The following history of this old house is from the
Columbus Club website:
(S)ome seventy-five or more men met on a cold evening in December 1886 in a room on the first floor of City Hall to discuss the founding of The Columbus Club. These men of considerable business or professional standing in the community believed that Columbus could and would support such a club where they could meet in privacy with the assurance of good food and service.
No man is living who attended that first meeting. Much of the history of what has happened since that day in December 1886 comes to us from the archives and records of The Columbus Club.
Some twenty years before this time, Benjamin E. Smith, a successful railroad contractor and banker of the heyday of development following the Civil War, built what he considered as the most imposing house in Columbus. The contract for building his home provided that each of the bricks used in the structure was to be pressed in Philadelphia, wrapped separately in paper, and shipped to Columbus, Ohio. Upon its completion, Mr. Smith moved into what is now The Columbus Club and occupied it as his residence.
It is interesting to note that in his life, Mr. Smith had a consuming desire to build an amusement park. He selected Rockaway Beach, New York as a location. His every intent was to create a rival to Coney Island. During the process, Mr. Smith's sizable fortune vanished, and with that, he left his home on East Broad Street.
For a time the house was vacant. Two governors of Ohio, George Hoadley and Joseph Foraker, occupied the structure as their homes. Mrs. Foraker has written of the difficulty of maintaining the home on the salary of a governor, which, at that time, was $4,000.00 per year. The residence was built with no central heating plant, with heat in the front living rooms provided by the two open fireplaces.
The Foraker family moved to smaller quarters during his second term as Governor of Ohio, and when a committee representing the new Columbus Club negotiated for the purchase of the structure, it was indeed something of a bargain. It was reported that the Club purchased the property for $45,000.
At the time (the Club opened on March 2, 1887), however, the Club House was not completed, and for some time thereafter, carpenters, plasterers and decorators who were employed to make the necessary changes in the building itself inhabited it.
Actually, there have been few physical changes in the building since it was originally constructed.
A plan progressed at that time for the building of a new wing on the old Smith home on the east side with game room and living quarters. The plan, however, was voted down and abandoned. By way of compromise, the small bar room was added on the east side and all partitions were removed on the second floor to make the main dining room. In early 1930, the kitchen was moved from the third floor to the card room on the second floor; the card room was moved to the bowling alley; and a barbershop was built on the first floor where it continues in operation today. In 2004 the card room returned to the second floor; the billiard room was refurbished and the original bowling alley was outfitted for informal dining. The new "Club Room" features memorabilia celebrating the history of the Club, its members and the Columbus community. Member contributions to the decor continue to be welcomed by the House Committee.
Of course, the property of The Columbus Club, including the quarter-block of land, has long been one of the most valuable single parcels of real estate in Columbus. At one time or another, numerous offers have been made for the purchase of this property. Fortunately, in each instance, the Board of Directors at the time, decided to retain The Columbus Club in its present condition, and rejected all offers made for it. Our lawn has frequently been referred to as "the most expensive front yard in Central Ohio."