herr2ck: The “Other” 5th Avenue

February 2026.

The 5th Avenue and North High Street Historic District is the northernmost of the three historic districts that make up the Short North’s commercial fabric. (The others are the 3rd Avenue and North High Street Historic District and the Short North Historic District.) Its buildings date between circa 1890-1930, though many were altered later in life due to the widening of High Street.

The 5th Avenue and North High Street Historic District is located in the Short North neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Smith Place to the north, 4th Avenue to the south, Courtland Avenue/Pearl Street to the east, and Wall Street to the west.

History

This part of the Short North was annexed into Columbus in two parts--everything south of 5th Avenue in 1862 and everything north of it in 1871. 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. Streetcar service arrived in 1876, and it was electrified in 1891. Since 5th Avenue was a major cross street in the area, the development was centered around its intersection with High Street. The vast majority of the existing historic buildings were constructed between 1900 and 1920.

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 homogenous 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.

Buildings in the 5th & N High District in the 1980s. (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 5th Avenue and North High Street 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

Rogers & Adams Building (1255-1259 North High Street)

The NRHP listing labels this one as Colonial Revival, but it has more of a Commercial-style form with a bit of classical ornamentation. If anything, I’d say it’s more Beaux-Arts, since Colonial Revival buildings tend to look straight out of 1776. It was built circa 1905 and was moved westward during the second phase of High Street’s widening in 1918, meaning it still has its original facade.

The segmentally arched windows, pilasters, and cornice are all classical features, so there is at least some influence there:

Detail of the transom window above the middle entrance:

The window borders use a fancy brick to achieve the ribbed effect:

Doubled windows above:

Northside Savings Bank (1217-1221 North High Street)

This is one odd Commercial-style building. It has an unevenly shaped plan due to the angle of 5th Avenue, and the fenestration is rather clunky with several openings of different sizes and spacing. It was built in 1903 as the Northside Savings Bank and was likewise moved during the 1918 widening process. Although several banks operated in the Short North, Northside was the first to construct its own building.

Note the different sizes and spacing of the windows, as well as the unevenly placed pier:

At least the overall form of the building is sort of symmetrical?

Bank Block (1204-1206 North High Street)

This is the oldest building on this stretch of High Street, and it was built in 1888. An example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, it has a facade composed of highly varied, rusticated ashlar and contrasting vaulted windows. The original facade escaped the widening of High Street, as the building was moved back.

Cornice detail with terra-cotta panels below:

The south end has a ghost sign advertising Ackers Hardware, a longtime tenant for almost a century that has since departed:

That store was founded by Charles Ackers, who arrived in Columbus in 1907 and began working for Payne & McDonald Hardware inside the building. Ackers eventually acquired the store itself in the 1920s and changed its name to his own. He died in 1980.

The north facade is much simpler, with unelaborated brickwork and stone lintels and sills:

Central Telephone Exchange/Haller Building (21 East 5th Avenue)

Before we keep going down High Street, we have a few buildings in the district on East 5th. The first is the former Central Telephone Exchange, a c. 1905 Beaux-Arts design. It was used for telephone switchboards for the Short North for decades.

Olive Tablet Company Building (25 East 5th Avenue)

A Commercial-style design built before 1910 (it appears on that year’s Baist map), it has a bit more flair with its massing and some stained-glass windows. I thought “olive tablet” referred to some type of Progressive Era chalkboard, but it was actually a type of anti-constipation pill. Olive Tablets were made by Frank Edwards, who invented a less toxic alternative to the laxatives of the day, and after working in Portsmouth for a few years he moved to Columbus around 1911. Profusely advertising in local papers, Edwards’ tablets were evidently very successful, as he soon moved into a large house on 14th Avenue.

Two canisters of Olive Tablets. Remember--the swastika was a symbol appropriated by the Nazis and had positive connotations before World War II. (University District History)

Edwards died in 1931, and his son then took ownership of the family business. Although demand for the pills had since dropped, the company began advertising itself as the “Laxative of Beautiful Women.” The business was sold in 1957 and the rights to the Olive Tablets themselves bounced around several times, but a reformulated version is still available today.

1203-1209 North High Street

You may remember this building as the one that shed part of its parapet onto the street and bus stop below in March 2025. It has since been repaired, but a different type of brick was used that sticks out from the more orange shade that makes up the exterior. Anyways, it was built circa 1912 with unique Prairie School ornamentation, as seen in the brickwork that surrounds each window. The low parapet and cornice also give the building a horizontal expression.

