A 130-year-old corner bar in East Price Hill that once poured drinks as Paradise Lounge, Common Roots, and most recently Casey’s Corner has a new purpose: growing food, teaching permaculture, and housing student interns. The Cincinnati Permaculture Institute took ownership of the property, along with two adjacent parcels, in March, marking the first time in its 18-year history that the organization has had a permanent physical home.
The nonprofit’s acquisition, first reported by Axios, brought together three contiguous properties along Enright Avenue and West Eighth Street: the corner bar building itself, the Growing Value Nursery site at 824 Enright Ave. with its more than 100-year-old greenhouse, and a vacant lot known as the Icehouse. According to the Cincinnati Permaculture Institute, the group had leased space at the site for several years before buying it outright this year, and it voluntarily surrendered the building’s liquor license as part of converting the space into an eco-hub.
The corner building at West Eighth and Enright was constructed in 1895 and spent decades as a neighborhood tavern before CPI stepped in, per the organization’s own account. Growing Value, the nursery that will now have a permanent home on the site, has operated in the area for roughly 15 years and relocated to East Price Hill in 2021, according to Axios.
A Resiliency Hub Takes Shape
Howie Zuefle, who joined CPI’s teaching team and took over as nursery manager in 2024, told Axios he hopes to turn the corner into a resiliency hub where people can gather, learn, and get their hands dirty. Zuefle pointed to the neighborhood’s environmental history and its residents’ habit of growing tomatoes and other food around their homes as a foundation the project can build on, Axios reported. He also said he has no rigid five-year plan for the space, preferring to let the project develop organically…