Eden Park Stays Open Late This Winter. Mt. Adams Is Walking Up a Different Staircase.

The steps from Mount Adams Drive up to Parkside Place, the shortest walk from the neighborhood to Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, are closed. Cincinnati Parks is building a new pedestrian entrance to Eden Park south of the Playhouse while that work goes on. The Playhouse now tells people walking between the neighborhood and its doors to use the steps at the corner of Ida and Paradrome Streets.

The timing matters because the hill is about to get busy after dark. The Cincinnati Art Museum's new exhibition opened October 16 with free Thursday evenings, Krohn Conservatory's holiday show opens Saturday, and the Playhouse's two holiday productions open in November. All three are open at night on one weekday, Thursday, and from Mt. Adams the walk to all three now begins at the same corner.

The staircase that's closed, and the one that replaces it

The project has a formal name at City Hall. On December 10, 2025, Cincinnati City Council passed Ordinance 0386-2025. It created a capital project called "Eden Park/Playhouse in the Park Steps" to "extend and upgrade existing pedestrian access from Mt. Adams to the Playhouse in the Park." The ordinance also let the city accept up to $800,000 from the Arn & Neil Bortz Families and the Ed & Pat Sheppard Trust. The City Manager's transmittal explains that the donors asked for the work to go to Towne Construction Services.

The Playhouse calls the new entrance a bookend to the Art Climb Steps north of the Cincinnati Art Museum. The museum says the Art Climb opened May 7, 2020. When the new steps open, Eden Park will have a formal staircase from the city at each end of its cultural row. No completion date has been posted. Until one is, the Playhouse's directions page is the place to check which steps are open.

On a winter evening, the detour changes the walk in practical ways. A Thursday at the museum, an hour among Krohn's poinsettias, or an 7:30 curtain now starts at Ida and Paradrome for anyone walking up from the St. Gregory and Hatch blocks, and it ends there too.

Why Thursday is the night

Each institution keeps its own schedule. Their evening hours overlap on a single weekday.

• Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive. On Thursday the museum stays open until 8 p.m. Every other open day it closes at 5. Its fall exhibition, The Art of Charley Harper: Creatures Wild and Tame, runs October 16, 2026, through March 7, 2027. Adult tickets usually cost $17 in person or $15 online, but the show is free for everyone every Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m., and a free exhibition tour runs Thursdays from 6:30 to 7:30.
• Krohn Conservatory, 1501 Eden Park Dr. Krohn's posted hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. Its holiday floral show opens Saturday and runs through January 3, 2027. Tickets are sold at the door: $12 for adults, $8 for ages 5 to 17, and free under 5. Krohn sometimes closes for private events, so check its calendar before a specific night.
• Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, 962 Mt. Adams Circle. The Playhouse's holiday performances on the published calendar start at 7:30 p.m., including the sold-out opening night of The Twelve Dates of Christmas on Thursday, November 12.

The museum and Krohn both close at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, and the Playhouse curtain goes up half an hour before that. On that one night, a walk up through the Ida steps can take in two of the three in a single trip.

Krohn's own description of this year's show reads like a children's book:

"The elves are taking the year off, so we invited some friendly spiders to keep warm in Krohn Conservatory for the holiday season!"

The show is called A Spider's Gift. It is based on the Ukrainian Christmas Spider folktale, in which spiders bring good fortune, and visitors follow silver webs to spiders hidden in the trees and poinsettias. The Harper show in the museum up the road is also about animals. It features more than 140 of the mid-century artist's drawings, gouaches, collages, screen prints, paintings and posters, including work he made for the National Park Service. With both shows open until 8 p.m., the two make an easy pair on any Thursday this winter.

The hill's own calendar, laid over the park's

Several of the neighborhood's holiday events land on the same nights as the park's programs. Here is how the weeks between now and December 20 line up, using the Mt. Adams events calendar and each venue's posted dates.

