Berry Hotel, 1892-1974
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Hotel Berry from a postcard created in the 1890s or early 1900s.
![Hotel Berry from a postcard created in the 1890s or early 1900s.](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_29355.67467.jpg)
Hotel owner Edward C. Berry
![Hotel owner Edward C. Berry](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_29355.67468.jpg)
This historical marker outside the Court Street Diner was dedicated in 2004. With the exception of photographs, this marker is all that is left to commemorate the city's leading hotel.
![This historical marker outside the Court Street Diner was dedicated in 2004. With the exception of photographs, this marker is all that is left to commemorate the city's leading hotel.](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_29355.67469.jpg)
Hotel Berry in 1961
![Hotel Berry in 1961](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_29355.67470.jpg)
Hotel Berry circa 1900.
![Hotel Berry circa 1900.](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_29355.67471.jpg)
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Edward C. Berry began his career as a bricklayer before opening several small businesses. After finding success as restaurant owners, he and his wife Mattie Berry opened this modest twenty-room hotel in 1882. This establishment soon became the premier hotel in the city. The Berry Hotel boasted a restaurant, barbershop, coffee shop, and ballroom and grew to include ninety rooms at its peak.
Berry sold the hotel in 1921, allowing the couple to retire in style, purchasing land and building a substantial home while also donating land and funds to Mount Zion Church. Edward Berry died a decade later. During the Great Depression, the hotel was purchased by a local car dealer who modernized the building. Ohio University purchased the hotel in 1961-a time when the university was growing rapidly. The building served as a dormitory throughout the 1960s but proved to be a financial liability to the university and the board of trustees approved its demolition as part of a larger cost-savings plan in 1974.
Sources
"Berry Hall" Ohio University Archives Digital Collections.