Craftsman (1900 - 1935)

In the early 20th century, the Arts and Crafts movement promoted simple, straightforward design, natural materials, and good craftsmanship in products of all kinds, as well as in architecture. Craftsman/Arts and Crafts-style houses have their own character-defining features, but design elements of the style can be found in many other early 20th century styles as well:

• Low-pitched roofs with wide overhanging eaves

• Triangular knee braces at eaves, in gables, and on porches 

• Roof rafters with exposed ends 

• Casement windows, also double-hung windows, often multi-pane over single  

• Full-width front porches 

• Large porch columns, often short and squat, with a tapered shape.

This beautiful Craftsman home was built in 1913 on one of the largest original lots on Grandview Avenue (2010 photo above). The large section to the right of the original structure was added in 2016, bringing the total living space to 3282 square feet.        

One of the early owners of this 1913-built home was John G. and Henrietta Benson who lived in the home from 1926 to 1932. Benson was Superintendent at White Cross Hospital (now Riverside Methodist Hospital) in Columbus. He was a medical doctor, a reverend, and a prolific orator, speaking on issues of medicine and religion regularly in the area. A 1925 Columbus Dispatch article promoting a Benson lecture on the Beatitudes of Health explained that "Happiness, spiritual peace, and beauty...are elements that Dr. Benson stresses for their constructive value in connection with medical and surgical procedure". Benson was also an advocate for community responsibility in caring for the indigent and ill. 

Various members of the Strelka family owned the home from 1934 to 1966. One member, Joseph Strelka (1889 - 1961), shown in the undated photo above, 3rd from right in the back row in a U.S. Navy uniform, was a Grandview Heights city fireman for 14 years.