By Randy McNutt
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Taft Museum of Art will salute the old and the new this week.

The museum staff and Ohio Bicentennial Commission will dedicate a new historical marker at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the museum, 316 Pike St. But first, they will raise the final beam of the museum's expansion wing construction project.

The marker is important because it will "recognize the museum as one of the state's historic landmarks," said Tamera Muente, spokeswoman for the museum.

It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973. It was built in 1820 for Martin Baum, a Cincinnati merchant and banker. Nicholas Longworth, art patron, abolitionist and entrepreneur, bought the house next. He hired Robert S. Duncanson, a black artist, to paint landscape murals in the foyer.

The third owner, millionaire philanthropist David Sinton, left the home to his daughter, Anna, who, with her husband, Charles Phelps Taft (older half brother of William Howard Taft), decorated the house with French Renaissance enamels, Italian decorative arts, Chinese porcelains, and European and American oil paintings. In 1908, William Howard Taft accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president from the portico of the house.

"In 1927, the house and its collections were bequeathed to the people of Cincinnati," said Leslie Walker of the Bicentennial Commission. "Five years later, the Taft Museum of Art was opened to the public."

HAMILTON - The Butler County Tourism Council has published the bicentennial edition of the Butler County Visitor Guide.

The 48-page, color brochure details the county's attractions, historical sites, recreation points, restaurants and other things.

Butler County will celebrate its bicentennial next year.

Bicentennial coordinator Rhonda Freeze said events will include the Hamilton Ice Fest on Jan. 23-24.

Among other events next year are the Bicentennial Costume Ball at the Fitton Center for the Arts at 7 p.m. March 1, and the Bicentennial Bell casting July 4-5 at Lakota East High School.

Information on the publication: 844-8080.

James O. Horton, a professor at George Washington University, will present a bicentennial lecture, "Circa 1803-Statehood, Culture Contact, European Settlement and the Road to Freedom" on April 9 as a part of the Ohio Bicentennial Commission's "Ohio and the World" series. The time and location will be announced.

For information on Dr. Horton's talk, call the Ohio Humanities Council at (800) 293-9774.

Bicentennial Notebook will run periodically through 2003. Contact the Enquirer's bicentennial reporter, Randy McNutt, at 755-4158, or e-mail him at Rmcnutt@enquirer.com.