USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Sketches and statistics of Cincinnati in 1851 > Part 14
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PUBLIC HALLS.
WITHIN a few years past, spacious and commodious buildings have been erected as public halls, for concerts, lecture and society rooms, and public offices. Among these, alphabetically, may be noticed as of special importance :
APOLLO HALL .- North-west corner of Walnut and Fifth streets. A range of stores on the ground floor ; Wood's Museum, Gundry's® Commercial College, Hawkins' Daguerrean Gallery, and various private offices, on the upper stories. The building is five stories in height, and eighty-three by one hundred feet in its front. J. P. Broadwell, proprietor.
BROMWELL'S BUILDING .- North-east corner of Vine and Fourth street. Height, four stories, and fifty, by fifty feet on the ground. A range of stores below ; offices of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, daguerrean rooms, and various private offices on second and third stories. Hall on the fourth story, the entire size of the building. Day- ton marble fronts ; Jacob Bromwell, proprietor, J. O. Sawyer, architect.
CENTRE HALL, is a building at the intersection of Western Row and Fifth street. It has a large saloon for public meetings and
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various rooms, including a banking-house at the corner, on the first floor ; and office rooms throughout the building. J. L. Scott, pro- prietor.
CINCINNATI COLLEGE .- This is a modern edifice, of the Grecian Doric order, with pilaster fronts, and facade of Dayton marble. It is of three stories, exclusive of an attic, the whole being one hun- dred and forty feet by one hundred in depth, and sixty in height, and has cost forty thousand dollars.
It is on the east side of Walnut, between Fourth and Fifth streets. The ground story, in front, is divided into eight spacious rooms for stores. In the rear of these are three spacious halls, occupied as a hall for meetings of the City Council, and for city public offices of various descriptions. The front range, on the second floor, is de- signed for the accommodation of the Young Men's Library Associa- tion and Reading rooms, and as a Merchants' Exchange. The Ex- change is forty-five by fifty-nine feet ; the reading and library rooms, each, forty-five by twenty-nine feet. There is also a room fourteen by sixteen feet for the use of the directors. In the rear of these is the great Hall of the building for public meetings of the citizens, which is one hundred and thirty-six feet long, by fifty feet broad, and thirty-one high.
The various study and recitation rooms appropriate to the college itself, are in the third story, and occupy a space of forty-five feet by one hundred and thirty-six feet, being the whole length of the building.
The attic is subdivided into a spacious gallery, a room for chemi- cal and philosophical apparatus, and the lecture-room of the law school connected with the college. Fourteen large offices occupy the entire range in the rear.
The whole is thoroughly lighted by gas, and properly venti- lated with suitable passages and openings, and an ample amount of daylight secured in the rear, for the benefit of the rooms and offices which face in that direction.
The entire building is roofed in the most substantial manner ; finished with projecting stone cornice, and surmounted with a cupola, modeled on a design taken from the Tower of the Winds, at Athens.
One million of bricks, beside a large quantity of building and ornamental stone, have been employed in the construction of this edifice.
COURT-STREET HALL .- North side Court, between Main and Wal-
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nut streets. This building is occupied, on the second and third floors, with the office of the sheriff of Hamilton County, and the clerks' offices of the courts. In the fourth story are held the sessions of the Court of Common Pleas, the Commercial, and the Superior Courts of Hamilton County. J. Wilson & Co., proprietors.
THE MELODEON .- This is one among the most prominent and elegant buildings in Cincinnati. It is situated on the north-west corner of Fourth and Walnut streets, and covers an area of sixty- nine feet by one hundred. The lower story is divided into eight stores, with basement rooms, several of which, have tesselated marble floors, and are otherwise handsomely fitted up. The corner store of this building, is occupied as a Dentist's and Daguerreotyp- ist's depôt, at which place these professions are furnished with every variety of business stock and tools. Adjoining this, and fronting on both streets, is a Music Publishing establishment, on a most ex- tensive scale. Next, fronting on Fourth street, is a Drug and Apothecary store, fitted up with exquisite taste ; and adjoining this, the Universalist Book depot, and publication office, fronting on Walnut street. One store is occupied as the American Tract Depo- sitory, and another as Jennings' Patent Phosgene Gas and Lamp establishment. The second story is divided into eight well finished single and double rooms, with marble floor on the landing of the main entrance. The principal part of this story is occupied as Bart- lett's Commercial College, and Faris's Daguerrean Gallery, the remainder as dressing rooms, janitor's rooms, proprietor's office, etc. The third story is a Public Hall, which covers nearly the whole area of the building, being about one hundred feet in length, sixty in width, and twenty-five in height. It is fitted up and finished in the most elegant style, with stuccoed frieze, cornice and ceiling, and in architectural beauty, is probably equal to any hall in the country. This building was erected by Lewis Williams, of Phila- delphia, in 1846, and has been much admired for its beauty and simplicity of architecture.
