Westside, Bestside

January 2026.

West High School in Hilltop is Columbus’s public high school on the west side. Its predecessor is located in Franklinton and has been converted to apartments. Both have a similar classical-inspired design that was very common at the time, though they are expressed differently.

Old West High School is located at 120 South Central Avenue in the Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by State Street to the north, Town Street to the south, Brehl Avenue and houses to the east, and Central Avenue and the Starling K-8 School to the west.

West High School is located at 179 South Powell Avenue in the Hilltop neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Olive Street to the north, Magly Field and Postle Road to the south, Powell Avenue and houses to the east, and an alley to the west.

Old West High School History

A postcard of the old West High School building. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

The NRHP listing for this one isn’t published online yet (it was listed in 2022), so I have to take a lot of Wikipedia’s info at face value here. West High School, along with the three other directional high schools (North, South, and East), were built to serve the growing population of Columbus as Central High School in its earlier downtown location became overcrowded. Even though the first West High School is also in Franklinton, it is further west than Central High, which is immediately across the Scioto River from downtown Columbus. This allowed it to serve the growing Hilltop.

The first West High School building at 120 S Central was designed by Columbus school architect David Riebel in the Beaux-Arts style. Construction began in the summer of 1907, and the school opened on September 8, 1908. As of 1916, the school had 457 students. Architect Howard Dwight Smith then designed an addition onto the east side of the building in 1926, which held a cafeteria, five classrooms, locker rooms, and specialized classrooms for sewing and mechanical drawings. Despite this new addition, old West High School was apparently still not large enough, and the current West High School in Hilltop was designed by Smith immediately after.

The only photo I could find of the gym addition. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

After the new West High School opened, the old building became Starling Middle School in 1929. A Mid-Century Modern addition with a gymnasium and auditorium was added to the south end in 1955. Starling Middle School eventually became Starling Elementary School.

Starling Elementary School moved across Central Avenue to a newly constructed building in 2012, and the former West High School was left abandoned circa 2014. It was considered at risk of demolition for the following years and made it to the 2021 list of Columbus Landmarks’ Most Endangered Properties. Luckily, in 2022, a developer purchased the building and converted it to affordable housing. The project also involved the construction of new townhomes where the 1955 gymnasium addition stood. Today, the entire complex is known as Starling Yard.

West High School History

Historic photo of West High School shortly after opening. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

West High School’s construction began in June 1927, designed by Howard Dwight Smith in the Colonial Revival style. It was built on land that was formerly Camp Chase, an army camp during the Civil War. It opened in 1929 and has operated since.

View of the interior in 1940. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

Like West High School’s predecessor, the current building has been modified over the years. In 1953, a third floor was added to the northwest end, which brought it to the same level as the other walls. Two additions were also built onto the west side of the school around the same time.

A notable event of West High School’s history was its desegregation in the 1970s. In 1973, 14 minority students at Columbus’s schools filed a lawsuit alleging that the school district intentionally drew attendance boundaries and appointed teachers and staff to segregate the schools. At the time the trial began in 1976, 70% of the 96,000 students in school at the time attended a school that had an 80% or more racial majority, and 50% of the schools were at least 90% white or Black. A district judge sided with the students in March 1977, finding that on the west side of Columbus, the lines for attendance zones were drawn specifically to separate Black and white students. The Board of Education appealed to the United States Court of Appeals, which sided with the district court, and the board appealed again to the Supreme Court. In a 7-2 decision in July 1979, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling and decided that the school district must desegregate and begin a busing program. This decision led to white flight and a sharp decline in enrollment, leading to the closure of Central and North High School.

West High School’s original cupola was removed in August 2016 due to structural instability. After backlash from alumni and the community, Columbus City Schools approved funding for a replacement, which is built of more weather-resistant materials. It was installed in 2018. However, the school is still old and lacks air conditioning, resulting in students asking to go home due to high temperatures.

Photos

I only have two pictures of the current West High School, so I’m just going to lump the two together here.

An oblique view of old West High School:

Right after I took this picture, some driver honked at me while going by. I had this happen twice in Springfield, too. Is it a common tactic to mess with photographers?

The west facade:

Even though the school lacks overt columns, it still employs several classical features that land it squarely within the Beaux-Arts style. The symmetry, prominent entrance, roof pediment, and cornice are all hallmarks of the style. Additionally, the piers beneath the arched windows suggest the shape of pilasters.

The entrance and windows here have a stone border:

Vaulted second-floor windows and pediment:

The black paint/vinyl is…a choice. It doesn’t match the buff brick or gray stone.

