herr2ck: Plowed

March 2026.

The Ohio Moline Plow Building is one of several buildings in Columbus that speak to my dual states of Illinois and Ohio--it was the Ohio headquarters of an Illinois farming equipment company. It is also one of very few historic buildings remaining in the Arena District.

The Ohio Moline Plow Building is located at 343 North Front Street in the Arena District neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by a more modern mixed-use building to the north, Nationwide Boulevard to the south, Front Street and 10 West Nationwide to the east, and Nationwide Arena to the west.

History

Early advertisement for the company, featuring its “universal tractor.” (Facebook)

Moline Plow was headquartered in Moline, Illinois, and the company produced farming equipment such as plows and tractors. They began manufacturing mills and hay rakes in 1865, and it was incorporated as the Moline Plow Company in 1870. The Ohio branch of the company, Ohio Moline Plow, was created as a subsidiary to sell and repair the company’s products in central Ohio. It was probably established in 1913, when the present building was constructed.

The Ohio Moline Plow Building was built in 1913 as offices, sales, and warehouse space for the company, not manufacturing its products. It is an early example of a masonry warehouse that was built to be fireproof, having a concrete structure and brick exterior, versus the earlier wood-frame warehouses of the 19th century. Moline Plow did not use a common design across its regional warehouses, meaning a Columbus architect or engineer likely designed the building. Its architect is unknown, but the general contractor was Robert H. Evans, who built several significant buildings at Ohio State and others in Ohio and its surrounding states.

1921 Sanborn map grab of the building, along with its surrounding context. (Library of Congress)

Ohio Moline Plow’s building was only entirely occupied by them for a brief period. From 1913 to at least 1921, they were the only occupant listed at 343 North Front Street, but by 1925, parts of the building were leased out to the Washburn-Cosby Company and the Mutual Drug Company. This indicates that either the company was struggling to pay its rent and needed to subdivide the building, or they had intended for it to be multi-use in the first place.

Moline Plow would be acquired by the Moline Implement Company in 1925. In 1927, Ohio Moline Plow moved to 55 Terminal Way (obscured by the convention center today) and appeared in city directories under that “Moline Implement Company” name, vacating its original home after just under 20 years. Their former building was occupied by the Samuel Stevens Company, various grocers, and the Mutual Drug Company remained.

At the same time, there were 20 other farming equipment manufacturers listed in Columbus, indicating that growing competition may have also forced Ohio Moline Plow to downsize. When the Great Depression began in 1929, these manufacturers either merged, moved out of the urbanizing city of Columbus, or simply went out of business. The entire company merged with two others to form the Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company in 1929. At that time, the firm expanded their operations in Illinois to manufacture tractors, threshers, combines, engines, and plows, among other farming equipment. Interestingly, they experimented with manufacturing automobiles beginning in 1916, though by the 1920s they were discontinued.

Overhead view of the building in 1990. Note how it was then completely surrounded by parking lots. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

In 1962, Moline Plow became a subsidiary of White Motor Corporation of Cleveland, which shifted their focus away from agriculture and towards trucks instead. The Columbus building was still occupied by various druggists until the mid-1970s at the earliest. White Motor reorganized in 1983 as Northeast Ohio Axle Inc., at which time Moline Plow and its products were a distant memory. Nationwide acquired the Ohio Moline Plow Building in the late 1980s and used it for storage.

A 1997 photo of the building immediately before renovation. (Columbus Metropolitan Library)

The Ohio Moline Plow Building was listed on the Columbus Register of Historic Properties in 1997 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, and it was renovated into a mixed-use restaurant and office building. Though I cannot speak for the interior, the exterior has been maintained excellently, and the only altered feature is new glass doors (which replaced doors that were also not original).

Photos

It’s important to note the odd footprint of the building, which is not perfectly rectangular. This is due to the odd angles of the streets it aligned with, namely Front Street and Naghten Street (the latter has been removed and ran immediately southward, visible on the 1990 photo). However, with the removal of Naghten Street in this area, its footprint is a little more nonsensical.

This would be considered a Commercial style design due to its early Modernist influence and restrained ornamentation. It expresses its structure on the exterior through the brick piers (which definitely align with columns inside), and most of the decorative effect is achieved through the walls alone instead of applied features such as classical columns.

East facade (the sun was facing west, hence the overexposure):

Another feature common of the style seen here is the building’s three-part expression, very similar to early skyscrapers of the period. The base has uninterrupted channels of brick that continue along it and smaller windows, granting it a more stalwart appearance. The floors above have larger windows and bays that are recessed between the piers, again highlighting the building’s structure. Finally, the top has a brickwork cornice that appropriately ends the building with a flourish.

The entrance has a parapet shaped like many others in the Commercial style:

Note that it projects from the wall plane slightly, emphasizing its nature as the main entrance. The glass doors are modern and date to the 1990s renovation or later.

A nice detail of the relief over the doors:

The south facade was lit better, but the slightly overcast day was giving me inconsistent brightness. My other shots aren’t all in direct sunlight like this one.

Again, base-shaft-capital, much like a classical column:

Below each pier is a circular cut of stone. I couldn’t tell you what purpose they serve, beyond an ornamental one:

A special rowlock course of brick, which creates a slight denticulation effect, runs right below the stone string course in the middle.

The decorative masonry continues above:

Each pier is crowned with a brick medallion, and the cornice features small projecting brick corbels that are built into the walls themselves. Note how the middle one is elongated to align with the pier below.

The corners of this building are pretty cool, too, since they’re rounded slightly: