Livingston Avenue and German Village

With a blizzard forecast for the next couple days, my bowling night rescheduled, and my daughter with her mom for the night, and no set in stone plans for the first time in weeks, I thought what better way to spend this 'calm before the storm' relatively pleasant late winter evening than going 'neoning'. I also, when I have a few spare minutes, enjoy bookstores or the library. Since it was already 8PM, I knew one of my favorite bookstores would be open in one of my favorite areas of the city, German Village just south of downtown Columbus. Narrow brick streets, nooks and crannies..not a lot of neighborhoods in Columbus like this, but it was laid out pre-1900 unlike most of the city. The areas rough borders are Livingston Avenue to the north, High Street to the west, Thurman to the south, and Parsons to the east. When one thinks of German Village though, the main streets are S. 3rd, S. 4th, S. 5th,, Thurman, Jaeger, Mohawk..and several small German named streets. Not really the most neon signed area of the city, but it does have some nice installations and if I were forced to spend the rest of my life in Columbus, this would be my neighborhood of choice. Also included are a few places on S. High Street which are sometimes considered German Village and sometimes the "Brewery district", which extends west of High to the riverfront. The pictures included start far east by Hamilton Rd. through Livingston Avenue and the inner city ghetto, and to German Village.

A Clintonville icon...the Tee Jay's sign

A few weeks ago I did a short photo tour of the N. High Street corridor from about Morse Road down to about Hudson Street, a large area of the city known as Clintonville (though this is sometimes subdivided into smaller neighborhoods itself such as Beechwold, etc). The traditional start of this neighborhood is considered Morse Road, give or take a few blocks and the immediate area is often called North Clintonville, or Beechwold. While someone not familiar with Columbus history may not realize it, this is actually a pretty historic neighborhood for a city as 'new' as Columbus. It is not Boston, NYC, or Chicago, but Columbus does have some history and sad fact is, unlike those cities, most citizens of Columbus neither know nor care about it's history, which does go back almost 200 years believe it or not. Clintonville is one of the few areas of the city that has at least made some effort at historic preservation and has tried to balance that with growth and development. This dilemma came to a head in the 1950s when growth northward started to explode with the rise of the automobile and the highway systems, both state and federal, that came along with that rise. Growth was brisk though, before everyone had a car, when the Columbus streetcar line reached up to Worthington in pre-war and wartime years. Clintonville was one of few 'streetcar suburbs' to be developed around Columbus, those of which are numerous in large east coast cities. Unlike those cities, intracity rail transport ended in Columbus around 1948, when the trolley lines were discontinued in favor of diesel buses. The situation prevails today in Columbus, which is one of the largest cities in the country with no passenger rail service; neither intercity nor mass transit. What that means is that Columbus developed primarily in two directions after 1950..the two directions which eventually led to the larger cities north and east of central Ohio..easily accesible by the new automobile-oriented transportation infrastructure. This area of Clintonville knew it had to preserve it's history while accomidating the growth. The corner of Morse Road and N. High Street has been a focal point of the growth vs. preservation debate. The area that was home to the first zoo in Columbus eventually gave way to new single family homes. And another byproduct of the automobile age..the drive-in theater. At their height in the early 1960s, there were tens of thousands in suburban, rural, and even in urban areas. A listing of old drive-in theaters lists some fifteen or so, just in Columbus and the immediate area. Most started closing in the 60's and 70's and by the turn of the century only one or two remained, of which all closed by the middle of this decade. Most closed theaters have few visible remains and leave no trace that they were even there, being built upon by new development. Well Clintonville had one of these theaters, and along with it, you guessed it, a large NEON SIGN! The drive in, to the best of my knowledge, closed around 1970. As of today, like most theaters, no trace remains..except..the large neon sign. Now around the time the theater closed a couple people wanted to open a new restaurant on the property. They wanted any evidence of the theater gone, including the sign so that they could put up their own sign. Well the city of Columbus, and possibly a Clintonville neighborhood society, told the owners of the restaurant that they could locate their restaurant at this intersection provided that they preserve and keep up the old neon arrow sign. It once showed people along High Street the way into movies. Now, as it has for over thirty years, shown people various ways to eat a lot of fat..the property has changed ownership several times in the last 30 years, but it has been a Tee Jaye's Country Place now for quite a while. Tee Jaye's is one of those 24-hour places that gets crowded around 2:15AM..remember, the bars around here close at 2. Think Waffle House or Denny's, only more tailored to Columbus, Ohioans. The sign did not look so good and did not 'animate' for a while in the 90's. Well they were basically told..to keep up the sign..or say good bye. They have chosen the better of the two. The sign looks great now and animates just fine when I last took these photographs last Saturday night after work. When I have digital tape in the camera again, I will film the actual animation sequence, from bottom to top, then a flash. If anyone has any more information on the history of the sign, the old Jerry's drive-in, and even better, pictures of how it looked pre-Tee Jaye's, please please please share. All the 'history' I gathered is from second hand and by memory, so please forgive any inaccuracies! Enjoy the pictures!

