FRANKLIN COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY OHIO (PART 5)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
  OF OHIO

   An Encyclopedia of the State
     By HENRY HOWE  LL. D.
    Published by the State of Ohio
        C.J. Krehbiel & Co., Printers and Binders
   Cincinnati, Ohio
       copyright 1888 by Henry Howe
      1904

COLUMBUS INSTITUTIONS

    Columbus in a marked degree represents the commercial "push" of the progressive West and 
the culture and refinement of the East.  Its public schools are second to none;  indeed,  it
is a school city.  The census of 1887 gave 23,440 children within the school age of six to 
twenty-one;  11,000 of these are registered in the public schools,  for which twenty-two 
spacious and modern-equipped buildings,  representing $1,260,550 in value, are provided.  The
Roman Catholics,  who are numerous,  aggressive,  influential,  and indeed liberal and 
public-spirited,  support a number of parochial schools,  colleges,  and seminaries,  in which 
they educate their own children.  Among their institutions is the "Academy of St. Mary’s of the 
Springs" for the education of young ladies.  It was incorporated in 1868,  and is in the midst
of pleasant surroundings,  about two miles east of the city limits;  it is under the direction
of the Dominican Sisters.

     St. Joseph’s Cathedral,  on Broad street,  in its vastness and splendor reflects great 
credit upon the enterprise and devotion of the Catholic population.  In a vault beneath rests
the remains of its founder,  Bishop Rosecrans.

    The State University,  two and one-half miles north of the State-house,  with its handsome
grounds of 325 acres and commodious buildings,  and excellent equipment and efficient faculty,  
affords the best opportunity for higher academic and scientific education.  The Lutherans 
maintain a flourishing college- CAPITAL UNIVERSITY- with theological annex.  Two medical 
colleges-the STARLING and the COLUMBUS-mould medical proficients,  and each year send at large 
some fifty each of the devotees of Esculapius.  In connection with these institutions are two 
well-conducted hospitals.  Then there is the usual quota of commercial colleges, kindergartens,
private schools, etc.

    Literature and the arts are neither primitive nor obscure in the capital city.  The good
citizens slake their insatiable intellectual thirst at the Pierian founts of the State Library
with 52,000 volumes,  or the City and School Library with 22,000,  and the Law Library with 
10,000.  The sort of mental pabulum that the Columbusters delight to devour should arouse the 
admiration and envy of brain-crammed Boston.  The interesting and instructive reports of the 
city librarian reveal that of the books drawn and read,  over sixty percent are biography, 
science and history,  while only thirty-four percent are novels and fiction.  This is the best 
intellectual average reported by any miscellaneous circulating library in the country.  In 
Boston,  where the cranial gray matter is claimed to be at the highest state of cultivation,
the issue of the library shows seventy-four percent of fiction.

    Columbus is afflicted with the great American contagion and nuisance-the base-ball nine;  
but the "muses nine" circulate freely in the "best society".  Art and music flourish in no 
mediocre manner.  The work accomplished in the art department of the public schools in two 
late annual national exhibits was accorded a rank second only to the incomparable modern 
Athens.  The Art School,  with its ten years of age and experience and success,  and its 200 
pupils,  is one of the best in the west.  Professional art is not enormously profitable as yet,
but a goodly number of painters haunt the halls of the public buildings,  and at times frighten
or delight the passer-by with the display in the shop windows of their glowing colors upon the
canvas backs.  Music,  too,  indulges copiously in its "voluptuous swells,"  and has its clubs
and societies and concerts to make the welkin ring,  and soothe with its charm the unstrung
nerves of the busy burgesses.

    As cities go,  Columbus,  though owing to the character of its population,  which is 
one-third foreign,  can hardly be set down as Puritanic,  is nevertheless peaceful and
religious.  It numbers some fifty churches having buildings of their own,  embracing a total 
membership of 35,000,  including Catholics,  who reckon by families.  The aggregate property 
owned by these church organizations reaches easily a value 0f $2,000,000.  To offset the 
religious influences,  "the world, the flesh and the devil" offer some 600 saloons and places 
where internal fires and eternal damnation are dispensed.

    In the matter of public charity the city makes a noble showing.  It has a numerous category
of benevolent associations,  missions,  homes and asylums.  In no city is this kind of work 
better organized,  better equipped or executed.

    Washington City alone takes precedence of Columbus in  the size and number of public 
institutions,  all of which present architecturally attractive buildings that make the State 
capital the mecca of thousands of sight-seeing visitors.  The State Asylums for the Deaf and 
Dumb,  the Feeble-Minded,  the Blind,  and the Insane  are all vast edifices,  palatial in 
appearance,  and models of the best forms of construction for the purposes to which they are 
devoted.

