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Old Main Library (Cincinnati)

1870 establishments in Ohio1955 disestablishments in OhioDemolished buildings and structures in CincinnatiPublic libraries in Ohio
Old Main Library on a 1918 postcard (cropped)
Old Main Library on a 1918 postcard (cropped)

The Old Main Library was a public library building in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Opened in 1870 and demolished in 1955, it served as the main library of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL) system for 85 years. In 1868, the Public Library of Cincinnati, then located in the Ohio Mechanics' Institute, purchased an opera house in construction after its owner went bankrupt. It hired architect James W. McLaughlin to convert the building, located on Vine Street at the corner of 6th Street, into a new library. Librarian William Frederick Poole significantly assisted McLaughlin with the design. Although construction of the Old Main had yet to be fully completed, a first portion opened on 9 December 1870. The rest was inaugurated in 1874. The main hall, whose cast-iron alcoves, spiral staircases and wide skylight garnered architectural praise. Although it was often described as beautiful, the Old Main was considered congested and impractical. Its estimated capacity of 300,000 volumes was exceeded within two decades. In 1955, it had 1.5 million books, which had to be stacked three deep on bookshelves, or stored in basements, the attic or at other branches. This lead to various complications, including the difficulty of quickly producing requested books and the deterioration, from repeated flooding, of the volumes that were stored in the sub-basement. Other challenges included insufficient lighting, poor ventilation, lack of seating and elevator and fire safety. Because the building was heated by coal furnaces, dedicated "book cleaners" had to be hired to clean the soot off of the books and stacks. Calls for a new library emerged in the 1920s and the project was officialized in 1944. A location for the "New Main" was found two blocks away from the Old Main, which closed its doors on 27 January 1955. It was demolished from March to June of that year. Because of its sturdiness, it was said to have "died hard", requiring 100 days of wrecking and a crew of 50 to 75 men. It was reportedly the largest demolition contract of Cincinnati's history at that time. Today, the site of the Old Main is occupied by an office building and a parking garage. Decades after the library's demolition, images of its interiors garnered significant public interest online.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Old Main Library (Cincinnati) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Old Main Library (Cincinnati)
Vine Street, Cincinnati Central Business District

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N 39.1032 ° E -84.5138 °
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Hampton Inn & Suites

Vine Street 617
45202 Cincinnati, Central Business District
Ohio, United States
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Sree Hotels

call+15133542430

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hilton.com

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Old Main Library on a 1918 postcard (cropped)
Old Main Library on a 1918 postcard (cropped)
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Terrace Plaza Hotel
Terrace Plaza Hotel

The Terrace Plaza Hotel is an 18-story International Style mixed-use building completed in 1948 in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. It sits at 15 West 6th St between Vine and Race Streets.Designed by the architecture firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill between 1946 and 1948, the Terrace Plaza Hotel was their first hotel project and one of the first high-rise projects to be constructed in the United States after World War II. SOM went on to design some of the world's tallest and most iconic buildings. SOM assigned Natalie de Blois to be the lead architect and the team planned details down to furniture and matchbook covers.The building was considered groundbreaking modernism when it opened. Harper's Magazine published “If you want to discover what your grandchildren will think of as elegance of this postwar era, you will have to go to Cincinnati.” In addition to being the first hotel after WWII, it was also the first to have self-operated elevators and individual thermostats in rooms.The building originally housed two department stores in a windowless lower block style portion of the building. The hotel portion rose above the stores in a very different style. A 5-star French restaurant with wall to wall windows sat above the hotel. The 8th floor plaza even hosted ice skating in the winter.Inside, the decor was accented with modern art (later removed and installed at the Cincinnati Art Museum), including a stunning abstract mural by Joan Miró, another mural showing Cincinnati landmarks by Saul Steinberg and work by Alexander Calder. Above the stores on the first seven floors, the hotel lobby on the 8th floor was accessed via high speed elevators. The building includes 600,000 sq ft. of space.The hotel closed in 2008 but efforts to renovate it are planned. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. In 2020, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named it as one of America's most endangered historic places. The building is currently mostly vacant, with some business still occupying street-level retail properties. Steps have been taken in recent years to prepare the building for preservation, and it is planned to be auctioned in May 2022.