Rumple Building  

This northwest corner of Main and North B Street has been a prominent location since the town of Rossville was platted in March 1804. Main Street was then Morris Street and B Street was Front Street. Rossville was named in honor of Sen. James Ross of Pennsylvania, a leader in obtaining free navigation of the rivers, an important means of travel and trade for early Butler County residents. Joseph Wilson, the town coroner, operated the first Rossville Post Office in his general store on this corner from 1819 until 1824.

The structure was built shortly after the 1855 merger of Rossville and Hamilton. The Rumple Building was opened about 1857 by Daniel Rumple, who as an eight-year-old had migrated with his family from North Carolina. The family reached their farm in western Butler County by way of the Cumberland Gap and the Wilderness Road.

Squire Rumple, as he was called, operated an ironwork and hardware store on the ground floor of the three-story brick building. The second floor was a boarding house for many years. Rumple's Hall, an auditorium on the third floor, hosted dramatic and musical events, dances, traveling performing groups, a variety of meetings and political rallies. The auditorium -- described as "a very commodious hall with a good-sized stage" -- was a popular meeting and entertainment center for many years.

The Rumple Building has housed many businesses, services and professionals. Two long-term occupants at the corner were the Beeler Drug store for 74 years and Burg's Men's Clothing for nearly 59 years.

Beeler Drug Store was started in 1867 by brothers, John L. Beeler and Dr. Samuel L. Beeler, and operated in this building until July 5, 1941.
The drug store was a meeting where politics, civic affairs, business and social activities were discussed and debated by citizens and Hamilton visitors.

For several years, starting in 1897, the drug store was an unofficial waiting room for interurban passengers. Until tracks were extended across the river into downtown Hamilton, this corner was the southern end of the electric-powered interurban line between Hamilton and Dayton. The last passenger car, northbound to Dayton, passed here May 13, 1939. Buses assumed the intercity interurban routes the next day.

The Rumple Building became highly visible when the City of Hamilton razed structures on both sides of Main Street between the High-Main Street Bridge and B Street. That project improved east-west traffic flow by connecting the bridge directly to Park and Ross avenues as well as Main Street. The one-way ramp west to Park Avenue and the eastbound link from Ross Avenue were completed in October 1970.

Five bridges have served patrons of the Rumple Building, starting with the Miami Bridge, a covered wooden toll span that had opened in 1819. The others have been a suspension bridge (1867), an iron truss bridge (1895), a reinforced concrete span (1915) and a six-lane, 543-foot, five-span concrete arch structure dedicated May 6, 2007.

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