North facade:

Here, you can see the addition that Howard Dwight Smith designed and its larger window openings (brutal glare):

It’s tough to tell where exactly the two meet, since they are in a very similar style. I think the building always had a T-shape to it, and Smith’s addition is the part that lacks the cornice and stone foundation.

It ain’t a Howard Dwight Smith design without inspirational quotes above the doors:

East facade of the addition:

Even though its design is simpler, it still follows the established classical symmetry of the original building. 

The newly constructed apartments south of the school:

Not the worst contemporary design I’ve seen, and the brick veneer is an attempt to respond to the school building.

Here is the current West High School:

I say Colonial Revival instead of Beaux-Arts/Neoclassical because of the brick exterior, simple rectangular windows, and cupola design.

Pediment and cupola:

Looking back on it now as I write this in July 2026, I really had issues with centering my photos and standing in alignment with the building. These are the kind of subtle details it takes a minute to learn when doing photography. In the above picture, for instance, the center of the cupola is not aligned with the center of the portico, which makes the photo look off-center.

Sources:

https://www.teachingcolumbus.org/a-history-of-columbus-schools-1812-1912.html

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/443/449/

https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/2019/12/16/my-memories-busing-in-columbus/2057807007/

https://www.wosu.org/desegregation-of-columbus-schools-lesson-plan

https://columbuslandmarks.org/2021-most-endangered-sites/

https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/ohio/id/22500

https://www.wosu.org/news/2018-04-19/renovations-too-slow-at-columbus-schools-for-students-and-parents-alike

https://starlingyard.wodagroup.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_High_School_(Columbus,_Ohio)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/120_S._Central_Avenue

Columbus - Franklinton

January 2026.

Franklinton, also known as “The Bottoms,” is a neighborhood of Columbus that was actually founded as its own town and pre-dates the city. It has some of the oldest buildings in Columbus. However, due to its location in an area that frequently floods, it has been a working-class neighborhood for much of its history. Most of its historic Broad Street corridor was demolished for factories in the mid-19th century, and today, the eastern ends of the neighborhood are rapidly gentrifying.

Franklinton is located on the near west side of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by the Scioto River, the Arena District, and Grandview to the north, I-70 and southwest Columbus to the south, the river again and downtown to the east, and I-70 and Hilltop to the west.

History

Franklinton was settled in 1797, six years before Ohio even became a state. Its first resident was Lucas Sullivant (whose name now belongs to a street in Franklinton known for things…ahem…other than Ohio history), who worked for the state of Virginia to survey their Virginia Military District in Ohio. After his work was complete, Sullivant returned to Ohio and platted 220 lots. He named this settlement Franklinton, after Benjamin Franklin. Franklinton flooded for the first time just a year later, and Sullivant relocated it further west from the Scioto River’s edge. This flooding eventually earned Franklinton its nickname of “The Bottoms.”

Franklinton’s original layout. (Wikimedia)

Franklinton’s early growth was spurred by Sullivant’s offering of free land on Gift Street. Structures in the town included a courthouse, a house to impress his wife Sarah, and a church, all of which were built out of brick and glass from Philadelphia. The first bridge across the Scioto was also built at this time. In 1803, Franklin County was created from land that formerly belonged to Ross County, and Franklinton was named the county seat. The War of 1812 brought further growth to the town, as general and future president William Henry Harrison used it as a staging point for the Army of the Northwest.

The founding of Columbus in 1812 was a blessing and curse for Franklinton. With the city of Columbus’s construction, Franklinton’s population continued to climb, but so did Columbus’s. Franklinton was supplanted as the county seat by Columbus in 1824, and it was annexed into the city in the 19th century. (So many sources give different dates--I’ve seen as early as 1837 and as late as 1959.) As of 1840, it had 394 residents.

A view of east Franklinton in 1923, with Central High School under construction. (Wikimedia)

With the Industrial Revolution, Franklinton shifted away from an agrarian community to an urban one like Columbus. Railroads, such as the Columbus & Xenia Railroad in 1850, drew industry and more residents to work at these newly built factories. Most of the industrial buildings were on the east side of Franklinton, which was prone to flooding. A levee system was built in 1889, and many of Franklinton’s homes date to after that period.

Flood damage in 1913. The tower in the background belongs to Engine House No. 6. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

A major event in Franklinton’s history was the Great Flood of 1913. Heavy rains caused the Scioto to rise so much that it destroyed the wooden levees, and the water level reached up to 17 feet above normal. Most residents fled to the Hilltop, but 93 people died in the flood and 20,000 became homeless, and every single bridge near downtown was destroyed. 

