Honoring History
The Lytle Park Hotel and
Lytle Park
Cincinnati, Ohio
Welcome to
The Lytle Park Hotel
Once an enclave for Cincinnati's elite, Lytle Park served as the social and cultural center of the Queen City. The park is rising to prominence once again with The Lytle Park Hotel. Born within a classic 1909 building, it is artfully intertwined with the park and all that lives outside its front door. The city of Cincinnati, and particularly the area surrounding The Lytle Park Hotel, is rich with history and steeped in the tradition of our bustling river town. We welcome you to our Cincinnati and encourage you to explore the beautiful park and our friendly neighborhood. Few other parts of Cincinnati can match the history that our corner of the city has to offer and, as you stroll around the park, picture yourself back in time.
Fort Washington
To trace the history of Lytle Park and the surrounding historic district is to begin with the founding of Cincinnati itself. Cincinnati was founded in 1788 and originally named Losantiville, meaning "the city opposite the mouth of the (Licking) River." It was home to a village of about 20 cabins and 50 - 100 inhabitants.
Fort Washington
Queen City
In 1790, Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory, renamed the settlement "Cincinnati" in honor of the Society of Cincinnati, of which he was president. In 1811, the introduction of steam navigation on the Ohio River and the completion of the Miami and Erie Canal helped grow the area into an incorporated city in 1819.
Queen City
Lytle Park
Neighborhood
The Lytle Park neighborhood comprises just a few square blocks that make up a community of historic heritage. It borders Fourth Street to the north, Lytle Park to the south, Broadway to the west and Pike Street to the east. It is marked with buildings and monuments that tell the tales of the pioneers of old and the modern day. Brick mansions, row houses and an upscale apartment building known as The Phelps were home to some of the city's and the country's elite families, including the Lytle family, the Baums, the Longworths, and the family of William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States. The area is on the National Register of Historic Places(8)
Lytle Park
As you step outside the doors of The Lytle Park Hotel, you are greeted by Lytle Park, once known as Lytle Square and named for General William Lytle, first Surveyor-General of the Northwest Territory and the State of Ohio.(6) In the park stands a statue of Abraham Lincoln, a gift from Charles Phelps Taft to commemorate the centenary of Lincoln's birth. The statue, which is one of only a few to feature a beardless young Lincoln, was unveiled by William Howard Taft in 1917 but was not initially well received by Cincinnatians due to the statue's weary portrayal of the man. Lytle Park features many displays depicting historic events that have occurred on this site. The Corporal Merrill Laws Ricketts Marine Corps Memorial is a monument dedicated to the Marines of Hamilton County.
Lytle Park
Nine historical markers scattered throughout the park tell the many stories of the neighborhood. The "mansions" of the Lytle family and what is now the Taft Museum once stood as the focal points of Lytle Square, a center for many social events in the early 1900s. Following many years of studies and planning, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This legislation created a national system of interstate highways to connect all cities and got Americans back to work.(7) As part of the plan for Cincinnati, the Northeast Expressway (I-71) was slated to run through Lytle Park. Many years of dispute over the need to protect the historical neighborhood resulted in a plan to tunnel the highway under the park. Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western & Southern Financial Group's original company, used its resources to help cover part of the highway and save Lytle Park. The park became the only park to be built over an interstate road system, one of many firsts for Cincinnati.
General William
Haines Lytle
In 1809, a large mansion was built in Lytle Square by General William Henry Lytle, and it became the home of the general and four generations of his descendants.(9) He was the first Surveyor-General of the Northwest Territory and the State of Ohio. The home became a focal point for social gatherings of many prominent visitors.
General William
Haines Lytle
As the last surviving male offspring of one of Cincinnati's leading pioneer families, William Haines Lytle (November 2, 1826 - September 20, 1863) was groomed from the start to fulfill a special destiny. Some thought he would one day become president of the United States. Lytle was a renowned poet, politician and lawyer but the military was his special interest. He served as a military officer in the United States Army during the Mexican-American War and American Civil War. He led a brigade of volunteers as a brigadier general during numerous engagements before he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia.(10) Taft Museum
William Howard Taft
The Taft Museum (316 Pike St.), once the Baum-Longworth-Sinton-Taft Mansion, was originally built around 1820 for Martin Baum, Cincinnati's first banker and manufacturer. This National Historic Landmark is the oldest domestic wooden structure locally, and is considered one of the finest examples of Federal architecture in the Palladian style in the country.
Taft Museum
William Howard Taft
In 1830, it was sold to Cincinnati's first millionaire, Nicholas Longworth. The Longworths later sold the home to David Sinton, whose daughter Anna married Charles Phelps Taft, William Howard Taft's half-brother.(6) After the death of Sinton in 1873, the Taft Mansion became the home of Anna and Charles Phelps Taft until their respective deaths in 1931 and 1929. Most significantly, in 1908, Charles Phelps Taft's half-brother, William Howard Taft, was notified of his nomination for president of the United States under the portico of the house. The Phelps Building Charles Phelps Taft
Charles Phelps Taft was educated at Yale and the University of Heidelberg. Though he followed in the Taft family footsteps in law and public service, he also developed the family's involvement in journalism and business. He served one term in Congress and then returned to Cincinnati to manage the newspaper business and the family's vast real estate investments.
The Phelps Building Charles Phelps Taft
He joined his father-in-law, David Sinton, in numerous business ventures, including a controlling interest in the Times Star, where he became editor.Mount Adams
Perched high above Lytle Park sits a hilltop known as Mount Adams, named after U.S. President John Quincy Adams. Land in the Mount Adams area was owned by Nicholas Longworth during the 1830s and 1840s, and it was used to cultivate the Catawba grapes needed to make Adams' Golden Wedding champagne. Rookwood Pottery, located in Mount Adams, was opened by his granddaughter, Maria, in 1880.
Mount Adams
It was the first large manufacturing enterprise founded and owned by a woman in the United States, and it launched the art pottery movement in America. Rookwood pottery is still a highly sought-after collectible.(13) You will see an original Rookwood water fountain just off the lobby in The Lytle Park Hotel.Anna Louise Inn
In Lytle Park, The Lytle Park Hotel, formerly the Anna Louise Inn (311 Pike St.), is the latest redevelopment in the neighborhood. In the early 1900s, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Phelps Taft donated the site on the corner of Third and Lytle streets and helped provide funding to erect a five-story building with single rooms to accommodate 120 women from rural areas who were coming to Cincinnati to work. The Anna Louise Inn, named after the Tafts' daughter, Anna Louise Taft Semple, opened on Memorial Day 1909. The demand for the rooms was so great that the Tafts donated additional property along Pike Street, and an addition to the inn was completed in 1920.(4) The Earls building located beside the Anna Louise Inn was designed by Dittoe Fahnestock and Ferber and built in 1919 as residences for the rector of Christ Church and the director of the Anna Louise Inn. The two-story neo-Tudor family building was remodeled into office space in 1954 and served as home to the Cincinnati Bar Association at the time.
Anna Louise Inn
The architects for the Anna Louise Inn were Garber & Woodward, a firm nationally recognized for its high quality and innovative design work. They made many architectural contributions to the city of Cincinnati, including the Guilford School Building. Other work related to the Phelps family was the design of the Phelps building and the remodel of the Taft Museum. Known for many innovative school buildings and University of Cincinnati building designs, perhaps one of the firm's most significant designs was of the Dixie Terminal Building on Fourth Street. It provided a shopping center and ingenious design in the terminal for buses crossing the Ohio River on the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge.(5) A major redevelopment that began in 2014 to incorporate the two historical buildings into The Lytle Park Hotel, culminated with the hotel opening in March 2020. The hotel unites beautiful elements of the park with the history of the surrounding neighborhood to reflect a unique and architecturally elegant design showcased by the city's newest luxury hotel.
Guilford Building Stephen Foster
Walk a few steps from Lytle Park along Fourth Street and you will arrive at the Guilford Building (421 East Fourth St.), which was originally the site of a regional hospital located just beyond the north wall of Fort Washington from 1789-1808. A cartouche of George Washington is on the north façade.
Guilford Building Stephen Foster
The building was originally built as a school in 1913 and named after Nathan Guilford. He was the father of the first Ohio law that provided a property tax for educational purposes leading to the creation of Ohio's public school system.University Club
Next to the Guilford is the University Club (401 East Fourth St.), founded in 1879 as a result of a call for persons interested in forming a club of "college men," meaning graduates or those with at least two years of college experience. William Howard Taft and Charles Phelps Taft were both members. Charles Phelps Taft generously acquired the ownership of the Seeley residence and the Smith residence for the purpose of a clubhouse. He offered the properties to the club, provided they raise the money through "subscriptions" to merge the two buildings.
University Club
In the late 1960s, the club lifted its restrictions on women members due to changing social conventions. An interesting fact: the club charged $.70 for lunch in 1929.(17)The Western & Southern Life Insurance Company Building
Across from the Guilford Building and the University Club is The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company building (400 Broadway), a four-story structure built with eight massive ionic columns on the Fourth Street façade and four similar ones on the Broadway side. The company, which was founded in 1888, has been on this site since 1901.
The Western & Southern Life Insurance Company Building
Prior to this building, the site was the Dexter home, where popular English novelist Charles Dickens had been entertained.(18) The building serves as home to Western & Southern Financial Group, its seven life insurance subsidiaries and other member companies.The Literary Club of Cincinnati
Adjacent to the Phelps Building stands one of the last reminders of the original Cincinnati homes of the 1800s on Fourth Street. The Literary Club of Cincinnati (500 East Fourth St.) occupies a two-story Greek revival house that was built in 1820. It was originally the home of William Sargent, the secretary of the Northwest Territory. The Literary Club was founded in 1849, making it the oldest organization of its kind in the United States. It has no more than 100 members, all of them men. Many prominent Cincinnati residents have been members, including U.S. Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William Howard Taft. Members present papers of a literary nature at club meetings. Noted guest speakers have included Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Booker T. Washington, Mark Twain and Robert Frost.(19)