The Central Hotel sits on Public Square in the middle of Galion, a community of 10,500 about an hour north of Columbus. The original brick structure dates from the decade before the Civil War, with additions made through the next 30 years.
After a vote by Galion’s City Council last week, it appears likely that the building will survive for decades to come. The unanimous decision will operate to loan over $900,000 to the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing for a share in a project to undertake emergency repairs.
“ The Hotel,” as it is commonly referred to locally, has a storied history. Local historians note the visit of inventor Alexander Graham Bell, who is said to have hired Galion schoolchildren – for a nickel a trip – to string wires across the Square from a Hotel window. In the late 1870s, a young man named Henry Lee obtained his first job there as a clerk; he went on to establish an oil company which sold to John D. Rockefeller and later to create what became the Lee Jeans Company. Other nationally known politicians, sports figures, and others slept in rooms there.
In the first decade of the 21st century, the Hotel was “rescued” through a multi-million dollar renovation which transformed it into 30 units of affordable housing for area seniors. Over the last two years, however, it was discovered that that project had been undertaken in a manner which left the building in a very substandard condition. Residents were moved out, and discussion ensued about the Hotel’s future. The Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing, an important part of renovation projects across Ohio, chose to commit some $2 million for its “re-renovation” and asked the City of Galion to make its revolving loan monies available.
Galion’s City Council gave the issue serious attention, and chose the path of re-investment in the City’s “Uptowne” and of preserving the rich past of a community that has a unique sense of shared heritage. Over 100 buildings in Galion sit in one of the City’s design review districts, the largest of which have guidelines based on nationally-accepted standards for preservation.
The Central Hotel is “couched” between two other important buildings – the circa 1885 Zimmerman Building to the west, with its heavily ornamented window surrounds, and the outstanding monitor-roofed Hackedorn Building to its west, which dates from 1854.
Currently, the City of Galion is also undertaking an effort to identify restoration and reuse options for the large Big Four Depot, a masterpiece of Ohio railroad history. Some blocks to the west of the Hotel, a non-profit has acquired and is launching work on restoring the Bloomer and Nellie Gill House. The Gill House is the only known surviving Neoclassical residence in America designed by noted Detroit architect Louis Kamper, and was built by a family with close ties to both Thomas A. Edison and Henry Ford.
L to R — Hackedorn Building, Central Hotel, and Zimmerman Building
Public Square, Galion
