Tara Hall, where everybody knows your name

The Tara Hall
Preservation
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Sunset on Tara Hall

Tara Hall is the social hall and multi-purpose building of the St. Patrick Catholic Parish in eastern downtown Columbus, Ohio, USA. It is a characterful, ragged-around-the-edges, old brick building that houses music, dancing, teaching and socializing.

St. Patrick Parish

Tara Hall stands next to St. Patrick Church and Rectory in a small half-block complex bounded by Mt. Vernon Avenue on the north, Grant Avenue on the west, Naughten Street on the south, and of course, Kelly Alley, on the east. The church grounds are half a block west of Cleveland Avenue/SR 3, about three blocks south of Columbus' I-670 innerbelt.

Preservation does not happen readily without education, and so I am presenting an architectural analysis and history of these buildings. I won't delve into their history much beyond the architectural; others can tell those stories better than me.

Tara Hall

Tara Hall is a somewhat H-shaped building fronting on Grant Street. It has round-arched windows and doors, a paired gabled roof, a limestone foundation (like everything else old in Columbus), and brick walls. Although it was built for an Irish parish, it is an Italianate-styled building. Then again, one contemporary name for it was the "American Syle." The building lacks the typical brackets of the style, but its arches and surviving thick interior trim are elements of the Italianate style. Tara Hall is actually two separate buildings that were joined together.

St. Patrick's Original Church

The first part, the south half, is the original church for St. Patrick Parish, probably built between 1830 and1840...? It is a rare survivor of the early- and mid-nineteenth century Midwest church, most of which are probably long-gone or too altered or forgotten to be recognized now for what they were.

This first church building had its nave on the upper floor, and would have required an exterior stairway. The round-arched cieling is still framed within the roof, though a drop cieling conceals it, the plaster has been knocked off, and insulation has been tacked over the remaining lath. The half-domed apse at the east end has been obscured by use as stage, with a raised floor built in it and in front of it. The room has been used as a auditorium and dance hall for several decades, and is the site of the internationally reknown Ritchens-Timm Academy of Dance.

Below the nave, on the ground floor, is the social hall. This "Green Hall" ? has probably always served as the parish's hall. It has a grove of original square wood posts supporting the floor above, and a peculiar closet-like space under the apse.

St. Patrick School

The second part, the north half, was a school building. A peaked marble datestone on the front states "St. Patricks School 1854." This was probably a typical two-story, four-room school building. The interior has been extensively altered, though, obscuring or removing most evidence of its original design.

Both floors have two equal-sized rooms. The two rooms on the ground floor are now the kitchen and closets in front, and the restrooms and a hallway in the back. The only basement in the entire building is under, of all things, the bathrooms. Above is Hibernian Hall, the social hall for the Ancient Order of Hibernians. It also has two rooms, but the dividing wall is probably a turn-of-the-century constrution since its upper half is plate glass. It may have originally been only one room.

St. Patrick Church

This Gothic Revival church was built from 1852 to 1853. The cornerstone ceremony was on Sunday, September 5, 1852, and it was dedicated to God on September 25, 1853. The bell was hung in 1855.

The facade was subtly remodeled, probably in the 1920s. Only the recessed center front wall, between the towers, was changed. This is apparently a veneer built in front of the original wall. The double doorway has a broad lancet tympanum of carved sandstone, and a simple peaked parapet over that. In the gable is a large modillion, again of carved sandstone. A lovely pressed-metal entablature caps the bay, with an arcaded frieze. Atop the peak is a stone crucifix.

St. Patrick Rectory

This is the home of the Dominican Fathers, who oversee the parish. It is a 2 1/2 story brick house that stands at the rear (east end) of the church at 376 East Naughten Street.

This building was originally intended to be a convent. It was begun soon after the arrival of several nuns from the Sisters of Notre Dame in Cincinnati, who came to teach in St. Patrick School They arrived on August 27, 1855, and lived in a house used as a convent farther east. The building was under construction in September of 1857 when the archbishop decided that it was to be used as a rectory instead.

Ancient Order of Hibernians

...more to come...

Sources include "The Rocks on Which He Split," by Donald M. Schlegel. In the newsletter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, Patrick Pearse Dision No. 1. Volume 18, No. 30, September 1997.