There are other buildings, more or less of public character, which are dismissed without special notices, as being collections of business offices, mostly ; many of these are of great extent and importance, however, in this respect. One of these may be referred to as an example. This is
REEDER'S BUILDING-Between Walnut and Vine Sts., fronts sixty feet on Third, and seventy-six feet on Pearl street, being two
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HOTELS.
hundred and twenty feet in depth. It is six stories high on Third, and four stories on Pearl street. Not less than 1,250,000 bricks have been laid into these walls. This makes it the largest brick building, with partitions, in Cincinnati. It comprehends one hundred and twelve rooms, for stores, offices, and sleeping chambers; all well lighted, ventilated, and amply supplied with water, and pro- tected by water-tanks-in every story, kept full, at all times-from fires that may originate within its walls. All its other arrangements and business appliances are perfect.
The Third street front is faced with free-stone and protected, by revolving iron window-shutters, alike from fraud and violence.
HOTELS
BURNET HOUSE, north-west corner of Third and Vine streets. This is undoubtedly the most spacious, and probably the best, hotel, in its interior and domestic arrangements, of any in the world. It is of recent construction, and put up by a joint-stock company, who have leased it for a term of years, to A. B. Coleman, its present proprietor. The building, including the terrace, is two hundred and twelve feet on Third street, and two hundred and ten feet to its rear on Burnet street. Its style of architecture is the Bracketed Italian. It is six stories in height, with a dome forty-two feet in diameter, which is one hundred feet above the basement floor. The observa- tory commands a fine view of the city, and more particularly of the river Ohio and the Kentucky scenery beyond, being one hundred and forty-two feet above the level of the street on which it fronts. The entire house contains three hundred and forty rooms, all pro- perly lighted and ventilated. The Burnet House is central to the river and canal; and when the railroad communications, in progress here, shall be completed, will be so to all the traveling public land- ings and depóts.
GIBSON HOUSE-D. V. Bennett, proprietor. This is located on the west side of Walnut, between Fourth and Fifth streets, and is seventy feet front by two hundred feet deep. It is convenient to the mercantile and general business region of the city, and is imme- diately adjacent to the College buildings, which are occupied by the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants' Exchange, and the Young Men's Library Association. In this building, also, the City Council holds its sessions and keeps the various city offices. The Gibson
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House comprehends one hundred and twenty-three chambers and parlors, and can seat two hundred and fifty guests at the public table. The dining-room is one hundred, by thirty feet, with an ele- vation of twenty feet to the ceiling. The house is heated, and the cooking and washing done, entirely by steam. A corridor, extending the entire length of the rear building, affords entrances to each series of chambers, adding also to the light and ventilation of the various rooms. The main staircase is spiral, of great beauty, con- venience and safety, a dome and skylight gracefully crowning the entire ascent. The construction of the Gibson House affords pecu- liar advantage to travelers in whose case order and quiet repose are desirable. From the nature of the building, which possesses but one entry on a floor, and one staircase to the entire house, and that of a character which does not reverberate sound, there need not be, and there is not, more disturbance during sleeping hours than in an ordinary private house.
DENNISON HOUSE .- One of the oldest, as well as the most popular of our hotels, is the Dennison House.
This has always been one of our most important public houses ; and being in the centre of the wholesale dry-goods and hardware trade-contiguous to the principal market-houses-to the Merchants' Exchange and Library Rooms, as well as to the Post-office, it has always been a favorite house with a large share of country merchants, from Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Virginia, and persons on business from other quarters. It has recently undergone an extensive re- building, and entire re-modeling, inside, as well as in its external appearance, enlarging itself to double its former front, and greatly increasing its depth.
As the result of these improvements and additions, it is now one of the most spacious of our city hotels, presenting an imposing front of ninety-four feet extent, with a depth of one hundred feet. It is five stories high, besides the usual basement.
The building is well lighted and admirably ventilated ; with a fine parlor and drawing-room for ladies, and one hundred and four lodg- ing apartments of ample size. The facade of the hotel is ornamented with two porticoes, and galleries pass round each side of the area, in the rear, of every story of the house.
This Hotel was established in 1824, by William Dennison, Sen., who has since connected his son, E. B. Dennison, in the enterprise. WALNUT STREET HOUSE-At the corner of Walnut and Gano
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PUBLIC HALLS.
streets, is a new and very commodious edifice, kept by J. W. Swe- ney. It covers ten thousand square feet of ground ; is five stories high, exclusive of the basement, and comprehends one hundred and eighty-three rooms, all of convenient size and arrangement, and many of them spacious and elegant.
The floors of the business rooms are covered with ornamented cast iron plates, tesselated into squares. The residue of the house is carpeted throughout.
The dining-room is one of the finest to be seen in Cincinnati-if not anywhere. It is 90 feet by 40 feet, with a height of 20 feet; the ceiling enriched with elegantly rich frescos. The entire furni- ture in this house, in its various departments, cost over twenty-five thousand dollars.
A magnificent view, for miles, in all directions, is afforded by the observatory, at the summit of this building.
PEARL STREET HOUSE-Kept by W. H. Henrie. This is one of our oldest hotels. It is about to be re-modeled, if not re-built, by extending its Walnut street front, north, to the corner of Third street, and thence east one hundred feet. This improvement and enlargement, will render it as spacious as any hotel in Cincinnati. The proprietor, Henry Brachmann, is just setting out for Europe, and as soon as he returns, these changes will, doubtless, take effect.
The Pearl Street House is contiguous to the wholesale stores, to the public landing of Cincinnati, and central to the depôts of the various railroad lines to this city. It has always shared largely in the hotel business of Cincinnati.
WOODRUFF HOUSE-P. E. & G. P. Tuttle, proprietors, Sycamore street, between Third and Fourth. This is a newly erected edifice, which has a west front on Hammond street, as well as its principal front on Sycamore street. Each front is fifty feet, and its entire depth two hundred. The lot on which it stands, contains ten thou- sand square feet. It is five stories high, exclusive of the basement, and measures, from the side-walk to the top in front, seventy feet. The building contains rooms, equal to one hundred and thirty of the size usual in hotels. This house is located in the most populous and business portion of the city, a short distance from the Ohio river, at the centre of the public landing, and convenient to the railroad depôts, Post-office and Canal, and within one square of Main street.
The roof of the building affords a pleasant promenade, as well as a fine view of the river and surrounding country.
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BATH IIOUSES.
UNITED STATES HOTEL-A. Wetherbee, proprietor, corner of Wal- nut and Sixth streets. It fronts 130 feet on Sixth street, and 40 feet on Walnut street, and contains one hundred and fifty chambers. This house has always been popular and prosperous.
HENRIE HOUSE-L. Mount, proprietor, north side of Third street, between Main and Sycamore. The Third street front, is 96 feet- depth, 100 feet, with a front on Hammond street. It has nearly one hundred rooms. This is one of our long established houses, and enjoys a high reputation.
WAVERLEY HOUSE-R. H. Hendrickson, proprietor. This hotel is well adapted, from its vicinity to Main and Court streets, to the reception and accommodation of travelers who have business with the county offices, and the courts of justice, of Hamilton county, which are in session nearly all the time. It enjoys the best share of the travel, from the interior of Ohio and Indiana, and, in the winter season, of Kentucky also.
The building is 51 feet on Main street, by 200 feet deep, and con- tains one hundred rooms, of various sizes, but all convenient.
BATH HOUSES.
SEVERAL of the Hotels-the Burnet, Woodruff, and Gibson Houses, among others-have bathing rooms for the use of the public, on a scale commensurate with their other appointments. Beside these, there are several public bath houses, of which two may be selected to advantage. These are:
1. The Metropolitan Bath House, No. 137 Sycamore street, Jackson & Ophof, proprietors. These consist of an arcade of 130 feet in length, divided into twenty-six rooms, thirteen on a side, and eight by ten feet in size. Twenty of these are for gentlemen, and six, including dressing-room, for ladies. These have separate en- trances. The ceiling is vaulted, and lighted by a series of sky-lights. A hall of 73 feet separates the two suites of bathing rooms. Warm, cold and shower baths at all hours. In the rear is a plunge bath, 14 by 18 feet, and 5 feet deep.
2. Bath House, corner of Third and Masonic Alley. This is the well-known establishment of W. W. Watson-now occupied by Watson & Barnett, his successors. It is in the most central part of the city, well ventilated, and lighted with gas. Shower, hot and cold baths, at the pleasure of the visitor, at all hours.
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FIRE DEPARTMENT.
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
THERE are eighteen companies of Firemen belonging to the Fire Department, as follows :
No. 1. Washington,
2. Relief,
3. Independence,
Independent, " 2.
4. Franklin, Independent Western,
5. Invincible, Eagle,
6. Eastern,
Mohawk,
7. Northern,
8. Marion,
No. 9. Union,
Independent, No. 1.
Brighton,
Each of these companies is provided with Fire and Suction En- gines and Hose Reel; so that every company possesses the full apparatus to extinguish fires, without depending on the aid of other independent companies, to furnish any part of the apparatus on the ground. There are thus forty-five carriages, of the best construc- tion and materials, dispersed all over the city, and as many always in attendance as can work to advantage.
There are beside, two hook and ladder companies, and one com- pany of fire guards, to render appropriate services, as they may be required. There are eighteen hundred members of these various companies, a large share of whom, are young men, and in unmarried life.
There are eighty-three public cisterns, and seventy-nine fire- plugs, employed for the extinguishment of fires exclusively.
FOREIGN CONSULATES.
James F. Meline, Consular Agent of the French Republic .- Of- fice, No. 99 West Third Street.
C. F. Adae, Consul of the Kingdoms of Württemberg, Bavaria, Hanover, and the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg .- Office, No. 16 West Front Street.
...
NGRAVED BY F. - NES FROM A PAGUEER OTYPE.
escoge M. Neff
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
XIII. MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
MANUFACTURES, being the great source of the prosperity of Cincin- nati, and the great element of its progress, should, therefore, naturally occupy a large share of this volume. In this article it is designed to exhibit these features-the share which raw material bears to the final product ; the number of hands employed ; and the value of the products. An opportunity is thus afforded, by a scru- tiny of the details, to determine the accuracy of the aggregates they make, and the justice of the deductions to which they point.
Agricultural Machines. A. C. Brown, 37 Walnut street .- These consist of harvesters and mowing-machines, grain and grain thrash- ing machines, and horse powers, for one, two, four and six horses ; portable French burr-stone mills; stock mills, for grinding corn and cobs together, and other grain for feeding purposes ; corn-shellers, to shell twenty to fifty bushels per hour; straw-cutters, tanning mills, clover hullers, corn planters, cultivators, drilling machines, wool carding machines, and machine cards. Steam power ; employs thirty hands, and manufactures, yearly, to the value of thirty-six thousand dollars. Raw materials-22 per cent. of the value of product.
Alcohol and Spirits of Wine .- These are articles, which, although usually considered the same, are materially different. Alcohol is whisky, distilled to its highest grade of proof, and is employed in the mechanic arts, as the basis of essences and medical tinctures, and as a solvent in various manufacturing operations.
Neutral Spirit, is the same article in point of strength, but divested, in its manufacture, of all empyreumatic odor and taste. It forms the basis of domestic brandies, gins, &c. When abundant harvests in the west are likely to depress the price of corn, the same motive which prompts the farmer to put his crop into pork, by the feeding of it to hogs, suggests, also, the manufacture into whisky ; in both cases, a bulky and heavy product, being converted into an article of greater value and profit, because more convenient for transportation to market. The same principle, carried out, induces the shipment
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
of whisky, in the form of alcohol, which, condensing two barrels into one, saves one-half the expense of transportation, to various distant markets.
There are six manufactories here of these articles-all large. Such is the simplicity and efficiency of the apparatus employed, that twelve men suffice for the manufacture of an entire product of 35,750 barrels; equal, at 40 gallons to the barrel, to 1,430,000 gal- lons, and of the value of seventeen dollars per barrel; value of product six hundred and eight thousand and two hundred and sixty dollars-of raw material 80 per cent.
These results are day-light operations, of twelve hours. When the stills are run day and night, as is sometimes the case, the pro- duct is, of course, double; in fact more, because no time is lost in rekindling fires and reheating the stills.
The largest operators in this line, are Lowell Fletcher & Co., south-east corner of Vine and Front streets, and S. S. Boyle, Second street, between Sycamore and Broadway. Their capacity of manufacture is nearly equal. Fletcher & Co., confine their products to alcohol and neutral spirits. Boyle, in addition to these, manu- factures domestic liquors on a very extensive scale. The manufacture of alcohol and neutral spirits, at these laboratories, is more than 8,000 barrels, or 320,000 gallons, annually, for each establishment.
The labor saving genius of the age is remarkably illustrated in these laboratories. The space occupied by the apparatus, at each, does not exceed twenty feet square, in which narrow limits, with stills of 1400 gallons capacity, such an immense quantity of alcohol and pure spirits, is the annual product. Nothing can surpass their simple and efficient arrangements, and the adaptedness to its purpose, of the apparatus already referred to.
Animal Charcoal. One factory .- Employs twelve hands, and -produces to the value of twenty-five thousand dollars ; value of raw materials 10 per cent.
Apple Butter, dc. Three establishments .- Nine hands ; value of product, five thousand dollars ; raw material consumed, 50 per cent.
Architects and Draughtsmen .- Fifteen principals and assistants ; product twenty-two thousand dollars -labor entirely. Walter & Wilson ; office at the Mechanics' Institute, and J. O. Sawyer, Brom- well's building, corner Fourth and Vine Streets, are skillful and ju- dicious architects, to whose designs and superintendence our city owes many of its best buildings.
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
Artificial Flowers. Three manufactories .- Forty hands, princi- pally females; value of product, fourteen thousand two hundred dollars; of raw materials, 40 per cent.
Awnings, Tents, Bags, de. Seven factories .- Sixty-six hands ; value of product, forty-five thousand dollars; raw materials 50 per cent.
Bagging Factories .- Of these, there are two, the Fulton and the Globe mills-steam power. They employ two hundred and thirty- eight hands, one half of which are females; product, bagging for cotton bales, to the value of two hundred and seventy thousand dollars; raw material, hemp, is of a value of 60 per cent. to the pro- duct. The market for this is entirely in the southern states.
Bakers .- There are one hundred and forty bakeries ; which em- ploy four hundred and forty-five hands, and manufacture to the value of six hundred and thirty thousand seven hundred and sixty- two dollars in bread, biscuit, &c .; raw material 60 per cent.
Samuel Cloon, 15 Sycamore, west side, between Front and Se- cond streets,-steam power-manufactures yearly to the value of eighty-five thousand dollars, principally hard baked bread for ex- portation ; has sixteen hands.
John Bailie, Front, above Ludlow street, has nineteen hands, and turns out, annually, a product in value, of thirty-six thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, principally of biscuit and pilot bread, which are exported to far distant climes.
Thomas W. King, of the late firm of King & Heffner, stated to me that some years ago, being then a supercargo of an East Indiaman, and at Canton, China, he made one of a party at the American consul's, where everything procurable that could remind them of their native country, made a part of the entertainment; among other things produced, was a tin can of water crackers, which being unpacked, were handed round to the guests. King, carelessly crushing one in his hand, glanced at the stamp, and saw, J. Bailie, Cincinnati. A thousand memories of his old home-he was a native of Ohio, and long a resident of the city-rushed to his heart and filled his eyes. Those who recollect the emotion displayed by Capt. Cook, the great circumnavigator, on discovering the stamp, LONDON, on a pewter spoon which fell into his hands, while thousands of miles from home, may appreciate his feelings.
C. H. Bennett, wholesale and retail bakery, south side Court, east of Vine street-fifteen hands; makes bread, biscuit, and cakes; the
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
first principally, to the annual value of twenty-three thousand four hundred and fifty dollars.
Alfred Burnett, 76, and 164, west Fifth street, manufactures wed- ding cakes, principally ; employs nine hands ; consumes annually, seventy-five thousand eggs, twenty-four thousand pounds sugar, and fifteen thousand pounds butter, in this article. Mr. Burnett has sold, of wedding cake, to the value of thirteen hundred dollars, in twelve days.
Band and Hat-boxes and Cases for Ladies' Shoes, &c. Six factor- ies-Sixty hands ; value of product, thirty-six thousand dollars per annum ; raw material, 50 per cent.
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