Those Places Thursday - Sacred Heart Church, Columbus, Ohio

Sacred Heart Church

Columbus, Ohio

Sacred Heart Church is located on the corner of 1st Avenue and Hamlet Street in the area of Columbus now called Italian Village. The block where Sacred Heart Church is located, bounded by Summit and Hamlet streets and First and Second avenues, has been Catholic Church property since 1852 or 1853, when William Phelan of Lancaster (OH) willed it to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. (The diocese of Columbus was later formed from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1868.)

Sacred Heart was established in 1875. A school was built which had a large hall where church services were held until the current church was dedicated in 1923. Father John Eis was the first pastor of Sacred Heart. He served the church for 44 years. He was replaced by Father (later Msgr.) James Ryan. He served the church from 1919 until his death in 1944. In 1945 Auxiliary Bishop Edward Hettinger was appointed pastor of Sacred Heart. He served for 32 years. Bishop Hettinger is who I remember.

The original school building served as both an elementary and high school. From 1908 on the high school was a commercial school for girls only. The old school was torn down and replaced by a new building in 1957. The girls high school was closed in 1966, and the elementary school was closed in 1972. Today the building is leased to the St. Joseph Montesorri School.

I attended Sacred Heart elementary school 1st and 2nd grades. It was right after I transferred to Holy Name School that the old school building was torn down. I remember going with my Dad to the laying of the new building's cornerstone. Even when I went there I could sense that the building was old. One year a boiler exploded in the lower level. Luckily it was overnight so no one was hurt. But that meant we had to eat our lunches in our classrooms as the cafeteria was in the lower level. Always felt like sitting in a dungeon when eating our lunch! The first and second grades (and probably 3rd and 4th) were on the first floor. I remember walking up the large stairwell to the second floor a few times, once for a hearing test. I'm not sure how the upper level was arranged, and there might even have been a third floor? The hearing test that I remember was in a large hall, so that was probably where the church services were held until the church was built.

I remember the interior of the church as dark and grey. From today's pictures it looks as if there has been some color added to the interior. I also do not remember the wood ceiling. I remember chandeliers hanging from the ceiling also, which are no longer there.

Reading current comments about the church validates my feeling that this church is special. It gives one the feeling of what a church should look and feel like. It has a spirituality that other churches do not. Today about half of the 150-200 people who attend weekly services are from areas outside the parish area.

When I attended Sacred Heart the church was always packed. It was built to seat about 800 people. It was at one time one of the largest parishes in Columbus, but due to the migration of the population to the suburbs, which started after World War II, it now has about 200 registered families.

I was baptized, had my first Confession, and received First Holy Communion at Sacred Heart Church.

Those Places Thursday - 999 Crupper Avenue, Columbus, Ohio

999 Crupper Avenue

Columbus, Ohio 43229

This building was constructed by an engineering firm, R. S. Fling & Partners, around 1975. I started working for R. S. Fling as a computer operator a few years after the building was built. This was the beginning of my career working in the computer industry. I'm not sure now exactly how many years I worked for this engineering firm, but I do know that I was employed at a local bank by the early 1980s. While I was working for R. S. Fling & Partners they expanded the building. Today it appears that the newer part of the building has a different address and entrance. This part of the building sits behind the part shown in the above photo.

969 Crupper Avenue

Columbus, Ohio 43229

The engineering firm folded sometime after I left. I do remember it had a lot of problems and there were several law suits against the firm.

The strangest thing about this building is that part of it has been leased for many years by the company from which I retired in 1999. Though I did not work again in this building, that connection is a weird coincidence.

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.

Those Places Thursday - 1435 North Fourth Street

1435 North Fourth Street

Columbus, Franklin, Ohio, United States

This was my first home. It is located between 8th and 9th Avenues. We lived in the second to last apartment (#11) in the back. You cannot tell from this picture but there are identical units facing these on the right. We called the sidewalk between the two units "the court". I lived here until 1957. This picture was taken by the Franklin County Auditor's office; the date of the photo is 2007. At the time I lived here, there were no trees or iron fencing in the front. The building to the left in the photo did not exist yet - it was a vacant field when I lived here. It appears that the property has been kept up. I'm not sure of the current neighborhood but I know it went through a decline after we moved.

August 1948

My Dad and brother Pat

in back of building. The enclosed porches on the back

no longer exist. I do not know when they were

removed.

May 1955

My brother Pat in front of our apartment, which 

was to the right of him (left in picture).

Behind him is the back entrance to the court.

July 4, 1947

My Dad, Jim Porter, at the corner of N. 4th St. and 8th Avenue.

The billboard behind him is in the field that was behind our home. 

It now has a large apartment complex located there.

November 1951

This is my brother Pat sitting on one of the brick columns

at the entrance at 1435 N. 4th St.

From the present day picture you can see that these columns are still there.

This photo is facing North. At the time traffic was two-way on N. 4th St.

Today N. 4th St. is one-way heading North.

Those Places Thursday - White Cross Hospital/Riverside Methodist Hospital

I was born in White Cross Hospital in Columbus, Franklin, Ohio. White Cross opened in 1892 as Protestant Hospital. In 1922 Protestant Hospital joined the Ohio Methodist Episcopal Conference, and was renamed White Cross Hospital. It was located on Park Street, which is now the trendy Short North part of Columbus. Land was purchased in 1947 for a new hospital in northwest Columbus at the corner of Olentangy River Blvd and West North Broadway. This is where I was supposed to be born, but for whatever reason this new hospital was not opened until 1961. With that move the name was changed to Riverside Methodist Hospital. It was at Riverside that my father died in 1977 and my two children were born in 1981 and 1989.

Today Riverside Hospital is one of many hospitals owned by OhioHealth Corporation.