I very much like the textural depth achieved through the variously projecting and recessed bands of brick. It is a much more coherent building compared to the Northside Savings Bank to the north. It even has its original wooden-sash windows intact:

Corner of the parapet:

15-19 West 5th Avenue

Last stop before going further south is this building with unusual brick arches, which appears to be built of the same brick as its eastern counterpart on High Street.

Apollo Theatre (1195-1201 North High Street)

Hard to believe that this unassuming Commercial-style building used to be a theater compared to its more opulent southern neighbor, the Garden Theatre (keep reading), but it is an example of a smaller neighborhood “movie house.” Although its storefronts have been altered and any evidence of its original function is long gone, the original brickwork and second-floor windows remain.

The southern storefront, which houses Paulie Gee’s, has this terrazzo flooring. It could be original, but it might also be an alteration from the 1940s or 1950s.

1188-1190 North High Street

This simple Commercial design was built circa 1905 and has a brickwork cornice and two oriel windows on the facade.

Short North Stage/Garden Theatre (1181-1189 North High Street)

Again, the NRHP strikes out and calls this Colonial Revival again, when it clearly has more Renaissance Revival (probably Spanish) influence with the parapet and pilasters between windows. It was built in 1917, and its Art Deco sign was added in 1939. Along with the theater, the other storefronts once housed a plumbing company, music store, and confectionery.

Can’t remember why I took that picture off-center…maybe there was a car in the way? According to one source, the theatre was built as a stable, and it could have been an opera house later on due to parts of the stage being older than the existing theater. Additionally, a fire may have destroyed the roof, as some of the bricks (not visible in my photos) were discolored from heat.

The Garden Theatre opened in 1920 as a combined vaudeville and movie theater, apparently an example of an atmospheric theater as the orchestra pit was covered with shrubs. It was only the second theater in the entire state to have air conditioning, with a massive “Swamp Cooler” air conditioner located in the basement. The original owner died in the late 1920s, and his widow decided to sell it to organ player Ethel Fallows. Since this was the 1920s and women could not take out bank loans, they had an arrangement that Ethel would pay the widow $500 a year and Ethel would be granted the theater in the widow’s will. Although the widow lived for decades after, Ethel’s leadership was evidently very successful.

The theater’s signs in the mid-1970s. (Cinema Treasures)

However, as the Short North began to decline, movie theaters began to crop up in the suburbs. This led the Garden to be rebranded as a burlesque theater in the 1960s. By the mid-1980s, it resorted to showing adult films and “entertainment.” Its owners were eventually charged with promoting prostitution, and the theater was closed. It sat empty for about a decade and was then used by the Garden Worship Center, an evangelical church.

Short North Stage, the current owners of the theater, was founded in 2011 and renovated the interior. They continue to put on plays and maintain the theater’s burlesque tradition.

Unfortunately, everything below the second floor has been painted a monotonous tone of gray. The original marquee is long gone (note its hooks still embedded in the brick), along with some ornamentation above the side doors:

Luckily, the original wooden doors and ticket booth are intact:

The ornamental plaster panels inside the vestibule also hung on, too. Unfortunately, the best shot I could get was through the glass windows.

The underside of the marquee is also lined with lightbulbs, just as its past counterpart was:

The exterior masonry is excellent compared to the other buildings nearby. A variety of brick colors are used, from gray to tan and even a few orange ones, and there are several decorative terra-cotta pieces inset into the spandrels and pilasters:

Detail of a panel:

One of the pilasters dividing the windows:

The bricks are a little wonky, but these curved parts of the parapet are pretty cool:

It looks like there used to be a cornice or something here that was later removed and tarred over.

1186 North High Street

Another Commercial-style design built circa 1920, 1186 N High is only three bays wide and two stories tall, but it makes up for it with the stonework across the facade.

Corrier Building (1178-1180 North High Street)

Some interesting features on this circa 1890 building’s 1918 facade redesign include the ornamental stone panels along the parapet and the glass prism transom windows on the left storefront.

Strait Building (1175-1179 North High Street)

(Google Maps)

I didn’t grab a photo of the main facade, but this one is another case of an earlier building with a rebuilt facade during the High Street widening. You can see that and a colorful mural in this photo that I actually took:

1172-1174 North High Street

This vibrantly colored Art Moderne building has decorative terra-cotta panels across its entire facade. It used to be an adult costume store known as The Garden, which moved in 2022, and the windows were boarded up between 2024 and 2025. Hopefully it gets saved and reused.