The Cincinnatian Hotel is a registered historic building in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers 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 distric ...

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 ...

, listed in the

National Register The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on March 3, 1980. It is a member of the

Historic Hotels of America Historic Hotels of America is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was founded in 1989 with 32 charter members; the program accepts nominations and identifies hotels that have maintained their authenticity, sense of pla ...

, 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 by ...

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

Hilton Worldwide Hilton Worldwide (legally Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.) is an American multinational hospitality company that manages and franchises a broad portfolio of hotels and resorts. Founded by Conrad Hilton in May 1919, the corporation is now led b ...

and is part of its upscale

Curio Collection Curio Collection by Hilton is an upscale hotel brand within the Hilton Worldwide portfolio. Curio Collection is a soft brand, meaning its hotels are supported by Hilton, but retain their own individual branding. Hilton selects independent hotels a ...

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 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930s a ...

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 popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

and

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

. 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

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 gourmet comfort food. The term was coined in the 1990s, though similar brewpubs existed during the 1980s. Etymology The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coined in 1991, when David E ...

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