Lots of beautiful homes that were once run-down shells of their former selves. This tour really does a great job of showing the potential of what is one of the state's best residential areas. Photos of the interiors are not allowed on the tour and I respected this. Sorry guys, you'll just get the exteriors and gardens.

 

Near East Map.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over to Franklin Park.

 

 

 

Not on tour, but I had to include it.

 

 

A brief hop north of Broad into Woodland Park.

 

 

 

View from the 4,300 sq ft penthouse.

 

It is a truly beautiful neighborhood, but the crime needs to come down a couple notches to reach its full potential. I've chatted w/ folks from lower Clintonville who were looking it, but shied away because of the crime (street crime and prostitution mostly).

Once you get near Main everything pretty much goes downhill. Sticking north of Main which has those crime issues and closer to Downtown is a generally good area. There are other good pockets too, but you have to know the area.

Crime seems really low near Franklin Park Conservatory. Looked at a unit with a friend who wanted my opinion on a place. The quality of the building inside and out was amazing. The door looked like that of a castle. 2 Jacuzzi tubs, great quality hard-wood floors, granite counter-tops, all kinds of unique craftsmanship detailing inside. What looked like these brass tiles above the sink, in a pattern. Only 109k for a 2 bdrm. Only drawback were those terrible windows in the back that you have to wind to open, as they turn outward. I hate those; they do a terrible job of retaining heat or A/C but they had to remain there since it's a historic district. I'm all for historic codes but sometimes they take it too far and it's impractical.

Great shots!

 

Columbus has a lot of beauetiful old houses in neighborhoods that are adjacent to downtown or not far from the downtown. I'm guessing this is due to Columbus' roots as a college town and state capital. I've been on Old Town East's Christmas tour. Was very nice.

The neighborhoods adjacent to downtown have nothing to do with being a college town nor state capital.  On the contrary, the areas around the state capital and the university are some of the least desirable!  Most older cities actually kept older neighborhoods around downtown (Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Pittsburgh, let alone the cities in the Northeast and Canada).  I think Great Lakes cities are more exceptions to that rule (Cleveland and Detroit come to mind, immediately).

I'd quibble w/ the notion that being the state capital didn't contribute mightily to the conditions for the development of a neighborhood like OTE (though I agree about the OSU effect).

If being a state capital would help those neighborhoods, I'd love to show you Harrisburg, Springfield, Tallahassee, Lansing, etc.  Columbus has had an active historic preservationist society which is the reason why those neighborhoods remained stable.

I'm not saying it is the sole cause, but it certainly didn't hurt. The commercial activity in the neighborhood is filled w/ offices that exist only in a capital city (state branches of ntl orgs, state orgs, and the like). It certainly isn't the panacea but it provides a demand that a non-capital city might not have.

The test is if those state "branches" (I can only think of two off the top of my head and both are closer to downtown than where Columbusite took photos) support the neighborhood/people work there live in the neighborhood.  I highly doubt that.  The state government is a business like P&G or Progressive but I wouldn't say it helped stabilize the neighborhood by any stretch.  I can think of other areas of Columbus where LARGE branches of the government are held and the surrounding area is a complete waste (upper Hilltop with ODOT; CMHA with Linden; etc).

 

I give credit to the historic preservationists and small businesses more so than the state government (which decimated downtown Columbus in the 1970's).

I think we've been fortunate to have those among the urban pioneers who have invested in and continue to revitalize areas such as this. I know I'd like to see more small businesses looking to open in up and coming urban neighborhoods like these rather than just the Short North/Downtown or the burbs. There have been a few in the past five years in OTE, but there's definitely room for more.