William Howard Taft National Historic Site
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William Howard Taft National Historic Site
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Taft House
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Location of Taft House in Ohio
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| Location | 2038 Auburn Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio |
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| Coordinates | 39°7′11″N 84°30′31″W / 39.11972°N 84.50861°WCoordinates: 39°7′11″N 84°30′31″W / 39.11972°N 84.50861°W |
| Area | 3 acres (12,140 m²) |
| Built | 1842 |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| Visitation | 14,328 (2005) |
| Website | William Howard Taft National Historic Site |
| Part of | Mount Auburn Historic District (#73001464) |
| NRHP Reference # |
66000612 (original) 15000753 (increase) |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Boundary increase | October 21, 2015 |
| Designated NHL | January 29, 1964 |
| Designated NHS | December 2, 1969 |
| Designated CP | March 28, 1973 |
William Howard Taft National Historic Site is a historic house at 2038 Auburn Avenue in the Mount Auburn Historic District of Cincinnati, Ohio, a mile (1.6 km) north of Downtown. It was the birthplace and childhood home of William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States and the 10th Chief Justice of the United States. The two-story Greek Revival house, built circa 1835, is a reminder of the elegant era when wealthier people here could escape the dirt, heat, smoke and crowded conditions of the lower city.
William Howard Taft's father, Alphonso Taft, came to Cincinnati from Vermont in 1838 to establish a law practice. He moved his family to this house a little over a decade later. Alphonso Taft became an early supporter of the Republican Party in Cincinnati. He lived in this house with his family and parents. He would eventually serve as the 31st United States Secretary of War and the 35th United States Attorney General.
The house is believed to have been built in the early 1840s by a family named Bowen. Alphonso bought the house at 60 Auburn Street (now 2038 Auburn Avenue), with its accompanying 1.82 acres, for $10,000 on June 13, 1851. Mount Auburn was once a popular area to live for upper-class Cincinnatians, as it allowed those of higher incomes to escape the sweltering heat and humidity of downtown Cincinnati summers. The Taft residence, a Greek Revival domicile, was relatively modest compared to other nearby residences, which were a mix of Second Empire, Italianate, and Georgian Revival.
Alphonso's wife Fanny Phelps Taft died a year after the family moved to the Mount Auburn residence, in June 1852. In December 1853 Alphonso remarried, choosing a schoolteacher from Massachusetts named Louise Torrey. Louise Taft would give birth to their second child, William Howard Taft, in the house on September 15, 1857, presumably in the first-floor nursery in the rear ell. (The first child had died at age fourteen months from whooping cough.) Alphonso had six children living in the house, two by Fanny (three others had died beforehand) and four by Louise.
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