Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton Countywide population within city limits was estimated to be 333,200 in 2009, making it the state's third-largest city. In the early nineteenth century, Cincinnati was the first American boomtown in the heart of the country to rival the larger coastal cities in size and wealth. As the first major inland city in the country, it is sometimes thought of as the first purely American city. It developed initially without as much recent European immigration or influence as took place in eastern cities. Cincinnati is home to major sports teams, including the Cincinnati Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals, and it sponsors annual events such as the Cincinnati Masters tennis tournament, the Ohio Valley Jazz Festival, and the Thanksgiving Day race. The University of Cincinnati traces its foundation to the Medical College of Ohio, which was founded in 1819. Cincinnati is known for having one of the larger collections of nineteenth-century Italianate architecture in the U.S., primarily concentrated just north of Downtown in an area known as Over-the-Rhine.
