herr2ck: Gentrification and the Bier Stube

Photos vary, from September-November 2024, September 2025, January 2026, & March 2026.

Gentrification is a polarizing topic within the architecture and city planning community. In some cases, it can breathe new life into a struggling area, and even spur the renovation or restoration of decaying buildings. However, in other cases, it is a plague that systematically destroys the character of a neighborhood in favor of the money-hungry capitalist. Unfortunately, the gentrification of Ohio State’s campus surroundings takes the latter approach. Although most of the damage has already been inflicted, I witnessed the disheartening loss of a well-loved campus dive bar during my time on campus.

I visited Bier Stube many times, and I daresay it was my favorite campus bar at the time of its closing. I made so many memories and met all sorts of interesting people there. There was no better place to sit and just talk to your friends for hours while slugging a few beers. This is gonna be a more personal one than usual, and I’ll try to include some of my own anecdotes.

The Bier Stube was located at 1479 North High Street, just south of Ohio State campus in the University District. At the time of its closure, it was bordered by Yau’s Chinese Bistro/Portofino’s Pizza to the north, some bland gentrification-special apartments to the south, High Street to the east, and Wall Street to the west.

History

The building that Bier Stube later occupied prior to its conversion. (Bier Stube on Instagram)

Bier Stube was one of the oldest existing campus bars, having been in operation since 1966. Although I thought that its building was constructed for the bar and not by a previous owner, given its mock half-timbered facade, that was not the case. It appears on the 1921-1961 Sanborn map and was labeled “Plumb’g,” indicating it may have been a pumping station or had some other function related to the city’s water service. The county auditor’s website wasn’t of any additional help.

Bier Stube was part of the infamous “south campus strip” of bars that was host to much debauchery until the late 1990s. Unfortunately, I’m about two generations removed from witnessing this personally, so I’ll rely on this snippet from one of my favorite Columbus-related websites, University District History:

“When I was in school in The Eighties, the South Campus High St. bars were the center of social life on campus. On weekend nights, students by the hundreds streamed from the dorms to the bars. Young people from around Central Ohio flocked to the block to be part of the action. Long lines formed outside many bars. Saturday nights saw crowds so dense that police were obliged to tie ropes to the light poles to keep people from falling into traffic. Vehicle traffic on High St. was so dense that the 5-minute trip from Lane Ave. to King Ave. on High St. could take an hour. Police often closed off the intersection of 11th and High on weekend nights and set up a command post there. Underage drinking, fall-down drunkenness, illegal drug sales, fights, and public sex acts were commonplace. Pools of urine, blood, and vomit dotted the streets Sunday morning.

“By 1999, it was an area already on the ropes. When the drinking age went up to 21 in 1987, it hit the bars hard. Most relied heavily on 18 to 20-year-old drinkers. Reacting to the Sodom and Gomorrah nature of the place, in 1996, the city began aggressively enforcing liquor laws and yanking licenses. In April 1996, a huge fire destroyed Papa Joe's Pizza and left a gaping hole in the block. The grimy run-down appearance of the area and surging street crime in the nearby neighborhood fueled talk of demolition and urban renewal.”

Indeed, the website’s pictures are completely unrecognizable compared to the urban fabric of South High Street today. It was the same kind of vernacular Commercial style architecture that can be seen in sparse, quickly-disappearing pockets on campus and in the Old North. The earliest phase of this sort of neo-urban renewal was the construction of South Campus Gateway beginning in 2002, which saw the demolition of bars such as Crazy Mama’s, “the campus home for punk, New Wave, and rockabilly from 1979 to 1994.” Now, pretty much every original building between Chittenden and King has been demolished, aside from a few last holdouts such as Village Idiot.

Bier Stube survived this wave of closures and sanctions by the city of Columbus, perhaps due to its more modern home and location set back from the sidewalk. It continued to thrive for the following two decades, until 2024, when it was announced that the bar would close for the construction of a luxury apartment building. Though these apartments will be mass timber construction, the first large structure of its kind in Columbus, many students and alumni lamented the closure of Bier Stube. It is frustrating that a bar available to any Ohio State student (and with cheap drinks at that) was bought out for an apartment building that only a select few can afford to live in. It is part of the larger demographic shift of High Street from older buildings with character that had affordable restaurants or bars to modern ones with establishments that only the richest students will patronize.

However, all is not lost for the Bier Stube. Its owner announced that the bar would be reopening on King Avenue in the former Junior’s Bar and Grill in the fall of 2025. As of September 2026, Bier Stube has yet to reopen. On Instagram, the owner stated that the older building that they moved to has been causing issues with code compliance. He plans to have it open by the end of the 2026 football season, but there have been many bumps in the road with the renovation process.

Photos

These photos vary in their timing, but I was successfully able to get photos prior to closure, immediately following closure, and during demolition.

Once people got wind that the bar was closing, it began to get a lot busier:

These are all mediocre cellphone photos since I obviously didn’t want to bring my camera to a bar.

That blonde head of hair in front of me is my girlfriend’s first appearance here. Stube was one of the first bars we went to together (it was just our second week dating on our first visit) and quickly became a mainstay in our sophomore year, as her dorm (Res on 10th) was a short walk away. We were both devastated when it closed.

This is how long the line was to get in on their last day--bear in mind that there was usually never a line:

Some random Gen-Xers in front of me got beer at 14-0 Express next door and gave me an extra can. They later took pity on me and bought my drinks since I went alone. (My girl was out of town that weekend and my other friends were busy.) Not a bad deal!

Inside, the bar is a classic dive. Wood-paneled walls, stained drop ceiling, ancient paintings and beer signs:

It tended to be difficult to get a booth or table unless you waited around or got there early. Countless games of cards were played around those tables.

I also took my parents here when they visited me one time, since it seemed like it would be up their alley. My dad immediately commented on the music selection, and after seeing the giant portrait of Woody Hayes on the wall, he reminisced about his days watching Ohio State/Big Ten football on TV. Being from Illinois and as someone who raised me as a Bears/White Sox fan, I was shocked that my dad even knew who Woody was.

I think the Stube was the only campus bar with an authentic, functioning jukebox:

This beast got saved and is awaiting reinstallment at the new location.

Skipping forward in time, here is the closed and abandoned Bier Stube looking forlorn:

It looks pretty shoddy without its sign and with all the broken junk in front. Later on the vacant building would be coated in graffiti, but here it’s closer to its original appearance.

The north end, with its odd lean-to addition:

So what if this is a shoddy cinder-block building with a half-timbered facade painted on? Sometimes character defies good architecture.

Its contemporary neighbor stands fathoms above the forlorn little bar, almost in pity:

The rear of 14-0 Express, my girlfriend and I’s go-to store for our underage drinking needs at the time:

The name obviously refers to Ohio State football’s most desirable record (pre-CFP era)--12-win regular season, conference championship, and bowl win. No dice when I was an undergrad: 11-2 in 2022 and 2023, 14-2 in 2024 (though that was a natty year), and 12-2 in 2025.

Classic sign on the north side:

The rear of Yau’s Chinese Bistro and Portofino’s Pizza, another hodgepodge of a building:

Demolition began in September 2025, and by September 16 (when these were taken), the site was covered in rubble:

No more Stube, just work trucks and dumpsters. :(

More debris on the northeast corner:

The dichotomy is crazy.

I also grabbed some photos of the site when the apartments were being built on top of it:

It was very odd seeing a giant construction crane to the south when on campus.

These concrete shafts will be the apartments’ stair and elevator shafts:

This building on King Avenue near Neil will be the future home of Bier Stube. It still had the sign from the last tenant, and the patio was being built at that time: