Built in 1860 in the Italianate architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1980. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“Rattermann House was a historic residence in the West End neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Built in 1860, it was a brick building with a stone foundation and elements of iron and stone.”
Wikipedia article Heinrich A. Rattermann House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 314 National Register listings in Hamilton County · listed in 1980 · category: Building · built in 1860, Italianate architecture · one of 9 National Historic Landmarks in Hamilton County.
National Register reference number.80003080- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The reader looks forward to this, the first history of Cincinnati that has yet found itself in print. The writers look back across its half-century of chapters and the century of years embraced by its annals, and have, chiefest of all, to regret many unavoidable errors, both of omission and commission. The more important of these, it is hoped, will appear in our page of errata; but there are still many, doubtless, that have escaped the compilers' attention. In a few cases, discrepancies appear between their statements and those of an extract immediately following. In those instances they must assure the reader that the former rest upon an authority believed to be superior to the other in regard to the matter in hand; but time and space could not always be taken for the discussion and settlement of points concerning which there are variant reports. In all really important matters, they believe the history will be found quite trustworthy, especially when corrected from the page of errata.
Within the decade whose annals have just been passed in review, fell the birth of Cincinnati township, to which was entrusted, for almost twelve years, the government of Cincinnati village, which it of course contained. The township was created, after Columbia, by the court of general quarter sessions of the peace, which then had jurisdiction in these matters, in 1791. To the time of the erection of these townships, the whole county, which contained but a few hundred white inhabitants, was most conveniently governed as one municipality.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 5,906 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Rattermann, Heinrich A., House between 1819 and
1975: 2,858 Fungi, 1,736 Animalia, 963 Plantae, 298 Protozoa, 32 Unrecorded, 18 Chromista, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A Schwartz, A. Braun, A. F. Braun and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
3 workings within 5 miles of Rattermann, Heinrich A., House: 1 past producer, 1 producer, 1 unknown.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Tin, Lead, Antimony. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Cincinnati, the town this property stands in, in 70 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 25 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 14 flash flood, 7 flood.
The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Numerous roads were flooded throughout the Cincinnati area and some basements were flooded. Flooding also caused some damage at Reading High School and Whitaker Elementary School.
Lightning struck a home causing a fire in the attic, which spread toward the second floor before being extinguished. Significant fire and water damage occurred to the home.
High water was reported on several roads in the downtown Cincinnati area and the near West Side. A retaining wall collapsed onto a roadway near the intersection of State Avenue and Ernst Street and a building was flooded on Poplar Street. Also, an apartment basement flooded on Linn Street and one resident needed to be rescued.
14 papers published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 0 issues,
0 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
4,265 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
DESCRIPTION
COURTHOUSE,
REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC. Hamilton County Court House
STREET & NUMBER
Court & Main St. CITY, TOWN
Cincinnati,
STATE
Ohio
6 REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS
TITLE
None
DATE
FEDERAL STATE COUNTY LOCAL
DEPOSITORY FOR
SURVEY RECORDS
CITY, TOWN
STATE
7 DESCRIPTION
CONDITION
__EXCELLENT __DETERIORATED
__GOOD __RUINS
X FAIR __UNEXPOSED
CHECK ONE
X UNALTERED
__ALTERED
CHECK ONE
X ORIGINAL SITE
__MOVED DATE______
DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
This building is a fairly typical example of Italianate architecture, common in Cincinnati. Because of its unaltered appearance, it is also a good example, illustrating very well the basic characteristics of the style.
The building is three stories high, constructed of brick, with a stone foundation. The flat roof is distinguished by a dominant, bracketed cornice. The facade is divided into three bays. The second and third floor windows have bracket sills and carved moulded lintels that conform to the slightly rounded shape of the 2-over-2 double hung windows. The first floor windows are more noticeably arched and the stone lintels are decorated with keystones. The side entrance is recessed. The door is wooden with a panel in the lower section and glass in the upper part. There is also a glass transom. The entire entrance is surrounded by elaborately carved stone trim. At the rear of the building (north side) is a three story wing, narrower than the front of the house.
This wing was built at the same time as the rest of the house. The original stone retaining wall, stone steps and wrought iron fence are intact. Although the photographs date from 1975, there has been no change in the exterior appearance.
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
Heinrich A. Rattermann was the most prolific German-American author of all time and Cincinnati's greatest German man of letters. As an historian and educator, Rattermann recorded the settlement and history of the German-Americans in Ohio and through his writings did much to establish a united German-American cultural basis. His home at 510 York Street served as a literary center of German-American literature. The house is a good example of the Italianate style and its unaltered condition illustrates very well the basic elements of the Italianate style. Rattermann lived here from 1895 until his death in 1923. Heinrich Armin Rattermann (10/14/1832 - 1/6/1923) was born in Osnabrück, Germany.
His formal education ended at the age of 13 when he immigrated with his parents to the United States. He arrived in Cincinnati in 1846. His early employment included brickyard and slaughterhouse jobs. When his father died in 1850 he became the supporter of his mother and two younger children. He worked in his uncle's lumber yard until 1858 when he founded the German Mutual Fire Insurance Company which prospered and enabled him to support a large family, gather a valuable private library and make frequent trips in the interest of historical investigations. Although there are significant properties in the vicinity of the Ratterman House, this property is being nominated in an effort to encourage its preservation by the owners.
9 MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
Dictionary of American Biography, Scribners, New York, Vol. 15, 1935, p388. Coyle, William, Ohio Authors and Their Books, World Publ., Cleveland, Ohio, 1962, p. 515. Pochmann, H., Bibliography of German Culture in America in 1940, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1953, p. 282-288.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 80003080, 13 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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