Village of Mariemont – A National Exemplar of Urban Planning

The Village of Mariemont is a suburb of Cincinnati developed in the early 1920′s by Mary Emery as a gift to the people of Cincinnati.  Designed by John Nolen, the father or innovator of modern urban planning, it is considered a National Exemplar of good urban design and planning principles.  It was designed to be a mass-transited oriented suburb since the streetcar to downtown Cincinnati ran only two short blocks from the original town center.  For the same reason, Mariemont was designed to encourage walking.  This is in contrast with more modern suburbs which have become dominated by the automobile.  Ironically, the urban planning and design principles of John Nolen are only now being re-discovered and again implemented in new suburban developments referred to as “new urbanism” or “smart growth” projects.

Mariemont Square – Mariemont Inn and Village Center

At the center of Mariemont is Mariemont Square with its fountain surrounded by a garden and benches and the tudor-style Mariemont Inn at one corner.

Mariemont Square – Graeter’s Ice Cream

On another side of Mariemont Square is Graeter’s Ice, consistently rated as one of the best premium ice creams in the U.S.  This is a popular teen and family gathering spot in Mariemont.

Mariemont – Fountain and Park in Center of Mariemont Square

At the center of Mariemont Square is a fountain surrounded by gardens and benches for sitting.

Mariemont – Movie Theater on Village Square

Mariemont Community Church

The Mariemont Community Church is a non-denominational church serving the entire community.  With its stone slate roof coming from a 12th century English tithe barn and its altar cross coming from an original beam of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, technically the Mariemont Community Church is the oldest church in America.  It was also the first building to be constructed in Mariemont.  Designed by architect Louis E. Jallade, it is designed in the shape of a cross in the style of a pre-Norman Conquest English Anglo-Saxon parish church.

Dale Park Square Park

Separating the Mariemont Church from the original Dale Park Square is a small, exquisitely land-scaped park named Dale Park Square Park.  Like the larger, newer, main Mariemont Square, it also has a fountain, flowers, and benches in its center.  It is an irregular shaped park that comes to a point at the end closest to the Dale Park Elementary School where there is located a large spruce tree which is decorated with lights in the winter and serves as the community’s Christmas tree and center for an annual winter holiday celebration with candles lighted the different paths of the park.