History of the Netherland Plaza

Discover some of the history of this beautiful Art Deco hotel, a jewel on the Cincinnati skyline since 1931. The information presented here is taken from materials made available to visitors at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza.

The Beginning: A city within a city

The plans for the Carew Tower and Netherland Plaza Hotel were announced in ugust 1929. The foundation began in January 1930 and the project was completed in January 1931. The financing came from the Emery family, which had made its fortune in processing the by-products of Cincinnati's stockyards. John Emery hired Walter W. Ahlschlager and Colonel William Starrett of Starrett Brothers, Inc. of New York for the construction. Starrett was well known as the builder of Washington D.C.'s Union Station and Lincoln Memorial, and New York City's Empire State Building (opened in May 1931) and Penn Station (1910). Ahlschlager designed the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee (1925) and the Medinah Athletic Club in Chicago (1929) which later became the Intercontinental Hotel.

The Carew Tower and Netherland Plaza Hotel were designed to ve a "city within a city." The concept was new in 1929 but Emery, Ahlschlager and Cincinnatiwere willing to gamble that this combination of shops, department stores, offices, and hotel would work, easing the life of downtown residents, workers and visitors. The practicailty of such an arrangement was made apparent again in 1990 when the Belvedere Corporation invested in the re-development of the Carew Tower Shopping Arcade and Office Tower, featuring its collection of upscale specialty shops, restaurants, a 13,000 square foot fitness center complete with lap pool, and 500,000 square feel of office space.

From an Obstacle to a Blessing

Emery's vision of the Carew Tower led him to make some bold financial moves - which ended up working in his favor. Emery had approached the bank to underwrite financing for the "city within a city" project. Because the concept was so novel, the bank did not share the vision of the multi-purpose facility and declined the loan. Emery, convinced his project would be a success, sold his stocks and securities, despite advice from his financial advisors. The plans and the financing for the Carew Tower were in place and then the stock market crashed. Had Emery left his stocks and securities tied up in the stock market, he would have lost everything. But instead, with him money going toward the building of Carew Tower, the project could continue as planned. In fact, the construction project became one of the city's largest employers, giving many men jobs during that dark era after the market's crash.

The Name Game

As the construction on the hotel came to a close, the name St. Nicholas plaza was chosen for the property. However, shortly before the grand opening, the Cincinnati Real Estate Company (operators of the Hotel Sinton) filed an injunction to fight the new hotel's use of the name St. Nicholas. The realty company claimed that it had purchased the rights to the St. Nicholas name when the old St. Nicholas Hotel, located at Fourth & Race Streets, had closed many years before. Having invested heavily in the monogramming of linens, china, silverware and stationary, the hotel needed a new name with the same initials - and fast. While the hotel did open under the name St. Nicholas Plaza, it was quickly changed to Starrett's Netherland Plaza. The Starrett's came from the builder, the Netherland came from the thought that the hotel occupied the space between the Ohio River and the hills, and P;aza was from the original choise. The name was abbreviated to "St. NP." Eventually, the "St." was dropped and "Netherland Plaza" is the name that is now famous.

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