Worthington real estate

A Columbus Dispatch article today says "Worthington Mall to be Sold"

The Dispatch article written by Marla Matzer Rose says there is a buyer for the local mall and it is a local person.  The Columbus Dispatch says:

"Local developer Tom Carter and Morris Capital Partners of Texas announced a plan yesterday to buy the mall."

It sounds like the mall originally built in 1974 is going to be opened up...  it was enclosed at some point.

Carter is quoted about the past...

"bad decisions by previous owners" contributed to the center's woes"

The slide show below was a few years ago... Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works were still at Worthington Mall at that point.  Godfry's left, went to Polaris, Acorn is gone.

Wilson Bridge Road Walking Tour Saturday


W. Wilson Bridge Road - Worthington history

Worthington City Schools are  "Excellent" according to the Ohio Department of Education

School report cards are out and Worthington City Schools earned an Excellent for the 2009 2010 school year. Worthington schools got a Excellent with Distinction for the 2008 2009 school year.  

Worthington City Schools are "Excellent" - report card 2009 - 2010 school year

"Number of State Indicators Met out of 26"  "26"

Is "Excellent" an A? and "Excellent with Distinction" an A+?  The six designations for schools in Ohio:

• Excellent with Distinction
• Excellent
• Effective
• Continuous Improvement
• Academic Watch
• Academic Emergency

Friday the State of Ohio published the actual report cards which gave a lot more information about the school districts.  Also you can  look at grades for individual school buildings.  You can see how Thomas Worthington did in comparison to Worthington Kilbourne, the two Worthington high schools.   You will be able to see how Bluffsview, Wilson Hill, Worthington Park or Evening Street Elementary School did in comparison to other Worthington elementary schools.

More about Worthington City Schools

Worthington City Schools  2008 - 2009  repoprt card

Bluffsview Elementary School  2009 - 2010 school year

Worthington Schools history

Congratulations to Worthington's Bluffsview Elementary School students and teachers:  

Bluffsview Elementary School 2009- 2010  report card

The 2009 - 2010 school year report cards from the state of Ohio are out and the Bluffsview Elementary School in the Worthington City School District got a grade of Excellent with Distinction!  The link is the .pdf  which gives detailed information for the elementary school. 

An A+ ?  It is the highest designation.

The six designations for schools in Ohio:

• Excellent with Distinction
• Excellent
• Effective
• Continuous Improvement
• Academic Watch
• Academic Emergency

Map  Bluffsview Elementary School  is located at 7111 Linworth Rd, Columbus, OH 43235.  The Worthington elementary school serves kindergarten through sixth grade students.

Neighborhoods that attend Bluffsview Elementary currently include Lakes of Worthington, Stilson Highlands, Stilson Village, The Bluffs,  Worthington Lakes and Worthingview.

School attendence area can change year to year based on population shifts within the school district.  The Worthington City School District website has a map that shows attendence areas as well as a list of attendence by street.  

The Worthington City School District as a whole got a grade of Excellent from the State of Ohio.

Bluffsview Elementary School neighborhoods

This post brought to you by 1344 Snowmass Rd, Columbus OH 43235, a listing in the Worthingview  neighborhood and  Worthington's Bluffsview Elementary School  attendance area.  The address link provides current information on that listing.

Worthington history a presidential visit....

Yes it was newsworthy when President Obama visited a home on the northside of Columbus last Tuesday... The Columbus Dispatch called E. Kanawha  Clintonville.  The Toledo Blade called the neighborhood south of present day Worthington  Sharon Heights...

On August 25, 1817 President James Monroe visited the Village Green in Worthington.  Worthington was founded in 1803.

Worthington history

The Timeline on the Worthington Memory says August 25, 1817, President James Monroe visited the Worthington  Village Green.  The fifth US President, Monroe was the President from 1817 to 1825.   The original Village of Worthington is now the Old Worthington neighborhood.  The Village Green at the center is still there today.    Worthington Timeline

More about Worthington history

Worthington a New England village in Central Ohio

Happy Birthday St. John Epsicopal Church 

Worthington a part of the plan

Sharon Heights is a north Columbus neighborhood...   The Toledo Blade called the Columbus neighborhood that President Obama visited yesterday, "Sharon Heights."

"Microphone in hand in town hall-style, the President spoke and took questions from a small crowd sitting at picnic tables in the backyard of architect Joe Weithman, his wife, Rhonda, and their two children in the tree-lined, residential Columbus neighborhood of Sharon Heights. The family benefited on more than one front from the $787 billion economic stimulus package that Mr. Obama pushed through Congress last year almost exclusively with Democratic votes."

E. Kanawha Avenue? ...That is Sharon Heights, Clintonville area... Zillow refers to it as Sharon Heights

Monday all of the local news I heard called the area that the President would visit "Clintonville" .... my office was all concerned on Monday about traffic west of interstate 71 Oakland Park and E. North Broadway ... which is Clintonville. 

Where does Clintonville begin or end? South of the sign in the image above.  The sign welcoming you to Clintonville is at the south end of Worthington

High St. Columbus OH 43214 - Sharon Heights neighborhood.

Worthington Heights is a community of free standing condominiums in the Far North area of the City of Columbus and the Worthington City School District.  Worthington Heights was built by Qualstan,  a company that no longer builds in Columbus.  I still see a listing in Google... someone else using the Qualstan name?  Or just a Google ghost?

Worthington Heights (map) is at Sancus Blvd and Modoc Rd  north of 270 and just south of the Polaris area.

Qualstan closed shortly after the owner, Don Ettore passed away quite a few years ago now.  Qualstan built affordable single family homes and condos in many Central Ohio communities for a number of years.... 40 years according to a 2002 Business First Columbus article.

I believe Worthington Heights is the only free standing condo community that Qualstan built.  Are you aware of other free standing condos built by Qualstan?  Village Homes, Dominion Homes and others got into to the free standing condo business much later.

Worthington condos for sale - SEARCH

The floor plans in Worthington Heights are the same or very similar to floor plans in two single family Qualstan neighborhoods in Hilliard.   The floor plans in Worthington Heights are the same as a couple in Crosscreek and Sweetwater Estates.  Most of the condominum homes in Worthington Heights are two story but there are some bilevels and one story floor plans as well.

There are some differences in owning a free standing condo than in a typical attached condominium.

Worthington condos for sale  a recent market report shows condos have sold in Worthington Heights

Far North Columbus Identity Crisis

Worthington area condominiums a puzzle

If you use the Worthington condos for sale link, the SEARCH link above you will search the online inventory of Central Ohio homes on the Real Living HER site. If you sign in you will be offered the opportunity to receive listings directly from the Columbus Board of Realtors MLS (multiple listing service)  in real time. You can know the true status of the properties you are interested in.

August 10, 1803 the Scioto Company voted to name the town in Ohio "Worthington" after Thomas Worthington, one of Ohio's two first senators.

The Timeline on the Worthington Memory site tells me so.   Timeline of Worthington History

"1803 August 10" also according to the timeline the Scioto Company voted to fund the first library in Worthington on that date as well!  I have a note that says August 11 (but I do not know the year) Orange Johnson came to Worthington.  Not sure if that is on the Timeline of Worthington History too and I am just not seeing it now... the Village of Worthington sign shown here is the sign at North St.  and High St,  The sign across the street from the  Orange Johnson house.

Thomas Worthington - Ohio's first senator

Hmmmm wonder what the other senator's name was?  What if they had honored the other senator from Ohio?  I suppose I can find that info someplace.

More about Worthington history

Worthington and Parts Adjacent

Worthington A Part of the Plan

Worthington Ohio on this day in history

Move from Worthington to Dayton?    The Masons may move from Worthington according to this article written by Dean Narciso in the Columbus Dispatch.   The Columbus Dispatach article has a great photo of the Masonic Lodge on High Street too...'Grand Lodge of Ohio' taken by Ed Matthews.    Center for Masons could go to Dayton

Narciso's article says:

"A little-known part of Worthington's heritage rests in a museum of Ohio relics situated below a 190-year-old meeting hall, the oldest Masonic temple west of the Appalachian Mountains."

Costs could be cut by moving west to Dayton... it would cut costs fifty percent according to the Columbus Dispatch article.

A Worthington City Council member said  "there is a deep historical significance with them being here."

