Capital University Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Capital University's historic core sits on a landscaped tract in Bexley, east of downtown Columbus, with its buildings arranged around a large green open space. The district includes Lehmann Hall and Leonard Hall (both 1876, Italianate), Loy Gymnasium (1905), Rudolph Hall (1915, a library) and Mees Music Hall (1928), the last two in Neo-Gothic style. Bexley Hall, a postwar one-story brick addition behind Mees, was later counted as a sixth building. Lehmann Hall was altered in 1910, when its brick was covered with a concrete finish imitating ashlar stone. The university, founded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church and chartered in 1850, moved here in 1876 after earlier sites near downtown. The buildings were considered notable for showing architectural taste across five decades in a compatible grouping, and for recording the school's early growth. University officials interested in preserving the historic buildings initiated the nomination.