Franklinton

Project Home Bottoms up

Apr 05, 2009

Project Home
Bottoms up
by John Ross
blog I e-mail




Habitat for Humanity built this house at 49 Schultz Ave. as part of its efforts to revitalize Franklinton.

If you stand atop the Broad Street Bridge, looking west across the river, you'll see the land dip slightly, almost gently, for several miles before climbing again near the western curve of I-70.

It's like a giant cup of earth, this area between Downtown to the east and the Hilltop to the west, and its history has been similar to one - periodically filled, emptied and destroyed by overflow from the Scioto River.

Massive flooding happened in 1798, only a year after the town was settled, and again in 1898 and 1959, when intersections became enormous lakes sometimes 10 feet deep and thousands were left homeless.

But it was from March 23-27, 1913, when sheets of rain ransacked the state, that an image of Franklinton underwater was etched into the city's consciousness.

"That was the worst one," said Carol Stewart, president of the Franklinton Historical Society. "Just the circumstances with the weather, it was a devastating flood. Many of the people did not come back. Many of them did return, but many of them did not."

Faded photos show two-story houses once anchored to quiet city streets floating through town, upside-down. A story by the Ohio Historical Society noted that 13 people were rescued from a single tree. Reports estimate that 20,000 were left homeless and nearly 100 perished.

But nearly 94 years since Ohio's worst natural disaster, the city's oldest section is seeing signs of life.

The Franklinton Floodwall, a seven-and-a-quarter-mile protective barricade designed by the Army
Corps of Engineers, was completed three years ago. Federal restrictions on developing structures on a floodplain, which made building and rehabilitation nearly impossible from 1983 to 2004, have been lifted.

And groups across the city are slowly coming to rescue a neighborhood that has, over the years, largely been neglected.

"There are so many projects right now and so many funding sources that it's hard to differentiate between them," said Stewart, who thinks 2007 will be a banner year for the neighborhood. "We've got a lot of exciting things happening."

Greater Columbus Habitat for Humanity has erected several new houses in the region, including several just north of West Broad Street, and the organization soon will build or rehab several others.

"There are a lot of streets in the area that need a lot of work," Habitat construction director Erik Lambert said. "The idea would be to concentrate on a few small areas and see things branch out from there."

The network of development interest also includes the Franklinton Development Association, a grassroots group founded in 1993, which plans to build or rehab five structures this year.

In addition to being named one of Columbus' seven Neighborhood Investment Districts, which would give tax abatements to builders, Franklinton has become the focus of Home Again, the city's five-prong program aimed at turning dilapidated houses and abandoned buildings into new homes.

Already the city has earmarked $25 million over six years to acquire delinquent properties, repair older buildings and construct new homes.

"There are a lot of different folks involved," said Greg Davies, the city's assistant director of development. "We're all saying, 'You have some dollars, we have some dollars. Let's partner up.'"


For more on Franklinton redevelopment, click to John Ross' blog "The Riot Act"

Franklinton History
1797: Land surveyor Lucas Sullivant lays out a city named after Benjamin Franklin amid a grove of walnut trees

1798:The Scioto River floods and destroys 220 plots diagrammed by Sullivant

1898: Another flood transforms the neighborhood into a giant lake as deep as 10 feet in places

1803: 59 ballots are counted from Franklin Township in the first state election

1816: To connect Franklinton to a budding Columbus, a bridge is built a the site of the modern-day Broad Street Bridge

1824: The county seat is moved to Columbus

1872: Franklinton is annexed to Columbus

1913: In one of the state's worst natural disasters, the Scioto River floods. Ninety-three people are killed, and 20,000 are left homeless

1959: The Scioto River breaks through a levee and again floods Franklinton, leaving 10,000 homeless

1982: Congress agrees to fund the Franklinton Floodwall, to be built with state and federal dollars

2004: In March, the floodwall is officially completed. This safety measure erases building restrictions that hindered development.


Source: Columbus Dispatch research
March 22nd, 2007
Copyright ?¿½ 2007 Columbus Alive, Inc. All rights reserved