The George H. Pendleton House is a historic house in the Prospect Hill Historic District of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. It was built in 1870 in the French

Second Empire style Second Empire style, also known as the Napoleon III style, is a highly eclectic style of architecture and decorative arts, which uses elements of many different historical styles, and also made innovative use of modern materials, such as i ...

. From 1879 until his death in 1889, this was the residence of Senator George Hunt Pendleton (1825–89). As a

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

(1879-1885), Pendleton spearheaded

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

reform, meeting here in 1882 to draft the

Pendleton Act The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is a United States federal law passed by the 47th United States Congress and signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on January 16, 1883. The act mandates that most positions within the federal gover ...

, which created the Civil Service merit system. The building, now in mixed commercial and residential use, was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1964.

Description and history

The George H. Pendleton House is located north of downtown Cincinnati in the Prospect Hill neighborhood, on the south side of Liberty Hill at its junction with Higland Avenue. The hilltop mansion, set high on a ridge, is visible from many points in the downtown basin below. The house is a -story brick building, with a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

providing a full third floor in the attic. The roof has a bracketed eave, and is pierced by dormers with flanking bracketed pilasters. The main facade is three bays wide, with a center entrance flanked by pilasters and topped by a corniced entablature. Ground floor windows are topped by projecting cornices, and second-floor windows have bracketed sills. The interior has been extensively altered, and is not historically significant. The house was built about 1870, and was the home of George Hunt Pendleton from 1879 until his death in 1889. Pendleton was a lawyer and Democratic politician, who first won election to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

in 1857. He left Congress in 1865, but was returned to the Senate in 1879. At the time, jobs in the federal government were largely distributed through political patronage, often without regard to the competence for the position by the individuals hired. Although Pendleton appears to not have been a strong advocate of civil service reform, a Senate subcommittee met in his Cincinnati home in early 1882 to complete a draft civil service reform bill. This bill, enacted later in 1882 following widespread popular calls for civil service reform, was known as the

, and represents the birth of the modern merit-based civil service that has operated since. Pendleton's involvement in the bill cost him reelection in 1884, due to a lack of support from party operatives who had opposed the reforms. After Pendleton's death, the house went through a number of owners and uses, including at one time as a nine-unit tenement house. It was eventually given an exterior restoration in the late 20th century. It now houses commercial offices on the ground floor and residences in the upper floors.

References

External links

NHL ListingDocumentation from the University of Cincinnati
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pendleton House National Register of Historic Places in Cincinnati National Historic Landmarks in Ohio Houses completed in 1870 Houses in Cincinnati Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Cincinnati Local Historic Landmarks

Description and history

See also

References

External links