Before and After German Village



German Village dates back to the early 19th Century, when it was sometimes called called Germantown. Unsurprisingly, by the middle of the 20th Century, the neighborhood had declined significantly, yet still retained the vast majority of its historic buildings. The city of Columbus had it in mind to bulldoze a large part of the neighborhood in the 1950s for public housing, but activists organized against those plans. Instead, in what was one of the first major success stories of Columbus preservation, German Village was saved. The entire area was eventually added onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and today it is still the largest historic district on the registry anywhere in the United States. Here are just a few before and after photos around the neighborhood.

Before: Stewart Avenue Elementary School, looking northeast, in 1920.
before and after German Village
After: 2017

The school was constructed in 1873 and remains in use today, one of the oldest continuous schools remaining in the city.

Before: City Park Avenue at Lansing Street, looking south, in 1898.

After: 2016

Before: The Max Neugebauer Tailor Shop at 764 Mohawk Street in 1897.

After: 2016

Neugebauer arrived in Columbus in 1887, but it’s unclear when he opened this business.

Before: Beck Street and Mohawk, looking east, in 1950.

After: 2017

German Village was considered a “slum” by 1950, so the before photo would’ve been around the time of the neighborhood’s low point.

Before: Third Street and Beck, looking east, in 1981.

After: 2016

The photo shows a German Village “Haus and Garten Tour” through the neighborhood.



The Recovery of Ohio Downtowns Revisited



A little more than 4 years ago, I posted numbers on the recovery of Ohio downtowns, and what that might mean for the future. That post has proven to be one of the site’s most popular. I figured it was time to take a look at their continuing changes.

recovery of Ohio downtowns
You can see by the chart for the 1950 Boundary population, the urban core of each city, that all 3-Cs suffered population losses post-1950. However, the rate of losses gradually declined, and 2 of the cities, Columbus and Cincinnati, appear to be growing in this boundary since at least 2010. Cleveland continues to lose.

This is shown further by the chart below.

As far as the actual Downtowns of each, here are the population trends.

For the most part, population declines in the 3-Cs peaked around 1980, give or take a decade. Since then, all of them have seen increases, with Cleveland seeing the most rapid increase and Cincinnati the least. Columbus has seen steady, but increasingly rapid growth with each subsequent decade since 1980.

Here is the chart for Downtown growth by decade.