North Hall, which used to house a 6000 seat sport arena, now contains a huge scenery storage area, carpenter shop, and rehearsal hall. On the second floor of the South Hall, a ballroom which houses events ranging from antique shows to high school proms to large dinners and receptions. The first floor houses offices and dressing rooms. Air conditioning throughout the whole of Music Hall is controlled by 23 zones. Escalators to all three floors are located on the South side of the Foyer. Subsurfaces are of limestone taken from the same quarries that produced the sturdy piers of the Suspension Bridge. Music Hall owes its existence to two prominent Cincinnatians who loved their city and its music - Reuben Springer and J. Ralph Corbett. It was Springer, an early Cincinnati millionaire, who recognized the need to house great musical events and industrial exhibits properly. Culture and commerce went hand-in-glove in early Cincinnati. Up until that time, these activities were based in a tin-roofed wooden structure built by the Saengerbund singing society on municipal land. At that time it was the largest public building in the city.
To open the third May Festival in 1877, a world famous choral event bringing together the greatest artists of their time, the trustees engaged the renowned Theodore Thomas to conduct. Just as he raised his baton to open the second concert a tremendous thunderstorm crashed overhead. The rain pelted down on the tin roof of Saenger Hall. Thomas could not conduct, the orchestra could not be heard and the event was almost canceled. Fortunately, the rain stopped and the concert went on. Springer, who was in the audience, conceived a plan for a structure to be a combined Music Hall and Exhibition Center.
He proposed that the citizens of Cincinnati put up half the funds and he would put up the other half. This then unique plan of matching funds met with the approval of prominent businessmen and ordinary citizens alike. About 600 contributors raised $125,000, including an important contribution of $3000 by the city's school children. This was matched by $125,000 from Springer and was enough to start the new building. Music Hall was built in the incredibly fast time of one year in time for the opening of the 1878 May Festival. Later, two side wings, Art Hall and Machinery Hall were added in time for the 1879 Industrial Exposition. Total construction cost was $446,000.
Originally, Music Hall had no gallery or proscenium arch. These were added in 1895. Again in 1927 the Hall was remodeled. The North Wing, already equipped for general exhibition purposes, was made into one of the finest sports arenas in the country. The South Wing was also reconstructed, the second floor being turned into a ballroom accommodating 1600 persons, without pillars or posts for obstruction.
In 1955 there was a major face lifting and in 1969, the most dramatic renovation, spearheaded and substantially financed by the Corbett Foundation, produced the Hall in its present form with air-conditioning, escalators, modern dressing rooms and other finishing touches to what is undoubtedly one of the greatest facilities of its kind in the world.
Yet, with all its improvements, the rare acoustics for which Music Hall is world famous, have been preserved intact. So also has its original concept of a non-salaried Board of Directors of the Music Hall Association representing the City of Cincinnati which owns the building for the people. Truly, Music Hall can aptly be called "The Queen of the Queen City."
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