Photo Credit https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/ohio/columbus/german-village-columbus-oh/
Schwartz Castle
492 South Third Street
492 South Third Street
From German Village Stories Behind the Bricks by John M. Clark:
Perhaps the most unusual home in German Village, Schwartz Castle holds more than 130 years of speculation and unfounded rumors. The stately home was built about 1880 for Friedrich Wilhelm Schwartz, a recent German immigrant who owned a successful apothecary shop at East Main and North Fourth Streets.
Perhaps the most unusual home in German Village, Schwartz Castle holds more than 130 years of speculation and unfounded rumors. The stately home was built about 1880 for Friedrich Wilhelm Schwartz, a recent German immigrant who owned a successful apothecary shop at East Main and North Fourth Streets.
As an enlightened man of medicine, Schwartz was a follower of the nineteenth-century "sanitary movement", which sought to slow the spread of disease by keeping a clean physical enviornment. Schwartz installed sanitary and easy-to-clean surfaces, including tiled walls and iron stairways. He also believed in an abundance of fresh air and designed his home with a flat-roofed turret, where he enjoyed daily sunbaths - some say in the nude.
Check out the staircase on the left side built for access to the flat-roof-deck above the 4th floor turret.
For years, we have been led to believe that Schwartz was beyond eccentric. We're told that he became a little unhinged when a fiancee back in Germany broke off their engagement, that he died alone at seventy-four and that his body went undiscovered for weeks. None of it is true. There was no fiancee. His sister lived with him until his death. Columbus mayor George Karb counted Schwartz among his friends and even served as executor of the Schwartz estate.
Found on Zillow.com
So maybe the old man did take long, barefoot walks, perhaps even in the snow. Yes, he was a vegetarian. He may have preferred wool clothing against his skin, and he may very well have preferred drinking rainwater. Hardly enough evidence for him to be called "crazy".
Found on Zillow.com
After sitting vacant for the next three years, the "castle" found other uses. In 1917, it became the home of the Columbus Maternity Hospital. When the hospital closed, the building fell into disrepair and was often vacant and boarded up. In the mid-1950's while serving as a seedy rooming house, the property received attention for two murders that occured there. Then, in the 1960's, the city condemned the house, and it faced demolition. But fate intervened.
Found on Zillow.com
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Business partners Bob Echele and Bob Gease bought the building in 1973, gutted it, restored it and completed the fourth floor. Echele and Gease added a ballroom, a movie theater, a private elevator and more, with the idea of renting the top two floors. Realtor Mike Ferris, who bought it in 2003, reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on further improvements. Later, following a short period of bank ownership in 2010, Schwartz Castle returned to private hands in December 2011.
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HOUSE 492 Third Street ISSUE XII