Lightning hit the top of the Mariemont Inn, which punched a hole in a portion of the roof, knocked out the security system and resulted in diminuitive damages in room 327.

"The lightning lifted the slate on the roof in a six-foot area and dropped it back down. It cast pieces of the roof the size of hatchet-heads clear over to the fountain and into the street," Spinnenweber Builders, Inc. owner Dan Spinnenweber said. The hole left in the roof by the lightning was the size of a man-hole cover.

But fortunately no one was hurt and no other property was damaged; that is, except for a couple neighboring business owners' TV sets, which were color but now display television shows in a flourescent hue of green.

The lightning managed to splinter some of the wood in room 327 and fragmented some plaster on the walls into thousands of pieces.

But by 5 p.m. on Friday, passers-by would not even know the Inn was hit. The roof was repaired, the security system was up and running and room 327 received a make-over.

"Lightning has never struck here before," Mariemont Inn General Manager Bonnie Malone said, adding when it occurred there was a large "boom" just overhead.

Since the roof needed to be inspected and repaired a ladder truck was needed. The Mariemont Fire Department responded to the strike but the department's ladder truck was being prepped for service work. Therefore, a neighboing fire department offered the service of their ladder truck.

One thing is certain, though: The Inn never has to worry about lightning striking again since lightning never strikes the same place twice.