Our Story
Standing before the first note
This house was here seven years before Music Hall, and it has kept time with Cincinnati's music ever since.
1871
Built by the hand that shaped Cincinnati
Our Italianate home was built in 1871 by celebrated architect James W. McLaughlin, who also gave Cincinnati its Public Library and a wing of the Art Museum. He built it for Peter Ehrgott, a German lithographer and devoted supporter of the Cincinnati Symphony and the May Festival. Seven years later, Music Hall rose directly across the street, and this address found its calling.
Ehrgott's son Louis was a musician, and he began teaching lessons in the back dining room. Before long the family was boarding music students, and the house stayed full of practicing musicians for years. It later carried on as the Clyde Hotel, through the neighborhood's grand years and its rough ones, always within earshot of the city's grandest stage.
1995
A restoration, con amore
After years of standing empty, the building was bought in 1995 by the Blatt family, and Karen Blatt restored it room by room. “Nothing is cookie-cutter here,” as she puts it. In 1996 it reopened as the Symphony Hotel, a small bed & breakfast for out-of-town guests with tickets at Music Hall.
Today the tradition continues: nine guest rooms named for the great composers, furnished with period antiques and musical artifacts, and an intimate bar where the neighborhood still gathers before the show.
Movements
A history in six movements
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1871
The house is built
Architect James W. McLaughlin completes the Italianate residence at 210 West 14th Street for Peter Ehrgott, a German lithographer and devoted supporter of the Cincinnati Symphony and the May Festival.
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1878
Music Hall opens its doors
Cincinnati's grand Victorian Gothic concert hall rises directly across the street, and the neighborhood becomes the city's musical heart.
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Late 1800s
Music in the back dining room
Ehrgott's son Louis, a musician, begins teaching lessons in the house, and the family starts boarding music students. The rooms fill with the sound of practice.
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1900s
The Clyde Hotel years
The house carries on as a boarding house and the Clyde Hotel while Over-the-Rhine booms, declines, and waits for its revival.
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1995
The restoration
The Blatt family purchases the long-abandoned building, and Karen Blatt brings it back to life room by room, reopening it in 1996 as the Symphony Hotel.
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Today
The encore continues
A boutique hotel of nine composer rooms and an intimate cocktail bar, welcoming travelers, concert-goers, and neighbors in the heart of Over-the-Rhine.
Italianate architecture, antique furnishings, and a century and a half of music in the walls.210 West 14th Street · Over-the-Rhine