herr2ck: Everything Everywhere All At Once

February 2026.

The Charles Frederick Myers House is an excellent example of eclecticism in architecture. It employs a great variety of stylistic details from different movements, and the end result is a very busy yet delightfully picturesque house. On a street full of lavishly decorated houses (Bryden Road), this house is the star of the show.

The Charles Frederick Myers House is located at 1330 Bryden Road in the Franklin Park neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It is bordered by the fields of Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls to the north, Bryden Road to the south, and the houses of the Bryden Road Historic District to the south, east, and west.

History

A lot of the sources regurgitate the same history here, and I couldn’t find many historic photos, either. I’m honestly surprised that such an interesting house isn’t documented so heavily. Anyways, I’ll try to contribute with better information than all of the “historic house blogs” have.

In the 1890s, the fashionable Bryden Road in what is now Olde Towne East and Franklin Park began to rival East Broad Street, Columbus’s former residential street of vogue. Columbus’s most affluent residents were having architects design fanciful Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque houses for them. Charles Frederick Myers was no exception.

Myers was a German immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1869, at the age of 13. He went on to found the United States Carriage Company (Columbus was known for horse-drawn carriage manufacturing at the time), whose factory stood at 4th Street south of Main Street. Surprisingly, their 1902 building still stands at that location, and it is known as the Mercantile Building today. I cover it in my 4th Street article.

Historic photo of the exterior. (Wikimedia)

The Charles Frederick Myers House was built in 1896. Its architect is not definitively known, but it is likely to be a work of Joseph W. Yost or his firm Yost & Packard, given their propensity to design similarly lavish buildings (such as the Peter Sells House, which has a similar clay tile roof and overall eclecticism). The eclectic design is modeled after a German castle that Myers knew, according to the Near East Side Historic District listing. To me, it employs styling cues from the Renaissance Revival, Queen Anne, and Chateauesque styles. The interior was similarly detailed and decorated with paintings by a German artist who Myers hired. If you want photos of the interior, some good ones are available here.

Myers closed his company in 1918, and he died in 1927 while visiting Germany. Another family lived in the house until 1940, when it became a nursing home. The nursing home closed in 1977 due to violating Ohio’s state laws.

The exterior in 1976. (NRHP listing)

The house was most recently sold in 2021, and it has been undergoing renovation work, which seems to have stalled out since. No noticeable progress on the exterior has been made since 2024.

Photos

Oblique view from the east:

The south facade, which was gorgeously lit by the sun:

The house really has a lot going on. It has an asymmetrical design with various bay windows and towers that is very common to Queen Anne architecture, but the ornamentation is more Renaissance Revival versus the typical Eastlake woodwork of Queen Anne houses. Additionally, the steeply pitched roof is likely from the Chateauesque style.

One thing that photos don’t do a great job at is conveying scale. This house is massive--compare it to a more conventionally sized American Foursquare next door:

It’s somehow wider than the Foursquare (which is odd, because they have a lot of horizontal emphasis), and much taller.

The porch and entrance:

Another angle:

The wooden floral ornament would look more at home on a Queen Anne house--I think it’s a little out of place here.

The taller tower with a peaked roof:

These windows are original. Note the art glass on the lower level. Above that is a diamond pattern in the brick (this would be called “diapering” in the language of the time), which is done in a contrasting buff shade. A terra-cotta frieze courses across the tower beneath the roof’s eaves. A dormer sits in front of the roof, currently being repaired. The roof is steeply pitched and hipped, with clay tile shingles. It is crowned with a metal roof finial.

Scaffolding surrounds the cylindrical bay window, and the dormer has had its brickwork stripped off:

A closer view of the cylindrical window by itself:

Looks like the stone base has been tuck-pointed recently too, that’s nice.

Terra-cotta ornamentation on the bay window:

These have a very Renaissance-inspired design, much different from Queen Anne decor.

Detail of the lower windows, which have designs of women in dresses:

The frieze, which has a bead-and-reel pattern below:

The roof and other details:

Roof finials:

We can see a couple things in this niche here:

The original wooden screen door is present, which is pretty rare. Some historic windows or doors are also sitting out there. Finally, and most unusual, the balustrade uses a Gothic Revival pattern. Gothic and classical architecture were considered to be opposites in history (mostly by Renaissance architects), so its presence on a house with Renaissance detailing is weirdly anachronistic.

This metal roof vent is above, which is also excellent.

Shorter wing and bay window:

Terra-cotta reliefs on the bay window parapet:

I really like this elaborate window with a large tympanum above:

The roof’s peak here has a grotesque on top:

It reminds me of the ones that grace Louis Sullivan’s banks (like the Home Building Association Bank and People's Federal Savings & Loan Association, both in Ohio), but more furry monster instead of noble lion.

This tall chimney is secured to the roof by an iron tie:

The metal finials on this side gable were also interesting to me. I’m unsure if they’re original or not, but they are a bit of a departure from the Victorian reliefs of women and the classical ornament.