Levine Park Restored as MSB Rehab Work Progresses

Many adjectives can be used to describe Levine Park—including resilient.

For the second time in six years, the tranquil refuge just steps from the Kresge Circle entrance to the Medical Sciences Building (MSB) has been restored after being closed during ongoing remodeling of the MSB and construction of the CARE/Crawley Building.

The park, a lawn and garden sanctuary with a small amphitheater, was originally opened June 9, 1979, in honor of Maurice Levine, MD, "an inspired humanitarian” who chaired UC’s psychiatry department from 1947 until his death in 1971.

It was closed for three years during construction of the CARE/Crawley Building, which began in 2004, and rededicated Sept. 24, 2007. It was closed again starting in 2010 during Phases II and III of the MSB Rehabilitation Project, which are now complete. During both closures, its space was used as a staging area for the project.

With the project moving on to Phase IV, concentrated on the opposite (south) side of the MSB, Levine Park is once again open and regaining its status as a respite for faculty, staff and students.

A native Cincinnatian, Maurice Levine earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from UC and his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, where he served residencies. He returned to UC’s psychiatry department before doing further training and becoming a faculty member at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.

Levine was one of the first psychoanalytically trained psychiatrists in the country to be appointed as a department chair. As well as being deeply involved in local and national professional activities, he was also committed to the Cincinnati community.

He was the first administrator at the former Cincinnati General Hospital (now UC Medical Center) to desegregate his wards and the first to appoint a black resident. His determination to keep psychiatry in the mainstream of daily life made Cincinnati a model in the field of community psychiatry.