United States · Ohio · Cincinnati
Clifton, Cincinnati — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Gas lamps still burn on the side streets off Ludlow Avenue in Clifton, a neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the hills above the Mill Creek valley.
About Clifton
Where to stay in Clifton
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Clifton keeps its trade on Ludlow Avenue, not in lobbies. The beds sit at the edges. Corryville, south-east against the university campus, carries the nearest rooms, while Downtown Cincinnati holds the bulk of the city's hotel desks about three miles away. Stay in Corryville if you want Burnet Woods and the Esquire Theatre within a walk.
Downtown suits you better when the rest of Cincinnati is the point.
About Clifton
What are the main landmarks in Clifton?
Clifton's landmarks stand along two streets and inside two parks. Ludlow Avenue carries the Gaslight District, where the Esquire Theatre opened in 1911 as the Clifton Opera House and still shows art-house film. Burnet Woods holds an artificial lake, a bandstand, and the Trailside Nature Center with its planetarium.
Mount Storm Park is older ground. Its Temple of Love, a Corinthian pergola, once roofed the reservoir that watered the estate's greenhouses and swan lake. Clifton Avenue does the ceremonial work, with the Probasco Fountain near Woolper Avenue and the Gothic Revival stone of Calvary Episcopal Church.
What is the history of Clifton?
Clifton began as farmland. The village took its name from the Clifton farm, a spread of hills and dales, and was incorporated in 1850; Cincinnati annexed it in 1893. Streetcar lines pushed out through the 1880s and 1890s, and the estates behind Clifton Avenue broke into house lots.
The William Resor House dates from 1843, a Greek Revival box put up by a stove manufacturer. The Henry Probasco House, the limestone Oakwood, went up between 1859 and 1866 for the man who gave Cincinnati its Tyler Davidson Fountain. Rawson House came around 1870, an Italian Villa in brick on Clifton Avenue.
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Updated September 2026