{"nrhp_refnum":"78002006","name":"Dew House","other_names":["Hotel Dew","Ohio House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Public Sq.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Nelsonville","county":"Athens County","state":"OH","lat":39.46006311300005,"lon":-82.23197365399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-10-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick hotel building with an attached two-story commercial block, located on Public Square in Nelsonville, Athens County, Ohio. It was built in 1878 and incorporates an earlier hotel, the Ohio House, from 1839.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the Dew House reflects the economic, social and political history of Nelsonville, whose growth followed the Hocking Valley Canal and Railroad and the coal boom. The hotel expanded in 1878 as the town grew and served as a community focus for social and political events. Presidents and candidates spoke there, including Taft and Roosevelt in the 1912 primary campaign.","narrative":"Dew House is a three-story brick hotel on Public Square in Nelsonville, Ohio, with a two-story commercial block attached on the north. It was erected in 1878 by James Dew, who appears to have incorporated the older Ohio House, a two-story masonry hotel built in 1839 on lots bought by his uncle Thomas Dew. The building has a slate hipped roof with bracketed cornice, and a two-story porch was added between 1907 and 1912. Its listing rests on its link to Nelsonville's growth as a coal-mining town served by the Hocking Valley Canal and Railroad. The hotel served as a Civil War recruiting office, reportedly had the area's first telephone, and hosted political speeches by several presidents. Taft and Roosevelt spoke from the porch during the 1912 Republican primary race. As mining declined, the hotel became a rooming house, then welfare housing, and closed in 1975. County plans in 1978 aimed to renovate it for elderly housing.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"The hotel closed in 1975 rather than comply with fire code requirements; county plans in 1978 proposed renovating it as elderly housing. Condition is marked fair and altered.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:12.032941-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/78002006.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002006/21f4deb0e4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002006/21f4deb0e4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jaknouse","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dew_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jaknouse</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dew_House.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"96000672","name":"Nelsonville Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/ohio/nelsonville-historic-district-96000672/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71986737","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_House_(Nelsonville,_Ohio)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137460482"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/athens-county/dew-house-78002006/"}