CarolynOsborne

The part of Richmond Road that is closer to downtown Lexington features old houses and old trees--very desirable place to live. The most famous landmark in that area is Henry Clay's home, which consists of a large park with an old mansion. The mansion is a museum. There are also gardens. As you move away from downtown, Richmond Road becomes a shopping area, particularly near New Circle Road. There are lots of restaurants as well as a Walmart--the usual suburban shopping. Richmond Road is a busy four-lane street, but the part that is residential has large center islands with old trees, so it's as quiet as a busy street gets.

Because this street is so close to the university it is mostly student housing, which means it's noisy and the houses are owned by absentee landlords. Nevertheless, when you are a student you find it a lot more fun to live in an apartment near other students than to live in the dorm. A place like Transcript Ave. is great because you have the freedom of living in an apartment yet none of the parking hassles of having to commute to the university.

The nice thing about Maxwell Street is that while you can walk to UK from there, it's not completely student housing, so it's a little quieter. As with so much of the university area, the houses are older and nice and large. They are great for families with kids because there is so much room in them. With an established neighborhood, you can expect beautiful old trees. It's a nice street to walk on.

The Bell Court area is only a block off of Main Street but you wouldn't know it because the neighborhood is quiet. In the middle is a park with the Bell House, a mansion now owned by the city. The park is relatively small but still a good place for kids to run around and for adults to congregate for hanging out. There are many wonderful old trees shading the whole Bell Court area which makes it attractive for walking around or sitting out on the front porch. Traffic is light because Bell Court tends not to be a shortcut for anything. The houses are old, spacious, and beautiful.

I grew up on Old Park Ave, the second house from Woodland Park. Many of the houses in that area are about a hundred years old with tall ceilings and large rooms. The part of Old Park where I lived was a dead-end street, which means that traffic was minimal and the street was pretty safe for kids. The park itself was a great place. Our backyard was okay, but we didn't need a great back yard. There was plenty of play equipment in the park and lots of room to run around in. It's the best of city living because it's close to down town and reasonably close to the university, but it's also the best of country living in terms of having a great place for kids to play and for grownups to exercise in--tennis, walking, and so forth. Old Park Ave. has become gentrified these days, so the houses have been fixed up and it's a safe neighborhood.

Greenlawn runs from High Street and into the Greenlawn Cemetary, so some residents of Greenlawn are fairly permanent. Greenlawn has entrance and exit ramps for Interstate 71 and you can easily get to Interstate 70 and State Route 315 since Greenlawn is just south of the 70/71 split. There is a huge park where lots of people play baseball, so that's a nice place. Close to High Street, there is a White Castle, Columbus's famous little tiny hamburgers (you love 'em or hate 'em). You wouldn't want to live in the two or three residential homes on Greenlawn because of the strip bar that keeps getting closed and reopening. Greenlawn makes life easier, connecting South Columbus to the highways.

There is an old country song that was popular in Columbus in the seventies--"My Franklin County woman, on Parsons Avenue." Parsons runs from East Broad Street to way out in the country. It was the main street in south Columbus. A lot of bars there featured bluegrass in the sixties and seventies, for the workers at Buckeye Steel and Owens Techniglass. Well, industry has gone and Parsons has fallen on hard times. Still, the houses are old and beautiful in that area and German Village is way too expensive. Merion Village, which is bordered by Thurman, Parsons, Morrill, and High Street is on its way back up. There is some shopping in this area--a CVS and a Krogers.

West Broad Street is National Road 40. If you follow it long enough, you will find yourself at the continental divide in Colorado! It used to have a little burg called New Rome that made its money by writing traffic tickets for those who didn't see the sudden shift in speed limits. But New Rome is no more. West Columbus has a lot of shopping available and it has a lot of old houses that could be rehabbed into nice places. Currently there is a lot of crime in the area and many social problems.

Chambers makes some interesting transformations. It begins just west of Olentangy, at a factory and moves through Clinton Township and into Upper Arlington. I lived in the Clinton Township area. The Sells Avenue area was originally the wintering ground of the Sells Brothers circus. Most of the homes in the area were built after World War II--they look like Levittown houses. They are small and well-built. Chambers has some of the older homes in the neighborhood on it--maybe the original farm house. Chambers is close to Lennox Shopping Center, the restaurants on Olentangy, and there is a Kroger's store on Chambers at Northwest. It's a quiet neighborhood, well-maintained, with good neighbors.

I lived on West Patterson for seven or eight years--it was one of my favorite places here in Columbus. At the time I was in grad school at OSU, so it was really convenient. I could walk to my classes and not have to deal with trying to park on campus. Also, there are some really great restaurants in that area, such as Taj Mahal and Blue Nile. It's nice to be able to walk to a restaurant in the evening. The houses are older and they have the tall ceilings and large rooms of old houses. The only problem I had was that I only had on the street parking, so on OSU football days it was best to park one's car on Friday and not to move it until Sunday.

Tucked in between Kinnear and King Ave, bounded by railroad tracks to the east and Kenny Road to the west, is a little piece of Clinton Township. The other part of the township is on the north side of Columbus--that must have been a bureaucratic process keeping those two pieces together. What this means, though, is that this neighborhood has its own police (DON'T go down Kenny Rd. at higher than 25 miles an hour) and it's own snow service. Roads get cleaned up fast. Rhoda Avenue is the first street in the neighborhood west of the train tracks. You get to hear trains, and also the planes that are lining themselves up for the Columbus air port. The houses were built in the 1940's--they are well-built small homes. Great starter homes for families. At the end of Rhoda, you are apt to find kids playing baseball in the summer in the street. There aren't any sidewalks, but the streets are quiet and a great place for a walk. It is close to Lennox shopping center and OSU. The only downside is that during football games, cars will be parked bumper to bumper on this street--but then all the houses have off-street parking.

Many of the houses on King Avenue are Victorian--large, old, with tall ceilings. While there are a lot of them that are student housing for the university, there are many as well that have been bought by couples and families. King Avenue is conveniently located near OSU and Batelle, as well as OSU's extensive hospital and health care system, so there are plenty of opportunities for jobs that are within walking distance. Also, it is convenient to live on King Ave. if you are a student at OSU. Within walking distance is Olentangy River Road and at the conjunction of King and Olentangy are restaurants and a large shopping center (Lennox) with a Target, a Staples, and a Barnes and Noble.

East Main Street in Bexley is a vibrant neighborhood. Bexley's library is located there and Bexley also has a good school system. Condos are being built all over the place. The police department is really excellent--they have a chief of police who is really committed to doing a great job. Across the street from Capital University, which is a small private school (I have to admit--I work there) is a bunch of shops, including places to eat like Chipotle and Radio Cafe (and, of course, Graeters ice cream) as well as an art gallery and a movie house that plays art films. On Friday mornings, folks with guitars gather at the Radio Cafe (outdoors if it is nice) and play music.

South High Street is also known as Route 23. Route 23 runs straight south to Portsmouth and across the bridge to South Shore, Kentucky, where it becomes "the Country Music Highway." Appalachians who came to Columbus in order to get jobs often said they were taught in their schools, "readin', writin', and Route 23." It's also the inspiration for a fiddle tune called "Road to Columbus" (played by Kenny Baker, the great fiddler in Bill Monroe's bluegrass band).

There are many nice things to say about South High St. At the very south end is a great shopping center with a Lowes, a good thrift store, a Walmart, an Aldis and many other places to shop and eat.

At 1374 South High Street there is the Bluegrass Shop, a place that sells bluegrass recordings, instruments, and other equipment. There's a jam there all day on Saturdays.

My church is at 1621 South High St. It is full of friendly people, mostly expatriate Kentuckians and West Virginians.

East Welch Avenue runs between High Street and Parsons Avenue in a transitional neighborhood. The traditional residents were largely working class people who worked in the factories in the south end of Columbus. As the factories closed, the neighborhood has fallen on hard times, but the big old houses here (built in the 1920's) are attractive to people who can't afford the neighborhood just to the north of us, German Village. We still have our troubles here with prostitution and drugs, but we also have a strong neighborhood association and neighbors watch out for each other. The houses are being rehabbed and their value is rising.