The original 1908 structure at the core of Prescott Place condominiums was the home of Samuel Prescott Bush (1864-1948), paternal grandfather and great grandfather of U.S. Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. Bush purchased the 2.7-acre site on Roxbury Road for $12,500. Perhaps he was attracted by the large lot for his impressive gardens, or by the 9-hole golf course virtually across the road from the new house. Samuel Bush later helped form the Scioto Golf Club in Upper Arlington (where golf legend Jack Nicklaus learned to play golf) a few blocks north of his home.

Bush was the president and general manager of Buckeye Steel Castings Company (Buckeye Steel), a large railroad parts manufacturing plant on Columbus' south side. His 17-room 2½-story Dutch Colonial home was built of limestone from the local Marble Cliff Quarries. The home featured a central hallway with a wide stairway rising to what was likely a ballroom on the third floor.

The house was sold in 1929 to Detroit socialite Anna Dodge Dillman, the wife of Columbus-born silent film actor Hugh Dillman and widow of Horace Dodge, founder with his brother John of the Dodge Automobile Company. Mrs. Dillman was one of the country's wealthiest women in the mid-1920s, and with Horace built the splendid Rose Terrace home in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Mrs. Dillman bought the Bush home for her husband's family to live in, and in 1946 sold it to the Diocese of Columbus. The diocese gave the house to the Carmelite Sisters. The sisters opened the property as a retirement residence, St. Raphael’s Home for the Aged, in 1948 with 17 residents and five sisters. In 2006, the nuns sold the building to the Pizzuti Companies which created 23 condominiums to surround the original residence. The 7-bay, 5-dormered facade of the house is original as built.

Note: This stop is a private residence. Please respect the owner's privacy and observe the residence from public access points only.

Samuel Prescott Bush of Buckeye Steel, circa 1910 and 1916.

Interior of Buckeye Steel Castings Company, owned by S.P. Bush.

Mrs. Dodge Hillman (seated left), 2nd owner, in front of the Bush Residence.

St. Raphael’s Carmelite nuns at front of Bush Residence waving to George H. W. Bush on his 1988 campaign visit to his grandfather’s Marble Cliff mansion.

First building on this location razed for construction of Bush Residence. This original building was the Arlington Inn, and thought to be the meeting place for the Arlington Riding and Golf Club before the establishment of the Arlington (Aladdin) Country Club nearby in Marble Cliff.

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