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ROMANCE
FEATURE STORY
‘Outside
with God and Nature’
Ault Park registers with Cincinnatians planning a wedding or wedding
photo shoot
by Felix Winternitz
The readers have spoken. When it comes to taking a wedding photo,
Ault Park in Mount Lookout/Hyde Park is the readers’ choice
for location.
“It was
fantastic,” says reader Ann Marie Roepke, who married her
husband Paul last September in Ault Park. “The event was perfect.
It was absolutely beautiful.”
Roepke is just one of the voters who made Ault Park the clear winner
of CityBeat’s annual Readers Picks (with Eden Park falling
in second place in the same category, which was added to this year’s
Best of Cincinnati poll).
The bride says the park is ideal for many reasons, besides being
a great place for photographs: “We weren’t restricted
to the norms of traditional ceremonies (and) religions. We had a
ceremony outside with God and nature, but our dog Guinness was included.”
A minister from Crossroads Community Church performed the ceremony.
“We had all aspects of nature — sun, brief sprinkles
of rain, fall colors, green grass,” she continues. “Plus
we were outside dancing under the stars. Leroy Ellington and the
E Funk band played.”
Not the least among the advantages is the couple was allowed to
provide their own alcohol — a major cost for most wedding
receptions.
Ault Park, located at the tail end of Observatory Avenue, was named
in memory of Ida May and Levi Addison Ault. Levi Ault was a park
commissioner who was active in Cincinnati Parks development. The
Aults gave the initial 142-acre tract in 1911 to the city, plus
nine subsequent land donations.
A bronze plaque of Ault, designed by Cincinnati sculptor Clement
Barnhorn, is affixed to a glacier boulder of rose granite on the
terrace to the south of the pavilion.
The Ault Park Pavilion is the “grandest of all Cincinnati’s
park buildings,” according to park literature. Opened in 1930,
the building boasts an Italian Renaissance-inspired architecture.
The roof terrace offers a spectacular view of the park’s formal
gardens.
The Smittie Memorial Concert Green, near the pavilion, was dedicated
in 1987. George G. “Smittie” Smith, a music teacher
at Withrow High School for 30 years, led his band at the traditional
July Fourth celebration. He’d given park concerts for 50 years.
In addition to Independence Day events and weddings, the park features
“Nature Babies: Wild Encounters From a Stroller” for
new moms and babies. The program runs all through the spring.
Then come the cicadas in late May. And perhaps a few less outdoor
weddings and wedding photo shoots than usual at Ault Park. ©
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