A Virtual Tour Of The Campus

Over the past thirty-three years, the Jefferson Center for Learning and the Arts has demonstrated that historic buildings can provide affordable, stable work environments. This innovative adaptive re-use of historic buildings has given the properties purpose and has created a sustainable economic model for maintaining them

In 1870 when the East Park Place Addition was platted north of Broad Street, it brought a new concept to Columbus. Houses in East Park Place faced elliptical parks, making the three streets - Jefferson, Lexington, and Hamilton - one of the first attempts to integrate landscape architecture and "suburban" development in Columbus.

Now a historic district listed on the Columbus Register of Historic Properties and the National Register of Historic Places, Jefferson Avenue retains the character of a 19th century middle to upper middle class planned suburban neighborhood. Architecturally, three widely popular styles of the 1870s to 1890s predominate:
Italianate, a mid-to-late 19th century style loosely based on buildings of the Italian countryside; Eastlake, inspired by the design philosophy of English author and aesthete Charles Eastlake; and Queen Anne, a picturesque style of the late 1880s and 1890s derived from medieval architecture, as seen through Victorian eyes.

After many years of neglect, Jefferson Avenue experienced a renaissance as a center for community and cultural organizations. Many of the buildings have been rehabilitated under the auspices of The Jefferson Center for Learning and the Arts.

51 Jefferson Avenue

Martha L. Bowe House

A semi-circular porch with Balustrade contributes to the Italiante style of this house. The porch roof has eleven columns with doric capitals and stone bases.

57 Jefferson Avenue

The International Center

A two-story house of the 1870s.

Bays on the east and south

elevations feature bell-cast

mansard roofs, typical of the

then-fashionable French

Second Empire style.

61 Jefferson Avenue

The Reeves House

An Italianate syle brick house,

said to have been built in the

1880s. The bricks are laid to

resemble simple pilasters,

breaking the walls into recessed

panels. The pattern continues

around the house, and was copied

when two two-story porches were

added to the south side in the

early 20th century. The low

hipped roof and tall two-over-two

windows with hoodmolds above

are typical Italiante features,

as is the round-arched doorway.

65 Jefferson Avenue

This two-story brick carriage

house with a slate roof was

converted to residential use in the

early 20th century. A barrel-vaulted

brick passage at the north end of

the building leads from the yard

to the alley.

67 Jefferson Avenue,

a simple brick house typical of the

1880s, later made more imposing

by the addition of a classically-

inspired porch with paired

columns. Windows on the east

elevation have incised stone

lintels. A bay window that once

was the most prominent feature of

the house is now nearly hidden by

the porch.

77 Jefferson Avenue

The Thurber House

The most well-known house on

Jefferson Avenue is No. 77, home

of James Thurber's family from

1913-1915, and setting for the

story "The Night the Ghost Got

In." Once vacant and deteriorated,

it has been restored and now

houses a museum, a writer-in-

residence program, and Thurber

Country, a bookstore featuring

works by midwestern authors.

Architecturally, the Thurber

House is an example of the Queen

Anne style of the 1880s and 1890s.

Characteristic features include the

steep-pitched roof and irregular

roofline, asymmetrical massing,

imbricated shingles and other

millwork in the attic gables,

beveled glass, and variety of

materials and textures, such as the

rock-faced bricks that flank the

large elliptical-arched window.

78-80 Jefferson Avenue,

now the Cecelia Cullman Center

for Children, features a plan and

details typical of the picturesque

Eastlake style of the 1880s and

1890s. The asymmetrical massign,

tall chimneys, and incised lintels

are characteristic of the style,

which was inspired by the

aesthetic philosophy of Charles

Eastlake, author of the books Hints

on Household Taste (Eastlake

wrote about furniture and

decorative arts; Americans adopted

his philosophy and translated it into

an architectural style.) The red

pressed brick with narrow mortar

joints is typical of the period.

Carved lintels over the windows

feature typical Eastlake motifs;

the sawtooth pattern is repeated

in the shallow wooden cornice at

the roofline.

100 Jefferson Avenue