Dixie Terminal Celebrates a Century

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October 22, 2021 marks a century since the opening of Cincinnati’s Dixie Terminal building. Located at 49 E. Fourth Street, the building is currently home to hundreds of employees and is owned by our parent company, American Financial Group.

The building is visually colorful, from its Cincinnati-created Rookwood tile entryway to its medallion-covered interior arcade ceiling, and boasts a colorful history. Dixie Terminal has served as a transportation hub, the home of the Cincinnati Stock Exchange and as a movie set.

Learn more about Dixie Terminal’s history and building facts:

The $3.5 million terminal opened on Sunday, October 23, 1921 and was designed as a port for streetcars coming across the Ohio River from Northern Kentucky.
The concept of the building originated with the need to alleviate the streetcar congestion in the downtown Cincinnati streets as well as Northern Kentucky.
The building opened with 99 tenants, including future Senator Robert A. Taft and the offices of the Cincinnati Baseball Club.
The Dixie Terminal Building is actually two buildings. The south building featured the transportation terminal and a telegram communications center, and the north building was one of the first indoor shopping malls in the nation.
Dixie Terminal North housed railroad ticket agencies, the Cincinnati Stock Exchange and the administrative office of the Cincinnati Street Railway Company.
Streetcars from downtown Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky ran through the south building until 1936. The Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) buses then ran through the building until 1996.
Back in its heyday, Dixie Terminal was considered the "gateway to the South," when roughly 100,000 people passed through the terminal each day.
The interior dome was designed by local architects Frederick W. Garber and Clifford B. Woodward in classical revival style with a vaulted arcade suggesting a roman basilica.
The dome in the building's arcade went through a four-month renovation in 2017 to restore the ceiling to its original color. This Cincinnati Business Courier article talks about the dome renovation. Imagine cleaning your ceiling with cotton balls and cotton swabs!
The building has been used as scene locations for several major motion pictures, including “Rain Man” (1988) and “The Marauders” (2016).