Columbus Ohio real estate

By wee folk I am not talking children.

It's beginning to look a lot like St. Patrick's Day in Central Ohio. Some communities more than others. 

The Dublin Ohio St. Patrick's Day celebrations are on Saturday March 14,2009.

If Irish is an attitude, Dublin does it well

Columbus - downtown 

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Central Ohio 

The traditional Columbus celebrations including the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the Irish Family Reunion are on St. Patrick's Day, Tuesday March 17, 2009, of course.

Worthington Wee Folk have their own door in Old Worthington. The Leprechaun Entrance shown here is right next to the door for the rest of us at  PK O'Ryans Irish Pub in Worthington 

The Leprechaun entrance is at the Irish Pub in Worthington year round.

Compliments of Maureen McCabe - Real Living HER Worthington - 614-388-8249    

An upcoming Worthington Halloween event is  "Family Night" in Worthington at the Orange Johnson House yard from 5:30 to 7:30 pm on Saturday October 25, 2008.

The City of Worthington website's Halloween Festivities page  promises:

• scarecrow making
• apple pressing
• apple snapping
• ghost stories

Wonder what "apple snapping" is?

Orange Johnson House - Map

About the Orange Johnson House - Worthington Ohio

The evening before Worthington Ghost Tour - October 24, 2008 an adult walking tour of Worthington with a spooky feel.

Adult entertainment in Worthington? A walking tour of "spooky" Old Worthington is scheduled for Friday,  October 24, 2008. The City of Worthington announcement on "Halloween Festivities" says "In partnership with Friends of the Worthington Public Library, we will present a downtown tour of historical fascination and ghostly tales, intended for adults."  

Don't worry about leaving out the kids... for the whole family ...a family night on Saturday the 25th in the yard at The Orange Johnson house.... details on the City of Worthington Website (on the Halloween Festivities page.)

Experience Columbus says the adult event is 7-10 PM Friday, October 24, 2008  - Worthington Ghost Tours 2008 

The Ghost Tour starts at the Old Rectory at 50 W New England Avenue - Map    (the corner of Oxford and New England.)

Worthington is a historic community...  there's bound to be ghosts...

Worthington Ohio - A Ghost Town

A New England Village in Central Ohio

Haunted House

Is Worthington Ohio a ghost town as in deserted?  Not on your life!  Worthington is a thriving Central Ohio community with a history.  I got a big kick out of the Worthington Libraries series of Ghost Stories last fall when I found them.  I found them after Halloween 2007.  I'd posted a couple on my Discover Columbus site last winter... Not scary but a bit grisley ... this is a part of Worthington history I did not know. This is my favorite Worthington Ghost Tour: The Tale of Dr. Morrow   From the Worthington Libraries starring the webmaster at Worthington Libraries, Stefan Langer, as Dr. Thomas Morrow.

Angry mobs of citizens, grave robbers, a missing body from an insane asylum?  I don't believe I had ever heard of the the story of Dr. Thomas Morrow and the Worthington Medical College's demise.  The Worthington Library has a series of videos of Worthington ghost stories that they produced in 2007.  I did not find them and amuse myself with this one until 2008.

Worthington 2008    "Worthington was founded in 1803 and has grown into a well established community while maintaining its New England atmosphere. Worthington offers a wide variety of homes, both in style and price range. The proximity to the 1-270 outer-belt with Interstate 71 and Route 315 makes transportation to downtown Columbus easy, allows fifteen to twenty minutes driving time at rush hours."

and ghosts too!  Who knew?

Maybe you have to get out and walk on High Street in Worthington or you don't really get the full effect.  I wanted an iced coffee after the gathering on the Worthington Green, yesterday,  September 11, so I walked down to the Mean Bean from the Green to get coffee. I had driven by earlier and was craving an iced coffee while I was standing there listening....

I had only been in Mean Bean Cafeine Lounge a couple of times since it was sold by the last owners of Scottie MacBean... I don't know that I even knew it's name included "Cafeine Lounge."

I still thought of it as Scottie MacBean.  Or Scottie MacBean... named for the owner's Scottie dogs...

Wait... it is Scottie MacBean again...  Excuse the bad photo it says " SCOTTIE'S IS BACK!   UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP" and then some more....  It says the new owners are Jenny and David.

Jenny waited on me.  She said she and her fiance bought it in early August and changed the name back to Scottie MacBean. 

Scottie MacBeans is at 660 High St in Worthington, Ohio 43085 - Map.  Scottie MacBean started out in Linworth and moved to Old Worthington in the early or mid 90s, I believe.

I wonder what happened... to Mean Bean Cafeine Lounge in Worthington.  I don't remember when Mean Bean bought it from the last owner of Scottie MacBean but it does not seem like it was less than a year ago.  Mean Bean has a couple of stores in the City of Delaware, another in Powell??? 

Speaking of coffee in Worthington, September 12, 2008 is the closing date for the Starbucks at 530 N. High St in Worthington at the corner of High and South St.  I wonder does that mean that September 12 is their last day?  Or that  they are closed on September 12?  Wonder what will go in there. It was an old Friendly's Restaurant.

I went to the noon gathering on the Worthington Green today, September 11, 2008.

There were local firemen and policemen there just as there have been other years.  There were members of Lima Company there again this year.

There were short speeches from Harvey Minton the Mayor of Worthington, the Worthington fire chief, the Worthington police chief (I think) and an officer from the Perry Township Police Department. 

A surviver of the attacks on the World Trade Center was there, a woman who was in the South Tower on September 11, 2001,  spoke briefly. 

Philip College, the rector of St. John's Episcopal Church (just east of the Worthington Green's south east quadrant), spoke.   Chuck Gillespie who used to be a meteorologist on Channel 6 - WSYX sang, he also talked about being in the newsroom on September 11, 2001.

The main speaker was Dale Vitale of the Ohio EPA, an attorney and a veteran who talked to the heroes and ordinary people gathered on the Worthington Green today.  Vitale's message or what I got from his speech anyway:

1. Don't forget September 11, 2001.

2. Don't compromise your values (don't become hate filled and seek revenge...)

3. Don't be afraid.

The new CVS is open in Old Worthington... well the new CVS is a couple of weeks old but I had a chance to stop there yesterday.  I am a big CVS shopper...but I go to one of two others, that I pass by just about every day.  I have driven by the new CVS on the corner of High St. and North St. a number of times  since it opened but never had a chance to  stop. 

The new CVS is a big spacious bright modern store inside, a bit more open and bright than my ususal CVSs... or just more lights???

Outside on the street I love the look, of the business being on the street with the parking behind.

I had followed all the articles in the This Week Worthington and the Worthington Suburban Newspaper about the Worthington Planning Commission and the Architectural Review Board's  oversight of the plans and progress of the construction of the new CVS. 

I am sorry that CVS made an offer  the Super Dooper Grocery Store on that corner could NOT refuse because I thought it was great to have a store that was in walking distance for those who live and work in Old Worthington and contiguous neighborhoods. 

The first office I worked in, when I first moved to Columbus was in the building just south of the grocery store... it was an IGA then.  We (Coldwell Banker) shared the parking lot with the IGA.  When the Super Dooper went in and was so successful we had to move because of parking problems.

The open space behind and south of the new CVS building surprised me.   More so when I got out and walked around trying to take photos with my cell phone... excuse the quality of these.  It seems to me as if the lot that Super Dooper was on grew.  Or was another building south of the Super Dooper demolished and I am just not seeing it.

There is space to lease in the building south of the CVS store. 

The new "old Worthington" looking buildings sure make the store fronts on the north-east corner and across High Street look dowdy... if store fronts can look dowdy. \

The image to the right is along High St. looking north toward the Dairy Queen.

The best ice cream in Worthington is Greater's.

Greater's knows location, location, location applies to ice cream as well as real estate. In Central Ohio there's a Graeter's in the "downtown" of many of the suburbs.. well of course in Westerville Graeter's is "The Uptown." The Bethel Road Graeter's produces the ice cream for the Columbus franchised stores and this is the franchises office too.  There are Graeter's Stores on Bethel Rd, in Bexley, Dublin, Easton, Gahanna, Grove City*, Pickerington, Powell, Upper Arlington, Westerville as well as Worthington.  

Back to Worthington... The Greater's location in Worthington is at  654 High Street in Old Worthington.  It's a walk to location from homes in Old Worthington, Kilbourne Village, Colonial Hills and other Worthigton neighborhoods.  It's a walk to location from Riverlea. On summer evenings people line up for ice cream at Graeter's in Worthington.

Graeter'stared in Cincinnati in 1870.  The company has been family owned and operated since 1870. According the their website "Currently the Graeter family operates 12 stores in Cincinnati neighborhoods and has 24 franchised stores located in Columbus, Dayton, Northern Kentucky, Lexington and Louisville."

Graeter's ice cream is still made in the French Pot process.  A French Pot freezer produces only two (or two and a half) gallons of ice cream at a time. The Columbus Greater's production facility on Bethel Road does tours.

Graeter's chocolate chips (big pieces of chocolate, chunks really) are very popular but my favorite flavor of Graeter's Ice Cream is "Coffee."  The Graeter's website says: "We infuse every 2 1/2 gallon batch of ice cream with a pot of exceptionally rich, 100% Arabica Bean coffee. We encourage any coffee fanatic to brew a fresh scoop each morning to start their day!"

* The Grove City Graeter's had a fire and is closed now according to the Graeter's website.

More about Worthington Ohio:

Worthington Ohio

Discover ice cream in Central Ohio ... It's not all about Graeter's but it is all about great ice cream:

Jan. 25, 2007 - Columbus Ice Cream 

Sep. 3, 2006 - Ice Cream Sunday - "Columbus, Ohio, is ice cream heaven"

Aug. 22, 2006 - Road Trip from Columbus

Jul. 20, 2006 - The Ice Cream Diet

Jul. 16, 2006 - Ice Cream Sunday National Ice Cream Day

Sep. 19, 2005 - The Winner of the Vote for the Best Ice Cream in Columbus is...

Sep. 14, 2005 - What is the Best Ice Cream in Columbus?

Worthington Ohio is a transplanted New England Village, settled by people from Connecticut.  Worthington is a Columbus suburb inside the 270 outerbelt. Worthington has a village green that is still used today, but cows do not graze there as they once did... (there are cows down the road but that's a different story... )  The village of Worthington was founded in 1803.

The Old Rectory is on the corner of New England Ave. and Oxford Street NOW. It's been moved.  The Old Rectory is owned by the Worthington Historical Society now. 

The Worthington Inn is still in use today as an Inn and an award winning restaurant. Soon the Worthington Inn will be residences, the Inn and an addition are going to be condominiums.

Worthington Memory  "an online scrapbook of Worthington's history." 

You can own a piece of history.  There are homes on the market in historic "Old Worthington" now.  Newer neighborhoods in Worthington have homes built in the 1940's to the 1980's for the most part.  There are newer homes in the Worthington school district that are in the City of Columbus.

A video of Worthington Ohio.