The mid-20th century began Franklinton’s decline, as it reached its peak of 26,500 people in 1950. Another major flood occurred in 1959, which was exacerbated by the January frozen soil. The construction of OH-315 cut Franklinton in half and demolished several houses, while creating a de facto barrier between the east and west sides of the neighborhood. Additionally, I-70’s construction further sealed off the south and west sides. In 1983, FEMA declared that Franklinton was in a floodplain, meaning new construction had to meet more stringent criteria to be insured. This resulted in a lack of development and continued population decline. Its population has since shrunk to about ⅓ of its 1950 size.

In 2004, a new floodwall was completed, which allowed the city to resume constructing buildings as normal. This began the slow march of gentrification in Franklinton, as the east side began to have dilapidated buildings demolished and replaced with upmarket apartment buildings. Between 2009 and 2011, three housing projects on the southeast side of the neighborhood were demolished, and their sites are now 5-over-1 apartments. The city of Columbus is trying to redevelop the eastern side and bring it to a Short North-esque condition.

Photos

Franklinton Post Office

This unassuming, slightly deteriorated house is the Franklinton Post Office, which holds the distinction of being the oldest building in Columbus on its original site. It was originally a log cabin built by settler David Deardurff, who came from Pennsylvania with his father Abraham in 1798 and was a recipient of the land that Lucas Sullivant offered for free on Gift Street. Upon arriving, David and his father lived across from this house at the southwest corner of Gift and Culbertson. 

The post office itself was David Deardurff’s own house and was built in 1807, being the first post office in Franklinton. The nearest post office was in Chillicothe, about 50 miles south of Columbus, and the mailman (a 13-year-old boy named Andrew McElvain) had to ride three days each way to pick up and deliver mail. The post office closed in 1834.

The lean-to addition on the east end is not original and was built in the 1860s. The windows and siding are also antique but not original. The house remained in use as a residence until the 1950s.

The house in 1972. (NRHP listing)

The house was purchased by the Sells family (presumably descendants of Peter Sells) in 1962, preventing its demolition and conversion into a parking lot. As of 1973, they planned to restore the house to its earliest condition, which would involve removing the addition and the exterior shingles. However, the building was still threatened by the city of Columbus due to structural deterioration. In 1973, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was listed on the Columbus Register of Historic Properties in 2001, though the house was still abandoned and decaying.

Note the fading paint and peeling shingles above the glass panel.

Google Maps shows sporadic exterior renovation work beginning in 2009, and by 2017 the building appeared to be completely restored. Interestingly, glass panels were installed on the facade to highlight the log cabin frame beneath. However, the house still seems to be abandoned, and these glass panels were actually obscured by 2020. Why this happened is beyond me. It’s unclear if any future use will come of the building.

Harrison House (General William Henry Harrison Headquarters)

The house during its vacancy. (Ohio Exploration Society)

This brick house on Broad Street next to Holy Family Church was built in 1807 by Jacob Oberdier, one of Franklinton’s earliest settlers. It is an example of Federal architecture, which usually isn’t part of this blog’s scope, but Columbus has very few buildings in that style.

The house is most notable for its brief use as a headquarters by William Henry Harrison, as Franklinton was a staging point for his army during the War of 1812. He used it for only a brief period, the winter of 1813-1814, and it is unclear how he came into possession of the house. However, it is the only existing building in Ohio connected to him.

The rear of the hotel in 1972. (NRHP listing)

The house was occupied by the Kuhn family beginning in 1865, and the last family member died in 1972. As a result, the house was at risk of demolition in favor of a used car lot. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places that year. Luckily, the house was purchased by the city of Columbus in 1980, and it has since been restored by the Columbus Historical Society, which operates it as a museum today.

Here is the house today:

Bellows School (Bellows Avenue Elementary School)

Blurry historic photo of the school. (All Columbus Data)

The Bellows School is visible from OH-315 and somehow has survived past the 1960s. It was designed by Columbus Public Schools architect David Riebel and built by George Bellows Sr. (who the school and street are named after). The school was completed in 1905 and is an example of Renaissance Revival architecture. 

Aerial view of the school during construction of the interstate. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

The construction of OH-315 in the 1950s cut off access to the school from the east and resulted in a busy highway running right next to it. Despite this, the school stubbornly held on until 1977, when it was finally closed. It has remained vacant since, and it was sold to the city in 1984.

In the long-term, the Bellows School is slated for demolition for the construction of new highway ramps. Despite this, it was purchased in 2014 by a developer, who sought to convert it into apartments and build townhouses nearby. His logic was that the highway project would take decades to proceed, and no money was yet budgeted by the highway department. Combined with a proposed historic designation by the city or federal government, the goal is to make purchase of the site more difficult and expensive. 

