The Neil House was a historic hotel on
High Street
High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...
in
Downtown Columbus, Ohio
Downtown Columbus is the central business district of Columbus, Ohio. Downtown is centered on the intersection of Broad and High Streets, and encompasses all of the area inside the Inner Belt. Downtown is home to most of the tallest buildings ...
. The hotel operated on
Capitol Square
Capitol Square is a public square in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. The square includes the Ohio Statehouse, its Capitol Grounds, as well as the buildings and features surrounding the square. The Capitol Grounds are surrounded on the north and west ...
from 1842 to 1980.
Attributes
![Second Neil House](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Second_Neil_House.jpg)
The hotel buildings were located on South
High Street
High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...
across from the
Ohio Statehouse
The Ohio Statehouse is the state capitol building and seat of government for the U.S. state of Ohio. The Greek Revival building is located on Capitol Square in Downtown Columbus. The capitol houses the Ohio General Assembly, consisting of the H ...
.
First building
The first hotel building had five stories and 334 rooms. It was made of brick and black walnut, all taken from William Neil's farm in
Wyandot County, Ohio
Wyandot County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,900. Its county seat is Upper Sandusky. It was named for the Wyandot Indians, who lived here before and after ...
.
Second building
The second Neil House building had 168 rooms.
Third building
The third hotel building was the largest, with 657 rooms at 13 stories.
It featured a 13-panel mural by
Rainey Bennett
Rainey Bennett (June 14, 1907 – July 26, 1998) was an American artist, illustrator and muralist. His works have been displayed in major museum art collections.
Work
The art collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern ...
. This building was painted by folk artist
William L. Hawkins, in ''Neil House with Chimney'' and ''Neil House with Chimney #2''.
History
![Columbus aerial 1981a](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Columbus_aerial_1981a.jpg)
There were three hotel buildings successively built on the site. William Neil built the hotels after arriving in the city in 1818, and having operated a tavern in the location from 1822 to 1839.
Neil and his wife Hannah also became known for his stagecoach company, her mission for orphaned children, and their farm that became the
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
campus around 1870.
The first hotel built on that site was completed in 1842 at a cost of about $100,000. It was destroyed in a fire, along with the neighboring Odeon Theater, on November 6, 1860.
The loss was only partly insured ($10,000, with a structural loss of $150,000
), but Neil proceeded to build a smaller hotel on the site by 1862. This second hotel became future president
William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
's home as the
Governor of Ohio
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
from 1892 to 1896 (the
McKinley Memorial stands where McKinley would stop and wave to his wife every morning). This second building was demolished in 1923 to make room for the larger third building. This third hotel opened in August 1925, in a celebration that included a dinner and dance for 770 investors and leading residents. It was a large building, twice as large as Columbus's second-largest hotel. The third hotel building closed in 1980 to make way for the
Huntington Center.
References
External links
Emporis page
{{History of Columbus, Ohio
Demolished buildings and structures in Downtown Columbus, Ohio
Defunct hotels in Ohio
1842 establishments in Ohio
1980 disestablishments in Ohio
Hotels established in 1842
Hotels disestablished in 1980
Buildings and structures demolished in 1980
Hotels in Columbus, Ohio
Yost and Packard buildings
High Street (Columbus, Ohio)