herr2ck: Columbus - Harrison West

May 2026.

Harrison West is a historic neighborhood that is part of the Near Northside Historic District in Columbus. Though it is mostly residential, there is a small commercial district at the intersection of 3rd Avenue and Michigan Avenue. This post highlights both features of the neighborhood.

Harrison West is located on the near north side of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by 5th Avenue and Dennison Place to the north, I-670 and the Arena District to the south, Harrison Avenue and Victorian Village to the east, and the Olentangy River and Grandview to the west. This post specifically covers the 5th Avenue corridor of houses and the commercial buildings on 3rd Avenue and Michigan Avenue.

History

Harrison West was platted and built beginning in the late 19th century on land that was previously farmland. It mostly consists of Robert Neil’s addition and Collins, Atkinson, and Guttner’s addition to the city. The neighborhood is sparsely documented on the 1891 Sanborn map, but what little is shown is largely wood-frame houses. As of 1899, most lots east of Michigan Avenue were built on, and everything west was platted but not yet built. The area reached its present density by the first two decades of the 20th century. It was largely a working-class neighborhood that was employed at factories along the Olentangy River (now demolished).

Harrison West’s housing stock in the 1980s. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

As was common with inner-city neighborhoods during the mid-20th century, Harrison West also fell victim to white flight and urban renewal. It was mostly left alone by interstate construction except for its very southwestern tip. In the 1970s, to reduce further deterioration, the Harrison West Society was founded. An immediate battle was the construction of a strip mall in the neighborhood, which the society was able to stop. They created the Harrison West Plan in 2005, which guides preservation and new construction in the area.

Additionally, the majority of Harrison West’s houses and land were owned by Battelle since the 1960s, as the company thought it would be necessary to continually expand into the neighborhood. However, Battelle no longer wanted to deal with the properties in the 1970s, so they did restoration work on the houses to prepare them for sale and attract buyers. Despite city efforts to apply for grants and create plans to ensure former tenants were able to purchase the houses they lived in, less than a third were able to do so, and many residents were displaced in the process. In the end, the Department of Housing and Urban Development never released the grant funds to the city of Columbus.

Photos

299 West 5th Avenue

This 1895 house is a more lavish example of Queen Anne architecture with its prominent turret and large porches. 5th Avenue is a major thoroughfare even today, so many of the houses first built there were intended to be larger and fancier than was common elsewhere in the city.

Harrison House (313 West 5th Avenue)

A historic photo of the house. (Beginning in the Middle)

Not to be confused with the former William Henry Harrison House in Franklinton, this 1890 Queen Anne is currently undergoing a major expansion. Its current owners purchased the house in 2020 and intended to convert it to a boutique hotel, and it had previously been a bed and breakfast since about 1990. Construction began in 2022, but the owners discovered that the house was zoned incorrectly, which required much more stringent code requirements and alterations in order for it to become a hotel.

According to a Columbus Dispatch reporter as of April, the project has been stalled for years, and it is unclear when or if it will ever be completed. The owners have cited code violations, expired construction permits, and unpaid property taxes as issues. They claim that it will be ready by the end of this year, but it seems like construction work has been extremely sporadic since.

Note sure if that ugly monochromatic paint color will remain--I’ve seen conflicting anecdotes that it will be changed or the owners plan on keeping it that way. Given their…questionable…interior design choices, it wouldn’t surprise me if the color is there to stay. Never mind the original Victorian character, let’s just paint everything white inside!

The addition does a decent job responding to the original building, but the rounded dormers are out of character. I also love the exposed insulation on the bay window and missing trim on the dormers.

322 West 5th Avenue

322 W 5th has been pretty heavily modified with gray paint and a new dormer, but it has some interesting historic details remaining.

Bay window:

Vaulted picture window:

326 West 5th Avenue

I like the steeply pitched roof and dark stone accents on this Queen Anne house.

330 West 5th Avenue

The colorful porch of this Queen Anne is in stark contrast with the earth tones of its brick walls and stone lintels.

I love the spindlework on the house’s porch and its delightful color scheme:

359-369 West 5th Avenue

This is one of a series of three townhomes built on the south side of 5th Avenue in 1984. The site originally had wood-framed houses from the 1890s, which were probably demolished in the 1960s or 1970s. These townhomes do a passable job at restoring density to the area, but their design is cheap and unremarkable.

382 West 5th Avenue

Dang trees always getting in the way…I like this Queen Anne’s very busy massing and vibrant paint colors.

