Crosley's Pinecroft

I meet a lot more people who know about Powel Crosley, Jr.'s South Florida estate, Sea Gate, than have heard of Pinecroft, Crosley's Cincinnati home. The simple reason for this is that Sea Gate is owned by Manatee County, Florida, and is promoted as a tourist destination and event venue. It has also been the subject of restoration efforts for the past 15 years and more. (Sea Gate is just across the way from the Bradenton airport, south of the Ringling art museum.)

Pinecroft, owned by Mercy Franciscan Health Partners, is adjacent to Mercy Franciscan Hospital in northwest Cincinnati. You can see it from the hospital parking lot (look south), and if you ask someone will tell you where Kipling Avenue is. It's a short street and the mansion is easy to find. I'm not sure what the current visitor status is, but in the past one could contact a hospital security guard for a tour. That may change as efforts to get Pinecroft on the National Register of Historic Places, so have a look if you can. I expect that in the next five years or so the 18,000-square foot building will be the site of a number of fund-raising events, and when it has been sufficiently restored it will probably be rented out for events.

The image above is part of a 1934 magazine ad for Iron Fireman automatic coal stokers. Pinecroft was equipped with two furnaces, and two stoker systems. The Crosley mansion was important enough at the time (as was Powel Crosley himself) that bragging rights for working on it were significant. I'll be posting more information about Pinecroft in coming weeks.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/