Bowdeya Tweh, and Jessie Balmert

Cincinnati

Two Greater Cincinnati buildings have landed on a statewide historic preservation group's list of Ohio's "most endangered historic sites."

Preservation Ohio, the Columbus-based nonprofit organization, named the Dennison Hotel in Downtown Cincinnati and the Sorg Opera House in Middletown among sites on its 2016 list. The group made the announcement at a Wednesday news conference at the Ohio Statehouse.

For 23 years, the group has accepted nominations to draw attention to beloved and important historic sites threatened by demolition or neglect. Local historic preservation groups nominated both buildings to be included on the list.

Adding a building to the list doesn't automatically extend historic preservation protections. However, Preservation Ohio said that the list helps draw attention to the plight those buildings and sites face.

“Our list highlights those sites that are in danger of being lost forever for neglect or disinvestment,” Preservation Ohio president Carol Merry said.

Merry said this year's list includes 16 sites from 12 counties. Four of the 13 locations on last year’s list are being preserved, she said.

Here's a list of the 2015 sites picked for the list. Greater Cincinnati had three buildings on the group's 2014 list of endangered structures - Music Hall in Over-the-Rhine, Union Terminal in Queensgate and the Ellis House and farm in Wilmington.

Cincinnati's Historic Conservation Board will hold a special meeting at 1 p.m. May 26 at City Hall to consider the fate of the Dennison. The property's owner, Columbia Development Group, is seeking permission to raze the 124-year-old structure at 716 Main St. The city's historic preservation staff and a group of historic preservation advocates oppose the plan to tear down the building.

Battle lines drawn over Dennison Hotel plan

The property is located within the city's Main Street Historic District. The eight-story, 46,800-square-foot brick and terra cotta building features Victorian and Romanesque influences, according to the city. Samuel Hannaford & Sons, a noted Cincinnati-based architectural firm whose principal designed buildings such as City Hall and Music Hall, designed the building. The city's historic preservation staff said the Dennison is the "most substantial and architecturally ornate" building on the block and it contributes to the historic district's character.

The building initially was developed as an ironworks plant for G.B. Schulte Sons and Co., a firm that produced metal parts for carriages. The company operated the building until 1930. The following year, two office furniture companies operated within the building and upper floors were converted to serve as a hotel. The hotel operated as the Main Hotel until 1933, when it was renamed the New Dennison Hotel.

The Dennison was the last of about two dozen single-room occupancy hotels that began operations downtown in the early 1970s, according to Enquirer archives. Single-room occupancy hotels were inexpensive places for people to live, but often became a sore spot among public safety departments and public officials concerned about crime and blight.

The building has been vacant for the last five years since it was cleared out to convert the building into transitional housing for veterans. However, the project involving the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., Model Group and Talbert House was scrapped because they were unable to obtain financing to complete development. The Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., or 3CDC, later sold the building to Columbia in 2013.

Samuel Hannaford also designed the Sorg Opera House in downtown Middletown, which opened 13 years after Music Hall in Over-the-Rhine. But public performances haven't been held in the building since 2010 and prime commercial tenants had left spaces vacant years earlier.

A local revitalization group has owned the building since 2012, but it has had challenges in raising the money needed to repair and renovate the building. However, the project has missed out on securing a state capital grant last month and several rounds of awards from the state historic preservation tax credit program.

“When I talk about the Sorg Opera House, I get goosebumps because I just think about all those people who have graced that stage from Sophie Tucker to Bob Hope to the McGuire Sisters to Will Rodgers,” said Denise Brodsky with the Sorg Opera Revitalization Group.