Best Driving Vacations 2024: Columbus, Indiana, has worldly architecture, small-town charm
This southern Indiana city boasts buildings from I.M. Pei and Eero Saarinen, as well as public art and seven national historic landmarks.
Today, we present the final installment in the best driving destinations from central Ohio. We hope you have enjoyed the series.
An architectural pilgrimage to Columbus, Indiana
Finnish architect Eero Saarinen said, “The purpose of architecture is to shelter and enhance man's life on earth and to fulfill his belief in the nobility of his existence."
Indeed, in his most celebrated works — the Gateway Arch in St. Louis or the sleek, futuristic TWA Flight Center at New York’s Kennedy Airport — Saarinen created structures with the intent that they would be gazed upon for generations, masterpieces that would become destinations, much like the Pyramids of Giza or the Colosseum in Rome.
One need not travel far from Ohio to make an architectural pilgrimage the focal point of a road trip. There’s Chicago, New York or Washington, D.C., a day’s drive away, of course. But just three hours west, in the small, southern Indiana prairie town of Columbus, sits an oasis of modern architecture. A place where the most elite architects in the world have made their playground.
Part 1:Best Driving Vacations 2024: Explore the Northern Shore of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
This other Columbus (population 50,000) earned this distinction thanks to the vision of J. Irwin Miller. In a post-WWII landscape, he wanted to attract the country’s brightest engineers to work for his Cummins engine corporation. As an incentive, he created the Cummins Foundation, which supports ambitious architectural projects throughout the town.
The first contract, Lillian Schmitt Elementary, went to architect Harry Weese in 1954. From there, the foundation snowballed — everything from the fire stations to the hospitals, the park restrooms, City Hall and even the Bartholomew County Jail is a photo opportunity for architecture enthusiasts. Roaming the town is a moveable feast of brutalism, midcentury modernism and beyond.
The best way to see Columbus is through its celebrated two-hour architecture tour (make reservations well in advance). The knowledgeable guides start at I.M. Pei’s fortress-like Cleo Rogers Memorial Library and end with an up-close visit inside of Saarinen’s breathtaking North Christian Church, which resembles a spaceship that has landed in the bucolic environs.
Part 2:Best Driving Vacations 2024: Take a Battlefield Tour of Pennsylvania and Maryland
Columbus boasts seven national historic landmarks, most of which can be seen on the tour. A personal favorite is the minimal and spartan former home of The Republic newspaper, designed by Myron Goldsmith in 1971.
In the afternoon, a tour of the Miller House is a must. Opened in 2011, it was purchased by Newfields, Indianapolis’ modern art institution. Since 1957, it has sat far from the road, obscured by a landscape by Dan Kiley. Exposing it was akin to opening the doors of Willy Wonka’s factory.
Alexander Girard’s bright and colorful interiors tie the whole place together. Seeing the retro-futuristic, step-in sitting room is much like visiting that Colosseum. It might just be Saarinen’s masterpiece.
Columbus is entirely walkable, replete with public art from the likes of Robert Indiana and Dale Chihuly. Exploring further can allow you to sit for a drink in Lucabe Coffee Co., which has repurposed Weese’s award-winning Irwin Bank and Trust, or walk the methodically designed Mill Race City Park along the banks of the Flatrock River.
Downtown offers a stark contrast to the city’s famous modern architecture, featuring faithfully restored, late-19th century, Victorian-style storefronts. The centerpiece is Zaharakos Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor. Still using the same methods since opening in 1900, it features a real soda fountain and a calliope. Order a Green River and the Gom Cheese Brr-Grr, a variation on the sloppy Joe filled with American cheese on toast.
Part 3:Best Driving Vacations 2024: Go on the ultimate full-circle adventure around Lake Erie
Elsewhere, the three-story kidscommons is an exceptional children’s museum for a town this size. Need a libation? The Indiana-famous Upland Brewing has a taproom close by. And the surrounding prairie, through which the statelong People Trail passes, has myriad options for outdoor adventures.
Columbus, Indiana, is not an artifact. Even if the goal is midcentury nostalgia, it’s constantly evolving. In fact, it’s a living laboratory, as Indiana University currently has a graduate architecture program there. The Cummins Foundation, too, is still thriving.
Currently on the docket is a new air-traffic control tower for the regional airport, with a short list of architecture firms vying to design it. At every turn, that “nobility of man’s existence” is in the structures and design of daily life of Columbus. It’s got both small-town charm and worldly ambitions.
Where to Stay in Columbus, Indiana
Prominently featured in Kogonada’s heralded 2017 debut film “Columbus,” the Inn at Irwin Gardens is a Victorian mansion that is best visited during late spring when the grounds are in full bloom.
It’s an interesting alternative to the modern architecture that draws visitors to Columbus. Those on a budget can opt for the Hotel Indigo, which was built for the purpose of receiving architecture tourism. irwingardens.com,ihg.com/hotelindigo/hotels/us/en/columbus/clubs/hoteldetail
Take a Side Trip to Richmond, Indiana
If you triangulate your trip down I-71 to Columbus, spending a night in Indianapolis and heading home east on I-70, it’s certainly worth a stop in Richmond, Indiana, to see the Gennett Records Walk of Fame.
From 1872 to the turn of the century, Starr Piano in Richmond was one of the country’s largest manufacturers. In 1915, the company started making phonographs and records. In the shadow of the former factory, one can see the spot of their hand-powered recording studio and a line of plaques on the path that celebrate Charlie Patton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and other luminaries who recorded there. visitrichmond.org/listing/gennett-records-walk-fame
This story is from the Best Driving Vacations package in the February 2024 issue of Columbus Monthly.