A neighborhood just east of the Ohio State Fairgrounds has long been associated with outhouses and wood-burning stoves. But it's becoming increasingly known for a community garden and new homes.
About two miles east of the fairgrounds, on Joyce Avenue, you'll come across a small enclave known as American Addition. It's a sparsely-populated neighborhood with green spaces and a rural feel. It was settled by African Americans fleeing the South in the early 1900s, but it didn't get city water or sewer service for another half-century.
Life-long resident Marie Moreland-Short, 66, remembers those harder times.
"It was just a forgotten neighborhood," Moreland-Short said. "The homes were just really deplorable. A lot of people just coming into the neighborhood just to survive."
But times have changed. A once-barren corner on Joyce Avenue now holds an award-winning community garden. The non-profit organization Homeport has built more than a dozen new homes in American Addition and plans to build more.
Moreland-Short was one of the driving forces in pushing former Mayor Michael Coleman to invest $11 million in beautifying the neighborhood. City council this week voted to spend another $4 million on streets, alleys and sidewalks.
"That history is always going to be there," Moreland-Short said. "That's the important part of all of this, to see the transition from old to new."
Hear Moreland-Short's full conversation with WOSU's Steve Brown.
