The structures were commissioned by Samuel B. Hartman, designed by Richards, McCarty and Bulford in the Renaissance Revival style.

The third section, at the tenth floor and above, included an ornate projecting cornice below a balustrade at the building's crown, with an oval medallion centered at the top of the State Street façade.

The auditorium was wide and shallow in depth, column-less, and with a large stage, providing greater intimacy between the audience and performers.

[2] Notable performers at the Hartman Theater included Al Jolson, Maude Adams, George Arliss, Otis Skinner, Helen Hayes, Tallulah Bankhead, Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Cotten, Van Heflin, and Ethel, Lionel, and John Barrymore.

The building was the first Columbus home of the YMCA, and was an important meeting site, including holding a reception for former U.S. president John Quincy Adams.

[9] In the 1960s, as downtown theaters struggled with rising maintenance costs, changing audience tastes, and competing against each other and the newer high-capacity Franklin County Veterans Memorial auditorium.

[9] Two of the Hartman Theater's crystal chandeliers hang in the lower-level lounge of the Palace Theatre today.