herr2ck: Bryden Road, pt. 3

February 2026.

The Bryden Road District is likely the most expansive and intact historic district of upper-class Victorian houses in the city of Columbus. Extending almost two miles from I-71 to the railroad tracks separating Columbus from Bexley, it is lined with opulent Queen Anne, Stick, Craftsman, and American Foursquare houses. It is rapidly undergoing gentrification and was the subject of a documentary called Flag Wars about the poor Black residents of Olde Towne East gradually being displaced by middle-class white, gay couples.

The Bryden Road District is located in the Olde Towne East neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Chapel Street to the north, Bryden Alley to the south, the railroad tracks and Bexley to the east, and Parsons Avenue to the west. My entire journey covered the street from Parsons to Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls; this third part includes the final third from Ohio Avenue eastward.

History

A documentary called Flag Wars filmed in 2003 shows the conflict between the remaining working-class Black residents and newly arriving gay couples, who bought the homes to restore. It makes a multi-dimensional, nuanced argument regarding the situation at that time, which I found very difficult to grapple with and make my own conclusion. Here is how I feel about it:

First, it is unfortunate that the area’s historic designation made it a burden for the poorer residents to properly maintain their homes. It is one thing to move into a historic district with the financial means to alter your home in a historically sensitive manner and then complain about being forced to do so (which I am frequently very critical of on this website), but it is another to have lived in a house for decades and have your formerly sneered-at residence suddenly listed in a historic district. The documentary covers one resident in particular, whose only income is the disability checks she received, who was constantly being hounded by the city government for code violations. Their haste in prosecuting her while she bounced in and out of the hospital versus the more lackadaisical attitude towards more serious crimes is very telling.

Another important aspect is that both groups held bigoted opinions towards each other. The gay residents often made racist and classist comments during the interviews and played up stereotypes such as crime statistics. It is true that crime was bad in Olde Towne East at the time, but most people living there were just trying to work, make a living, and mind their own business. At the same time, several of the Black residents were homophobic, adhering to “I don’t like how much they flaunt it” at best to “I don’t want to raise my children next to the gays” at worst. This amplified the feelings of division in the neighborhood.

As you can predictably imagine, the white residents won this battle, and Olde Towne East is one of the most rapidly gentrifying areas in Columbus. It is true that the historic architecture is being rehabilitated, but this comes at the cost of displacing lower-class residents who then have to search for different housing as they are gradually priced out of the neighborhood. In the end, the racial and class-based boundaries that originally defined Bryden Road have come to do so once again.

Photos

Old First Presbyterian Church (1099 Bryden Road)

1955 photo of the church. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

I thought the “Old” in this church’s name meant they had relocated, but I guess it just signifies that the congregation itself has been around a long time. Anyways, First Presbyterian is reportedly the oldest church in Columbus, having been founded in 1806, but it moved to this Gothic Revival location in 1908.

Very moody.

West facade:

The cornerstone reveals that the church was under construction in 1908:

One of the stained-glass windows:

From the northeast:

The east side has a more prominent stained-glass window:

Vestry or office area in the rear:

1115 Bryden Road

This Queen Anne is in pretty horrid condition…faux stone cladding on the first floor, stucco and paint over the brick on the second, and roof issues. Most of the other houses on Bryden looked similar prior to their restorations.

1122 Bryden Road

This 1894 Queen Anne house has a covered addition over its porch, which is most likely an alteration. I like the purple paint, too.

1126-1128 Bryden Road

1126-1128 Bryden is a more modernized American Foursquare duplex with blindingly white paint and contemporary block windows.

1129 Bryden Road

I like this little Folk Victorian cottage with its various gables, dormers, and bay windows. Definitely a shot at a Queen Anne design at a smaller scale.

Flavius & Mary Kistler House (1138 Bryden Road)

1976 photo of the exterior. (All Columbus Data)

This fun, eclectic Queen Anne house was built by local architecture firm Yost & Packard in 1896. Although it seemed to be in good condition as of 1976, alterations in the 1980s or 1990s have resulted in the entire house being painted and the porch enclosed with iron grilles. No original features seem to have been lost in the process, however.

Bryden Road facade--the turret still has its slate roof, finial, and stonework (though painted):

Detail of the vaulted picture window--note the infilled double-hung windows:

Flavius Kistler owned the F. J. Kistler Coal Company, a “wholesale and retail” coal company in Columbus. He was born in Carroll, Ohio in 1852 or 1853 and moved to Columbus to establish the Kistler & Shonting Co. downtown. Kistler died in 1922, reportedly having moved to a different house north of Westerville at that time. His wife Mary was a German immigrant from Bavaria and lived in Columbus for 87 years until her death in 1939.

