February 2026.
The Short North Historic District is the southernmost of the three historic districts that make up the Short North’s commercial fabric. (The others are the 5th Avenue and North High Street Historic District and the 3rd Avenue and North High Street Historic District.) Its buildings date between circa 1890-1930, though many were altered later in life due to the widening of High Street.
The Short North Historic District is located in the Short North neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Warren Street to the north, Poplar Avenue to the south, Pearl Street to the east, and Wall Street to the west.
History
Looking up High Street about where I-670 runs today. Note the dome of the Yukon Building in the background. (WOSU)
The Short North was annexed into Columbus in 1862. Most of the subdivisions that make up this stretch of High Street were platted in the late 19th century, when Columbus was rapidly expanding outside of downtown. Since this district was closer to downtown, it was developed sooner than the two others. Streetcar service arrived in 1871, extended past Russell Avenue in 1876, and it was electrified in 1891. However, the vast majority of the existing historic buildings were still constructed between 1900 and 1920, largely due to the High Street viaduct above Union Station’s tracks that eliminated traffic.
High Street became very congested with increasing automobile traffic in the early 20th century, also competing for space with the streetcars. In the end, it was widened by ten feet between 1915 and 1923, five feet to a side. As a result, many older buildings were either moved entirely, truncated slightly and had the facade itself moved, or simply had their facades rebuilt. This resulted in the largely homogeneous Commercial style of the district--it is very unusual today for any historic district to have such stylistic cohesion. However, a few Italianate buildings remain. Development in the area slowed in the 1920s and stopped entirely in the 1930s.
The Goldmine-Fiebel Block as it appeared in the 1970s. (WOSU)
The Short North experienced a decline seen most notably starting in the 1970s, though white flight and suburbanization had affected the area since after World War II. Businesses gradually departed beginning in the 1950s, and by the early 1970s, many Short North buildings were vacant and decaying by that time. What few businesses remained were dive bars. Crime was an issue in the area. Notably, the Short North Posse was a gang in the area stationed at 4th Street and 8th Avenue in Weinland Park, dominating from the late 1980s to early 1990s. Additionally, prostitution was centered on a stretch of the street between 1st Avenue and 3rd Avenue.
With German Village’s successful restoration starting in the 1960s, it inspired similar action in the Short North. Young professionals and artists started to move into the neighborhood with its cheap rent, investing into the neighborhood by restoring and renovating their houses, which by proxy resulted in their own gains from the reinvestment and not the earlier working-class residents. The Short North Business Association was founded in the early 1980s to draw commercial activity back to the district, and the first art gallery owners held their “cooperative opening” in 1984. This eventually led to the current Short North Gallery Hop, which received its name a year later. Much of High Street’s redevelopment began this decade.
The Short North Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. At that time, some of the buildings had been restored, but others still maintained earlier mid-century or Postmodern alterations. Later that decade, the Short North Special Improvement District was established by the city in 1999, and in 2002 reproductions of the original streetlight arches were installed.
Photos
J. M. R. Building (755-761 North High Street)
This type of Commercial-style building, with its corbelled brickwork and sign integrated into the parapet, was once ubiquitous in the University District and Old North. Many were demolished over the years, and the only ones that survive are generally in isolated areas such as this. This particular example was built in 1918.
I’ve always had a penchant for this kind of brickwork, and it’s super common in Columbus. I also like the glazed purple brick used.
Press Grill (739-741 North High Street)
I like the ornamental touches that the exterior of this building has, as seen in the contrasting rusticated stone and smooth brick, crowning cornice, and the green storefront. It was built circa 1890 and can also be described as Commercial in style, though the cornice is a bit anachronistic and would be more at home on an Italianate building from a few decades prior. The NRHP listing also labels this the Press Grill, so that restaurant has been operating out of this building since at least 1990.
Buttles & High Building (731-737 North High Street)
Another Commercial-style design, this one has a few interesting decorative touches such as the vibrantly painted oriel windows and blind brick vaults inside the cornice. It was built circa 1905.
Detail of the cornice:
Medical Science Building (721-725 North High Street)
One of the few buildings here that isn’t a brick box with various levels of applied decoration is the 1923 Medical Science Building, which appears to be largely Stripped Classical in style with some Egyptian Revival ornamentation. This can be seen in the pilaster capitals, the form of the window openings, and the metal urns on the High Street side. The impetus for its construction was the 1895 Columbus Protestant Hospital immediately west on Park Street, which has since been demolished.
Anecdotally, the owner tried to remove those urns at one point, but they were forced to reinstall them by the Short North area commission.
The portals surrounding each door have caduceus reliefs on them, a symbol of medicine:
Detail of the windows and their subtle decoration:
I think these urns are more classically inspired than Egyptian.
They are also halfway engaged with the wall. On second thought, they might actually be based on ancient oil lamps.
North facade, which faces Buttles Avenue:
The entrance here has heraldic shield reliefs and classical rosettes:
Egyptian Revival column capitals and classical reliefs:
Wallenheimer Building (724 North High Street)
This dinky little building may not look it, but it is one of the most historically important ones in the entire district. In the late 19th century, there were some grander brick buildings on High Street, though much of its fabric was made of smaller, simpler Folk Victorian wood-frame stores such as this one. The Wallenheimer Building is the only surviving example in the entire Short North, and one of a very small handful across Columbus.
