herr2ck: Columbus - Olde Towne East

February 2026.

Olde Towne East is one of Columbus’s Near East Side neighborhoods. Once populated by upper-class white businessmen on Broad Street and Bryden Road, the area’s character shifted in the post-World War II era with highway construction and white flight, and it became a majority Black neighborhood some time after. Olde Towne East has rapidly gentrified within the past decade due to its proximity to downtown.

Olde Towne East is located on the near east side of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Broad Street and King-Lincoln Bronzeville to the north, I-70 and Old Oaks to the south, Champion Avenue, Wilson Avenue, and Franklin Park to the east, and I-71 and the Discovery District to the west. However, these boundaries are disputed, and some sources such as the Olde Towne East Neighborhood Association claim areas further north (Long Street) and east (Miller Avenue).

History

Although the Near East Side is urban now and populated by Americans, it was once a traveling point between the Scioto and Muskingum Rivers, and the Mound Builder people lived in the area beginning in the 5th century. There was once a burial mound at the corner of Bryden Road and Champion Avenue, which was destroyed by the early 20th century.

Olde Towne East was outside the original boundaries of the city of Columbus, as Parsons Avenue (then East Public Lane) was the city’s eastern border when it was platted in 1812, with the Parsons family’s farm standing east of that street. At the time, those who lived in the Near East Side area were farmers. Although much of the original rural fabric is long gone, a few buildings remain that hearken back to its larger lots, such as Columbus Public Health (formerly the Ohio State School for the Blind).

However, as Columbus grew rapidly following the Civil War and streetcars allowed people to live further from their jobs downtown, the city began to expand outward from its original borders. The east side was the logical choice for expansion, as downtown was densely packed by that time, the north side (present-day Arena District and Italian Village area) was clogged by Union Station and the railroads, the south side (Brewery District and German Village) was polluted by the canneries, factories, and breweries there, and the west side (Franklinton) had a propensity to flood. Thus, the east side soon became desirable for Columbus’s wealthy families.

Historic photo of East Broad Street, once the most opulent street in the neighborhood. (WOSU)

Residential development in the area was centered on two streets--Bryden Road and Broad Street. Since Broad Street was an extension of the principal east-west street downtown, it was built and platted first, with a plank road extending to Big Walnut Creek finished in 1852. In 1872, the city redesigned the street with a central roadway and two carriage-ways on either side. Next, Bryden Road follows the path of Town Street as it leaves downtown, but it was reportedly renamed to avoid the construction of streetcar lines down the street. Olde Towne East was annexed into Columbus in 1870 as a result. Main Street became the primary commercial district of the neighborhood, although much of that fabric has been lost since.

A group of people outside an Olde Towne East home circa 1950. (WOSU)

By the 1920s, Olde Towne East’s character had begun to change. With the rising impact of the automobile, the boulevards dividing Broad Street’s carriage-ways were removed in 1928, and the entire street was made open to car traffic. The Victorian houses in the neighborhood were often converted to offices or subdivided into apartments after their wealthy owners departed, and denser luxury apartment buildings were being built instead of single-family homes. Bexley and other suburbs such as Clintonville were the newly fashionable neighborhoods for the well-to-do. As the affluent residents left, middle-class Black families also began to purchase houses in Olde Towne East, as the east side was the first place where they were allowed to own property instead of rent. Residents noted the diverse racial demographics and that Black and white children freely played together, and that most importantly it was a clean, safe neighborhood.

Ongoing highway construction near Olde Towne East. (WOSU)

However, the post-World War II era was the one that did the most damage to Olde Towne East. More and more houses were being subdivided since circa 1920, increasing the neighborhood’s population density, and by the 1950s many of them began to deteriorate from deferred maintenance. In the 1960s, the construction of I-71 to the west and I-70 to the south both destroyed many homes in the neighborhood and geographically isolated it from downtown. At this point, most of the wealthy white residents had fled to the suburbs, making Olde Towne East a majority Black neighborhood. Because of the reduced population and since the working-class residents that remained could not afford to patronize local businesses, those began to close as well.

