Cincinnati Music Hall

On September 13, 1818, the City of Cincinnati purchased a plot of land from Jesse Embree for $3,200 on the west side of Elm Street, just north of 12th Street.[12] On January 22, 1821, the Ohio State Legislature passed an act that established "a Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum for the state of Ohio."[13] Thus, Ohio's first insane asylum was erected in Cincinnati on 4 acres (16,000 m²) of land bounded by the Miami and Erie Canal.[13][14] The Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum of Ohio was the parent institution for the Orphan Asylum, the City Infirmary, the Cincinnati Hospital, and Longview Asylum.[13] Cincinnati Hospital, the main facility, was located along the canal at 12th and Plum Streets,[15] which is now 12th and Central Parkway.

Following the Cholera outbreak of 1832, the land was used as a "pauper's cemetery" [16] until 1857 when city encroachment on the neighborhood made it unsuitable for such uses. Serious complaints from abutting property owners forced the "Pest House" to be relocated outside of the city limits. On January 29, 1859, the city converted the property into a park known as Elm Street Park and the land and buildings were used for exposition purposes until 1876 when it was turned over to the Music Hall Association.[12]

Cincinnati's first industrial exposition, which was in 1869, was a great success so the city wanted to expand it the following year.[17] At the same time, German musicians had plans to erect "a great temporary building opposite Washington Park" for the North American Saengerbund, which Cincinnati was to host during the summer of 1870. The two competing groups reached an agreement to construct a building that would be shared.[18] Depending on its use, the building was sometimes called Exposition Hall or Saengerfest Hall.

Exposition Hall was a huge wooden structure measuring 250 feet (76 m) long, 100 feet (30 m) wide, and 80 feet (24 m) tall.[18] Additionally, there were three other temporary buildings attached to it for a total floor space of 108,748 sq ft (10,103.0 m²)—more than that of the 1853 World's Fair in New York City.[18] The roof of the building was covered in tin. According to lore, a thunderstorm arose during an 1875 May Festival performance.[19] Rain on the tin roof grew so loud that the chorus was drowned out and the performance had to cease.[19] In the audience during that performance was Reuben R. Springer (1800–1884),[20] a wealthy Cincinnatian of German ancestry, who afterwards decided Cincinnati needed a more permanent structure.[19]

The original design of Music Hall.

Springer, influenced by the beneficial results the industrial expositions and musical festivals had on the city, wrote a letter in May 1875 to John Shillito, owner of Shillito's department store, offering to donate $125,000 under two conditions.[21] First, that the site be free from taxation, and second, that a further sum of $125,000 be raised by the community.[21][22] When only $106,000 was raised Springer donated an additional $20,000. From the outset, the musical and industrial interests collided, so Springer offered an additional $50,000 if $100,000 could be raised. This additional sum of money would be used for the construction of buildings around the hall for the purpose of holding industrial expositions. The total cost of Music Hall was $300,962.78 with the exposition wings an additional $146,331.51.[21]

Along with other community leaders such as Julius Dexter, W. H. Harrison, T. D. Lincoln, Joseph Longworth, Robert Mitchell, John Shillito and Reuben Springer organized the Music Hall Association to build the new hall. The group oversaw the construction and fundraising necessary to complete the space.[23]

Construction on Cincinnati Music Hall began in 1876, shortly after Hannaford and Porter was given the contract. The project was divided into multiple phases, first focusing on the construction of the center building, Music Hall.[24] Following several issues regarding weather and resources, the project was fast tracked in hopes of completing work on Music Hall prior to the 1878 May Festival Chorus performance.

After Music Hall was completed, new funds were raised and resources were allocated for the completion of both the Northern and Southern Exposition Halls, two spaces utilized as the City of Cincinnati's primary convention spaces from their construction through the 1970s.[25]

Although the 3 buildings were constructed separately, they were immediately joined together using second story passageways. This allowed for events to span all 3 spaces while also allowing several groups to share this space at once.

The first performance took place on May 14, 1878. An estimated 6,000 saw the opera "Alceste" by Christoph Willibald Gluck performed, as well as Beethoven's "Eroica" symphony.[26] These performances were especially significant as they included the May Festival Chorus and the Cincinnati Opera, two groups that were officially transitioning from other venues, such as the Cincinnati Zoo, to Music Hall as their permanent homes. Music Hall was then used independently for over a year, until both the North and South Exposition Halls were officially completed on September 2, 1879.

In addition to Music Hall's traditional role of housing the city's major arts organizations and formerly the college of music, the building served as Cincinnati's major convention center through the 1970s, when the Duke Energy Convention Center was built.

As early as 1879, Music Hall began to see notable guests such as President Ulysses S. Grant. He spoke at the venue on December 12, 1879. He addressed the public at Music Hall and the venue was overflowing with people according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.[27] The building has also hosted numerous other presidents such as William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Benjamin Harrison, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

June 22–24, 1880, the Democratic National Convention was held at Music Hall. This event resulted in the nomination of Winfield S. Hancock of Pennsylvania for President and William H. English of Indiana for Vice President in the United States presidential election of 1880. Additionally, this event was noteworthy due to the unique addition of Western Union Telegraph Wires to Music Hall for convention use, a task that had not been completed for major performance halls in the past.[28]

Overtime, the space also hosts numerous, notable musical performances such as the well known conductor, Richard Strauss in 1904, the world premier of the Opera “Taming of the Shrew” in 1953, and many other musical performances.[29]

Prior to being given their own homes, several Cincinnati organizations were housed in music hall including the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Cincinnati College of Music, the Cincinnati College of Engineering, and the television station WCET. The hall also housed a roller skating venue in one of the exposition halls for over 30 years, and was home to the Ohio Valley Exposition for over half a century.[29]

Deceased musicians that have performed at Cincinnati Music Hall include: French organist Alexandre Guilmant in 1898, Frank Sinatra in 1941 and '93, The Ink Spots (from Indianapolis) in '43, Johnny Cash in '57, Ray Charles in '61, Fats Domino in '64, the Velvet Underground (with Lou Reed) in '66, Sonny Bono (& Cher) in '67, Big Brother & the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin) in '68, B.B. King in '70, Grateful Dead (with Jerry Garcia) in '72, Miles Davis in '74, and Ella Fitzgerald in '74.[30]

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra produced a projection mapping event called Lumenocity on August 3-4, 2013,[31] August 1-3, 2014,[32] August 5-9, 2015,[33] and August 5-7, 2016.[34] The program incorporated a diverse array of visual elements never before presented with a live orchestra. The event was very popular & was the first step in creating the city-wide projection mapping event called Blink.[35]

In 2016, Cincinnati Music Hall was closed for a 14-month, $143 million renovation. The renovation included the addition of 30,000 additional square feet of usable space, as well as the structural and cosmetic renovation of the buildings traditional performance and event spaces. Approximately half of the renovations funding was provided by private donors, while the other half came from public funding sources such as the City of Cincinnati and tax credits from the State of Ohio.[36] The space officially opened to the public October 6–7, 2017 with a weekend of performances and all access tours of the building.[37]