MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — The long-debated fate of Middletown's historic Manchester Inn became shakier Thursday. The city erected fences around the building to protect passersby from falling debris after dozens of ceiling tiles fell from the building.
The shattered remnants of those tiles still lay on the sidewalk on both sides of the fence when WCPO visited Friday. In a Facebook post, Middletown said the building's roof was at risk of collapsing.
We talked with Middletown Historical Society director Sam Ashworth at the society's museum less than a block away from Manchester Inn.
"It's had a sad decade here of neglect," Ashworth said.
WATCH: We check the damage at The Manchester Inn
When the inn opened in 1922, Ashworth said it effectively served as a civic center where people from in and around Middletown could gather. He said it was more than a hotel for the region.
"Right away, they had events scheduled in there the entire week," Ashworth said.
The building closed in 2011 and has since fallen into disrepair.
The historical society circulated a survey in 2022 to spur development on the site to save the inn, but nothing materialized. Middletown council discussed demolishing the building in January 2025 as part of a larger "refresh" plan, and Community and Economic Development Director Lisha Morelan floated requesting qualifications from developers to rehabilitate it and other city-owned properties at a March town hall.
"How can these be repurposed, if they can be repurposed?" she asked at the time.
Ashworth acknowledged it would be a major project to save Manchester Inn.
Still, he hoped someone would come forward to make it happen.
"That could be the seed that starts the development of some of the other old buildings downtown," Ashworth said. "I'd love to see that happen."
We reached out to the City of Middletown to see if the recent tile fall and potential for a roof collapse changed the way the city was thinking about the building's future, but the city was closed for Good Friday and we did not hear back.
