Mostly February 2026, but a few from April 2026.
The East Town Street Historic District is one of several formerly fashionable residential neighborhoods on the east side. However, most of its homes are earlier Italianates, versus the later Queen Anne houses of Olde Towne East. The houses are also high-style examples with fanciful details as opposed to the more vernacular designs elsewhere in Columbus, due to the neighborhood’s prominence with affluent residents.
The East Town Street Historic District is located in the Discovery District neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. The district includes Town Street from Grant Avenue to Lester Drive/I-71, as well as a few properties on Rich Street and Franklin Avenue. It has different boundaries on its CRHP listing versus the earlier NRHP listing. This post finishes up with the remaining houses on East Town Street that are east of Washington Avenue, which are less altered and more elaborate.
529 East Town Street
This Italianate is pretty indicative of the design of many others in the district. It has a tower where its entrance is (though the door is off-center, which bugs me), and the windows have carved hood molds.
518 East Town Street
This large Mid-Century Modern apartment building is probably the worst blow to this area’s historic integrity. It is very out of scale compared to the two- to three-story houses nearby, both in width and height. According to the county auditor, the building dates to 1944.
The side that faces Topiary Park lacks the stone window surrounds and just has plain brick walls:
Snowden-Gray House (530 East Town Street)
A view of the house in 1892. (Wikimedia)
The Snowden-Gray House is a very notable house within the district. Built in 1852 for Philip Snowden, a silk and embroidery dealer, it is an elaborate example of the Italianate style, complete with uncommon and expensive features such as a roof lantern. A depression known as the Panic of 1857 affected Snowden’s business, and he lost the home in 1860 to a sheriff’s sale. During the Civil War, the house was used as a temporary governor’s mansion, and it was occupied by David Tod.
In 1869, the house was purchased by David Gray, a railroad industrialist. It was rebuilt by George Bellows in 1872. David Gray’s wife Eugenia held parties at the house frequently and would supposedly watch guests from the house’s cupola to ensure none had dresses that rivaled her own. Gray died in 1921 and did not leave the house to his family, and it became a rooming house afterwards.
Another historic photo of the exterior. (KKG website)
In 1923, the house was sold to the Columbus Women’s Club, who used it until 1941. Another significant tenant was the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, who used the house as its national headquarters from 1952 to 2018. KKG was very concerned with the historic status of the house and kept up on its maintenance, working to restore it as well. The house had a major fire in February 1965, and despite heavy damage, it was restored and reopened in 1966. KKG grew out of both the Snowden-Gray House and the neighboring Town-Bartlit Building in 2018, moving to Dublin that year. It seems to be an event space and jazz club today.
This oblique view shows that the side is simpler and lacks the fancy hood molds--this makes sense, since the area is seldom seen:
Rounded pediment detail:
These two pedimented wings project from the wall plane, which can be seen in this detail shot of the frieze and cornice:
The windows are surrounded by extremely elaborate hood molds, which have very finely carved details:
Gee, I wonder how this guy was bankrupted?
This cast-iron porch is not original, but it is remarkably faithful to the original architecture. The florid columns and arches are common Italianate features.
I took a bunch of detail shots of this porch. It’s unusual that a more modern alteration is so in harmony with the original building.
I don’t think the entrance doors are original, but the portal itself is:
Detail of the roof lantern:
Francis Crum House & Frank Bonnet House (538-550 East Town Street)
1976 view of the two houses. (NRHP listing)
These conjoined homes, also known as the Town-Bartlit Building, are the Francis Crum House at 538 E Town and the Frank Bonnet House at 550 E Town. The former had its land purchased in 1844 by Benjamin Kelly, but he ran into financial issues and was forced to sell it to Crum. The right two bays are unoriginal and date to circa 1870. Architecture: Columbus speculates that the large window was added by an owner who wanted sun and didn’t care about architectural correctness. The Frank Bonnet House was built circa 1865. In 1940, the two houses were renovated and connected by the Keever Starch Company. At the time the NRHP listing was written in 1976, the two were known as the Alexander Medical Supply Building.
Francis Crum House:
The columns and large window on the rightmost two bays are more Beaux-Arts than Italianate, as I mentioned earlier. The other details line up, though.
Oblique view--this house is very square:
These windows appear to be original, and the rounded hood molds are more unique compared to the square ones I usually see:
Detail of the windows below the cornice and a corbel:
Cupola:
These corbels are unusually elaborate for an Italianate house. It’s hard to believe that they’re wood:
The entrance portico is also an alteration, which probably dates to the time of the addition of the two rightmost bays:
It is very unusual for an Italianate house to have a dematerialized feature such as this one--typically, they have a more squat appearance with small window openings. Again, this window was probably at the whims of the owner.
The Frank Bonnet House:
Oblique view, with the connector between the two:
W. C. Halliday House (539 East Town Street)
The exterior in 1976, when it was occupied by Wege Marble & Tile. (NRHP listing)
The W. C. Halliday House is a very fine Queen Anne house built in 1896. It has steeply pitched gables, a small turret, and the asymmetrical shape that Queen Anne houses are known for.
Looking at the facade from this angle, the odd massing of the building and the bay window are more apparent:
Detail of the vaulted picture window:
The porch appears to be original:
I love this tower. It springs from the facade via a brown stone base, and it has a conical roof supported by stubby columns and a frieze.
