The Hillside Trust

The hillsides form an integral part of the natural fabric of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. First-time visitors are often struck by the dramatic relief in topography, and the stunning overlooks of picture postcard proportions.

Of the 80 square miles that comprise the incorporated area of Cincinnati, 15 square miles, or 18%, represent hillsides. Of the 264,849 acres that comprise Hamilton County, within which Cincinnati is located, 60,043 acres, or 23%, consist of hillsides. This percentage of hillside acreage is similar in the three Northern Kentucky Counties of Campbell, Kenton and Boone.

As the supply of buildable land diminishes, combined with growing market demand for “view” properties, the region’s hillsides have come under increasing development pressure over the last 40 years. The advent of heavy earth moving machinery and technological adavances have made it possible to build on a hillside, build into it, or simply haul it away all together.

Concern was mounting that unless something was done, our hillsides would fall prey to aesthetic blight, or worse they would simply slide away. Under the leadership of pioneering individuals like Pope Coleman and Robert Manley, and through the assistance of such groups as the Contemporary Arts Center, a critical mass was forming around hillside protection by the late 1960s.

In 1971, The Cincinnati Institute was formed under the direction of Pope Coleman to undertake projects desgined to enhance the quality of urban life, with a dominant theme of hillside preservation. Several years later in 1973, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded a landmark $40,000 grant to the Cincinnati Institute to establish an organization to preserve and enhance Cincinnati’s hillsides.

Essentially a study project, the idea was to form a “hillside trust” to provide active design, land banking, communications, protection, and enhancement of the hillsides. On October 21, 1976, articles of incorporation were filed in creation of The Hillside Trust, a 501(c)3 non-profit. Its early founders included Robert Bellucci, Judge Robert L. Black, Jr., Jim Bridgeland, David Joseph, Richard Durrell, Morse Johnson, Robert Manley, and Augusta Prince. Pope Coleman served as staff for the new organization.

In over 30 years of public service, The Hillside Trust has matured from serving just Cincinnati and Hamilton County, to an organization that also serves the surrounding counties of Clermont, Campbell, Kenton, and Boone. It has become a well- respected organization that has built a solid reputation through a three-part mission of research and education, advocacy, and land conservation. A fourth component involving land banking was originally planned, but a lack of funding made it impossible to implement.