1. Thursday, October 29. The Harper exhibition is free from 5 to 8 p.m., and the 6:30 tour is also free. Get Happy: Angela Ingersoll Sings Judy Garland is playing at the Playhouse's Rouse Theatre and runs through November 7.
2. Friday, October 30. Art After Dark runs 5 to 9 p.m., the first of three this season. The other two are January 29 and February 26, and the Harper show is free during each one.
3. Saturday, October 31. A Spider's Gift opens at Krohn the same day as Halloween in the neighborhood. Trick-or-treaters and their families meet at Bow Tie Cafe from 5 to 6 p.m. for games, a photo booth and refreshments, with costume prizes at 5:55. Trick-or-treat runs from 6 to 8 p.m.
4. Saturday, November 7. CAM Kids Day: Creature Feature runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Twelve Dates of Christmas begins previews that evening in the Rosenthal Shelterhouse Theatre.
5. Thursday, November 19. Beaujolais Nouveau falls on the third Thursday in November, which this year is also a free museum night. The free event starts at 6:30 p.m. at The Rookwood parking lot at Monastery and Celestial. At 6:45 a parade led by jazz musicians sets off, with berets, torches and French flags provided and dogs welcome. Revel Urban Winery's tasting starts at 7, and the evening moves to Hi-Fi Cincy from 7:15 to 9.
6. Friday, November 20. A Christmas Carol opens its run at the Rouse Theatre, which lasts through December 27.
7. Saturday, November 28. Luminaria kits go on sale at Bow Tie Cafe and through street captains.
8. Thursday, December 3. The museum hosts a curator conversation from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., and a post-show Art Talk follows the 7:30 performance of The Twelve Dates of Christmas.
9. Saturday, December 12. The Reindog Parade steps off at 12:30 p.m., led by Santa through the neighborhood's streets, a tradition now more than three decades old.
10. Sunday, December 20. Holiday on the Hill. The luminaria display starts at 5:30 p.m., and Santa is at Monk's Plaza at 6 with cookies and hot chocolate. Winners of the Deck the Hill contest for decorated homes and businesses, judged December 16, are recognized that night.

Two Thursdays stand out. On November 19 and December 3, the neighborhood, the museum and the Playhouse all have something scheduled for the same evening.

Down the hill when the park closes

Eden Park officially closes at 10 p.m. Police give Playhouse patrons a grace period that ends half an hour after a performance finishes. For anyone who walked up, the night continues back down past Ida and Paradrome, and the posted Thursday hours show which kitchens are still open by then.

• Bow Tie Cafe, 1101 St. Gregory St. Open weekdays until 8 p.m., which makes it a stop before the park rather than after it.
• Your Mom's Pizzeria, 1045 Saint Gregory St. Open 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
• El Barril, 940 Pavilion St. Open until 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 11 on Friday and Saturday.
• Mt. Adams Bar & Grill, 938 Hatch St. Open 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closed Sunday, so check the night before planning a Holiday on the Hill dinner.
• The Hilltop, 950 Pavilion St. Opens at 5 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and stays open until midnight.
• Monk's Cove, 1104 St. Gregory St. Open from 4 p.m. until 2:30 a.m. on Thursdays, the latest Thursday close on the hill.
• Mt. Adams Tavern on the Hill, 1111 Saint Gregory St. WCPO reported the tavern was reopening in June 2026, seven years after the earlier version closed. It listed hours of 11 a.m. until "late," seven days a week.
• Al Lupo, 1077 Celestial St. The Italian restaurant in the historic Rookwood complex takes reservations through its website.
• Luca Bistro, 934 Hatch St. Posts its current menu at lucabistro.com.

Hours come from each business's own site and can change around the holidays, so a quick check before a Playhouse night is worth it.

For anyone driving up from elsewhere in the city, parking is the other constraint. The Playhouse sells garage parking in advance for $15, rising to $20 in December. Drive-up spots cost $20 when any are left, and the theater says garage space can sell out on show days because parking in Mt. Adams is extremely limited. Through December, a Thursday show night shares that limited parking with the museum's free evening and Krohn's hours until 8.

Until the new Playhouse steps open, the Ida and Paradrome detour is part of every walk from Mt. Adams to the park. If you're thinking about buying or selling on the hill and want to know how the walk to Eden Park works from a particular street, Johnson Real Estate Group can walk it with you block by block. Join our VIP list to Get Early Access to Listings in Mt. Adams.