Not many buildings in Cincinnati have been as versatile, or as enduring, as Longworth Hall.

Fran Dicari, of Barefoot Advertising, likes the open spaces in Longworth Hall. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

Built 100 years ago to help move freight efficiently through the Queen City, the mammoth brick structure next to the railroad tracks in Queensgate is today a hot location for 80 companies, including advertising and public relations agencies, media production firms, caterers and new technology businesses.

The small, entrepreneurial firms were seeking space - the kind of soaring, lofty space that's found in a building that was constructed to accommodate freight trains. It is almost a quarter mile long. You could lay Carew Tower down inside of it - twice. Its 4.25 million bricks encompass 300,000 square feet, enough to hold three Kroger super stores.

So what makes this something other than a big - very big - drafty, old brick barn?

The answer is history, and the imagination of Roy B. Schweitzer, who bought the building from CSX Railroad in 1985 and converted it to specialty office space. The building had been empty for a decade. Unused and crumbling, it was the kind of urban, industrial eyesore that often gets bulldozed under the modern dreams of city planners.

But Schweitzer knew that nobody would or could build space like this these days. For the right kinds of businesses, the lengthy hardwood floors and massive, exposed beams are incomparable charms, according to Schweitzer's son, Michael, who now manages the building. Longworth went from being a shell, with broken windows and a leaking roof, to one of the city's business gems with an occupancy rate of 90 percent. The building's success was celebrated with a centennial birthday party on Friday.

The building gets its name from Nicholas Longworth, who owned the land where it was built. Longworth, former speaker of the House and son-in-law to Theodore Roosevelt, was another man of vision. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had the building constructed so its trains could unload and warehouse freight in the same structure. Its design was copied elsewhere, including Baltimore's Camden Yards - which was recycled into an integral part of that city's baseball park.

Longworth Hall's location next to the Brent Spence Bridge may put it in jeopardy. Plans to replace the bridge might mean cutting right through the property during the next decade. However, the building now is on the National Register of Historic Places and the planners are looking for away to route the new span over or around the structure. We hope they do. This grand old pile of bricks has a lot of good years left in it.