Moment in Time (originally submitted to ThisWeek News for publication August 25, 2004)

This French-style mansion, located at 1599 Roxbury Road was built between 1908 and 1912 by influential Marble Cliff resident and Columbus businessman Butler Sheldon, son of Robert Sheldon (inset), founder of Sheldon Dry Goods. Butler Sheldon's sister, Flora, was the senior President Bush's paternal grandmother, who lived nearby at 1550 Roxbury. The 25 room home had a 3 story garage built into the side of the hill that it sat on. The first floor was for horses, the second floor for automobiles, and the third was the gardener's apartment. A ballroom in the attic of the house was surrounded by four bedrooms and a bath. It also had a putting green, tennis court, and its own railroad siding for the delivery of coal for heating. In 1917 it was sold to the Wallick family, owners of the Deshler Hotel at Broad and High, and in 1928 it was subdivided into 4 luxury apartments of six and seven rooms each, and second floors were added to the two matching porch wings, seen here in the foreground of the photo. It is currently hidden from view by the more recent Roxbury Arms Apartments developed fronting Roxbury Road.