Attorney Joseph C. Thoms opened the Hotel Metropole on New Year’s Day 1912, hiring the local firm Joseph G. Steinkamp & Sons to design a ten-story building faced in brick and terra-cotta for a city short on upscale lodging. The hotel operated for decades before falling into decline, and by 1971 the building had been converted into federally subsidized apartments.
It became known for the wrong reasons, logging nearly 200 police calls in a single year before its 2008 closure. 21c Museum Hotels bought the shell and brought in Deborah Berke Partners for a 2012 renovation that kept the original ballroom intact while turning the rest into gallery space. The building’s air shaft is now a ten-story solarium. It’s the first full-service hotel to open in downtown Cincinnati in 28 years, and it’s been a Historic Hotels of America member since 2019.
