The Cincinnatian Hotel is a registered historic building in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, listed in the National Register on March 3, 1980. It is a member of the Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 ...

. Since 2018, the hotel has been owned by SREE Hotels of Charlotte and the hotel has been managed by

Hilton Worldwide Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. is an American multinational hospitality company that manages and franchises a broad portfolio of hotels, resorts, and timeshare properties. Founded by Conrad Hilton in May 1919, the company is now led by Chris ...

and is part of its upscale Curio Collection brand.

History

Built in 1882, The Cincinnatian Hotel was designed as a "Grand Hotel" of the 19th century. Originally named the Palace Hotel, the eight-story

French Second Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

hotel was the tallest building in Cincinnati and designed by the same architect as Cincinnati's

Music Hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...

and

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

. The Palace Hotel featured 300 guest rooms and a shared bathroom at either end of each corridor. The Palace hotel provided modern improvements such as electric lights and hydraulic elevators to its guests. There were hitching posts outside and the hotel was located where the trolley cars made their turn. The hotel was renamed the Palace Hotel Cincinnatian on September 24, 1948, which was then shortened to the Hotel Cincinnatian in 1951. The hotel underwent a massive $25 million renovation in 1987, that added a glass-domed atrium and reduced the 300 guest rooms to 146 rooms including seven suites. The renovation retained the hotel's marble and walnut grand staircase. The original ''Cricket Restaurant'' was replaced by the ''Palace Restaurant'' and the ''Cricket Lounge''. In 2017, the hotel was purchased by SREE Hotels of Charlotte. After extensive remodeling in 2018, which left only the marble and walnut grand staircase as the only part of the interior of the hotel from 1882, the hotel reopened under the management of

and became part of its upscale Curio Collection brand. The ''Palace Restaurant'' and the ''Cricket Lounge'' were replaced by the ''Hannaford Market'', where breakfast and brunch are served and named for the architect of the building, and ''Brick and Mortar'', a

gastropub A gastropub or gastro pub is a pub that serves food of high quality, with a nearly equal emphasis on eating and drinking. The term was coined in the 1990s in the United Kingdom. History The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coi ...

Notes

External links

Documentation from the University of Cincinnati
National Register of Historic Places in Cincinnati Hotels in Cincinnati Hotels established in 1882 Hotel buildings completed in 1882 {{HamiltonCountyOH-NRHP-stub