{"nrhp_refnum":"89000460","name":"Ford Motor Company Cincinnati Plant","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"660 Lincoln Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cincinnati","county":"Hamilton County","state":"OH","lat":39.13296948900006,"lon":-84.49327335399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-05-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Engineering","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story reinforced concrete former Ford Motor Company branch assembly plant at 660 Lincoln Avenue in the Avondale area of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, completed in 1915 and attributed to architect Albert Kahn.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is significant under Criterion A for its link to Ford and the early growth of automobile mass production, and under Criterion C as an attributed work of Albert Kahn and a locally notable example of early reinforced concrete industrial construction. It is described as the earliest and least altered auto-related factory still standing in Cincinnati and one of only two pre-World War II Ford plants built in Ohio.","narrative":"Six stories of reinforced concrete rise above Lincoln Avenue in Cincinnati's Avondale area, where Ford Motor Company built a branch assembly plant begun in 1914 and in operation by spring 1915. The front is faced in red brick and white glazed terra cotta with blue tile banding, and the design is attributed to Detroit architect Albert Kahn, though no documents confirm it. Inside, wide octagonal columns with mushroom capitals created open floors for assembly, and materials moved down by gravity from upper levels. Ford assembled over 600,000 vehicles here until December 1932 and kept using the building for offices, sales and repairs until 1940, when Sears-Roebuck leased it for a farm implement distribution center. The plant is considered important for its connection to early mass production, its reinforced concrete construction and its Kahn-style design. It remains largely intact, though the upper cornice and Ford logo are gone and some terra cotta has fallen. At listing it was partly used for warehousing.","period_of_significance":"1915-1939","architect_builder":"Albert Kahn, Architect (attribution; documentary proof not found)","architectural_style":"Chicago","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Vacant/not in use, with some warehousing; the building was partially used for light warehousing and was for sale at the time of the nomination.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:15.179893-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/89000460.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89000460/4aae7aa4ea-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89000460/4aae7aa4ea-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Photo by Greg Hume (Greg5030)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FordMotorCincinnati.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Photo by Greg Hume (Greg5030)</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:FordMotorCincinnati.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989231","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company_Cincinnati_Plant","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5467857"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/hamilton-county/ford-motor-company-cincinnati-plant-89000460/"}