Runyan Building (714-720 North High Street)
Much of this brick Commercial building has been clad in white stucco. Many of High Street’s buildings faced similar poorly-considered alterations, but they have since been restored. As it stands today, it combines a smaller commercial building and two separate residences, which occurred in 1918 after High Street was widened. Some sources assert that the stucco was applied during that 1918 renovation, though.
You can hardly make out the building’s name anymore:
The Lincoln (711 North High Street)
An office building built on a parking lot from 2017 to 2018, The Lincoln is obviously noncontributing, but it still falls within the boundaries of the district. It combines a black brick box with double-height windows with a New Classical base. Although the latter has no overt ornamentation such as a cornice or Corinithian capitals, its forms, materiality, and pilasters are very clearly classical in their inspiration.
691-693 North High Street
I like this asymmetrical Commercial building and its 8-bit cornice, which achieves a pixelated effect with the blocky brickwork. The rest of the exterior isn’t very interesting.
McKinley Building (685-689 North High Street)
This 1915 Beaux-Arts design has a bit more flair compared to its neighbors, with Doric pilasters dividing each bay, a metal cornice along the roofline, and subtle brick details such as denticulated courses. What is odd is that its cornice appears to float above the columns, which is most likely because the lower frieze portion was simplified and integrated into the brick wall instead of being part of the metal cornice itself.
Detail of the cornice:
Dunne, Lincoln, & Maurice Buildings (680-698 North High Street)
The NRHP listing considers these to be three separate buildings, but since there are no seams in the brick and the only difference is the windows, I thought it was one cohesive block. Their names come from the apartment complexes inside The central module uses segmentally arched windows…
…while the two others have round arches:
One of the many blade signs that lines the streets of the Short North:
672-674 North High Street
I like the Mission Revival clay tile roof on this one. The rest of the building is pretty standard fare for the district--brick facade and rectangular windows.
17 Brickel Street
This little industrial structure was tucked away just east of the prior building and facing Pearl Street a block east. There were a few remnants of its former use as a livery stable, such as oddly floating vaults in the brick:
Not sure if the decorative corbels below the roof are original, but they could be.
Victorian Gate Condominiums (647-677 North High Street)
These Postmodern condos were built in 1994. Along with a commercial front along High Street, there is a central courtyard that the apartments themselves face. I think the design was informed by Columbus’s historic schools, based on the roof profile and the vaulted windows at the northern and southern ends.
Again, I don’t particularly care for their appearance and personally find them rather bland, but I was trying to document all of the Short North’s current fabric, not just the historic stuff.
Creamer Building (660-662 North High Street)
Although largely a Jacobethan Revival design, this 1918 building was altered with an Art Deco glass tile storefront in 1930. It doesn’t agree well with the original building, but it is still a rare example of an early alteration to a historic building.
Detail of the Art Deco ornamentation:
One of the corner pilasters:
Classical ornament above on the parapet:
This shield is looking particularly rough with age:
Sells Building (650-658 North High Street)
Lined with oriel windows and a little reminiscent of the Chicago School except for its classical detailing is the Sells Building, built in the 1890s but receiving a new facade in 1915 due to High Street’s expansion. I think the windows might be a later modification, though.
I wonder if the flowy ribbons are meant to represent the Sells circus?
I framed it poorly, but this may be my best shot yet of the stark contrast between a 19th-century facade and one built when High Street was widened:
Immediately east of the Sells Building are these rowhouses. They are built in a style popular in Columbus, and their arrangement next to a commercial building is also common in the Short North and other medium-density neighborhoods. Note that the decorative hood molds and brick cornice are the same:
Goldmine-Feibel Block (641 North High Street)
Northern two buildings of the structure.
I thought the three 1893 buildings that make up this Italianate block were separate due to their differing heights, widths, and decor (compare this to the six unified Commercial-style buildings in the 3rd & High district, which are more obviously part of the same complex), and they were indeed all built individually before being united very early on for the Goldmine dry goods store (later Fiebel). These lovely, vibrant buildings all have intricate metal cornices and achieve a sense of dynamism through their contrasts with each other.
I think the northernmost building at the corner of High and Russell is my favorite of the three. It has the most intricate cornice, though several pinnacles at the top have fallen off, and it retains a historic metal storefront design (which I don’t think is original but probably dates to the merging of the three buildings):
This section also has its original mosaic tile floor:
It appears to have had an addition built onto the west end at some point as well:
This large opening was probably made when the building became an art gallery:
Similar changes on the addition:
You may be surprised to learn that the slender middle building’s rough stone facade is actually pressed metal designed to look like masonry:
I like the little colonnettes that divide the windows and the decorative tympanum on the second floor:
Unfortunately, these details are all pretty crusty from repeated painting.
The cornice is very floral, with little rosette panels and two flower reliefs on each edge:
The southernmost section houses The Pearl, the first restaurant that my parents ever took me to when visiting Columbus:
The storefront is not original and replaced another design which probably dated to the 1970s. The Pearl opened between 2011 and 2014. I dig its vintage-inspired sign:
Detail of the cornice, which had Christmas lights strung across the top:
Another view of the middle:
Joyce Building (640-642 North High Street)
This Commercial building has had some alterations to its north elevation, with the original segmentally-arched windows replaced with wider Chicago windows. The High Street facade is still in good condition and has subtle brick details.
Detail of the stone sign:
Wallenheimer Building (630-636 North High Street)
I like the little pointy hood molds on this Commercial building, which was built in 1918.
Detail:
Sources:
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