Spencer House was a historic hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Opened in 1853, it was condemned in 1933. Spencer House was located on the southwest corner of Broadway and Front in an area known as the Bottoms, adjacent to the Public Landing, which was the city's major

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

dock.

History

Prior to the construction of Spencer House, the Cincinnati Hotel stood in the same location. Spencer House opened with a grand ball in December 1853. The actress Charlotte Cushman was an owner. According to a history published in 1923, in the 1850s, the Spencer was considered a summer resort for Southern families. In 1860 a guest from Louisville, Kentucky wrote: During the American Civil War, the Spencer was considered the city's Copperhead hotel, while the

Burnet House Burnet House was a grand hotel that stood at the corner of Third and Vine in Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States from 1850 to 1926. In its day the Burnet hosted a multitude of dignitaries, including Abraham Lincoln (twice), Edward VII of the ...

was known as the Federal hotel. The Spencer reportedly had a soundproof room originally intended for gamblers that was used during the American Civil War for strategy meetings. It is possibly apocryphal but Copperhead politician Clement L. Vallandingham was supposedly arrested at the Spencer at the height of the war. Spencer House was one of the stops on Andrew Johnson's 1866

Swing Around the Circle Swing Around the Circle is the nickname for a speaking campaign undertaken by United States President Andrew Johnson between August 27 and September 15, 1866, in which he tried to gain support for his mild Reconstruction policies and for his prefe ...

electioneering tour. He visited again after his impeachment trial. As steamboat traffic declined in economic significance during the second half of the 19th century the hotel struggled and it was eventually converted to a tenement house. By the 1930s it was in such poor condition that only people without children in their households were allowed to live there. It was condemned in 1933.

References

{{coord missing, Ohio Hotels in Cincinnati Demolished buildings and structures in Cincinnati Hotels established in 1853 Hotels disestablished in 1933