Why Is An 80-Million Gallon Cistern Buried Underneath Eden Park’s Mirror Lake?

In 1901, Cincinnati City Engineer Louis Gustave Frederick Bouscaren appeared before the Water Works Board with a rather expensive request. Bouscaren asked the Board to approve a $500,000 brick cover for the Eden Park reservoir.That immense artificial lake, covering 13 acres and more than 30 feet deep, held 100 million gallons of water, divided into two basins. Exposed to sunlight, the reservoir blossomed with algae that imparted a nasty flavor to the city’s water. Running the Water Works in 1901 was August “Garry” Herrmann, one of George “Boss” Cox’s chief lieutenants. Herrmann and Cox cared not a whit about the taste of the municipal effluent and so Bouscaren’s request was denied.Thirty years later, with Cincinnati’s government now completely reformed by a new charter, Alber S. Hibbs, Water Works superintendent, repeated Bouscaren’s proposal but, according to the Cincinnati Post [7 May 1931] added a most peculiar clarification to his request:“Hibbs favors the expenditure not on…