Worthington real estate

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

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.

Worthington trivia  from the  Timeline on the Worthington Memory site 

June 25, 1912   -  "Council passes resolution to install a public water works and water becomes available throughout the village the next year. " 

Sure enough further down on the timeline, in 1913 the Village of Worthington had water.

The Village of Worthington was what is now known as the Old Worthington neighborhood, from Morning St. to Evening St. and  from North Street to South St.  Worthington would not become a city until the 1950s.

Prior to getting water the Village of Worthington residents would have had individual wells.

Worthington Trivia or Worthington History - depeding on how you look at it.   The village was 100 years old 9 years earlier in 1903.

Today Worthington residents get water from the city of Columbus like most of Central Ohio... 

Old Worthington May 27, 1941  National V- Day

Do you see "FOR NATIONAL V-DAY" on the bottom of the sign for  the Thiron Clock Bread on the left side of the photo of a grocery store in Worthington?  Don O'Brien identifies the store as the A&P in Worthington.

As Worthington prepares for the 2010 Memorial Day Parade this old photo from Don O'Brien's of a High St. grocery store, shows that National  V-DAY  was May 27, 1941. 

Don O'Brien grew up north of Worthington on W. Wilson Bridge Rd.  which was out in the country back then. According to his notes on the photo he took a series of photos for Worthington News, the local newspaper of the day.

Did V - DAY mean Victory Day?  Was this photo taken later in the year with a sign on the bread commemorating a victory on May 27, 1941?  VE and VJ Day were in 1945 and Don O'Brien graduated from Worthington High School in 1941?  1942?

The photo on Flickr has a conversation ranging from the food on the shelf to what V Day in the bread sign means.  Don O'Brien (DOK1 on Flickr titled the photo) : "1941: 10-cents-a-loaf Bread"

Old Worthington refers to the area of Worthington that was the original village settled in 1803.   1941 was long after that but the stores on High Street would be in what we today refer to as Old Worthington.

Creative Commons license on 1941: 10- cents-a-loaf Bread

Old Worthington - Grocery Stores

The Kroger in Worthington in the 1940s  is the A&P two doors down?

Worthington Ohio Grocery Store - Home Market

Home Market - Worthington Ohio

Old Worthington is #11 of  ‘365 Places to Live in Columbus’  on Facebook and ColumbusBestBlog.com . If you appreciate old homes you will like Old Worthington.   Old Worthington which will soon be listed as a district on the National Register of Historic Places. The Old Worthington Association has worked on that for over a decade.

There are already a number of individual Old Worthington  properties on the National Register of Historic Places.  The Old Worthington neighborhood was the original Village of Worthington.

Worthington has long had a system in place for architectural review of  changes to properties in the Architectural Review District.

The Old Worthington home pictured here is NOT for sale.  The sign in the yard of this house reminds me of going to a hearing about improvements to this house a few years back   The sign outside tells the neighbors and anyone interested about a hearing about improvements the seller wants to make to the property.    

As I recall the house pictured which NOW has a blue sign in the yard was built in the 1850s.

There are homes on the market, in the Old Worthington neighborhood.    Old Worthington homes for sale - Search.

From  Worthington Old and News a couple of years ago…

The architectural review board is the five member Worthington planning commission plus two people “one of whom must be a resident freeholder of the Architectural Review District” according to the rules.

An agent in my office was on the Architectural Review Board when I went to lend moral support to clients who were summoned to talk to the Worthington Architectural Review Board about changes they had made to their Old Worthington home without asking permission first. Someday I may write about that night.*

The Architectural Review Board meet on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the Worthington Municipal Building at 6550 N. High St. I believe both the Planning Commission and the Architectural Review Board take the month of August off.

The  City of Worthington has lots of information about the architectural review district and more.

* Not ready yet…

If you use the link above to search for homes for sale in Old Worthington it will take you to the Real Living HER home search.  You will be offered an opportunity to see homes directly from the Columbus Board of REALTORS® MLS.

Old Worthington - National Historic District

The Old Worthington historic disctrict was approved to be on the National Register of Historic Places.  After years of work, the  Old Worthington Association  has accomplished this.

The Old Worthington Association site says:

"This decade-long project seeks to expand on the many places already on the National Register by designating James Kilbourne's original town plat as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. A final decision by the National Park Service is expected in April 2010."

