Residents worried about OSU Wexner's planned demolition of historic house for rehab center

Near East Side leaders and residents are pushing to preserve a historic house on property where Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center plans to build an adult inpatient rehabilitation center.

The Henderson House, which sits on a hill at 1544 Atcheson St., was built on property once owned by Rutherford B. Hayes, the former president and Ohio governor. The century-old house was later owned by a prominent and affluent Black lawyer, Leonard Henderson, who had a Downtown law practice at Rich and South High streets, according to Rita Fuller-Yates, a local historian.

Wexner Medical Center officials plan to demolish the house to make way for a planned three-story, 86,000 square-foot center just west of Taylor Avenue, adjacent to the medical center's Outpatient Care East and north of Ohio State East hospital.

But many local residents want the house to stay, not torn down and replaced with a historic marker.

"We definitely should try to preserve it and repurpose it for an administrative use," Fuller-Yates said. "There's an opportunity to use it as an education institution. This is a huge opportunity to to be creative."

Malcolm Cochran, a former Ohio State art professor and Columbus Landmarks member for 30 years, said the Henderson House needs to be part of the rehab center's site plan.

"The mantra should be incorporate — not obliterate," Cochran said.

According to the Franklin County auditor's office, the two-story, 2,735-square-foot house was built in 1920.

Henderson, the attorney, hosted visiting Black celebrities such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and boxer Joe Louis when segregation remained in Columbus, Fuller-Yates said.

In the 1990s, the house became a Black-owned bed and breakfast. Today it sits boarded up, vacant for years.

Wexner Medical Center wants to break ground later this year for the rehab center with a goal of opening in 2025. The new center would have 80 beds and replace the 60-bed Dodd Rehabilitation Hospital.

The medical center has applied to the city for zoning changes and has filed a site plan. A committee of the Near East Area Commission will take that up on Feb. 16.

During a community meeting Monday night at Trinity Baptist Church on the Near East Side, some residents asked medical center officials to do an engineering assessment of the house. Amanda Lucas, the medical center's executive director of clinical operations for the Ohio State Neurological Institute and of Ohio State Harding Hospital, said that assessment is being done.

The state bought the property for $1 in January from Blueprint Community Development LLC, affiliated with Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT), a consortium of OSU, the city of Columbus and the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority to revitalize the area around Ohio State Hospital East. PACT bought the property in 2017 for $800,000.

Trudy Bartley, who leads the PACT board and is also an Ohio State associate vice president for local and community relations, said the home's owner, LeNora Henderson-Johnson, who ran the bed and breakfast, approached PACT about buying the house.

During Monday's meeting, some residents said they weren't happy that PACT, an organization that is supposed to be involved in revitalizing the area, didn't maintain the house after it bought it.

"You've had it and let it rot since 2017," said Kate Curry-Da-Souza, who leads the Near East Area Commission and is a network director for United Way of Central Ohio. "I surmise you'll say it's too broken down. You haven't done anything to preserve it."

Rebecca Kemper, Columbus Landmarks CEO, said she just recently learned about the medical center's plans to demolish the house and was concerned about the public not knowing about this sooner. The plans for the rehab center were unveiled in August.

"We have a membership that is very much concerned about making sure the Henderson House stays intact for the Near East Side," Kemper said.

Dr. Chyke Doubeni, the Wexner Medical Center's chief health equity officer, said OSU officials want to learn more about the house's history and continue to listen.

"We're not in the business of demolishing a historic property," Doubeni said.

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Residents want to preserve Near East Side house OSU wants to tear down