The John B. Tytus House is a historic house at 300 South Main Street in Middletown,

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 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Built in 1865,it was the home of John Butler Tytus (1875-1944), who invented a practical hot wide-strip continuous steel-rolling process that transformed the American steelmaking industry. The house 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 1976 due to the efforts of Jeri and Pat Rossi, who bought the house in 1970. The house was the residence of the Rossi family until 2011. and

Description and history

The John B. Tytus House is located in Middletown's South Main Street District, on the west side of South Main Street between Yankee Road and 4th Avenue. It is a three-story masonry structure, built out of red brick. It is L-shaped, with a stylistically eclectic set of architectural features that includes rounded arches in the Romanesque style, half-timbered gable ends in the Tudor Revival style, and an eyebrow dormer. The interior is richly decorated with carved woodwork, and has an original chandelier in the dining room. and The house was built in 1865 by John Butler Tytus Sr., owner of a local papermill, and was the lifelong home of his son, John Butler Tytus; it remained in the Tytus family until 1970 when Pat and Jeri Rossi bought the house part and parcel and embarked on renovations for the next 41 years. The younger Tytus was educated at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in the humanities before entering his father's business. After his father died, he eventually landed a job at a steel factory owned by

Armco AK Steel Holdings Corporation was a steelmaking company headquartered in West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio. The company, whose name was derived from the initials of Armco, its predecessor company, and Kawasaki Steel Corporation, was a ...

, where he developed skills as an engineer and learned the manufacturing process well. Observing that efficiencies of manufacturing could be realized by being able to continuous feed hot steel through a rolling process, he set about to create such a process in 1921. By 1924 his process was sufficiently developed that the company built a new plant implementing it. The plant was an immediate success, and the process was soon widely adopted by other steelmakers. Tytus's process made possible the rolling of steel in sizes and quantities significantly larger than previous labor-intensive processes, at a significantly higher rate of production.

References

{{NRHP in Butler County, Ohio National Historic Landmarks in Ohio Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Middletown, Ohio Houses in Butler County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Butler County, Ohio

Description and history

See also

References