In this first Week in Review series, we will do a quick rundown of the past week in Columbus.
First, in terms of development, we had a few updates. -The Market Tower project at the North Market has apparently gotten a new design. It’s gone from this-
To this-
The new design may actually be at least 40 stories instead of the originally-proposed 35. No official announcements on the height increase have been released, but I suspect we’ll be hearing something soon on this.
-The Gravity 2.0 project in Franklinton got its initial approvals from the neighborhood development commission, including approval on the 12-story tower, which has also gotten an updated rendering, seen below.
Photo Location: Broad and High Photo Date: Sometime in 1849 Photo History: Random Columbus photo 5 is one of the earliest ever known to have been taken in Columbus, and shows a group of bystanders looking at several people on horseback. The year this was taken, 1849, is significant in that it references the events taking place. 1849, of course, was the year that gold was discovered in California. The men on horseback are 49-ers, getting ready to depart Columbus to join the great California Gold Rush, and the crowd was gathered to see them off.
Click on the image for a better look.
Unfortunately, not much else is known about the photo, who the people were, or in what direction the photo was even taken.
The Before and After July 2014 edition shows a few famous Downtown buildings and what ultimately happened to them.
The Hippodrome Theater Operated from October 26th, 1914 to December 31st, 1933. Address: 77 N. High Street, Downtown Seats: 300+ First movie shown: “The Nightingale” with Ethel Barrymore Last movie shown: Unknown Opening Admission: 10 cents
Photo of the entrance to the Hippodrome Theater, 1915.
The silent-era Hippodrome Theater was developed by G.E. Overton, who took over the Bonnett Jewelry store that occupied the building previously. News articles at the time of its opening described the décor in this way:
The little theater, which seats over 300, is neatly decorated in yellow. The lobby is attractive in white marble and the foyer is in yellow and gold. There is no stage; the picture being projected against a large screen as in most picture theaters.
The Hipp, as it was referred by, had a 6-piece orchestra under the direction of W.H. Claspill. It was the first movie theater in Columbus to have an orchestra.
There seems to be a bit of confusion on just when this theater opened. The official first movie shown there was in 1914, but by some accounts, the theater actually opened in April, 1910. Also, there is some mystery on the lone photograph above. Some list it as having been originally taken in 1915, but others have it listed from 1934, after the theater had closed.
The Park Theater Operated until November 24, 1893. The date it opened is unknown. Address: 217 N. High Street, Downtown Seats: Unknown
The Park Theater began operations sometime in the 1880s or very early 1890s, and may have operated long after 1893 if not for a disaster from the building just to its south, the Chittenden Hotel. In 1889, Henry Chittenden purchased the office building of the B&O Railroad, added 2 floors and spent $400,000 (an enormous sum at the time) converting and renovating the building into a luxury hotel. In 1890, a fire broke out and gutted the entire building, but spared neighboring businesses like the Park Theater.
The second Chittenden Hotel. The Park Theater building can be seen on the very right. The photo is from 1892.
Chittenden decided to rebuild, and the 2nd Chittenden Hotel was completed in 1892. This second hotel had its own theater, the Henrietta, which was still partially under construction on November 24th, 1893. That evening at around 8pm, a fire started during a performance there. The fire originated in the auditorium, in an area that was still under construction and spread into the seating area itself. Once the flames breached the theater, strong winds quickly spread the fire and began to burn the hotel as well as surrounding buildings, including the one that housed the Park Theater. By the time the fire burned itself out just the next morning, both theaters, the hotel, a drug store, saloon, shoe house and clothing shop were all completely destroyed.
The second Chittenden and Park Theater, November 1893.
The Park Theater, November 25th, 1893.
Improbably, despite 2 hotels in the same locating burning down, Chittenden rebuilt for yet a 3rd time, with the largest and grandest version of all- not to mention with far better fire-resistant construction. The third time, it seems, was the charm, and the hotel survived from its completion in 1895 to its final demolition in 1973.
The unlucky Park Theater itself never rebuilt, though the lot had a new commercial building in its spot by 1895. That building also faced the wrecking ball in 1973.
The current location of where the Chittenden and Park Theater once stood.
This link is continuously being updated because there are thousands and thousands of historic buildings in the Columbus area. I am focusing on just those within I-270. Information includes the address or name of the building, the year or approximate time built, height in stories, original and current uses, as well as whether or not it is on the National Register of Historic Buildings. If so, I included the year that it was added to the Register.
The buildings on the map go all the way back to 1804 and run through 1925.
Because this map is a work in progress, the link will be permanent under the City Resources links on the home page. Keep checking back to see more places being added over time.