The carriage house even stands in the rear, although it is in poor condition:

Alice Schille House (1166 Bryden Road)

1976 photo of the house. (All Columbus Data)

This 1895 Queen Anne, one of the first built east of Champion Avenue, has some lovely decorative gingerbread on the porch and on the gables. It has an interesting set of anachronistic twinned arched windows, which would look more at home on a Second Empire design, but surprisingly still fit here. Although the slate roof has been removed, the other decorative details remain, and the porch has been restored with a more historically accurate design.

Alice Schille was an artist who had a studio in the house’s carriage house, and she was one of the founders of the Columbus Art History Club along with teaching at the Columbus Art School (now CCAD). Her family commissioned the home and lived there until 1973. Her father was Peter Schille, who owned a soft drink factory downtown and died in 1886. After Peter’s death, his wife took over the business, perhaps inspiring Alice’s spirit to oppose the gender roles of the time.

Loving the scalloped shingles, too--pink is honestly a historically accurate color.

Stupid autofocus always getting the branches in the way.

Something tells me this porch isn’t original…;)

John Schneider House (1169 Bryden Road)

The house in 1900. (All Columbus Data)

I saw a house similar to this one in Franklin Park and was shocked at the odd fenestration on the second floor, with three tightly grouped windows and no others on the front. Turns out that wasn’t an isolated example. This one has been pretty heavily altered and painted, however.

The vaulted first-floor openings are unusual too.

1176 Bryden Road

This Tudor Revival house was built circa 1920 and has a large bay window in the center of the facade, along with a smaller stone entrance portal. I love the diamond muntin pattern on the windows, which are most likely originals.

Entrance portal:

The side has two open porches:

1195-1197 Bryden Road

This Queen Anne has several high Victorian features, such as the woodwork and little balcony in the gable, original cast-iron fence, and two-story porch.

1198 & 1204 Bryden Road

These two Queen Anne houses share the same plan and layout. I’ve shown similar houses several times by now, but I wanted to illustrate the myriad decorative patterns that were available to homeowners. It also helps that the houses are in good condition and have their original features intact. The two have different window shapes, porch designs, masonry details, and shingles in the gable.

1201 Bryden Road

Loving the dark masonry and little turret on the roofline of this Queen Anne. It has an original art glass window, too.

Charles Bertram & Minnie Wolfe House (1210 Bryden Road)

1210 Bryden is a Queen Anne house built in 1892. Its porch has classical detailing such as Doric columns and an entablature, and the house has an octagonal tower on its western end. Although its original owner is unknown, Charles Bertram and his wife Minnie moved here from across the street at 1195 Bryden circa 1904, and Charles went on to establish the C. & E. Shoe Company after working at the H. C. Godman Shoe Company.

1211 Bryden Road

(Google Maps picture)

I didn’t get a shot of the main house and it was covered by trees anyway. According to Historic Homes of Olde Towne East, it was the residence of Joseph Frederick Firestone, who founded the Columbus Buggy Company with his brother Clinton DeWeese Firestone. (Their nephew Harvey Firestone would later create the Firestone Tire company.)

I thought this would be Henry Hallwood’s house based on this paving brick:

He lived on Franklin Avenue, though. Stay tuned to see if I ever get out there.

1224 Bryden Road

Hard to nail down a style for this house…it has a sort of Greek Revival portico to it and a Colonial Revival entrance portal. The auditor’s website gives it a date of 1885, which seems pretty early to me. According to Historic Homes of Olde Towne East, its date of construction is unknown, but likely occurred circa 1874-1877. At that time, it was owned by Robert and Rebecca Stewart, and Robert was the superintendent of the deaf school. Later, Frederick J. Williams, a coffee and tea merchant, converted it to a duplex for the different generations of his family.

1230 Bryden Road

1230 Bryden still has its original slate shingles, roof finials, and scalloped siding.

Charles Bedwell/W. N. Cleveland House (1234 Bryden Road)

The house in 1976. (All Columbus Data)

This Second Empire house predates many of the others on the street by at least two decades, as it was built in 1872. It’s possible that it was an older farmhouse built when this area of Columbus was more rural, or it was one of the first houses built on the street when lots were beginning to be sold.

All Columbus Data calls it the Charles Bedwell House, but the NRHP listing refers to it as the Cleveland House, after W. N. Cleveland. He had quite the family, being related to Cleveland, Ohio’s founder Moses Cleveland, as well as having US president Grover Cleveland as an uncle. W. N. Cleveland himself was the owner of the Capital Construction Company, which built bridges in the city.

It is pretty heavily altered today with a different porch, modern windows, a new roof, and a coat of white paint over the bricks, but the original hood molds and mansard roof are still apparent.

Edward Johnson House (1240 Bryden Road)

The house in 1900. (All Columbus Data)

This 1898 Queen Anne has had a few interesting alterations. The lavish porch was removed and replaced with a simpler design with two Ionic columns, probably in the early 20th century. Most notably, one of the second floor windows was widened with a larger opening, which also likely occurred early in the house’s history based on its wooden sash. I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference without the historic photo above.

