Built in 1898 to house Eilerman and Sons Clothing Co., the three-story building's ruined faÁade betrays its age and years of neglect.

Two decades as a CVS pharmacy also left the building's ground floor with an incongruous late-1970s exterior.

The building at 818 Monmouth St. has been vacant since CVS moved in 2002 and Experimental Holdings Inc., a Cincinnati real estate developer, bought it.

Several artists approached Experimental Holdings about converting the building into studios, said marketing manager Matt Stephens, but the developer didn't yet have the manpower to rehab the badly deteriorated top floors.

That changed when a pair of tenants - a mail-order business and a technology consulting firm - moved into the first floor earlier this year. Work began on the upper floors - with plans to put studios on the second story and apartments on the third floor, which boasts a view of downtown Cincinnati.

Workers rebuilt antique windows and insulated the pressed-tin ceilings 15 feet above the hardwood floor.

They also built an 8-foot-tall drywall partition to carve out a 1,000-square-foot studio space for mural artist Curt Hueser, who moved in this month.

"I'm one of those types that likes to get in on the beginning stages on something like this," said Hueser, who saw an advertisement for the space at a Monmouth Street coffee shop.

The studio provides ample space for him to create murals and to teach art seminars, Hueser said.

"There's nice wall space to project images for my faux-finish classes," he said.

While there's activity inside, the building's exterior remains partially covered by sagging plywood hung on wood studs where pigeons roost.

"It's really a shame - it's hiding these beautiful Corinthian columns," said architect Paul Vogeler, who works for Experimental Holdings.

The developer applied for a state grant to restore the building's faÁade. Work on the first story would have to be completed by Dec. 15, Stephens said.

Demolition of the CVS architecture will take place soon, while the developer searches for a contractor to complete the work, he said.

Experimental Holdings hopes to complete the faÁade work, fill the second-floor studio space and renovate the third floor within three years, Vogeler said.

"It'll take hundreds of thousands of dollars to get this building really shining again," he said.

During Newport's gambling heyday, Eilerman and Sons Clothing Co. sold fashionable men's suits. But the developer plans to restore the building to its turn-of-the-century architecture.

"Think about what it looked like when it first opened," Vogeler said. "It must have been beautiful."