101-109 South Main Street
Millikin Hotel

The Evening Tribune, May 16, 1896, called the Hotel Millikin "Bowling Green's Pride." The hotel is still a gathering place, as it was in its glory days some eighty years ago. In 1977, the hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Hotel at 101 - 109 S. Main St. was designed by Toledo architects Bacon and Huber and built by contractor Richard Hattersly. The groundbreaking took place on July 4, 1895 and the building was fully completed in 1897. The building is three stories with a basement and is rectangular in shape. The basement extends under the Wooster Street sidewalk. The foundation is constructed from limestone. The wall construction and treatment is a buff colored "St. Louis pressed brick" and buff "Amherst stone" ("It's Bowling Green's Pride"). There are seven bays, or structural divisions on the front of the building and fourteen on the side. A bracketed cornice supports the balustrade which follows the roof line. A section of the balustrade on the East Wooster side was blown off in some heavy winds on March 28, 1920 and was never replaced. A balcony below this section was damaged and removed as well (Bowling Green Ohio, A Sesquicentennial History, 31).

The windows on the second and third stories are rectangular with the exception of two arched windows, one centered over the entrance on South Main St., the other to the rear of the East Wooster side centered over the carriage alley. There are oculus or oeil-de-boeuf openings centered directly over each arch. There are eight oculus windows on the third story, four on the East Wooster side centered over the rectangular windows and four in the rear of the building. These windows are gold and white stained glass with a floral motif. The third story rectangular windows have simple frames except on the East Wooster rear section where they are crowned with a bracketed cornice. The second story windows on the South Main Street side and front section of the East Wooster Street side have a bracketed cornice whereas the second story windows on the rear of the East Wooster Street side are plain-framed. The East Wooster Street side has three arched entrances and two arched windows on the first floor

139 South Main Street
Froney Building

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Bowling Green's Opera House
Chidester Theatre

Located on South Main Street, The Bowling Green Opera House was the focal point for much of the cities entertainment and socialactivity during the nineteenth century. Conceived as a multi-purpose facilitythe Opera House was a four story structure containing retail and officespace on the ground level and a luxurious auditorium within the upper floors.

Financed by local businessmen John R.Hankey and Ira Taber, construction of the Opera House began in 1889 with the theatre opening in March 1890. The gala festivities included a performance by Shakespearean actor Robert Downing. Similar to other establishments of the era, the Opera House was decorated in a faux European style. Journalist Minniebelle Convey recalled the auditorium as "a gem of theater decoration, justly notable for its frescoes of rosy cherubs, gold leaf, velvet hangings, boxes, and general elegance".

Equipped with a large stage and a double balcony, the Opera House was a suitably sized venue for many of the itinerant performers and stage companies of the 1890s. The auditorium also functioned as a popular location for political debates and conventions.

Around the turn of the century, the building was sold to Murray Chidester who renamed it
"The Chidester Theater". In 1918 the property changed hands again and was re christened "The Dell Mar". For the next eight years the facility functioned primarily as a movie theater, but in light of increasing competition failed to be a profitable operation. The Dell-Mar closed in April 1926 and was destroyed by fire on September 26 of the same year.