COLUMBUS, Ohio — Crews will break ground Wednesday morning on a museum project at Poindexter Village, a site with history dating back to President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Poindexter Village, located at North Champion Avenue and Granville Street, was built to address urban housing needs. The site will soon become a museum honoring its past.
Former resident Nancy Jones remembers when working families lived in the community.
“There would’ve been a row of apartments right about here, and we would be looking at its back doors,” Jones said.
Jones said the village looks much different today.
“It appeared, now that I’m an adult, that everything was built to last,” she said.
Jones’ parents, John and Margaret Edwards, raised ten children at Poindexter Village. The family was among the first to live there.
“I see Poindexter Village as being one of the things that was done right,” Jones said. “It was managed right. I think the idea of it, of course, I didn’t know that, as a child, but the concept was right.”
Poindexter Village was built on land near a blackberry patch, a place where many Black families settled on Columbus’ East Side during the segregated 1920s.
By the end of the 1930s, homes and land, including the blackberry patch, were cleared to build more than 30 buildings with 400 units. Poindexter Village opened in 1940 as one of the nation’s first public housing communities, and the first in Ohio.
Hundreds gathered for the opening, and President Franklin Roosevelt visited the site that day.
“It was a safe community to live in,” Jones said.
Shelbi Toone, with the Ohio History Connection, leads the $25.9 million Poindexter Village African American Museum project. The effort aims to preserve the two remaining buildings, create community spaces, and restore old apartments as exhibits.
“I know it’s probably hard for a lot of people to understand, there’s a lot of crisis going on in the world, but there’s no better time than now to preserve this story and to really make sure we share the experience from their eyes,” Toone said.
The project plans to honor a community that served generations of families.
Decades later, crime, drug trafficking, and violence increased in Poindexter Village, leading to its closure.
In 2014, the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority began demolishing the community.
“I feel this space, this project, the people that are part of this project, are all connected to the ancestors and those that came before them, and so we’re just continuing to stand on those shoulders,” Toone said.
Poindexter Village is named for the Rev. James Poindexter, who served on the school board and was Columbus’ first Black city councilmember.
Organizers expect the museum to open in early 2028.
