W. 5th St. and Fountain Sq., Cincinnati, Ohio. County/parish: Hamilton.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places August 05, 1982. NRIS 82003578.
1 contributing building.Also known as:
Carew Tower is a 49-story, 574-foot (175 m) Art Deco skyscraper in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. The second-tallest building in the city, it was Cincinnati's tallest from 1930 until 2011, when it was surpassed by Great American Tower at Queen City Square. The tower is named after Mabley & Carew department store proprietor Joseph T. Carew, who was the namesake of a previous structure on the site.
The Carew Tower was developed by industrialist John J. Emery, who sought to create a mixed-use "city within a city" with an office and retail tower, a hotel, and a parking garage. Planning was assisted by skyscraper pioneer William A. Starrett, whose firm Starrett Brothers, Inc. became the project's contractor. Walter W. Ahlschlager served as the complex's principal architect, with Delano & Aldrich as an associate architect. Announced shortly before the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, work on the project continued despite poor economic conditions. The office and retail tower topped out in July 1930, and the entire complex was complete by early 1931 at a cost of $33 million ($621 million in 2024).
Upon its completion in 1930, the tallest of the complex's three towers housed commercial offices on the majority of floors, a retail arcade on the lower levels, and an observation deck on the top floor. In its later years as a commercial property, the tower was beset by high vacancy rates and financial difficulties. In 2022, the tower was purchased by developer Victrix Investments LLC, which announced plans to convert it into a primarily residential building by late 2029. The complex's hotel opened as the St. Nicholas Plaza in 1931, but has operated under a variation of the name Netherland Plaza for most of its history, becoming the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza in 2002. Previously under common ownership with the rest of the complex, the hotel was excluded from the 2022 sale. The parking garage, which was the shortest tower, closed in 1979 and was subsequently demolished.
Celebrated by local media and public figures within Cincinnati, the Carew Tower is among the city's foremost landmarks. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994, with the National Park Service describing it as "one of the finest examples of skyscraper modernism in America" and "the most complete statement of the 1920s' Jazz Age".
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71986483