U.S. 40 takes a jog from E. Main Street and becomes E. Broad Street in Columbus. This view looks west toward the heart of downtown. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

I’m trying really hard to maintain an objective view of Columbus, so bear with me.

As you might already know, I grew up in Columbus. When I was a kid, my parents took us to downtown Columbus to see the “real Santa Claus” at the Christmas Parade and at Lazarus Department Store. I can remember when the LeVeque Tower was pretty much the only skyscraper the city had.

I remember when High Street had Woolworth and Kresge stores long before the City Center mall, which came and went in a quick 20 years. So I have a perspective that originates from about the late 1960s.

I also remember seeing adults dressed in business attire who seemed so much older than me, hurrying to cross High or Broad streets. They were on their way to and from what I imagined were their glamorous offices.

Later in life, I spent nearly 25 years working in an office for a very good company in downtown Columbus, and though it had its perks, it was certainly not the glamorous place I had imagined when I was much younger.

Columbus has changed in many ways since I was a youngster, of course, and it’s changed even in the five years since I retired. Now I see people skating or scooting to work, wearing what looks like workout wear, people walking their dogs after their 10-minute walk from office to downtown condo, and people on the streets of downtown Columbus who appear to me like college kids on a field day.

I have to remember that I’m much older than they are now, and they are in their 30s and 40s, wearing 21st century business attire. Hmmpf!

So this week’s Dusty Tires on the Road is all about the surprises that Columbus provides when seen on a brief trip through its center east to west on U.S. 40.

There are older structures, dilapidated buildings and weedy lots in places, of course. And many of the locations that have always been familiar to me, like the Ohio Statehouse, COSI and the Ohio Theatre, are comfortingly still familiar. But there’s also a burst of exciting new development in Franklinton of all places.

So come with me on this latest adventure into and through Columbus.

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Some historic facts about the National Road and Columbus:

• The first European settlement in the area was Franklinton, founded in 1797.

• Columbus was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers and became the state capital in 1816.

• The National Road reached Columbus in 1833, and Columbus was officially chartered as a city in 1834. About the same time, the city was connected to the Ohio and Erie Canal.

• The Columbus and Xenia Railroad was the first railroad to reach Columbus, in 1850.

• The Ohio Statehouse structure was completed in 1857 after 18 years of construction.

• More than 2,000 Confederate prisoners of war are buried at Camp Chase cemetery in west Columbus. More than 9,000 POWs were imprisoned there during the Civil War.

• Franklin Park Conservatory was built in 1895 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

• Today, Columbus is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., and the third most populous state capital city.

Ken Drenten is creator and editor of Dusty-Tires.com, a travel blog for out-of-the-ordinary places in Ohio.

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