Endangered No. 2 – Original Port Columbus Terminal

2015 Fourteen Most Endangered Buildings: -> 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
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2. Original Port Columbus Terminal – 4920 E. Fifth Avenue Columbus, OH 43219
The Original Port Columbus Airport Control Tower was built in 1920 by Allied Architects Association, a consortium of architects best known for their work to create a classical civic center after the 1913 flood. The octagonal control tower and two-story building marked the transfer point of New York passengers by railroad to the Transcontinental Air Transport Ford Tri-Motors to Waynoka, Oklahoma where they boarded another overnight train in New Mexico for a TAT flight to Los Angeles. The entire coast-to-coast trip took only 48 hours, and the inauguration of air service in Columbus was marked on July 8, 1929, with the appearance of noted aviators Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and Henry Ford. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker arrived the next day. The survival of such an early air facility is extraordinarily rare. The building is owned by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority and is unused.

The Columbus Foundation has approved a $50,000 grant to help replace the leaky roof of the original Port Columbus terminal — if a preservation group named Preserving Original Columbus Airport Terminal, led by George O’Donnel and Mike Peppe, can match the amount. According to a 1.6.15 Columbus Dispatch story, if the preservation group hoping to restore the vacant building gets the $100,000, the Columbus Regional Airport Authority might help pay to remove mold inside.

UPDATE 1.08.16 Mold has been re-mediated from the building and there is a temporary membrane sealing the roof. The preservation group, Preserving Original Columbus Airport Terminal, is actively seeking a new creative and productive use for this historic and architecturally significant building, after Heartland Bank withdrew its plans to purchase the building and move its headquarters there.