Cultural Arts Center once held arsenal

The distinctive brick building at 139 W. Main St. in Downtown Columbus is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been home to the city’s Cultural Arts Center since 1978.

But before then, for more than 100 years, it had been the Ohio State Arsenal.

It was built in the early 1860s, using convict labor, on a site that had housed the original state penitentiary. The arsenal was used to house arms, ammunition and horses during the Civil War, and continued to be used as a military facility until the mid-1970s.

Ohio Gov. James Rhodes instructed the National Guard at that time to lease the building to the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department for $1 annually, for 99 years, with the purpose of becoming an arts showcase. The building was then renovated, and a new hub for community creativity, the Columbus Cultural Arts Center, was born.

While the city had operated a rec facility for arts and crafts pursuits before then, it was in an old, too-small firehouse on Oak Street. City booster extraordinaire Mel Dodge, the Recreation and Parks director, made the center a pet project. He helped to secure a $1.4 million federal grant to transform the old arsenal, which became one of the first major historic preservation projects in the Downtown riverfront area.

For decades, the center has drawn artists from novice to pro, teachers, and art lovers to its exhibits, events, workshops and classes. It also has a gift shop with art created by instructors and students, and event spaces that are available for weddings.

Contributor Linda Deitch was a Dispatch librarian for 25 years.

TOM DODGE/DISPATCH FILE PHOTO PROVIDED BY COLUMBUS METROPOLITAN LIBRARY An undated postcard shows the building before becoming a gathering place to learn about weaving, painting, printmaking, sewing, ceramics, and the like.

DISPATCH FILE PHOTO Students paint at a summer-session class at the city’s old Arts and Crafts Center in 1966 before it moved to the arsenal building in 1978. Dora Rosenfeld, pointing at right, was the center’s director. Mary Jane Alford, class instructor, stands at left.

Art teacher Debbie Jackson models in 1987 for Roman Johnson during a free “Conversations & Coffee” event at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center. It’s the city’s longest-running art talk series, now in operation for 35+ years.