A run-down house in Olde Towne East. (WOSU)

Slumlords and urban renewal schemes resulted in the loss of significant historic fabric in Olde Towne East from the 1970s until the new millennium. Although several buildings in the area were listed on the National Register of Historic Places during that time, these listings frequently reference buildings that no longer stand. Preservation of the Bryden Road mansions began in the 1970s and 1980s, with organizations such as OTENA (the Olde Towne East Neighborhood Association) starting to play a role with zoning and development. They worked to save houses that were slated for demolition, while new residents began to invest the time and money into restoring the more deteriorated houses.

However, crack cocaine became an issue in Olde Towne East in the 1980s, and crime had increased to a level that the neighborhood had not yet seen. Car break-ins and burglaries were common, along with shootings. Columbus Neighborhoods cites Black residents’ experiences with police inaction in the area and claims that block watch programs and increased petitioning from white residents helped address this crime.

In 2003, a documentary called Flag Wars was released, which depicted the conflict between the poor Black residents of Olde Towne East and incoming affluent, gay white men. Columbus Neighborhoods expands on this and cites the fact that some came for the architecture and not the people. 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 Olde Towne East have come to do so once again.

Photos

As usual for these “dump posts,” this post covers a greater distance in less depth. Other places I have covered in more detail in this area include the Bryden Road District, Columbus Public Health, Engine Houses No. 11 and 12, First A.M.E. Zion, Ohio Avenue Elementary School, and the W. H. Jones House.

Carriage House Condominiums (909 Gustavus Lane)

I was able to paint a clear enough picture of this building’s history, but there is one thing that is confounding me that I still cannot figure out. Anyways, it was built before 1901 as a livery, which is a type of stable for horse owners to rent. It was designed in a vernacular brick interpretation of the Romanesque Revival style. By 1921, the stable had been converted to a 40-car garage, and as of 1961 it was a tin shop. It was converted into housing sometime before 2007, and the current “Carriage House Condominiums” opened around 2019.

Snippet of the 1901 Sanborn map. The stable building is on the left. (Library of Congress)

The main difference between the building as it appears now versus its depictions on the Sanborn map is that the Chapel Street (south) side has been shortened significantly (it once stood on the edge of the street but is set back far from it today), yet the south facade is clearly to its historic design and has the original materials. There is also no obvious indication that the original facade was moved in some manner, either. Did the Sanborns get it wrong? I guess we’ll never know.

The massive vaulted opening on the second floor was undoubtedly for the stable’s hay loft:

There is a slight corbelled brick cornice along the roof:

I also noticed these subtle brick slits across the building with a giant brick arch on top. These have to be purely ornamental, as I can’t identify what functional use they would have had.

Yardley Apartments (122 Parsons Avenue)

This 5-over-1 apartment was built in 2019. I will concede that it is one of the better designs I’ve seen for that typology, in that it uses very faithful materials and forms for the neighborhood, but I absolutely despise its posturing as an adaptive reuse of an existing factory building. (The original Yardley Co was demolished before 2007.) The apartments are of modern construction, and the painted sign on the facade should not pretend otherwise. Additionally, their construction coincided with the demolition of the historic Art Moderne E. T. Paul & Son building across the street.

61-63 Parsons Avenue

These next several buildings are the last remnants of Parsons Avenue’s commercial strip, as many buildings to the east were demolished for parking lots and those to the west were destroyed for the interstate. 61-63 Parsons is perhaps the most significant example on the street, standing three stories with a stone storefront, hood molds, and a corbelled cornice. These decorative elements also indicate that it is Italianate in style.

It appears on the 1891 Sanborn map, so it was built prior to that time, probably circa 1880. The earlier maps label the corner storefront as a drugstore, and it is currently a liquor store.

The size and placement of the windows is pretty clunky, though. This isn’t the most high-style Italianate building.

65-67 Parsons Avenue

A smaller Commercial style structure with two bay windows, it was built between 1901 and 1921. The original doors, storefronts, and decorative cornice all remain on this structure. The nude south facade and its light well indicate that it once had a neighbor that hemmed it in, which is corroborated by the Sanborn maps.

79-81 Parsons Avenue

Another Commercial style design from between 1901 and 1921, I like the prominent bay windows on the exterior. It also has a decorative brick pattern along the parapet and a storefront design that is either original or similar to it.