National Register of Historic Places
Traction Company Building
Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio
The record
- Listed
- July 6, 2017
- Type
- Building
- Address
- 432 Walnut St., Cincinnati
- County
- Hamilton
- State
- Ohio
- Contributing resources
- 1 building
- Coordinates
- 39.09927, -84.51107
- Reference number
- 100001270
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
The Traction Company Building is a fifteen-story office building at 432 Walnut St. in Cincinnati, designed and built in 1902-1903 by Daniel H. Burnham & Company in the Chicago School style with Classical Revival detailing.
Why it's listed
It was listed in the National Register in 2017 under criterion C, with local significance in architecture, and its significance runs from 1903 to 1953, matching its 1903 completion.
Physical character
Its steel frame rises behind a three-story granite base and a Roman Doric portico with Classical Revival detailing on Walnut Street; the east façade is partly obstructed by the neighboring Center Building. Inside, marble panels, mahogany paneling and wainscoting, and brass hardware surround a semicircular bank of wrought iron elevator cages. A 1954 remodel replaced the original elevators with three modern cabs, and 1976 work added new storefronts, spandrel glass, and a fire escape.
Historical context
In 1901 the Cincinnati Street Railway leased its property to the newly formed Cincinnati Traction Company, whose offices occupied the ninth and tenth floors in 1903; the nomination names W. Kelsey Schoepf as the company's president. The Cincinnati Car Company relocated to a plant at Spring Grove and Mitchell avenues in 1928, and the Cincinnati Traction Company had dissolved by 1938.