Hydrazone compound (E)-N-[4-(dimethylamino) benzylidene]-4-hydroxybenzohydrazide hemihydrate (DMABHBH) was synthesized and single crystals of DMABHBH were grown by solvent evaporation method at room temperature. Molecular structure of DMABHBH compound was confirmed by H-1 and C-13 nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The presence of functional groups was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared and FT Raman spectral analyses. The X-ray crystal structure was elucidated at 173K by single crystal X-ray diffraction and the results were compared with the corresponding values obtained at 298K. The compound crystallizes in the chiral monoclinic space group P2(1). Mechanical stability of the grown crystals was estimated from the Vicker's microhardness test. Powder second harmonic generation efficiency of DMABHBH is about 1.1 times that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate. DMABHBH is found to show optical limiting behavior at high input light intensities, the third order nonlinear optical absorption coefficient measured using open aperture Z-scan studies, is 0.95x10(-11)m/W. Anti-bacterial activity was studied using the well and disc diffusion methods.