How I would love to acquire a picture of the old Schreyer House. This was described as being one of the first high-class homes in its neighborhood. The property was 50 acres, from High Street to the Olentangy River, bounded by Henderson to the south and the “Stewart and Weisheimer farms to the north.” The grand house was built by Barney Phinney (one of the owners of the Worthington Pike) about 1893, and was subsequently sold to G. Schreyer, a Columbus stove and furnace manufacturer.
Two excellent orchards grew on the place. A windbrake of splendid walnut trees protected one orchard and a row of fine maples formed the windbrake for the other. There was also a very good spring just west of what is now Rosemary Parkway. Surrounded by rose gardens and shrubbery, the house was an imposing structure with pointed gables and the interior finished throughout with solid walnut.
Mr. Schreyer died in 1901, and his wife (Ernestine Zeller, after whom Zeller Road was named) moved elsewhere. The old Schreyer house was eventually subdivided into apartments. The house burned down in 1913; the Columbus Fire Department had been called but could not respond, because there were no water lines in that vicinity at the time. The land was purchased by Charles Johnson in 1923 and subdivided into the Rosemary Development.
And as a side note: “Rosemary” was the name of Charles Johnson’s mother.