A. Braun, A. F. Braun and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
1 working within 5 miles of Covenant First Presbyterian Church: 1 unknown.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Tin, Lead, Antimony. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Cincinnati, the town this property stands in, in 70 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 25 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 14 flash flood, 7 flood.
The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Numerous roads were flooded throughout the Cincinnati area and some basements were flooded. Flooding also caused some damage at Reading High School and Whitaker Elementary School.
Lightning struck a home causing a fire in the attic, which spread toward the second floor before being extinguished. Significant fire and water damage occurred to the home.
High water was reported on several roads in the downtown Cincinnati area and the near West Side. A retaining wall collapsed onto a roadway near the intersection of State Avenue and Ernst Street and a building was flooded on Poplar Street. Also, an apartment basement flooded on Linn Street and one resident needed to be rescued.
14 papers published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 0 issues,
0 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
1,468 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
seating is arranged in a semi-circle around the side apse. The dicular Gothic design.It forms the termination of Garfield entrance portal on Eighth Street in the center of those bays is prising the entrance. balances the one over the entrance portal.The color of the The bell tower on the northeast corner RECEIVED building.The chapel was built in 192l, and it has an oriel Fair Good
Statement of significance
by Henry I. Fry,_and his son, William H. Fry from black walnut, 1875 Transportation Conservation Commerce Communications Military Aboriginal Theater Landscape Science Engineering itarian Literature Music Invention Education some sixth and seventh generation descendants of the six Industry original congregations carry on the work of their forebears.
The Fifth and Central Presbyterian congregations merged with Sculpture Pre-Columbian important position in downtown Cincinnati.It provides a focal This church is a fine example of English Gothic architec- with the First Reformed Presbyterian and West Liberty Presby- has been known as Covenant-First Presbyterian, and at present balanced by the Cincinnati Public Library at the east end of Political When this building was erected, it was known as Second and it is an excellent example of the work of these craftsmen, losoph Physically, as well as socially, the church occupies an Isaac M.Wise Temple at Eighth and Plum Streets.
The architect was William Walter, the son of Architect It took approximately two years to build the church, and the handcut, and it came from the quarries of Colonel Peter Ran- First Presbyterian Church, organized in l790 and later merged terian, merged with the Church of the Covenant in l933 and Second in 1909,and the Church of the Covenant was formed. Henry Walter, and the contractors were J.W.Cotteral & Son. point and an anchor for Garfield Place on the west, and it is Presbyterian Church, a.congregation that was organized in 18l6. on April 1l,1875,and the Reverend Henry J.Van Dyke,D.D.
Religion/Phi SPECIFIC DATE(S) (If Applicable and Known) AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE (Check One or More as Appropriate) it was cast by Paul Revere in Boston, but how it was brought dolph Neff, a member of the church. The bell in the tower bears the inscription: "Revere, Boston". It is believed that this long, narrow park.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 73001455, 10 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.