February 2026.
Even though the city loves to insist that it is the “King-Lincoln District,” I call it King-Lincoln Bronzeville as the locals prefer. This was taken outside St. Paul A.M.E. on Long Street.
King-Lincoln Bronzeville is a historically Black neighborhood on the Near East Side, itself formerly the lively center of Columbus’s Black population. I-71’s construction and urban renewal have separated it from downtown and resulted in the loss of its commercial strip on Long Street. A stretch of Long to about Monroe Avenue is experiencing gentrification today, though it doesn’t seem to be as drastic as Olde Towne East.
King-Lincoln Bronzeville is located on the near east side of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Mt. Vernon Avenue and Mt. Vernon to the north, Broad Street and Olde Towne East to the south, Taylor Avenue and Woodland Park to the east, and I-71 and the Discovery District to the west. Historically, the neighborhood had different boundaries--the railroad (now I-670) to the north, Woodland Street to the east, and Cleveland Avenue to the west.
History
To the residents of the community, King-Lincoln Bronzeville was historically referred to as simply “Bronzeville,” a name coined by Chicago writer James Gentry. (Chicago has a Bronzeville too, and the term is meant to be inclusive of the different shades of Black skin.) One writer states that several community activists and preservationists believe that the “King-Lincoln” prefix is inconsistent with the neighborhood’s history and community spirit. This is in large part due to the fact that the King Arts Complex opened 30 years after Bronzeville’s decline, and it was known as the Pythian Theatre beforehand.
Columbus’s Black population lived downtown and on the northeast side of the present day Discovery District in the mid-19th century, and as time went on, the population expanded eastward. In particular, since Black residents had difficulty finding good jobs due to racism and discrimination, they moved closer to the places that offered employment opportunities. One of these was the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, & St. Louis Railway, which ran where I-670 does today.
c. 1920 view of the Alpha Hospital, a Black-owned hospital on Long Street. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
Bronzeville quickly grew due to the influx of Black people escaping from the Jim Crow-era South, as Northern states were (in practice) marginally better in terms of civil rights. The presence of Ohio State University in Columbus was a major draw for these migrants. Factory jobs paid much more than they did in the South, but hate groups such as the KKK were still active in the North, especially in neighboring Licking County. Additionally, redlining and housing covenants meant that Columbus’s Black citizens were forced to live in the neighborhood, even if they could afford to move elsewhere. Discriminatory insurance maps labeled Bronzeville as “high-risk” for federal backing of housing loans, meaning Black residents struggled to obtain them. As a result, Black-owned banks and mortgage companies were established to serve the community.
Historic photo of Mt. Vernon Avenue. The white Beaux-Arts building is the Cameo Theatre. All of these buildings have since been demolished. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
Two commercial strips quickly developed in the neighborhood--Mt. Vernon Avenue and Long Street. The former was the commercial center, while the latter was mostly residential with a few pockets of professional businesses. This was acceptable to the power-holding white population, as it meant that “the help” could live within walking distance of their Broad Street or Bryden Road mansions but have a sufficient racial divide between the neighborhoods. However, as more Black residents arrived, the white people quickly became uncomfortable, and attempted to confine them to certain areas. Black people soon learned that buying a single house on an all-white block (for an inflated price, of course) would lead to localized white flight, and other Black folks could move in at a much cheaper price. The only place that this did not occur was on Mt. Vernon Avenue, as Jewish citizens maintained their homes and businesses there.
Since Black people were forbidden from patronizing most downtown businesses after segregation policies were instituted at the turn of the 20th century, those that lined these streets were owned and used by the Black residents of Bronzeville. These included theatres (such as the Lincoln and Pythian), restaurants, grocery stores, doctors, and even hospitals. Jazz was a popular music genre, and by the 1930s, many entertainment establishments in Bronzeville hosted famous jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.
A parade on Mt. Vernon Avenue in 1949. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)
Bronzeville was incorporated in 1936, and its 40,000 residents elected a mayor, Rev. N. L. Scarborough of Trinity Baptist Church. He established an entirely Black cabinet to spearhead the neighborhood’s political and economic decisions, which consisted of prominent local professionals such as lawyers and doctors. Columbus’s first housing project, Poindexter Village, was built in 1940 in the neighborhood. Since the housing authority forbade Black residents from all other housing projects in the city, Poindexter Village became vital for lower-income families and newly arrived migrants from the South. These factors meant that in practice, King-Lincoln Bronzeville was essentially its own city within the confines of Columbus.
