Armory-LaTisona Building

The Turners originated in the 1810s in Germany as a society dedicated to gymnastics and German nationalism. Many members immigrated to the United States after participation in a failed democratic revolution in their home country in 1848. Turner Societies (or Turnverein) began to appear across America, especially in the Midwest; the first was founded in Cincinnati in 1848. Lima’s Turner Society was founded sometime in the very late 1880s and originally met in a former Catholic school. In 1891, it purchased a lot on Lima’s South Main Street and began construction of a large building. This brick and stone structure, designed in a modified Victorian Romanesque style, was completed on June 28th, 1892, and was known as Turner Hall.

The Turners also opened the building, which held a 1,200-seat auditorium, for rent for various dances and other kinds of entertainment. In November 1892, it was the site of a rat killing show; fifty men came to see a dog, “Nick the Ratter,” kill thirty-nine rats in a pit in nine minutes and twenty seconds. Turner Hall was also the venue for a traveling burlesque show and, later, a regular performance location for the Lima Vaudeville Company. Dances and boxing and wrestling matches in the building were popular as well.

In April 1896, Turner Hall was chosen as the new site for the armory for the Lima City Guards (soon to be known as Company C of the Second Infantry, Ohio National Guard) and the Second Regiment Drum Corps. These units had previously been headquartered in the Courthouse, then the Cincinnati Block, then finally the Denze Block, before moving to Turner Hall. On April 25th, 1898, the Armory was the site of great fanfare when the men were mustered to ready themselves for service in the Spanish-American War. Company C’s eighty-five soldiers marched from the Armory to the train station the next day surrounded by a crowd of thousands of patriotic citizens.

A few years later, in 1903, Congress passed an act allotting federal funds to National Guard units in exchange for these troops meeting federal standards for readiness; previously, some National Guard units had operated as more of a social club than a military reserve. However, Company C’s Armory continued to be used for dances and other events. It became such a hub for local nightlife that Corbin Shook, a Socialist, ran for mayor (and won) on the promise of shutting it down. The Lima Daily News reported on June 4th, 1913, “Mayor Corbin N. Shook, anti-vice king, went on record Wednesday morning as attributing the wave of juvenile delinquency and masculine degeneracy to the vulgar dance halls, the laxity of the family circle and the toleration of the conduct indulged in at…the Armory Dance Hall.”[3] However, Shook’s order closing the Armory for dances was overturned by the courts. Meanwhile, in March 1913, the basement of the building was flooded by the Ottawa River. Company C’s equipment was damaged, but they were still able to muster there and head to Dayton to aid in flood relief efforts in that city.

In the late summer of 1913, Company C relocated to the newly-remodeled Auditorium Hall. They would move several more times before arriving at a new building in Hover Park, off Collett Street, in 1928. The old Armory would also go through many changes. It first transitioned into a meeting hall for fraternal organizations (including the Order of Owls and the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo) and a boxing and wrestling venue. In early 1915, a local boxing promoter announced he was leasing the building as home for a new boxing club. However, by mid-1915, the Armory had been purchased by the William Tigner’s Son Company, which manufactured and sold cigars. (Its most famous product was the “exceptionally good” La Tisona cigar, which gave the structure the new name “the LaTisona Building.”[3]) The company remodeled the interior of the building to accommodate a factory, storage space, offices, and a shipping room.

By early 1924, the LaTisona Building was vacant, but, later that year, it would serve as a roller-skating pavilion. During the late 1920s, the building was home to several sports leagues, including basketball, boxing, and wrestling. It was opened as a community recreation center by the city in 1933. This center offered basketball, volleyball, badminton, shuffleboard, table tennis, pinochle, dominoes, and checkers, among other games and competitions. In the 1940s, the LaTisona Building was owned by Ziegenbusch Furniture, and then, in the 1950s, by the Volunteers of America. The Volunteers was a rehabilitation organization whose goal was to help troubled men by offering them room and board and a job; it moved out of the structure in 1962. In 1970, the LaTisona Building was purchased by Robert Mihlbaugh to use as the home for his law practice. He owned it until his death in 2009, and, as of 2018, the structure (now known as the Mihlbaugh Building) is owned by his son.

1) American Turners Local Societies, 1866-2006, IUPUI: University Library: Ruth Lilly Special Collections & Archives. Accessed July 27th 2020. http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/collections/german-american/mss038.

2) Hoersten, Greg. Lima’s Turner Hall, LimaOhio.com. September 4th 2018. Accessed July 27th 2020. https://www.limaohio.com/features/lifestyle/317130/limas-turner-hall.

3) Hoersten, Greg. Reminisce: Lima’s Turner Hall, LimaOhio.com. September 11th 2018. Accessed July 27th 2020. https://www.limaohio.com/features/lifestyle/318251/limas-turner-hall-2.

4) Ohio National Guard History, The Ohio Adjutant General's Department. Accessed July 27th 2020. https://www.ong.ohio.gov/information/history/ong_history.html.

5) Schuck, Ray. Armory-LaTisona Building, National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination Form, Ohio Historical Society. February 1st 1983. National Archives Catalog. Accessed July 27th 2020. https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/82001348.pdf.