I heard from a board member the final decision is in, Old Worthington is a National Historic District.

The National Register of Historic Places  is part of the National Park Service.  Their site does not have anything about Old Worthington in Worthington Ohio being listed yet.

Old Worthington - National Historic District

Old Worthington News

Worthington A Part of the Plan

Worthington a New England Village in Central Ohio

Home Market - Worthington Ohio  - 1941 

The photo is from March 1941, it was Lent...  look up to the right of the shop keepers head. "Birds Eye, Lenten Double Values, Haddock..." 

Home Market was a grocery store on High Street in Worthington. In a 1964 Worthington Chamber publication on Flickr an ad for Home Market gave the address as 660 High St. Worthington.   

660 High St. Worthington Ohio is  Scotties!

Worthington Memory a project of the Worthington Historical Society also tells me that the Home Market is the building which was Scottie Mac Beans for years,  now Scotties Coffee and Teas.

The photo is from Don O'Brien's Flickr Photostream.  O'Brien grew up on W.Wilson Bridge Rd in the 1930's and 1940's and has a great collection of Worthington photos.  O'Brien identifies the proprietor of the Home Market as Clyde Bachelor.  The Home Market photo is part of O'Brien's Worthington Business series on Flickr,

Home Market Ad - 1940

Worthington Streets- the business district

A 1980 Worthington Memorial Day Parade Photo on the Worthington Memory site says Home Market is in the background.  1980?  Really?  It is hard to believe a grocery store like that could have survived that long.  In the era when Don O Brien grew up there was a Kroger and an A and P right across the street on High Street in Old Worthington.

Image credit :   http://www.flickr.com/photos/dok1/ / CC BY 2.0

Happy 206th Birthday to St. John Episcopal Church in Worthington Ohio.

Somewhere I have a picture of the historical marker at St. John Episcopal Church in Worthington Ohio.... found it! In  Worthington and Parts Adjacent  the historical marker pictured says:

"On February 6, 1804, the Articles of Agreement establishing St. John's Church of Worthington were executed" 

Articles of Agreement executed  is the same thing as a birthday? Isn't it?  The historical marker goes on about that the church was planned in New England.  St. John Church was the first Episcopal Church in the Northwest Territory.

Ohio Channel about the historical marker with a picture of it you can read.

This photo was taken last March.  Spring.... it is going to be spring soon!

If I took a photo of St. John Episcopal Church today it would be a beautiful  snowy "New England" scene.  I heard on the news last night 7" of snow but it snowed more overnight.  I was out already this morning... but not in Old Worthington. Maybe later today I will run over and take a photo of the church on it's 206th Birthday.  The church is right on the Worthington Village Green. St. John Episcopal's address is 700 High St. Worthington OH 43085

I believe the birthday is for the church, not the building... but I'd be taking a photo of the building of course.

Happy Birthday to  St. John Episcopal Church in Worthington Ohio

More about Worthington Ohio

Worthington Ohio this day in history

Worthington a New England village in Central Ohio

Old Worthington News

Worthington, Ohio: 1939 is another of the historic photos in Don O'Brien's  Flickr Photostream. 

The car is a 1939 Packard ambulance according to O'Brien's notes. The owner according to O'Brien was S. E. Corbin and Son Funeral Directors, so it is a hearse?  Ambulance and hearse were the same thing?

In the background you can see the Worthington Village Green, St. John's Episcopal Church and an little bit of the Kilbourne Building which would have been the Worthington Library in 1939.

I'd assume Don took the photo in early December.  No snow.  A picture across the Worthington Green would be white today in 2009, but the snow came after Christmas Day.

Worthington, Ohio history

Don O'Brien's Flikr Photostream is a great place to see Worthington Ohio in the 1930 and 1940's (link below.)   This picture was taken in December 1939 for a full page advertisement for the funeral home in the Worthington News.

More about Worthington, Ohio history:

Worthington, Ohio history

Old Worthington the Old Worthington neighborhood today was the original Village of Worthington which was settled in 1803.  The Village had not grown much (at all?)  by the time Don O'Brien was growing up in the Worthington area in the 1930's and 1940's.

Image credit and creative commons license