The RiverSouth area of Downtown was, not that long ago, the epitome of the disastrous Urban Renewal policy so popular during much of the mid-latter part of the 20th century. Bounded to the east by High Street, north by State Street, west by the Scioto River and south by I-70, this area, by the mid-1990s, had become a sea of surface parking lots, old storage warehouses, underutilized or empty storefronts and ugly infrastructure. The construction of City Center Mall in 1989, with its location directly across High Street, was supposed to help bring this neighborhood back with new development. Instead, as the mall did with the rest of Downtown, it helped suck the life out what retail and business existed there. Worse, the concrete, prison-like exterior of the mall lacked any type of street-level connection, so it functioned to keep people off the sidewalks and the streets were as abandoned as ever even as thousands of shoppers flooded the new mall every weekend.
The imposing structure of City Center.
As newer suburban competition gradually killed City Center itself, the city was left with the task of figuring out what to do with its hulking core. Proposals were put for from everything to government buildings to redesigning the building itself into an Easton-like outdoor shopping town center. However, the money and interest for such proposals just weren’t there, and so the city came up with another, much different plan. The 10-15 year development plan called for the complete demolition of the mall complex, replacing it with a new city park complete with an entertainment stage, carousel and eateries.
City Center being demolished in 2010.
The mall was closed in 2009 and demolished the following year. This event seems to have marked the true beginning of the rise of RiverSouth. Columbus Commons and its 9 acres opened to the public in 2011. Despite a hugely negative expectation by some that the park would see little use and become a new place for vagrants and criminals, CC was an almost instant success. Hundreds of events were held there during its first year, and those numbers have grown every year since. Picnic with the Pops moved to the new park during the 2012 season, and the Columbus Food Truck Festival has attracted tens of thousands each of the last 2 years. The carousel, outdoor library and other events have been popular with kids and families. The park, with all its success, helped to bring about another important change to the area. It attracted development.
Columbus Commons before any development.
Originally, the park’s long-term plan was to have the grassy areas along High Street developed, but no one expected that to happen within a decade. Instead, a developer came forward less than a year after the park opened. High Point was that project, a pair of 6-story mixed-used buildings that would line the entire west side of the park from the corner of Rich and High. 302 new apartments, a handful of restaurants and ground floor retail lining High were all part of the project. Still under construction, this project should be complete in early 2014. Unfortunately, as the below pictures show (and the most flattering ones I could find at that) that the architecture is pretty horrendous. Despite that, the buildings will help fill in the gaps on High Street and bring hundreds of new residents, so the positives outweigh the negatives here.
Since the announcement of City Center’s demise, other projects have come about over the last few years that have helped raise the profile of RiverSouth. -The Annex at RiverSouth replaced several surface parking lots along S. Front Street. This 214-unit, 4-story residential complex was originally planned to be a mix of condos and apartments, but became mostly apartments when the condo market died off. The complex was completed in 2010.
-The new Franklin County Courthouse, a $106 million, 7-story complex was completed in 2011 at the southwest corner of W. Main and S. High Streets.
-The Scioto Mile, the $44 million riverfront park, was completed in 2011 complete with fountains, a restaurant, paths and an entertainment stage.
Scioto Mile
-Main Street Bridge was replaced with a signature, $60 million arched span in 2011.
-The Rich Street Bridge was also replaced in 2012 with a new $26 million open span.
-The old Lazarus building, once connected to City Center by a massive skywalk, received a $60 million renovation in 2010 that converted the former retail building into an LEED green office building for the Ohio EPA and other organizations.
-Many of the streets in the area have been rebuilt with brick crossing and new landscaping.
So a lot has been done over the past few years, but what’s coming next? Beyond the High Point project, 3 more projects have recently been announced.
-The first is the conversion of the Secur-It warehouse building at the northeast corner of S. Front and W. Main Street. The century-old building was once used as a shoe factory, but was bricked over and used as a storage facility for many years. The current plan by Casto is to turn the building into about 90 residential units. The old warehouse windows will be restored, as well as the façade and interiors. The project should get started in the spring of 2014.
The current Secure-It building.
Proposed rendering for the Secure-It building.
-Second, we have Lifestyle Communities LC at RiverSouth project. This 8-story, 102-unit residential building will occupy the northwest corner of S. High and W. Rich Streets, directly across from Columbus Commons. Construction should begin this fall and complete in early 2015.
-And finally, we have the recently announced 250 High project. This $50 million, 12-story mixed-use tower would have ground floor retail, 4 floors of offices and 7 floors of residential totaling 156 units. This project will be built on the surface lot adjacent to the old City Center parking garage at 250 S. High Street. Construction on this project should also begin in the fall and complete sometime in early 2015.
These projects will no doubt spur others in the near future. Several surface lots still exist in RiverSouth, and a few of them are still along S. High Street just north of the new courthouse. Given the momentum of the neighborhood, expect to see development announcements on at least a few of these lots sooner than you think.
