CityBeat took home the top prize at the Greater Cincinnati Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists Excellence In Journalism Contest this year.
CityBeat reporter Madeline Fening is the winner in the Government/Community Issues Reporting category for her October 2023 feature on the quest to identify bodies buried at West Price Hill’s sprawling Potter’s Field.
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Behind the Quest to Identify Thousands of Bodies Buried Beneath a West Price Hill Park
A “potter’s field” is a common historical term for a place where communities would bury the poor (otherwise called “indigent”), the unidentified, the incarcerated, infectious disease victims and others who were “unwanted.” In Cincinnati, the roughly 26-acre Potter’s Field stretches across the northwest side of Guerley Road into Rapid Run Park. For her story, Madeline spoke with Sandy Rice and Lynn Bereman — two otherwise ordinary women who took on the monumental task of trying to document the hundreds of unidentified people buried in Potter’s Field. The story is a moving, in-depth examination of an issue so incredibly personal and heart-wrenching for the families of those buried in Potter’s Field.
CityBeat photographer Aidan Mahoney was also a finalist in the Photo Essay/Photo Spread/Photo Gallery category for his photo essay on Old Street Saloon, a decades-old drag bar in Monroe, which, according to its owner, used to be surrounded by corn.
This article appears in Sep 4-17, 2024.