1889 photo of Mt. Vernon Junior High, a Yost & Packard design which has since been demolished. (Wikimedia)
Most of Bronzeville’s historic schools have been demolished, but from 1910 to 1950, children attended various schools across the neighborhood. At first, a decrepit building at Long and 3rd was named the “Loving School” (after Dr. Starling Loving) in 1871. Desegregation efforts resulted in its closure in 1882. Later, students attended the Felton School or Garfield Elementary School for elementary education, Mt. Vernon and Champion Schools for middle school, and Central and East High School. At that time, the neighborhood had four Black principals and 80 Black teachers.
Mt. Vernon Avenue in 1974--these buildings were still intact, but this was not to last. (Columbus Navigator)
King-Lincoln Bronzeville began to decline in the 1960s. I-71, which began construction in 1962, severed the neighborhood from downtown Columbus and isolated Mt. Vernon Avenue entirely. Remember, this was a deliberate tactic at the time to further divide Black communities. Mt. Vernon Avenue, the major commercial strip of Bronzeville, was rerouted one way down Spring Street, an “insignificant street” further south. The displaced residents whose homes were in the expressway’s path were forced to move to other neighborhoods such as Linden and Driving Park.
A building covered with signs during the 1967 protests. (WOSU)
In addition, the Civil Rights movement’s successes allowed the wealthier Black residents to move to neighborhoods previously unavailable to them, and those remaining in Bronzeville were too poor to leave. With the loss of patrons, the Black-owned businesses closed as well. Soon, the formerly vibrant business district of Mt. Vernon Avenue and Long Street were perceived as decaying slums by the white government of Columbus, leading to further divestment and “urban renewal” efforts, which entailed the demolition of many commercial buildings and houses along these streets. In September 1967, there were civil rights protests in the neighborhood, which resulted in vandalism to local buildings after several days. This foreshadowed an increasing rate of decline through the 1970s, as well as the departure of the Jewish population in the neighborhood.
The city of Columbus has made reinvestment efforts in the neighborhood beginning in the 1980s. The King-Lincoln District Plan was published in 2002, which resulted in the renovation of the Lincoln Theatre and opening of the King Arts Complex. Long Street has also seen the construction of new apartments and commercial buildings within the last decade. However, this came with the controversy of the Black mayor of Columbus giving the neighborhood its “King-Lincoln District” title, which is a pretty clear attempt to obscure its history as a Black-governed neighborhood. One source speculates that this decision was in large part to either pander to or avoid the alienation of the white businesses that are funding the revitalization efforts.
Many of my sources make it clear that there has been a conspicuous absence of scholarship on Columbus’s Black history as a whole, but particularly in Bronzeville. This makes the city government’s refusal to acknowledge its history all the more depressing and even nefarious. If the residents of an area are aware of their local history and landmarks, they are more inclined to advocate for the preservation of historic sites and buildings. It is incredibly disheartening to view historic photos and see how a once-vibrant neighborhood was destroyed through institutional racism. Although the sites I’ve visited in King-Lincoln Bronzeville seem safe from the wrecking ball, I hope that this remains the case.
Photos
I didn’t do a ton of material for this post, mainly because I focused on individual landmarks in the neighborhood. I took these while walking up and down Long Street to take photos of the Lincoln Theatre and Hamilton Park Historic District.
The Diehl
Wouldn’t be gentrification without some good ol’ 5-over-1s…this apartment building was nearing completion in 2026 and replaced a Mid-Century Modern church building on the site.
Sure, this whole stretch has the density and wall of brick that it used to, but there’s something so sterile about these new buildings.
At least the murals jazz it up a bit…get it?
I visited East High School’s current building in a separate article.
The Ogden
This apartment complex commits two cardinal sins. First, it reappropriates a name that was historically important to the neighborhood, as the Lincoln Theatre was built as the Ogden Theatre. Second, it is what theorists might call a “simulacrum,” i.e. it attempts to be a historic building in the neighborhood through its design. Compare it to The Edna (keep reading), an authentic historic building in a similar style, and see what I mean.
Plaza Hotel [demolished]
1984 photo of the building. (NRHP listing)
The Plaza Hotel is an excellent example of Long Street’s original fabric, and of course, it has been demolished. It was an Italianate building at the northeast corner of Long Street and Hamilton Avenue built circa 1895. Although this type is common across Columbus, it was historically significant as being one of the few historic buildings remaining on Long Street. Even as of its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, its neighbors were “demolished or substantially altered.”
The Plaza Hotel was built as a commercial building with apartments on the floors above the first floor, but in 1929, it was converted to a hotel. At the time, it was vital to the Black community in Bronzeville, as Black residents were forbidden from renting rooms downtown and it was close to the neighborhood’s entertainment hubs.
By 1984, the Plaza Hotel had been heavily altered and was vacant. Its windows were boarded up, and the first floor was covered with a stone veneer. Nonetheless, its historic hood molds and cornice remained intact. It was demolished by 2005, when the present building on the site was built.
Theresa Building
This building may have been the first in Columbus for Black professionals, namely dentists, developers, and photographers. It is a Mission Revival design by architect George W. Abernathy (unusually a white architect, which was a controversial decision) and was completed in 1925. The Theresa Building’s construction was financed by Ruby Williams and Al Jackson, the latter being a local entrepreneur who also funded the Lincoln Theatre. It stemmed from the rapidly developing segregation in Columbus, along with the influx of trained Black professionals from the Great Migration. The building was successful, but Jackson lost his fortune by continuing to show vaudeville and silent films in his theatres despite the new-fangled “talkies” being shown elsewhere, and he was forced to sell the building in 1931.
The second floor’s lobby in 1925. (NRHP listing)
Later owners of the building held onto it for long periods of time, and they were familiar with the neighborhood or the tenants. Two were musicians at the nearby Empress Theatre, and the third was the son of a dentist who had worked in the building. This meant that they maintained it well despite the decline and demolition of the surrounding buildings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
The first floor’s storefronts have been altered, but the masonry details and clay tile roof are intact.
The Edna
The Edna is a brick Commercial style building completed in 1905. It was built for Emma and Thomas Callahan and named after their daughter Edna, who later attended Ohio State. The Callahans were of Irish and German descent and did not live in the area. With stores at its base and apartments above, its first residents were working-class white people. This was the case until 1928, when Black tradespeople began living in the apartments.
In 1919, the Fireside Mutual Aid Association opened inside, owned by Atlanta insurance agent Truman Kella Gibson. They offered insurance to newly arrived Black migrants from the Great Migration. He himself was a migrant, and he founded the company in Columbus. It moved in 1920 to the nearby Williams Building (demolished).
In 1950, the Ohio Sentinel, a Black-owned newspaper, moved their offices to The Edna. The Ohio Sentinel was founded by members of the Ohio State News, another Black-owned “protest journal,” but the Sentinel was more moderate and supported the NAACP instead of leftist movements. The newspaper went out of business in 1962, and the owners went on to establish the Call and Post. The second floor was used by the Dukes and Duchesses Club at that time, which was a social club for professional Black men and women. It left a year later in 1963.
The building during its vacancy in 2014. (Google Maps)
With Long Street’s decline, The Edna had non-commercial tenants, and it was abandoned in 1986. In the late 1990s, the building became structurally unstable, and it needed buttressing and a new roof. In 2022, the Franklin County land bank purchased the building for its own use, with the intention of renting some space out to other tenants. The renovation work was designed by Moody Nolan, and the building was well into its renovation when I visited.
These storefronts are modern, but the remaining glass prisms have been saved:
Cornice and glazed brick sign:
It was very interesting to dive into King-Lincoln Bronzeville’s history, as it is not really discussed as much as our traditional cis-white-male history that most people are familiar with. It particularly helped to use scholarship done by experts on Black culture.
Sources:
Columbus Neighborhoods by Tom Betti
https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/1/3078/files/2012/06/Beth-Jax.pdf
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71988348
https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/15000324
https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/30504
https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/memory/id/174661/rec/58
https://www.columbusnavigator.com/historic-neighborhoods-columbus/
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https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/100000665
https://www.archcitydevelopment.com/portfolio-items/the-edna/
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