Driving Park - Recent Decades

Recent Decades

During the 1950s, the Interstate 670 and I-70 construction projects navigated through and demolished Columbus' predominantly African-American neighborhoods to the east. As a result African Americans moved further south. At one point the community was thriving with a theatre and many diverse commercial outlets along East Livingston Avenue and East Whittier Street.

There are also historic neighborhoods on the south side of East Livingston Avenue bordered by Frebis Avenue where many middle-class families reside. There is also a 19th-century mansion on the corner of East Livingston and Linwood avenues, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The area has many beautiful small middle-class homes built during the 1940s and more than half have been kept up by the residents. Larger, older houses called "foursquares" (slang for American Foursquare) built during the 1900s or 1930s still remain either as a whole or partitioned as a double. Similar to other areas of Columbus, such as Victorian Village and the Short North, this area has many beautiful 19th-century homes that were owned by many notable residents. In fact, the style of the homes vary to include echoes of German Village to the west part of the neighborhood, Olde Towne East to the north, and Bexley to the east.