herr2ck: Pythian Temple (Columbus Ohio)

February 2026.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Performing and Cultural Arts Complex (King Arts Complex), half of what gives King-Lincoln Bronzeville its name (the other is the Lincoln Theatre), is a combination of two buildings from different eras that now serve a unified purpose. Consisting of the 1925 Pythian Temple and Theatre on Mt. Vernon Avenue and the 1955 Garfield Elementary School, the arts complex is a major cultural center in the neighborhood and displays Black artists’ work.

The King Arts Complex is located at 835 Mt. Vernon Avenue in the King-Lincoln Bronzeville neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by Mt. Vernon Avenue to the north and west, houses to the south, and remaining commercial buildings along Mt. Vernon Avenue to the east.

History

The earliest portion of the King Arts Complex is the Pythian Temple and James Pythian Theatre, one of two remaining theaters of the four built on the Near East Side at the time. (The other is the Lincoln Theatre.) It was built for the Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia (that’s a mouthful), a Black fraternal organization that was an offshoot of the whites-only Knights of Pythias. It was designed by the firm Evans & Plato in 1925--partner Samuel Plato was a Black architect from Louisville, and this building may be the only historic one in Columbus designed by a Black architect. (Leon Ransom designed OSU East Hospital and the Christopher Inn, but those are mid-century buildings.) The NRHP listing claims it is a Colonial Revival design, which seems a little dubious to me since buildings in that style are usually more literal, so I’ll just call it Beaux-Arts instead.

1970 photo of the exterior. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

Upon opening in 1926, the two storefronts along Mt. Vernon Avenue were used as a barbershop and a drug store. The first floor and part of the second housed the 650-seat theater, the third floor had a 1000-person auditorium, and the fourth floor was subdivided for meeting rooms. The theater itself hosted vaudeville shows, showed movies, and had performing entertainers such as Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington. Later, the Cotton Club used the building from the 1940s until the 1960s. Mt. Vernon Avenue was Columbus’s Black business district at the time, hence the Pythian Temple’s stature and program.

Photo of the exterior in 1983. (NRHP listing)

Despite the decline of Mt. Vernon Avenue and the destruction of its historic buildings in the 1970s, the Pythian Temple held on. By 1983, the building was used by the York Rite Masons. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and Columbus Register of Historic Properties that year.

Historic photo of the original Garfield Elementary School before its demolition. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

The other half of King Arts is the former Garfield Elementary School. It was first built in 1882 at 825 Mt. Vernon, but the Italianate school was demolished in 1955 for the construction of the existing building. It operated until circa 1987.

In 1987, Moody Nolan (also the largest Black-owned firm in America, if you weren’t familiar) renovated the former Pythian Temple into the King Arts Complex. The first phase, which just included the Pythian Temple, opened in March 1987. The second phase, which added the former Garfield Elementary School, opened on October 17, 1989. The two are now connected with a Postmodern addition.

King Arts ultimately left the complex in 2019, listing a portion for sale in 2020. Despite being listed as one of Columbus’s Most Endangered Sites in 2021, the Maroon Arts Group purchased the buildings in July of that year, which was finalized in 2023. Maroon began renovating the complex that year. King Arts still maintains offices in the former elementary school, and the complex remains in use as an art gallery. In 2025, the organization’s CEO was suspended amid an ongoing investigation.

Photos

Principal facade of the Pythian Temple:

It has a symmetrical design aside from a smaller bay at left.

You can just make out the engraved frieze from here:

The windows have detailed transoms, which are original, and the central second-floor window has a Pythian seal:

West facade of the building:

Part of the concrete frame is exposed, probably to save money. This facade wasn’t meant to be visible and only is now because its neighbor was demolished.

Postmodern addition:

The doubled columns and entablature are borrowed from Beaux-Arts architecture, but they look rather cheap and like something off of a Las Vegas casino.

Garfield Elementary makes a sort of cloister with its large green space between the building’s two wings:

Hmmm…almost Brutalist forms with concrete going on here.

This is an abstracted nkondi statue, which are traditionally wooden and stuck with nails to attract the attention of the spirit believed to be contained within: