Those Places Thursday - 2124 Indiana Avenue

I really wanted to have a picture of this residence as it was when we lived there.  I also wanted to be able to give precise dates for when my family lived at 2124 Indiana Avenue in Columbus, Ohio. But instead, after thinking about this place, I'm left feeling rather melancholy. First I am aware of no photos of this place while we lived there. I know a camera was not an item that our family possessed until I bought a cheap one as a teenager. However, it still seems strange that there are no photos. Second, I cannot remember how long we lived at this address. I know we moved from 1435 N. 4th Street to this address in the summer of 1956, and I know that before 1962 we had moved again. But exactly how many years we actually lived at 2124 Indiana Avenue escapes me. The melancholy sets in because I am the only one left in my family that lived in that place, I'm the only one whose memories are of this place, yet those memories have faded. Both my parents and older brother have passed, and they were the only ones that would have shared those memories with me.

So it's with an unknown year that I can report that many years after we moved, this house burned to the ground, killing at least two young people. This home was part of a half-double, consisting of 2124 and 2126 Indiana Avenue. This area of Columbus is very close to The Ohio State University, so eventually this half-double housed OSU students. The fire started on our side, 2124, and was attributed to a candle left burning. I remember the news story stating that those killed were in the bedroom above the living room, which is where the candle was left burning. The upstairs collapsed onto the lower level. It was many years after we had moved from the place. I do remember driving past what remained of the house quite a few years after the fire. Nothing had been rebuilt on the site.

Today a new building stands in its place, and it appears to be a half-double, though the layout is very different. The information taken from the Columbus Ohio Auditor's website, states that this new building was built in 2000. This picture was taken from the Columbus Auditor's webpage:

The only thing that is the same is the tree on the right, which was there when we lived there. The older building had front doors that were on the outside of each side, not both in the center as it exists now, and each unit had it's own stairs to the sidewalk. Each unit had an attic with a small window. It does not appear to have attic windows in the new building. The porches were like those on the house to the left in the picture.

I do remember when we first moved to this house that it had a coal furnace. The coal was delivered through a window on the side of the house. I remember the big floor grates and how it was nice to stand on top of them during the winter. Dad somehow always knew when to put in the coal, as I never remember being cold in this house. We still lived there when our landlord converted the coal furnace to a gas one. I liked the attic in this place. It was big enough to be a third floor. Although there was a bed in a small room created by a three-sided wall in the attic, I don't remember anyone sleeping in it. My brother Pat and I would play in the attic, but it was used primarily for storage.

I remember the first year we lived here, Pat and I continued to attend Sacred Heart School even though we were now in Holy Name parish. I think Dad did not register us early enough to attend Holy Name that first year. Pat and I would catch the bus at the corner of Summit and Lane Avenue. At that time Summit was a two-way street so we would get off the bus on Summit Street close to Lane Avenue when coming home. The next year we did attend Holy Name, which was within easy walking distance from our home.

I now feel a need to lookup this address in Columbus' city directories. Hopefully that will give me a better idea of how many years we lived at 2124 Indiana Avenue.