Built in 1853 in an Italian Villa style, this house is one of the oldest on East Town Street. In addition to its original porch, it has many important features such as the heavily encrusted and decorated hoodmolds above the windows and a broad frieze with overhanging eaves. Standing away from the house, you can see the belvedere rising from the center of the house, which in Italy might have taken the form of a free-standing tower to see who was in the vineyards!
Though most people remember this site as the O’Shaughnessy Funeral Home, it was originally the home of Dr. James Baldwin, founder of Grant Hospital which stands nearby. Originally a private hospital in 1900, Grant eventually was expanded to several buildings, including a nursing school. Today, Grant is the only surviving hospital in the United States which started as a private hospital.
Dr. Baldwin’s house on East Town St made it easy for him to continually oversee his hospital, Grant. Grant took its name from the name of the street, but the street was originally Seventh Street. Just south of Town and Seventh, the area was known for crime, sporting houses, and dens of ill repute. Residents to the north petitioned the city to change the name of their part of the street to Grant, in honor of Ulysses S. Grant. It was popularly thought that poorer streets were numbered and more wealthy families lived on streets with names. Grant Hospital also once shared its space with a nursing school and St. Francis Hospital. Also in the area, and well worth a little walk down East State Street, is the former Knights of Columbus building the oldest church in downtown—the Spiritualist Church—also a rare example of Norman architecture, and the Schoedinger Funeral Chapel. Looking at the east side of the funeral chapel, it is easy to see how the building has several additions. The back of the building is the oldest, a home once belonging to Dr. Starling. The famed architect of the Ohio Stadium, Howard Dwight Smith, once called the Schoedinger Chapel the finest example of reusing a building he had ever seen.