**3.20.17 Update: Demolition of the corner building at 790 E. Long St. is underway.
Do you see what we see? Pictured is the c1927 Adelphi Building, located at 818 E. Long Street, which later became the Williams & McNabb Mortuary. Take a close look at the historic image and then study the current image to reveal the intact decorative limestone facade behind the mansard roof that was added later with a modern addition. The building is located in the historic King Lincoln Bronzeville District diagonally across from the Lincoln Theatre.
The Adelphi Building was home to the Adelphi Loan and Savings Company, a bank created by and for blacks in a time this was necessitated by discrimination, and the Colored Ohio National Guard headquarters. Carl Eugene Barnett, an African American who received a B.S. in Architectural Engineering from OSU in 1918, developed the plans and specifications for the building and supervised its construction.
The Adelphi Loan and Savings Company organized with $25,000 in capital stock – a substantial start-up amount at the time raised by African American businessmen and leaders. Prior to the Adelphi’s opening, it would have been common for undertakers and funeral homes or pawn shops (often called poor men’s banks) to fill the lender role. The building is an important visual reminder in the history of Columbus and in understanding how it was, in its own right, a momentous civil rights step.
By the 1920s, Long Street was the black commercial, social and entertainment center of Columbus with many black-owned and operated businesses including barbershops, restaurants, medical offices, grocers, theaters and hotels. The area suffered from the 1960s on following construction of Interstate 71, which cut the neighborhood off from downtown. Many historic buildings were demolished on Long Street while others, like the Adelphi, are vacant and deteriorating.
Columbus Next Generation Development Corp., the city’s non-profit development arm, acquired the Adelphi and the other remaining building on this block, a brick Italianate also with multiple later additions at 790 E. Long Street (corner of Garfield & Long), with plans to prepare the site for future development by razing these two buildings. While redevelopment of this important block is critical to the future of the neighborhood, we believe the buildings to be architecturally and historically significant and we encourage Columbus Next Generation to consider their potential re-use while preserving a bit more of our city’s diminished African American history.
Imagine this site with a mix of old and new, working together to restore density and walkability in the neighborhood, honoring the past with an eye to a prosperous and sustainable future. Isn’t that the successful formula Columbus has achieved in the Short North and other historic neighborhoods?
Do you see what we see?
8 Comments
Trent Clark – March 1, 2017
My Mother was serviced by the Williams & McNabb Funeral Mortuary in 1966. My Maternal GrandFather was serviced by the Williams & McNabb Funeral Mortuary in 1969 and my maternal GrandMother was serviced by the McNabb Funeral Mortuary in 1990. Williams & McNabb and later McNabb Funeral Mortuary, on Long Street, was a very strong Funeral Business in the 50’s thru the early 90’s.
Becky West – March 1, 2017
Your family has a long history with McNabb! Thank you for sharing, Trent. We are very interested in this building.
Malcolm Cochran – March 1, 2017
Thank you for calling attention to the historical importance of these buildings, the Adelphi in particular. While preservation and adaptive reuse may initially appear to be more costly and less efficient than wiping the slate clean and building new, think about what would be lost if these are demolished. By integrating them into a new plan, Next Generation has the opportunity to piggyback on the success of the renovation of the Lincoln Theater thereby simultaneously adding to the revitalization of the King Lincoln District and bringing its rich history to light.
Please—let this not become a site where a historical marker is all that remains. We can and should expect a more enlightened approach from the city’s non-profit development arm.
Becky West – March 2, 2017
Hi Malcolm – we are in agreement! Thank you very much for your thoughtful comment.
Andrea Studebaker – March 2, 2017
Is there anything we as individuals can do to prevent the demolition? Would letters to Columbus NExt Gen help?
Becky West – March 2, 2017
Hi Andrea – we recommend contacting members of City Council to express your concerns/thoughts/ideas regarding the fate of these buildings. Thank you for advocating!
Patricia – November 11, 2019
Your administration totally eradicated The History of (What the Black American built and did..)…when they had to find themselves places when Long Street Redevelopement… cared not at all! …Your City’s building and development has left out totally…important black life!!. the real life …of who the black man was and why ….he had to endeavor the development of the area he lived in! Thank you for your efforts .. They Pale! Tremendously!!
James Flower – August 29, 2020
I’m sorry to see on Youtube that the building was demolished. I’m curious to know the details of how, when, and why Adelphi Savings and Loan went out of business. The article implies that the freeway was the cause, as it did in the area’s business in general. Is this the case?
Thanks- jwf