When it opened in 1882, the French Second Empire-style Palace Hotel—as the Cincinnatian was then known—quickly became a shining jewel in the Queen City’s crown. A grand walnut-and-marble staircase climbed the eight-story building (the tallest in the city), leading to 300 rooms with shared bathrooms at the end of each corridor, incandescent lighting and several elevators. There were hitching posts out front and the hotel was located where the trolley cars made their turn.

 In the early 1950s, the building was renamed the Cincinnatian Hotel, but this change didn’t save the hotel from steady deterioration over the next 30 years. Soon it faced the same lamentable fate of most old buildings: it was scheduled to be torn down for a parking garage. Instead, the hotel closed for four years of renovation. In 1987, some $25 million later, it reopened as the luxury boutique hotel it is today. The expansive staircase still remains, and the Cricket Lounge—the Palace Hotel’s first restaurant—has retained much of its original old-world charm, but the 300 rooms once offered were reduced to 146 spacious suites and guest rooms. A soaring, eight-story atrium crowned in a skylight was added, and a new restaurant, bearing the name of the original hotel, opened as well.