The Continent

Shops! Hotels! Bars and clubs! A FOOD COURT! A FRENCH MARKET! Tons of young adults hanging around on Friday and Saturday nights out for a night out on the far north outskirts of the city. Business people well dressed for a delicious French meal on their lunch hours. Welcome to the Continent..about 20 years ago. The Continent was developed in the then fast growing Sharon Woods/Worthington area around the Route 161 and I-71 interchange back in the mid 1970s. At the time, the area was growing rapidly being transformed from almost rural farmland and fields to a commercial strip of businesses and apartment community in what was then the northern boundary of the Columbus urban area. While I was both 1. too young to remember, and 2. didn't even live around here at the time, I am told that this was the place to be if you were young, wannabe hip, and had the misfortune of living in Columbus, Ohio from about the late 1970s to late 1980s. The Continent supposedly had one of the nation's first food courts (though the food court opened at Quincy Market/Fanueil Hall came along the same time) and is arguably one of the first combined mall/lifestyle centers in the eastern US. It was still pretty hopping as late as the mid 1990s when Easton, Polaris, Tuttle Mall, and the renewal of the center city started its precipitous decline. In 2000 I moved fairly close to the area and by then it was a ghost town with the area I lived in, becoming a crime infested junkyard of dilapidated apartments. A new Giant Eagle was built on what used to be a Harley Hotel which fronted the Continent on Rt. 161. The various units of bars and restaurants in the Continent have changed hands many times with new names almost every other month. Today, the Continent still exists, but is a shell of what once was. The hotels in the area are still doing well since it is so close to a major interchange. There are a few bars and restaurants as well as a few small shops in the strip just south of the actual Continent trying to make it there, as well as the movie theater now called "The Screens" though that has went through several ownership and name changes over the last decade. The "French Market" has been closed for years and the apartments are still occupied. The large neon sign, visible from I-71 from quite a long distance, I believe was recently refurbished, since I have noticed it to be much brighter the last few months. A few of the pictures in this set are not stricly IN the Continent, but in the area immediately surrounding it. It was raining heavy so there may be some water spots. All taken the night of 3/3. Thompson's Capri Lanes. A small, family owned bowling alley; the same family once owned Sequoia Lanes, which just housed a PBA tournament and is featured in my entry a few months ago. Typical old fashioned lanes, like going back to the 1960s. But it does have automatic scoring. I live in the area behind this center from 2000 to 2002 and the area is a wreck of a place. The bowling alley is still in good shape for it's age and is one of the best bargains around for bowling. I last bowled in a summer league here about 6 years ago. Got to see a Red Sox/Indians game from it.

Minerva Park on Leap night..

Before heading to Gahanna taking the long way home, I snapped a few neon pictures in the Rt. 161-Morse/Cleveland Avenue area. A few weeks ago I hit a little Columbus Square but wanted to capture a few more signs along Cleveland Avenue. All were taken the night of Friday, 2/29.









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In Like a Lion..Gahanna

Enjoy some of the neon lights of the Columbus suburb of Gahanna, northeast of the city. All taken late in the evening of 2/29 and just after midnight 3/1. We lept into March like the Gahanna Lion. Ok..bad references. But enjoy the neon.