Names Around Town

Like most other cities, Hamilton’s history has been embedded in the names of places and a lot can be learned by studying a map.

Alexander Hamilton never actually came to Hamilton, but many of the names on the streets, buildings, and parks are hints to an illustrious and prosperous past, memorials to the industrialists, bankers, politicians, physicians, philanthropists, etc., who made this city.

Here’s a look at some of the people whose names are attached to a Hamilton building.

Benninghofen House, 327 North Second Street

Built in 1862 by local attorney and state senator Noah McFarland and now the home of the Butler County Historical Society, the Benninghofen House takes its name from the prominent family that occupied it from 1874 until the family gave it to the community for use as a museum in 1949. John Benninghofen, the third owner of the house, was a Prussian immigrant from a family of silk weavers in the old country, but he became an apprentice in the dry goods trade at age 15 until he opened his own business at age 29. Historian Stephen D. Cone said “Physically he was cast in a large and brawny mold… A massive head was set on solid shoulders and from the foundation up all was solid and substantive.” He was also smart, energetic, and ambitious. He sought to try his luck in America and landed in Hamilton via New Orleans in 1848. Now age 36 and unable to find work as a weaver, he took to peddling dry goods again and was apparently quite successful at it. He saved his money and ten years later became partners with Asa Schuler when he purchased the interest of the Breidenbauch brothers’ growing woolen mill on Fourth Street. Breidenbauch & Co., as it was originally known, mostly made yarns, blankets, cashmere fabric, and flannels for local trade in Hamilton and Cincinnati, but as Schuler & Benninghofen Woolen Mill began making felt for the Shuey & McGuire paper mill in Hamilton. When the company developed a seamless felt for paper-making use in 1866, it dominated the market and its trade went world-wide. John Benninghofen married twice and fathered seven children, five of them born in Hamilton from his second marriage to the former Wilhelmina Klein, including sons Christian and Peter who followed him in the wool milling business.

The Mueller Building, 20 High Street

The sandstone art deco wonder formerly known as the Municipal Building is now the home of several diverse enterprises, most visibly The Municipal Brew Works around back but also including Heritage Hall museum devoted to the work of Robert McCloskey, who designed the bas relief sculptures and other architectural details at the age of 19. The building bears the name of the lead architect on the project, Frederick G. Mueller, who designed many of Hamilton’s landmark buildings, including the YMCA, the First United Methodist Church, the Anthony Wayne Hotel, the Palace Theatre, and the Hamilton City School District’s central office, originally Hamilton Catholic High School. He also served on the City Planning Commission and Parks Commission for many years and designed some of the city’s parks, including the Potter golf course. Mueller, who died in 1947 at the age of 73, was native talent, born in Hamilton to German immigrants. Although he dropped out of his first year of high school to take a job with local architect Fred E. Townsend, he studied in Chicago at the Armour Institute and the Chicago Art Institute and served a five-year apprenticeship before returning to Hamilton to open up shop. He married Charlotte Hossfeld, also a Hamilton native born to German immigrants, and had two daughters, including Fritzi Beckett, wife of paper maker and Hamilton Mayor William Beckett.

The Lane Library, 300 N. Third Street

During his lifetime, Clark Lane was one of Hamilton’s most prominent citizens, and 15 years before the famed philanthropist Andrew Carnegie began building libraries, Lane sought to improve Hamilton’s literacy by establishing one here. The son of area pioneers, his father built the first house in Mt. Healthy, Hamilton County, where Lane was born in 1823. The family trade was blacksmithing, and as a youngster he would operate the bellows for his father. In 1835, the family made the first reaping machine in the Northwest Territory. He first came to Rossville in 1844 to work as a blacksmith in a carriage shop, but he soon left for political reasons. He was an abolitionist, which didn’t sit well with his boss, so Lane moved to Dayton to “shake the holy dust of the Christian town of Hamilton” off of his feet, he wrote in his journal. There he married Sally Coriell, and moved back to Hamilton to open the Owens, Lane & Dyer Machine Shop, which evolved into Hooven, Owens & Rentschler, with $1,000 he borrowed from William Beckett. He and Sally had nine children, but only two lived to adulthood. Two died in the cholera epidemic of 1849-50. He first offered $10,000 if the citizens would raise an equal amount to build a library, but after failing to raise the subscriptions, he built it himself anyway on ground he already owned. The original octagonal structure still exists, though added onto. When the library opened in 1866, he had stocked it with 1,200 volumes and assigned his niece Emma Lane to be the first librarian. He also purchased the Dyer farm in 1875 and made a gift to the county of the Children’s Home. After some reversals in his fortune later in life, Lane moved to Elkhart, Indiana, where his son had relocated and died there in 1907, but his funeral took place in his library and he rests in Greenwood Cemetery.

The Fitton Center For Creative Arts, 101 South Monument Avenue

Many observers cite the beginning of Hamilton’s current cultural Renaissance to the opening of the Fitton Center for Creative Arts in 1994. It was a gift from the city to itself in honor of its Bicentennial and many people contributed to its construction, but the fundraising drive was headed by Richard J. Fitton, a member of one of Hamilton’s leading families for several generations and president of the First National Bank. Just before his death in 2004, he provided $3.5 million for the construction of the Conservatory at Miami University Hamilton and the West Side Branch of the YMCA bears the “Fitton Family” brand.

Carruthers Arts and Technology Center at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts
The Donna Y. Carruthers Cardiovascular Services Suites at Fort Hamilton Hospital
The Carruthers Fine Arts Wing at Wilson Middle School
The Donna Y. Carruthers Manor House, Berkeley Square

Ralph “Pat” Carruthers and his wife Donna have left their family name all over town. A descendant of the P&G Procter family, Pat was born and raised on a cattle farm in Glendale. After eight years in the Marine Corps, he enrolled in Miami University on the G.I. Bill and started working at Champion Papers on the production floor, where he met Donna Young, proudly “a Lindenwald girl,” who worked there as a secretary. They married in 1958 and he worked his way up in sales at Champion to become one of the top executives. Before Donna died in 2009 and Pat earlier this year, the Carruthers gave away literally millions of dollars, including memorable gifts of $10 million to Fort Hamilton Hospital and $2.5 million to the Fitton Center for Creative Arts, where Donna’s decorating aesthetics can be experienced in the Carruthers Signature Ballroom and restrooms. It would be impossible to list all of the organizations and institutions they supported in their philanthropy. They were well-known and loved in the community for keeping the city pools open for many years and providing Christmas gifts to needy children. In addition to replacing the arts wing at Wilson Middle School after a fire, they provided generous funds for the renovation of the Rotary Auditorium at Hamilton High School. They also funded 29 private rooms for the fifth floor of Mercy Hospital Fairfield.

Miami University Hamilton Campus

This year celebrating its 50th anniversary, Miami University Hamilton Campus buildings bear names names to the history of that institution and the city.

One of the two original buildings when the campus was built in 1968, Rentschler Hall is named for Peter E. Rentschler, who was chairman of the Board of the Hamilton Foundry and served as chairman of the Hamilton Campus Fund campaign.

Mosler Hall was named in recognition of a major gift from the Mosler Foundation in memory of the foundation’s founders Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Mosler, Sr.

Phelps Hall, built in in 1972 was named for Dr. Bernard F. Phelps Miami University professor of speech, a former Mayor of Oxford, and the first Director of the Hamilton Campus.

The Harry T. Wilks Conference Center, constructed in 1997, is named for the late Hamilton attorney Harry Wilks who created an endowment to fund scholarships for Hamilton Campus students who could not otherwise financially attend college. Wilks, the founder of Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, also created an annual lecture series on the Hamilton Campus. His philanthropic endeavors included the Harry T. Wilks Hamilton Celebrates Education Award and causes like the American Red Cross, the Great Miami Valley YMCA and the Cincinnati Opera, where he funded the Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director.