545 East Town Street
This is a heavily altered Queen Anne house. It has received a garish coat of blue and white paint, obscuring the original brick.
Tower:
556 East Town Street
This seems to be an early 20th century Tudor Revival house, though the boxy one-story portion that faces the sidewalk might be a later alteration.
Half-timbered overhangs on the side:
560 East Town Street
This Italianate is a pretty prototypical example of the style, with its shallow hipped roof, bracketed cornice, and hood-molded windows. The slate roof is also intact.
The doors are painted, but they’re original:
W. H. Richards House (565 East Town Street)
This Italianate dates to 1882. It has detailed hood molds, a bracketed cornice, and a bay window on its side facade.
North facade:
The front doors have their original storm doors/screens:
The stone steps also appear to be original.
571 East Town Street
Another Italianate, this house was built circa 1860-1880. It has a lot of its original woodwork intact, as seen on the porch, doors, and cornice. Unique architectural elements include the rounded bays and tower.
Detail of the porch--it’s pretty uncommon for Italianate houses to still have their original porch:
Cornice and tower roof:
Rounded wing:
Townley Court (580 East Town Street)
This street really loves its 1920s Gothic Revival apartments. This building was constructed in 1927 and has a buff brick facade. It seems like the original windows are intact:
It has a little courtyard nestled into the aisle between it and the Kelton House:
The entrances here have fancy stone surrounds:
Kelton House (586 East Town Street)
Historic engraving of the house. (Kelton House website)
The Kelton House is likely the best-known house in the district. I had intended to give it its own post due to its architectural and historical significance, but the house was severely damaged by a fire in November 2025, and it is currently being repaired.
The Kelton House was built in 1852 in the Greek Revival style, though it also has some Italianate characteristics, indicating the ongoing transition between the two. Upon completion, it was the last house on East Town Street before the street ended. It was commissioned by Fernando Cortez Kelton, a Vermont merchant who came to Columbus before the Civil War began. Kelton was an abolitionist and used the house as a stop on the Underground Railroad, even adopting a woman who escaped from slavery named Martha Hartway.
The facade in 1945. (Kelton House website)
After Fernando’s death, his son Frank inherited the house. He lived there with his wife, Isabella Morrow Coit, who was one of the first women to graduate from Ohio State. Frank’s brother Edwin then lived in the house at some point, as the two had switched due to different family sizes.
The exterior once had a large portico on the Town Street facade, which was removed at some point in the house’s history. Its current appearance is more harmonious with the Italianate houses it is surrounded by. The house was occupied by the Kelton family until the death of Grace Kelton, Fernando’s granddaughter, in 1975. Grace left the house to the Columbus Foundation, who leases it to the Junior League of Columbus. It is operated as a house museum today, though it is temporarily closed after the November 2025 fire that caused severe damage.
The windows are boarded up while repairs take place:
It seems like an addition or secondary room in the rear was almost completely destroyed:
Free-standing chimney:
The garden area in back is stocked with bricks to repair the building:
595 East Town Street
This house was once an Italianate like the other buildings in the district, but it has been heavily altered. The original window openings have been infilled and replaced with larger rectangular windows, the porch is an early 20th century addition, and the brick facade has been painted green.
Belmont Apartments (600 East Town Street)
These vaguely Gothic Revival apartments were built circa 1930. The building looks like a bare industrial box, with a bit of Gothic ornamentation slapped onto the front facade for an inkling of curb appeal.
Entrance:
Chateau Deville (602 East Town Street)
Unfortunately, as much as I love this quaint Gothic Revival apartment building, it does not match the architectural character and scale of the historic district. These apartments were built in 1932 and probably replaced older houses in the area.
This entrance door is original and has an art glass window, while the portal has some carved details:
I like the relief under this window:
The gables have diamond-patterned brickwork:
615 East Town Street
A view with its neighbor in 1976. (NRHP listing)
This house was built circa 1875. It is a Second Empire design, based on its mansard roof and fancy French detailing.
Entrance with original wooden doors and askew stone details:
It’s very unusual to me that the mansard roof here is interrupted with a bay window--it makes this section top-heavy:
The rear has a little sunroom, and the dormers make it clear that the mansard roof hides an additional floor:
The carriage house in back has an identical mansard roof:
Barzellai Spahr House (621 East Town Street)
This house dates to 1873 and was designed by local architect George Bellows. Barzellai (I’ve also seen Barzillia) Spahr was the pastor of the Town Street Methodist Church at the time. Spahr’s family lived in the house until 1961, and it was converted to apartments afterwards. The exterior is simple and symmetrical, with round-arched windows and a cornice. The Beaux-Arts entrance portico was added in 1924 by Miller & Reeves, along with new leaded-glass windows.
Very interesting to see these houses in so many different states of repair. It’s odd to think about the fact that this was far from downtown in the mid-19th century--Columbus has sprawled out so far that these houses are practically downtown in comparison.
Sources:
AIA Guide to Columbus by Jeffrey Darbee
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71988543
https://kappa.historyit.com/exhibit-view.php?id=902612#start
https://kappa.historyit.com/item-view.php?id=830515#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-5433%2C-1%2C16214%2C6708
https://www.nbc4i.com/news/columbus-business-first/lazarus-house-renovation-underway/
https://keltonhouse.com/about-us/our-history/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_G._Thurman
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