UNION CENTRAL BUILDING - Cincinnati, Ohio
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 39° 05.993 W 084° 30.760
16S E 715093 N 4330806
Historic well known office tower in downtown Cincinnati, now known as the PNC Tower.
Waymark Code: WM3NTK
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 04/26/2008
Views: 100
The
second-tallest building in Cincinnati, the UNION CENTRAL BUILDING, SW. corner of
Fourth and Vine Strs. is a 38-story structure completed in 1913. It
serves as the home office of the Union Central Life Insurance Company.
Unit the Carew Tower was brought to completion in 1930, it was the city's
highest structure. Marble facing covers the first three stories; white
terra cotta, all the others. Above the colonnaded square at the top of a
pyramidal crown topped by a cupola with an aviation beacon. At night the
illuminated tower can be seen for miles. Cass Gilbert and Garber &
Woodward designed the building.
The Union Central Life Insurance Company was founded on January 10, 1867,
by the Methodist Church. Preachers were encouraged to become agents--with
notable success. Today the concern is one of the Nation's larger insurance
companies, and the home office here employs more than 1,000 person.
On the site once stood the home of Reuben Spring, promoter of Music Hall.
The post office was here until 1884, when it made way for the Romanesque Chamber
of Commerce building, which was destroyed by fire in 1911.
~ from Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors,
1943, Tour 4, pg 175
The Union Central Life Insurance Company moved from the building in 1964 and
moved to a new corporate complex in the suburbs. The building is now known
as the PNC Tower and is occupied by PNC Bank. The building was originally
painted brown and was painted white in the 1940's. The building remains
the second tallest building in Cincinnati. The Tower was added
to the the West Fourth Street Historic District in with the boundary increase in
2006.