Philanthropist Mary Emery grew frustrated watching living conditions in early-1900s Cincinnati and set out to build something better. In 1921 she hired town planner John Nolen and a team of 25 architects to design Mariemont, a planned English garden village meant as a national model for how working-class Americans could live.
The Mariemont Inn opened on April 13, 1926, designed by architects Zettle and Rapp in three stories of Tudor timber and brick, and it served as the social hub of the new village from day one, with community banquet rooms where residents gathered for weddings and meetings. Emery ran the village through the Mariemont Company until 1931, when she transferred control to a foundation carrying on her philanthropic work. The Village of Mariemont earned National Historic Landmark status in 2007, and the inn has been a Historic Hotels of America member since 2003.