It has been under renovation since, and despite such a long period of restoration, notable progress has been made. There were workers on-site when I visited, and new windows have been added to the second floor. Its future is unclear, since some sources suggest that the highway construction will occur within a couple decades.

You can see the work trucks on the west side--it has taken a while, but work is still making progress. I think the new windows have been boarded up to deter vandalism.

Highlights of this design include the large cornice and fanciful entrance portal. It is a standard Renaissance Revival design with lots of fun ornamentation.

For its age, this stone detailing is actually in pretty good condition. There seems to be minor wear on the cornice, but that’s pretty much it.

Westside Boys & Girls Club (West Market)

Engraving of the building circa 1889. Note the missing cupola on top of the tower. (Local Wiki)

You’ve probably heard of North Market and maybe the new East Market in Franklin Park…well, there was a West Market in Franklinton too. It was built in the Romanesque Revival style by Kremer & Hart and opened in 1889. It had 36 market stalls, a meeting hall and stage on the second floor, and committee rooms. It was remodeled in 1908 to add more vendor space. Its role as a market and community center made it an icon of the neighborhood, and it was remodeled again in 1933 to better accommodate sports such as basketball.

By the 1940s, however, the building was becoming run-down and threatened with demolition. The market only operated for a period of about 50 years, and it was converted to the Westside Boys Club in 1948. Girls were allowed to join in 1970, and the name was changed to Westside Boys & Girls Club in 1990. It seems like the organization built two additions, one in the mid-20th century and the other in the 1990s. Though the building was the largest that the Boys & Girls Club owned, they abandoned it in 2016 due to the area’s low density, and it has remained vacant since. 

The brick exterior has been stuccoed and painted white, much of the remaining stonework is now painted, and the windows have been replaced. The overall form is still apparent, however.

Column and lintels above the doors:

The tower:

Franklinton’s redevelopment is harming historic buildings such as this one, dilapidated as they are. The people that once lived in the neighborhood are being pushed out as apartments they cannot afford are being built. It is one thing to revitalize a neighborhood, but demolishing housing projects for the construction of luxury apartments is gentrification, plain and simple.

Sources:

Architecture: Columbus by Robert Samuelson

Columbus Neighborhoods by Tom Betti

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklinton_(Columbus,_Ohio)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1913_in_Columbus,_Ohio

https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/ohio/id/13701

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71988619

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71988611

https://www.franklintonhistoricalsociety.org/pioneer-homes

https://www.columbushistory.org/harrisonhouseandsullivantlandoffice

https://www.ohioexploration.com/structures/harrisonhouse/

https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/collection/p16802coll28/id/140876/rec/8

https://columbuslandmarks.org/2015-most-endangered-buildings/#bellows

https://allcolumbusdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/bellowsavenue1905.jpg

https://columbusunderground.com/plan-for-bellows-school-site-to-be-heard-by-commission-bw1/

https://columbusunderground.com/renovation-of-bellows-school-underway-despite-i-7071-split-plans-bw1/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellows_School

https://localwiki.org/columbus/West_Side_Market_House

https://columbuslandmarks.org/2025-most-endangered-sites/

JMJ

January 2026.

Holy Family Church in Franklinton is one of the simple, stripped-down brick Gothic Revival churches that dot Columbus. On a stretch of Broad Street that is lined with historic landmarks (namely, the Harrison House and Engine House No. 6), it stands the test of time against the gradually deteriorating and renewing cycle of Franklinton.

Holy Family Church is located at 584 West Broad Street in the Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Gay Street and the church’s food pantry to the north, Broad Street to the south, the Harrison House and Gift Street to the east, and Skidmore Street to the west.

History

A lot of the following information is sourced from the church’s Wikipedia article, and it doesn’t cite its sources well. I don’t care to get stringent about accuracy for a building that I only have nine photos of, so I figured I’d just throw this disclaimer in. However, most of it is corroborated by Columbus Neighborhoods.

Columbus’s Catholic population was traditionally German and Irish, and its first two churches were east of downtown (Holy Cross, built in 1848, and St. Patrick’s, built in 1853). Though Franklinton is the oldest neighborhood of Columbus, owing to its establishment as a separate town before Columbus even existed, it had very few Catholics in its early history. Mass was held in the homes of Catholic families before 1833, and afterwards the Franklin County Courthouse was used for services. Two Catholic organizations were established in Franklinton in the decades following, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd’s convent in 1865 (local families were allowed to attend Masses there on Sundays) and St. Aloysius Seminary in 1871 (on the site of Holy Family’s school). The latter closed in 1876 and reopened as a Catholic boarding school for boys.

Holy Family’s founder, Father R. C. Christy, was the chaplain of both the boarding school and the convent, and he was appointed in 1877. While serving in this role, Christy was inspired to establish a new Catholic parish on the west side of Columbus. The congregation was founded that year and used a temporary chapel that was formerly a barn until a more suitable church was available. It was named after the Holy Family, consisting of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Random tangent/lore drop--I went to a Catholic all-boys high school (not of my own volition), and we were taught by monks for certain classes. My theology teacher as a freshman, Brother Andre, told us if we wrote “JMJ” on top of our tests, it would supposedly help us do better. I don’t think the Holy Family’s intervention helped me remember any of the boring Biblical lore from Exodus or Leviticus.

Holy Family’s first permanent church building was at the corner of Sandusky Street and Shepherd Street (both since leveled for OH-315), which was formerly used by the United Brethren. It was remodeled for the needs of Catholic services, and the church opened on June 8, 1877. The congregation had a membership of 40 families within a year, though Fr. Christy died in 1878.

The church’s exterior with original tower and pinnacles. (Wikimedia)

Due to issues with the title of the church building, Holy Family Church was forced to sell the property back to the United Brethren in 1879. It was agreed that Holy Family would continue to rent the church building until they built a new church. The current site was acquired in 1881, but due to a lack of income, construction proceeded slowly. The church’s cornerstone was laid in 1882, and the clergy decided to complete the foundation and cover it until the parish could afford to continue construction, as they did not want to take on debt. In November 1884, Michael Harding was selected as the architect, and his Gothic Revival design began construction in May 1885. 

The first completed portion of the church was the basement, which had a temporary worship place that held its first Mass in March 1886. The nave of the church was built between 1886 and 1889, and the newly completed Holy Family Church (minus pews and side altars) was dedicated on June 2, 1889. The organ and pews were installed in 1890. The rectory next door, a Queen Anne design, was completed in 1900.

Historic photo of the school. (Columbus Landmarks)

Holy Family’s school, now bizarrely facing an expressway, was built between 1911 and 1914. The basement school space had long been outgrown. Franklinton’s 1913 “Great Flood” damaged both the church and the incomplete school, delaying work in the process. Many members of the congregation lost their homes or even their lives. The school was expanded several times but stopped accepting incoming students in 1960 due to the opening of Bishop Ready High School, with the last students graduating in 1964. The building was used as a museum on Catholicism from 1998 to 2019, and it has sat empty since. It was listed on Columbus Landmarks’ 2020 edition of their Most Endangered Sites, and a 2006 report to determine its NRHP eligibility deemed it not eligible due to the removal of the original windows.

The construction of OH-315 cut off the school and caused a decline in church attendance, which the parish ultimately recovered from. Additionally, the church flooded again in 1957 and had a fire sometime that decade. The steeple was removed in the 1960s or 1970s due to wind damage and later replaced with a simpler design. Today, Holy Family Church remains a well-attended church in Franklinton and has served the area with a food pantry.

Photos

Broad Street facade:

It has a simple brick design that is very common in other early Catholic churches in Columbus. The tower and pinnacles are modern replacements, but they restore missing elements that are essential to the church’s design. It has three stained-glass windows here and some subtle brickwork on the tower and roofline, but the rest is very simple. Definitely par for the course for a fussy Catholic church worried about finances.

The tower:

The entrance portal:

The overhang is original, but I don’t think the doors are. I was about to observe the great condition of the stone, but I zoomed in and noticed that the overhang is actually metal coated in several layers of paint. Even the churches can’t escape landlord specials here!

Transom window above the doors:

The west facade has a stone water table with regular buttressing:

It seems like an opening on the far right was bricked up, and some of the windows have been replaced by glass block.

Oblique view of the rectory:

I think it had an addition in the back, but the taller portion in front is the original 1900 Queen Anne design. It’s strange to think that Broad Street here was once lined with homes until the 1950s. 

Its main south facade:

The tower and bay window are common inclusions on Queen Anne houses. It seems like the original metal cladding of the roof’s cornice and bay window are rusting, though.

Sources:

Architecture: Columbus by Robert Samuelson

Columbus Neighborhoods by Tom Betti

https://www.holyfamilycolumbus.org/parish-history

https://archive.org/details/cu31924012522870/page/2/mode/2up

https://columbuslandmarks.org/2020-most-endangered-sites/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Catholic_Art_and_History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Family_Church_(Columbus,_Ohio)