Jefferson Avenue Historic District

Jefferson Avenue Historic District is a single block of late nineteenth-century brick houses on the eastern edge of downtown Columbus, Ohio. About nine structures line both sides of a street divided by an elliptical green space with mature shade trees, which gives the avenue a boulevard effect. The street was platted in 1870 as part of the East Park Place Addition, and development was complete by 1900. Most buildings are two or two-and-a-half-story brick residences in the Italianate manner, with stone lintels, stained or art glass, interior woodwork and iron fencing. Many have been stuccoed, altered or added to, and some are deteriorated, yet the group keeps a cohesive feel. Interstate 71 destroyed the neighboring Lexington Avenue, leaving Jefferson Avenue as a rare downtown remnant of its kind. The district is also tied to humorist James Thurber, who lived at 77 Jefferson Avenue from 1913 to 1915 and set a well-known short story there.