Uptown Westerville Historic District

Another important civic building was added to South State Street in 1932. In 1927, Westerville’s Masonic lodge (Blendon Lodge 339) conducted a drive to raise $80,000 to erect a new Temple, making it the only fraternal organization in Westerville to build a dedicated home. With a membership numbering over 360 in 1928, the Masons had outgrown their former lodge room on the third floor of the Robinson Block. The organization purchased a lot from the Anti-Saloon League of America for $12,000 and began construction of its grand Neoclassical Revival temple in 1930, which it still occupies today. – National Register nomination

Further up the block, M. S. Weyant tore down the frame ruins of Corbin’s second saloon in 1881 in order to build his new business block (resource 12). Completed in 1883, this three-story building offered space for two retail businesses on the ground floor, as well as offices on the second floor and the town’s first opera house on the third floor. After a fatal fire during a production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1886, the third floor became home to the local Knights of Pythias fraternal organization founded in 1888. In 1892, one of the storefronts became the home of the University Bookstore, continuing in that use until 1917, and providing an example of the college’s relationship with the business district. – National Register nomination

… The first of these was the new Westerville High School, completed in 1923. Up until this time, Westerville was able to function with its one school, the Vine Street school (1895, NR), serving all grades. In 1921, when the high school curriculum was temporarily removed from accreditation because of instructional deficiencies and a high pupil-teacher ratio, a volunteer group spearheaded an effort to fund a new high school building. This marked Westerville’s first new school in nearly 20 years. – National Register nomination

Thomas Holmes built the magnificent Hotel Holmes in 1889-1890 (resource 31), hiring the well-known Columbus architectural firm of Yost and Packard to design this new addition to State Street. Built as a full-service 30-room hotel, complete with barber shop, dining room, kitchen, and separate livery stable in the rear, this building marked a change from the smaller hotel-tavern type buildings that had existed in Westerville in the past. Its construction signaled that Westerville was a community that could provide sophisticated accommodations for visitors to its college and its businesses. Westerville’s newly-formed Board of Trade celebrated the new hotel with a banquet held at its opening in April of 1890. – National Register nomination