COLUMBUS, Ohio — In just a matter of a few years, new luxury apartment complexes and new-build homes have popped up in Franklinton with more on the way. For some, the change is a welcomed sight to central Ohio’s oldest community.
“A long time ago, I told a lot of the people over here, ‘listen, this is Franklinton.’ I say ‘ya’ll it’s going to change,’” said Pauline Edwards. “When all this improvement started, it didn’t shock me because I knew it was coming, it was just a matter of time.”
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At age 85, Pauline Edwards has spent almost 40 years living in the same house on the north side of West Broad Street in Franklinton. She serves on the Franklinton Area Commission and has for many years.
“When I first came down here, it was a lot of older people. They, of course, passed away and some of them left the homes to their children. Later on, their children didn’t want to keep it and moved on,” Edwards said.
Edwards has watched Franklinton go through the good and the bad over the years. She said this new push for development is a good sign to revitalize the community, but also recognizes that it could be pushing people out of the neighborhood.
“I am so happy and I thank God that they’re going to do something to Franklinton,” she said. “I know that things can’t stay the same always. Some of the people I’ve talked to over here, I say ‘you’ve got to remember where there’s change, it’s not change-free.’”
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Jim Sweeney is one of the changemakers in Franklinton. He moved to the neighborhood in 2002 to run the Franklinton Development Association. He’s since stepped away from the FDA, but recently opened up a small tavern on Walnut Street in one of the neighborhood's old homes.
“Sweeney’s Walnut Street Tavern was an effort to save the old house and bring new life to this little forgotten corner of the neighborhood,” said Sweeney. “I’ve saved the old house from the development pressure pushing on us right now and we’re going to do it all up and down this block.”
The change is also a welcomed sight to him, but he said it needs to be done in a way that includes everyone, including the people already living in the neighborhood.
“People don’t like change in general, but it has to be accommodated, it has to be absorbed, it has to be shaped and crafted into the best possible change you can make it,” he said. “I think through the addition of a lot of affordable housing and creative economic development projects, like the Idea Foundry and Walnut Street, we’ve been able to get a really good start on crafting the change that’s occurring to make it the most humane and good change we can have.”
Not all of the development is affordable compared to the median income of the neighborhood. Billboards along West Broad Street advertise dozens of new-build homes being built north of West Broad. One of the homes is on Wisconsin Avenue and is listed at $374,900. The new-build next to it is on the market at $494,900.
"The neighborhood at its peak had about 30,000 people living here. The last census I think the population was 9,000, so there’s plenty of room for more people," said Sweeney.
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