Columbus OH II (10/3-4/2018)

Wednesday, October 3, 2018
A full day in Columbus.

Shrum Mound, one of the last cone-shaped mounds left in Columbus,
built by people of the ancient Adena culture (800 BCE-100 CE) (KSS)

A path circles up to the top of the 20' high mound

View west from the mound, of an unidentified water feature

Drove downtown in time for the first tour of the day at the Ohio Statehouse (1839-1861, by multiple architects and composite plans, in Greek Revival style with a cupola).

Inside the cupola is a dome over the rotunda, with stained glass at the
top incorporating the original state seal, which had a canal boat
at the bottom (the seal is too small and bleached out in the photo) (KSS)

The Statehouse was restored to be as close
as possible to its 1861 incarnation. meaning
there is only one painting in the rotunda;
Perry's Victory (1857, by William Powell) (KSS)

Lincoln-Vicksburg Monument (1865-1871,
by Thomas Dow Jones) with the three Union
generals being from Ohio: Ulysses S Grant,
James B McPherson, and William T Sherman

Thomas Jones used a bust of Lincoln that he created earlier when Lincoln actually sat for the sculptor.

Gallery view of the House Chamber, which seats
99 state representatives; the public is not allowed
on the House floor unless accompanied by a
representative, like these students are

View of the rotunda flooring made from
different marbles: black and green from Vermont,
white from Italy, and salmon stones from Portugal

The Senate Chamber has a less fancy ceiling after
complaints of the money spent on the House Chamber

A new atrium connects the statehouse to the former
Supreme Court building over a space once called
"Pigeon Run" due to the need to dodge pigeon droppings;
now a memorial pigeon sits in the pediment over the
door to what is now the Senate Building (1901)

The ceiling in the Senate Building has an updated state seal

The woodwork in the statehouse is pine or poplar
that is painted to look like oak

We circled Capitol Square to see some of the monuments.

Sundial (1941, by the Daughters of Union
Veterans of the Civil War) to remember
veterans of all wars (before WWII)

Old, Old Post Office (1884-1887, by John T Harris in
Romanesque Revival/High Victorian Gothic style)

Senate Building/former Judiciary Annex (1899-1901,
by Samuel Hannaford and Sons)

Peace Monument (1923, by Bruce Wilder Saville)
honors those who served in the Civil War

These Are My Jewels (1893, by Levi Tucker Scofield)
was created to honor political and military leaders
from Ohio who contributed the most to the nation

The title of the monument is based on the story of the Roman woman, Cornelius (mother of Gaius and Tiberius), who when friends were boasting about their expensive garments and jewelry, left the room and returned with her sons saying, "These are my jewels." The statue of Cornelius represents the state of Ohio. The monument was first displayed at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and had six figures: Generals Ulysses S Grant, William T Sherman, James A Garfield and Phillip Sheridan, as well as Treasury Secretary Salmon P Chase and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. When the monument came to Columbus, Governor William McKinley successfully led the effort to add General Rutherford B Hayes.

Ohio World War Memorial (1930, by
Arthur Ivone) with a "doughboy" soldier

William McKinley Monument (1906, by Homer A MacNeil), flanked by
Prosperity guiding a young boy in the use of the tools of industry, and
Peace confiding in a young girl that her goal is the greatness of the nation

Spirit of '98 (1898-1902, by Frank L Jirouch), honors
the Ohio veterans of the Spanish-American War,
Philippine Insurrection, and the China Relief Expedition

Christopher Columbus Discovery Monument
(1892, a hollow metal sculpture by the W H Mullins Co,
based on the design of Augustus St Gaudens)

Ohio Holocaust and Liberators Monument
(2013-2014, by Daniel Libeskind)

We walked down towards the Scioto Mile/Greenway.

Gavel Fountain (2008, by Andrew Scott),
displays the largest gavel in the world next to the
Ohio State Supreme Court (1930-1933, by Harry Hake
in Art Deco style as the Ohio Departments Building)

Ripple effect in the fountain

Promenade of Scioto Mile that runs along the east side of the river
from Bicentennial Plaza in the south to North Bank Park in the north

Huntington Plaza fish fountain (KSS)

View south along Scioto Mile (KSS)

On the other side of the Ohio State Supreme Court is another
fountain, with words that should apply to the judicial system (KSS)

LeVeque Tower (1924-1927, by C Howard Crane
in Art Moderne style as the American Insurance Union
Citadel) was the tallest building in Columbus until 1974

Entrance to the LeVeque Tower

Quest (2003, by Stephen Canneto) (KSS)

Back at the statehouse, we retrieved our car and drove to the German Village.

Had lunch at Valter's at the Männerchor

Founded in 1848, the Columbus Männerchor is the oldest and largest continuously operating German singing society in North America. The building they vacated in 2010 is next door to Valter's, who complemented the Männerchor tradition by serving German food. Valter, whom we met, is actually from Albania.
We walked over to Schiller Park.

Statue (1891, by Maximilian von Widnmann)
of Friedrich von Schiller, German poet

Site of the first Ohio State home football game in 1890 was in
Recreation Park on E Whittier Street at Jaeger Street 

German Village, a neighborhood in Columbus, was settled by German immigrants beginning in the early 19C, and by 1865 one third the population of the city was German.

German Village is known for brick houses with wrought-iron fences

Next we drove to the Ohio State University campus, to visit the Wexner Center for the Arts.

The exhibition was by Mickalene Thomas, an artist residency recipient

Interior of Wexner Center (2002-2005, by
Peter Eisenman and Richard Trott
in deconstructivist style) (KSS)

Wexner Center brick turrets reference the
armory building that occupied the site until 1958

Is this the glacial erratic stone in front of Orton Hall?

With the fencing, it is difficult to see that Orton Hall is built in
layers of rock that were mined in Ohio, which represent geological
strata from the Ordovician to more recent times

Later we met Steven and Martha H (fellow Miami U alumni) at Rockmill Tavern for dinner.

Thursday, October 4, 2018
After checking out of the Hampton Inn & Suites, we drove back to Ohio State University to look again for the glacial erratic in front of Orton Hall. It has to be that rock lying on its side behind a construction fence.
Our last stop was the Ohio History Museum.

Ohio History Museum Building (1970, by W Byron Ireland & Associates
in Brutalist style), much maligned, but architecturally very significant

Oh, dear! A Victorian bird collection (KSS)

Tire-making machine (c 1920)

We grabbed a quick lunch and headed home.