398 West 5th Avenue

This is a fun Queen Anne/Shingle house with rather flat walls but a massive tower. It was built circa 1900 and has been altered over time.

Detail of the original porch with its arched openings:

I really like the twelve-sided tower and its odd onion-dome roof:

It is pretty closely integrated with the house:

421 West 5th Avenue

One of the few historic houses on the south end of 5th Avenue here, this Italianate has a tall turret but has been altered with an enclosed porch. It is older than the other houses nearby and was probably built circa 1880-1890.

Dennison Park Place (416-436 West 5th Avenue)

A photo of the newly moved houses in 1981. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

I was extremely confused by the age and placement of these houses, as they are clearly brick houses dating to the early 20th century, but neither the Sanborn maps nor the Baist maps show them in their current configuration. I assumed that the 1960s Sanborns were not properly updated, but it turns out that this is actually a much later project.

These six brick houses were moved to the current site in 1981 and reorganized around a central courtyard instead of facing the street. This gives the site a much more insular quality. I really love how unique it is versus the conventional street-facing houses everywhere else.

The brick entrance:

416 W 5th, an American Foursquare:

Red brick of 436 W 5th contrasting with the green foliage:

431-443 West 5th Avenue

These infill houses are actually pretty well-done New Traditional designs. They respond to the neighborhood’s context through height and form without disguising their age. If you want to live in a historic district without being bothered to be compliant with regulations and want the amenities of a modern house, this is the perfect solution. No historic buildings were harmed in the process since the site has been vacant for decades--win-win.

Katalina’s (1105 Pennsylvania Avenue)

Historic photo of the station circa 1950s. (Katalina’s website)

Now we’re transitioning to 3rd Avenue in Harrison West. The building that Katalina’s occupies was built in 1937 as an Art Moderne gas station. Most of the glazed brick walls have been stuccoed over before their tenancy. Katalina’s itself is an upscale fusion restaurant that opened here circa 2010. I visited their Clintonville location the day before graduation with my girlfriend and her parents--I had the pancake balls, which were very indulgent but delicious.

The Hanes (334 West 3rd Avenue)

This building’s design indicates obvious Columbus rowhouse influence, and I normally would have put it in one of those articles if not for its unusual form and incorporation of a commercial storefront. It seems to be a rowhouse design adapted to include a corner store, though it still has apartments on its eastern end.

This was my best attempt at a shot of the facade from straight on, since the sidewalk was closed:

The cornice and name:

West facade:

There is a similar rowhouse to the north built of the same shade of brick, so this building may have been built as a larger complex.

335 West 3rd Avenue

The part of this building closest to Harrison Avenue was built prior to 1899, and the eastern portion dates to circa 1920. It seems to have been a restaurant for a good part of its life, and it is currently being renovated.

I like the leaded glass transoms.

431-433 West 3rd Avenue

This Commercial style brick building was built circa 1890-1899. It has a simple rectangular form with spare rectangular window openings (aside from the two vaulted windows up front). It lacks any sort of cornice, only having a slightly raised parapet on the middle bay.

The west facade, which interestingly has carved lintels that look like a holdover of Italianate architecture:

443 West 3rd Avenue

An uncommon example of a frame commercial building in Columbus, this one has a simple Italianate-ish appearance with a slight corbelled cornice. Saucy Brew Works arrived circa 2020 and repainted the exterior sea-green, along with building the addition next door.

North facade:

West facade--what’s up with the sloping cornice?

This addition has an almost West Coast Modern style to it. It looks like it was plucked off of Venice Beach and set down in Ohio:

446 West 3rd Avenue

I think you can guess it by now…circa 1890-1899 Commercial style building. This one in particular has some Queen Anne touches with its bay windows and arches.

I like these arched openings, and they have stone impost blocks, which contrast with the brick facade:

One of the bay windows shrouded by branches:

These storefronts appear to be original, but I don’t think the glass itself is:

Loving the visible iron column and framing.

The east facade has an almost castellated appearance with the various buttresses poking above the roof level:

453 West 3rd Avenue

A very late Commercial-style building built in 1948, 453 W 3rd has a brick storefront typical of the style but uses cinder block construction elsewhere. It seems to have always been a store, and not a garage like I originally thought.

Mural of a Venus flytrap and the cinder block bearing walls:

Agora Church (First Brethren Church)

A very humble Gothic Revival church, this is a great example of the vernacular neighborhood churches across larger cities. It was built in 1911 as the First Brethren Church, according to the cornerstone, and it is now owned by a different congregation.

The 3rd Avenue side is very small: