SITE OF MELODEON HALL - Cincinnati, Ohio
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 39° 06.022 W 084° 30.670
16S E 715221 N 4330863
Site of a former performance hall occupied by 17-story skyscraper since 1901 in downtown Cincinnati.
Waymark Code: WM3PG2
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 04/29/2008
Views: 20
The Union Trust Company's 17-story brick skyscraper stands on the SITE OF
MELODEON HALL, NW. corner of Fourth and Walnut Sts. In the mid-nineteenth
century Melodeon Hall, a 3-story structure, was a popular cultural center; here
Jenny Lind gave her second local recital in 1851. After the Civil
War, when gamblers and sports took over this area, the St. Lawrence Bar and
Billiard Hall occupied part of the building. It is said to have been one
of the most palatial gambling houses in the country.
~ from Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors,
1943, Tour 4, pg 174
The Union Trust Company building better known as the Bartlett Building
remains at the this location. The Bartlett Building (1901) was the first
of four D.H. Burnham designed skyscrapers to be built in Cincinnati. The
Bartlett Building was the tallest building in Cincinnati from 1901 until 1904
when the near by Fourth and Walnut Centre building was completed.
Jenny Lind mentioned in the Guide was a Swedish-born opera singer who was
extremely popular in the United States beginning in 1850.