High Street 50 Years Ago

This is a view of North High Street downtown 50 years ago. The shopping was good. This is basically Spring Street, Long Street, and Gay Street would have come in at the bottom of the photo. Notice the large number of awnings over the sidewalk as a customer service.
The buses are Trollybuses that slowly replaced the streetcars from the late 1930's to the late 1940's. The overhead wires are too faint to see in this photo, but on the southbound bus you can see the two trolly lines reaching up to the electric wires.
The Mayor of Columbus is proposing a new streetcar line along this route from the county courthouse to the South Campus Gateway. Have they considered modern Trollybuses like those that ran until 1965? Dayton, Ohio continues to run Trollybuses. So, the expertise is relatively close. Only five cities in the U.S. runs Trollybuses. Worldwide, they are a popular mode of city transport with many sleek designs. New models even include batteries or a small diesel generator (like a hybrid) to allow the Trollybus to run a short ways off the electrical trolly lines.
The problem with streetcars is the track in the street. If a streetcar breaks down, no other streetcars can get around. Modern Trollybuses would be cheaper to start and be able to go around stopped traffic.

Short North High Street 1983

(click on photos to enlarge) This is a scene from the Greystone Apartments in 1983 just as Bollinger Tower was being constructed. >The empty car dealership building in the foreground is where Rosendales, one of the top restaurants in the state, now hold court. Back then, the original Winders Motors (founded 1913) building was at the end of its days as a vehicle showroom. This was before it was made into a medical clinic for a couple of decades. >The Body Shop building (yellow sign above) was still an auto care business. >The downtown skyline was still waiting its 1980's skyscrapers.

Downtown 1983

In 1983 as the Huntington Center rises from behind, North High Street downtown was lined with retail stores. The center of this picture shows the block between Gay St. and Long St. being filled with shops instead of an empty parking lot today. An S. S. Kresge store sits at High Street and Gay Streets, one of two (only two block apart) along High Street downtown. Sure, this was the end of an era in downtown retail, but it shows that sidewalk stores for city bus riders is workable. The City Center Mall dried up the High Street commercial strip, but it didn't included many stores for average income people like we see above. Now the City Center Mall has dried up and they want to put streetcars down High Street to promote it.

Many Changes in the Short North

The feminist cafe-lounge LIQUID is getting closer to opening. It took over the space that the rock club Little Brothers had for ten years. Little Brothers used to be Stache's & Little Brothers and was the virtual CBGB's of Columbus through the 80's and 90's. They had to move to the Short North in 1997 and didn't get another lease past 2007. Let's see what excitement LIQUID brings to the North Short North. Surlygirl Saloon is just up the street and its upstairs space seems to have become the Short North Business Association's new digs. The upstairs space has steep steps, is this an attempt to keep the Short North from getting old and feeble?
The Emperor's Newest Clothes has a new sign and newer clothes. Clothing stores are popping up all along the Short North. Two fancy shoe stores now call the North Short North home. American Apparel could be the reason they have moved in, but it is also home to a few "adult fantasy" clothing shops. If you are really, really into shoes, the North Short North is a good start.
Replacing another vintage clothier, Paradise Garage seems to think (along with the Milk Bar) that bicycles and clothing goes together. In the hair salon business HairColor Experts is now Phia Salon. (see comments: it has not sold-out) HairColor Experts started putting on art shows in the past few months, I didn't see any art up this month. Need to look harder.

Galeria ZonaCoraZon has closed indefinitely after a March Madness Sale.( see comments) Their ethnographic art from Mexico and other countries hasn't been appreciated in Ohio going back into the 1980's with the Ohio Ethnographic Gallery.
Graig Carlisle is a local artist who has gone far with his head paintings. Now, he has changed to whimsical animals in a very detailed, tightly painted style. Sharon Weiss Gallery on Lincoln represents him with shows almost every April. These new paintings are small, but worth seeing up close for their detail.

This painting was hung on the fence next to Sharon Weiss Gallery on Lincoln Avenue.

April Openings: Go Green

Renaissance Faire people mixed with the crowd for the April Openings. The Fair is always during the May opening weekend at O.S.U.'s South Oval behind the Student Union construction site off High Street.

GO Green! was the theme of the early Earthday Gallery Hops. OSU was showing their Hybrid car (above), Smart Cars were parked around, and many galleries provided some sort of "green" display.
The groundbreaking of the Ibizi "green tower" was performed in a tent at Hubbard & High St. A model of the building and its surroundings (above) was on display in the rental office across the street. Lots of expensive has gone into promoting this new condo project. Down the street someone was protesting that he's been waiting 4 years for his condo on another company's project.
The 772 Gallery filled the second floor of the Body Shop (above) with some interesting works. The Soup Studio above East Village Nightclub put on their 4th monthly group show. C.C.A.D. put on an art show on 4th Ave. in the former Adressing Machine & Supply building (below) dealing with Space, Time & Change. This C.C.A.D. show consisted of installation pieces of a temporary nature done by 12 students. The old building looks even older and darker inside. To get to the second floor displays one had to walk up on a stage before walking down into the gallery. The Short North seemed to be trying to find some elbow room. 4th Avenue, where the post office is, never had art shows before, but that didn't stop another art show up the street from the C.C.A.D. show to open in a private home. Artists John Street and Malcom J. put on an Art House at 82 E. 4th Ave. To get there,gallery hoppers walked past a renovation of an old brick home (see below) by Urbanorder. They had the back bricks gone earlier, but the house is now put back together.