The Dayton Masonic Center, on West Riverview Drive in Dayton is a gorgeous building... overlooking the river.  I worked in Dayton 20 years ago.. I had a couple of listings on the side street between the Masonic Center and the Dayton Museum of Art in 1988? or 1989?  Annunciation the Greek Orthodox Cathedral is right there too. I loved that area!  The Dayton Masonic Center is much more grand looking than the building in Worthington...  The Dayton Masonic Center was called the Dayton Masonic Temple and it looks like a Greek temple... or Roman?  It was built in the 1920s.

The Worthington building is 190 years old according to Narciso's Columbus Dispatch article.

A Move from Worthington - it's home for years

Worthington's been the "Grand Lodge of Ohio" 's home though for 50 plus years! The Grand Lodge of Ohio has been in Worthington since the 1950s because of the central location.  The Grand Lodge of Ohio had been in Cincinnati prior to moving to Worthington.  The local lodge would inherit the building that is now the 'Grand Lodge of Ohio'  at 643 High Street.  They'd rather not.

Here is a photo of the Masonic Lodge building from 1939, prior to it becoming the 'Grand Lodge of Ohio.'  This is Don O'Brien's photo.  The picture above is also Don O'Brien's.  The color photo of the corner of High Street and New England Ave. was taken in 2009. Seventy years of history documented on  O'Brien's Flickr photostream.

Photo Credit both photos of the corner of High St. and New England Ave. are the property of Don O'Brien, he has licensed them with a Creative Commons license which allows their use here. He has a great collection of Worthington, his home town.  Many of his photos from the 1930s and 1940s.  He is DOK1 on Flickr.

Hey Worthington who has photos of Worthington Square?  Old photos? 

From the beginning? 

From the early years?

I went on the walk a few weeks ago...  the walk of the Wilson Bridge Road Corridor from the Community Center to Olentany Park... one of the photos I took that day was of the Worthington Mall entrance in July 2010.  That photo must be on my Posterous, Columbus Life... or on ColumbusBestBlog.com

I went to see what Bird Houck came up with Wednesday night (August 4, 2010.)

Who has photos or memories of what the mall in Worthington  was like in the beginning?  Was it called a mall? Or was the word "mall" later?  Was it Worthington Square Shopping Center?  

What year was Worthington Square enclosed?

Anyone have photos of what the mall looked like before it was enclosed?

Know of anyone who would have photos of Worthington Square way back when? I wondered if Don O'Brien would have photos.  Don O'Brien grew up W. Wilson Bridge Rd in the 1930's and 1940s.  His family (he, his wife and children) lived out on Sunbury Road in the 1950s.  Don O'Brien is Dok1 on Flickr.  His old Worthington photos are always interesting. Dok1's Flicker Photostream

Worthington Square - on DiscoverColumbusOH.com 

When Worthington's W. Wilson Bridge Rd. Moved late 1960's...  no mall there yet...

Wilson Bridge Road Corridor

The sign on the 5200 block of  High St. Columbus Ohio ... I'd call it Clintonville but that would just be wrong... ;- )   Even if  the sign up the road at the south end of Worthington says "Welcome to Clintonville." 

The Pierce Cleaners sign on Hight Street today....

Pierce Cleaners is located at  5205 N. High St. Columbus Ohio 43214... That's Sharon Heights?

Here's a close up of the temporary sign...  today. The   Pierce Cleaners "We're Open" sign up now.  The Pierce Cleaners sign says "Our sign will be back soon!" and also says "The historical sign is out for restoration. " 

The historical and witty Pierce Cleaners sign on High Street...  My photo was taken since the Taco Bell was built on the east side of the road... so it is within the last couple of years.  There is no snow but no leaves either...

I am relieved to see officially that the Pierce Cleaners sign is being repaired.  Not that I doubted the word of a friend who is a Pierce Cleaners customer.  He heard that the historic and witty sign on High Street had been hit by a car and was being restored.   He heard it from a Pierce Cleaners employee.   I believed him.... but I love the temporary sign verifying the sign is recovering.

The Clintonville Beechwold area -  Sharon Heights according to some...

Clintonville area... Zillow refers to it as Sharon Heights

High St. in Clintonville... never too late...

Clintonville Businesses - Don't judge a marquee by it's cover

Clintonville conspiracy theory... Realtors changing borders