Programs & Events
Columbus Landmarks takes great pride in its quality programs. Our programs are led by professionals in the fields of architecture, architectural history and other related fields. These individuals share their knowledge and expertise with great enthusiasm. Advance ticket purchasing is strongly recommended.
Columbus Landmarks Foundation and the Bicentennial
Celebrate with us throughout 2012 with these tours & events:
So You Think You Know Columbus? Bus Tour - a rolling overview of the city we love—featuring what Columbus Landmarks Foundation does best—connecting buildings and stories, issues and neighborhoods, astonishing facts, and yes, a scandal or two. A 3-hour bus tour with a few interesting stops. You will never look at Columbus the same way again.
Sunday, February 12, 1-4 p.m. get tickets
Westin Parlor Talks on February 26 and March 25 are coffee and dessert lecture/receptions at the Westin/Great Southern Hotel. The February talk will focus on Lustron Homes (manufactured and built in Columbus, these all metal homes needed magnets to hold up a picture) and the March talk will focus on 20th century shopping centers. Advance reservations requested by calling 614-221-0227 or emailing bwest@columbuslandmarks.org
$7.50 donation at the door requested.
Archi-Journeys in February and March 2012 are bus tours that explore the history of the city from a seldom-seen perspective. On Sunday, February 19 from 1-4 p.m. we will journey back through Columbus' history and get in touch with the human side of the Great Depression and World War II. Explore what our city was like in the 1930s and 1940s as we make selected stops at iconic downtown buildings, popular restaurants and historic neighborhoods. On Sunday, March 18 from 1-4 p.m. we will journey through the Emergence of the Modern City and focus on the development in the 1950s.
Sunday, Feb. 19 SOLD OUT
Sunday, Mar. 18, 1-4 p.m. get tickets
Lit, Lives & Landmarks: Columbus Architecture and Authors, Chapter 1 - what do prisoners and poets, belles and bluestockings, radicals and reporters all have in common? They lived in or were influenced by life in Columbus, Ohio! Join the first in a series of bus tours offered by Columbus Landmarks and Ohioana Library to explore the better known and sometimes overlooked worlds of O'Henry, R.L. Stine, Billy Ireland, William Dean Howells, Lois Lenski and others. You might be surprised how place has influenced writing - and how some of the biggest names in literature were influenced by a place they never lived in.
Saturday, June 23 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. get tickets
Friday, July 27 12:30-3:30 p.m. get tickets
Columbus Landmarks and Shadowbox Live are planning for a new event—part behind-the-scenes tour, stage show and more - in early spring 2012
The Heritage Ball, in the spirit of Citizens for a Better Skyline, who have bequeathed their cleverness and drive to Columbus Landmarks Foundation to carry on. This year’s event will feature a retrospective on the body of work of Citizens for a Better Skyline
It Takes a Village (or Two) to Make a City 200 Years Old--Neighborhood Walking Tours will be offered mid-May through Labor Day and will focus on some of our most popular neighborhood tours that will be done in sequence of the city’s development, from settlement to little-known Civil War towns; immigrant communities (Irish, Welsh, Hungarian, Italian, African American, and German--these tours will reveal places and stories that many Columbus residents are unaware of—Milo Grogan, Hungarian Village, Hanford Village, Burnside, or Baby Farms—to those in the news—German Village, Victorian Village, Italian Village, Clintonville, and more)
Illuminated Spaces: Sacred Places will be the third in a series of tours that focus on churches, synagogues, and other sacred places in the city and reveal both the nuances of the artistic use of stained glass, as well as, the stories and architecture of the community that built the institution. This year’s tour in spring 2012 will concentrate on the stained glass in the Franklinton and Hilltop neighborhoods
Everybody’s Story in Stone and Word--Partnering with Green Lawn Cemetery, the city’s special place in the Cemetery Beautiful Movement and the architectural backdrop of the city’s notables and forgotten, Columbus Landmarks Foundation is working collaboratively with Green Lawn and others on events including a special Victorian evening in the cemetery with carriage rides; a first-person narrative interpretation , “Everybody’s Story,” where costumed interpreters will tell stories; and a special First Families dinner/reception/and sharing at the Westin/Great Southern Hotel for descendants to tell, learn, and reconnect with others about Columbus’s history and built environment
Monthly Historic Tavern Tours are popular, well-researched, and filled with historic and architectural “gossip”—tours are sometimes “haunted,” mystery, or thematically approached (for instance, immigrant experiences; the world of gentlemen; or taverns that started life as something else)
Gables and Gargoyles--Ever popular and not forgotten—October is always the month of connecting a variety of bus and walking tours to some of Columbus’s most “haunted spots” of legend and lore. Columbus Landmarks Foundation’s event will be 35 years old, and is the original event in Central—if not all—Ohio
Treasures of Town Street--The second annual Treasures of Town Street silent auction and shopping bazaar which features vintage and architectural pieces, one-of-a-kind and must-have items—done in partnership with the Topiary Park, Kappa Kappa Gamma, the Kelton House, and others in December.