The east end of the house has a giant weeping willow tree:

1251 Bryden Road

Even I’m starting to get a little sick of these American Foursquares with little stylistic variance. Maybe there’s one reader here who really loves them, go figure.

1266 Bryden Road

Compared to its brick neighbors, this rusticated limestone Queen Anne is a standout (although it’s just a veneer). In particular, I like the art glass window with a giant shield in the middle.

Detail of the vaulted window:

Gable and woodwork:

William H. Thomas Gallery/Chief Shongo Obadina House (1270 Bryden Road)

This Queen Anne was featured very prominently in Flag Wars as the home of Chief Baba Shongo Obadina, a Black artist. Shongo operated an art gallery and community center out of his house, and he displayed a similar sign on his porch, which city officials attempted to remove. One of Shongo’s grievances was that the incoming gay residents were free to fly pride flags, but his sign was still being targeted by the city.

Although Chief Baba Shongo Obadina is in his 70s now, he continues to operate as an artist in the area, and the house remains in use as an art gallery. Much of his work is wood carvings depicting African mythology and the Near East Side’s culture. He was born and raised on the Near East Side, graduating from East High School, when “that area was still considered the ‘ghetto’” and spent much of his life volunteering and giving back to the community. Although he attended Ohio State and majored in social work, he dropped out and became a plumber, just the tenth Black plumber in Boston’s union at the time. He returned to Columbus several years later. Shongo named the gallery after his ex-wife’s stepfather, who died while helping him repair the house’s brick foundation.

For the record, I am on Shongo’s side regarding his sign, and I think that the same rules for flying flags should apply to signs such as his.

1280 Bryden Road

Unlike its loftier neighbors, this humble, pink Folk Victorian cottage stands just one story tall and is much simpler in its expression. The porch has some Eastlake spindlework painted a fun palette of pastel colors.

1288 Bryden Road

Hard to categorize this house--the crenellated tower and Dutch stepped dormer make things a little difficult. I think that overall it resembles an American Foursquare design, but the inclusion of a tower is an unusual holdover from Queen Anne architecture. This is also complicated by the auditor’s claim of an 1887 date of completion, about a decade before American Foursquare houses became popular. I’ll just call it eclectic.

Detail of the porch:

Even the entrance is vaulted, a Romanesque feature, mixing up the styles here even further:

The gable uses masonry as well as brick, spicing it up a bit and adding some nice contrast.

Dann House (1298 Bryden Road)

This odd Queen Anne house had immediately stuck out to me with the inclusion of triglyphs and Doric pilasters on its facade, which are classical details rarely seen on buildings in that style. Additionally, there’s a rather odd moment where the frieze extends beyond the wall plane and has to be supported with two corbels. While I was doing research on my second Schiller Park article, I discovered architect Julius Kremer had built a house there, and that same website revealed that Kremer designed this house as well. It was completed in 1895.

The porch is supported with doubled Corinthian columns, unusual to see at this small scale:

The house has a pretty nifty copper fountain lined with nymphs and cherubim, too:

Abigail Osborne House (1314 Bryden Road)

1314 Bryden is an unusually large American Foursquare house with an expansive front porch supported by doubled Doric columns. I like the three dormers and giant Palladian bay window, too. Although it was built in 1902 for Clarence M. Chaffee, owner of the Snyder Chaffee Company confectionery, and his wife, a more notable tenant was Mrs. Chaffee’s mother Abigail Osborne. Osborne was the aunt of president William McKinley.

1320 Bryden Road

I love the swooping eaves of this American Foursquare house and the roof’s low pitch. It likely had some Japanese influence.

Don’t worry, I didn’t miss the giant Charles Frederick Myers House at 1330 Bryden next door, I covered it in its own article.

1337 Bryden Road

One of the few Tudor Revival houses on the street, 1337 Bryden nonetheless has a few Craftsman cues such as the corbels and large front porch. The gable facing the street is interestingly a jerkinhead roof (don’t let the middle schoolers hear that one), which has the tiniest sliver of a hipped roof before the gable ends normally.

1341 Bryden Road

This American Foursquare has strange, out-of-scale dormers that dominate the entire roof. The rest of the house is pretty simple otherwise, but their size and lighter color attracts the eye immediately.

Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls (Franklin Junior High School/Franklin Alternative Middle School)

A photo of the school shortly after its completion. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

This odd space-age building looks like a Moon base plopped down on the north side of Bryden Road. Its construction began in spring 1976, and the school opened in 1977 as the new home of Franklin Junior High School, the first alternative middle school in Columbus City Schools, which was previously located in the old East High School building (since demolished). The school has since rebranded as Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls.

I’m sure that some of the original Victorian houses were demolished for this school’s construction, which is unfortunate, but I kind of have a soft spot for the building’s design. Its fenestration and massing are certainly memorable, and I like the below-grade first floor with the smallest slit of ribbon windows peeking out above the grass.