Washington Park is located in the heart of the Over-the-Rhine section - which should bring fond memories and tales of gay Old Cincinnati. Here the ladies stepped from their carriages in fashionable ruffles and carrying parasols in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to attend band concerts at Washington Park. Here the neighbors gathered on hot nights seeking relief in cool park breezes.
        At Elm, Race, and Twelfth Streets, Washington Park's 5.61 acres still give relief from summer heat to neighbors in the crowded downtown area.
        The park, a stone's throw from Music Hall, has seen the gayest whirl of Old Cincinnati, especially during the Fall Festivals, when gondolas plied up and down the canal and spectacles and extravaganzas were set up. "The Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States" was held here in 1888 with great success. It was, in addition to the celebration of Ohio's remarkable progress, designed to celebrate the settlement of the Northwest Territory, which gave it further national significance. Buildings occupied a large part of Washington Park and spanned the canal. Floor space was devoted to
industrial and art exhibits and hundreds of thousands of people thronged the streets. Washington Park, at this moment of display, was the center of art and business endeavor and the showcase of the Middle West. The Exposition was held in a huge building and, with additions, the exhibiting space covered seven acres.
        Parcels comprising Washington Park were purchased in 1855, 1860, and 1863.  The first two parcels had been used for cemeteries. Memorials include a monument to General F. Hecker, German-American patriot, this monument having been dedicated in 1883 by citizens of German birth and ancestry; a monument to R.L. McCook of the 9th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in 1878,and bronze tablet, 1931, given by Sons and Daughters of the 9th O.V.I.; a  drinking fountain memorial in honor of a labor leader, Frank L. Rist, erected in 1920 by the Committee of Central Labor Council, and a Civil War cannon used by Admiral Farragut in Mobile Bay. This cannon, like the Indian in Thornton Triangle, almost went to war during the scarcity of scrap metal in World War II, but was preserved through the efforts of the Hamilton County Memorial Association, a federation of the G.A.R. The Park's bandstand was erected in 1911. The drinking fountain memorial is no longer there; however, the large meteorite remains.