{"nrhp_refnum":"94000592","name":"Church, John, Company Building","other_names":["Lawton Building","Hunter Savings Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"14--16 E. Fourth St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cincinnati","county":"Hamilton County","state":"OH","lat":39.100303773000064,"lon":-84.51189032099995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-06-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-story, flat-roofed commercial building at 14-16 East Fourth Street in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, constructed in 1885 and designed by architect Samuel Hannaford. It has a white Ohio freestone facade in the Second Renaissance Revival style.","why_significant":"The nomination argues significance under Criterion C as the work of a master, Samuel Hannaford, Cincinnati's foremost nineteenth-century architect. It is the only commercial building in the Hannaford thematic group designed in the Second Renaissance Revival style. It is also one of the earliest surviving reminders of Fourth Street's rise as the city's commercial center.","narrative":"Built in 1885 at 14-16 East Fourth Street in downtown Cincinnati, this five-story commercial building was designed by Samuel Hannaford for the John Church Company, a leading dealer in pianos, organs and musical supplies. Its white Ohio freestone facade follows the Second Renaissance Revival style, with quoined piers, engaged Ionic columns, arcaded top-floor windows and a bracketed cornice. The company outgrew the space by 1893, and later occupants included publishers and booksellers, a women's apparel retailer and a savings association. A 1959 storefront and brick facing were removed during a 1990-1992 renovation that restored the original iron front on the second floor and cleaned the stone above. Listing rests on its architecture: Hannaford was Cincinnati's foremost nineteenth-century architect, and this is the only commercial building in his thematic group in this style. It also marks Fourth Street's growth into the city's main business corridor after the Civil War.","period_of_significance":"1885","architect_builder":"Hannaford, Samuel","architectural_style":"Renaissance (Second Renaissance Revival)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Exterior restored and interior rehabilitated in a renovation from 1990 to 1992; upper floors used as offices, with a new retail store planned for the first floor.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:07.628909-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/94000592.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000592/9912475c23-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000592/9912475c23-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Photo by Greg Hume (Greg5030)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JohnChurchCompanyBuilding.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Photo by Greg Hume (Greg5030)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JohnChurchCompanyBuilding.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71985420","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Church_Company_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6226111"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/hamilton-county/church-john-company-building-94000592/"}