    The INSANE ASYLUM,  the largest in the world,  cost $2,000,000 and accommodates 1,300 
patients.  The ASYLUM FOR FEEBLE-MINDED YOUTH employs 150 persons,  cares for 800 inmates,  
at an annual cost to the State of $125,000.  The BLIND ASYLUM was erected at a cost of 
$600,000,  and shelters some 300 pupils,  who require the care of about 70 attendants.  It 
costs $50,000 a year to maintain this institution.  The DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM cost $800,000,  
cares for 500 pupils,  and expends $80,000 a year.  The Ohio Penitentiary,  built by convict 
labor,  at a cost of $800,000,  entertains about 1,400 persons,  at an annual expense of 
$250,000.  Most of these buildings have picturesque grounds,  that add beauty and fresh air
to the localities in which they are situated.

    In addition to the State institutions,  Columbus is embellished by a number of buildings 
pertaining to the national,  county,  and municipal government.  The GOVERNMENT BUILDING,  
opposite the State Capital,  recently erected at a cost of $500,000,  contains the Post-Office,  
United States Court-Room and Pension Office.  The United States War Department maintains within 
the city limits a military post and recruiting station.  It is nothing short of an attractive 
park of eighty acres,  artistically laid out,  and adorned with shrubbery,  shade trees,  
grass-lawns,  walks,  miniature lake,  and ample parade-grounds,  about which are grouped the
barracks,  arsenal,  hospital,  grand-house,  and officers quarters.

    The "BARRACKS" as the place is called,  is the favorite resort of the citizens,  who,  of
evenings,  drive or walk thither to listen to the military music and witness the evolutions of
the soldiers,  who are mostly beardless recruits in their teens and newly donned trappings.

    The other "grateful breathing spots"  of the city are the FRANKLIN PARK of ninety acres,
the GOODALE of forty-four,  and the CITY of twenty-three,  all well cared for and much enjoyed
by the nature-loving people.  The COUNTY COURT-HOUSE,  completed in 1887,  at a cost of 
$400,000,  is one of the most magnificent buildings of its kind in any state.  In architecture,
elegance of finish,  and spaciousness,  in convenience and perfection for the admission of light 
and ventilation it would be difficult to find its superior.  It is justly the pride of the city 
and county.  It was dedicated July 13, 1887,  the dedicatory address being by Hon. Henry C. 
Noble, President of the court-house commission.  The CITY-HALL BUILDING,  in which the municipal
offices are quartered,  is a massive,  striking structure,  to say the least.  The CITY-JAIL, 
a lately built and a large,  Bastile-appearing structure,  with all the modern conveniences,  
is highly spoken of by those who have stopped there.  The rooms are airy,  the bill-of-fare,  
if not containing all the delicacies of the season,  is wholesome and inexpensive to the guests. 
The hotel is complete;  for though there are no liquors allowed on the premises,  there are 
excellent "bar attachments".  The UNION DEPOT is one of the largest and best arranged in the
West,  and 100 passenger trains come and go each day.  The railroads,  of course,  run their
tracks where they please- across streets and thoroughfares,  without regard to the comfort or
cost to the city;  but,  as railroads go,  they are considerate,  and when they run over a 
street-car,  a cab,  or a citizen  they usually express regret.  The new BOARD of TRADE 
BUILDING,  now in process of erection,  will be one of the architectural features of the city,
and one of the chief adornments of the Capitol Square.  It is built by the leading organization
of the city-the Board of Trade,  organized a few years ago,  and comprising in its membership 
over 500 of its leading business-men of the city.  It is the avowed mission of the Board of 
Trade to stimulate the motive and suggest the means for the development and improvement of 
Columbus;  and much of the progress and growth made by the city in the past few years is due
to the weight and wisdom of this organization.  This Board of Trade does not deal in wheat and
corn that never grew,  nor in stocks that are floated in water.

    Finally,  Columbus is not merely wealthy and wise,  as we have indicated,  but she is 
healthy.  Her climate is what the geographers call "salubrious."  She is admirably located for 
good drainage,  as the land slopes on the east and on the west to steams of water,  thus giving 
her sewage very easy outlet.  The city is clean;  good water is supplied by a reservoir at the 
junction of the Scioto and the Whetstone.  The death rate is phenomenally low,  being but 10 
53-100 to the 1,000;  twice this ratio--20 to the 1,000--is not regarded as excessive in our 
cities.  These are the facts,  figures,  and features that pertain to the mind,  body,  and 
estate of the good capital of Ohio--an honor to the State and the pride of her people.