Finished in 1928 by Scottish immigrant and architect Thomas W. Lamb in a majestically ornate Spanish Baroque style, it served the downtown community as a Loew’s movie house with its own theatre orchestra and accompanying organ. During its heyday in the era of vaudeville, it showcased live performances to an audience of nearly 3,000. The architect believed the Ohio was one of his most noteworthy in his vast oeuvre of movie palaces, calling it a “palace for the average man." The immense passion and effort in saving this beautiful space by the Columbus Association of Performing Arts, formed in 1969 explicitly to prevent its demolition, became a nationwide template for theatre restoration and rehabilitation.