The OES visited Poindexter Tower on July 15, 2009. Located on the former site of the Mount Vernon Avenue School, the ten-story Poindexter Tower was built in 1960 as one of the nation’s first public housing developments. Named for Rev. James Preston Poindexter, Columbus’ first African American city council member, the tower provided low-cost apartments to the elderly through the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA). Poindexter Tower was not located in the best of neighborhoods, however, and crime soon followed.
Crime had become a common occurrence at Poindexter Tower by the 1980s. One Columbus police officer stated there were hundreds of incidents of crime against elderly CMHA residents, including robbery, rape, assault, burglary, and vandalism. Residents were frequent victims of vandalism and harassment, in particular by juveniles who knew the housing units were unguarded. In May 1983, 89-year-old Clifford Jackson was found murdered in his ninth-floor apartment at Poindexter Tower. His neck had been broken. But this would not be the last murder at the tower.
In December 1988, 72-year-old Roxie Johnson was found dead in her tenth-floor apartment. She had been beaten and strangled, but there was no sign of forced entry to the apartment. Police began looking for her relatives, and nearly three days later, tower employees discovered her son’s body in a stairwell. Irvin Johnson had been beaten to death as well, probably on the same day as his mother. In January 1989, police arrested Tommy Morgan and charged him with double murder. Police believed Morgan killed Irvin over a microwave oven debt dispute and that he killed Roxie in a panic after she caught him burglarizing her apartment. This was not the first time Morgan had killed someone. In the late 1960s, Morgan killed a man after a knife fight in Columbus but was exonerated by reason of self-defense. Two days after his arrest, Tommy Morgan was found hanging in his jail cell. He had committed suicide. Later in that year, CMHA hired off-duty Columbus police officers to help curb drug trafficking and provide security at the tower.
In 1996, developer Charles Adrian bought Poindexter Tower for one dollar and received $2.4 million in federal remodeling grants to make upgrades. The project was apparently abandoned, although Adrian claimed that the entire $2.4 million had indeed been used to upgrade the tower. Tower residents did not agree and had many drawn-out arguments with the tower’s new owner. A decade later, in 2006, the tower was deemed too costly to salvage. Riddled with asbestos, in need of a new roof and boiler, and having suffered heavy vandalism, most of the tower’s residents had moved out. Those who remained moved out by the end of 2008. Poindexter Tower stood empty in the shadow of a wrecking ball as the Franklin County treasurer’s office painstakingly foreclosed on each of the tower’s apartments and received the court’s approval for demolition. Their goal was to have Poindexter Tower demolished by the end of 2010. Demolition of the tower began on October 17, 2012, and the tower was nothing more than a memory shortly thereafter.
Location Information: Demolished
Poindexter Tower was located at 1253 Mount Vernon Avenue in Columbus; Franklin County.
Photographs
The historic Poindexter Tower as seen from the parking lot.
The tower's lobby area protruded from the bottom of the tower's first floor.
The backside of Poindexter Tower.
Most, if not all, of the windows had been removed in preparation for demolition.
This seemed to be the lobby and reception area.
Ceiling tiles littered the floor.
The building's interior had been severely damaged.
The double doors led to the lobby area.
Poindexter Tower's elevator will never be used again.
This was probably a common area for the residents.
Not much was left of this dated kitchen.
A serving area from the kitchen.
Notice that most things of any value had been removed, including the kitchen sink.
Another look at the common area.
An old piano sat among the junk. It was mostly intact.
Looking from the common area toward the kitchen.
A look down one of the long hallways that led to individual apartments.
A sofa was among the items left behind in this apartment.
This old refrigerator was also left behind.
The cabinets were in shambles.
The fire marshall would not be happy that this door was propped open.
The view from a large window on the first floor to the surrounding neighborhood.
This apartment had a very small kitchenette.
The wall in this bathroom had been busted. Copper thieves are the likely culprits.
Notice the large peephole for apartment 201.
The hallway on this floor was not in much better shape.
The tower for OSU East Hospital could be seen from this second floor window.
A smoke detector was among the items left in the hallway.
The toilet tank in this bathroom had been busted by vandals.
The sticker on apartment 512 exclaimed that Jesus is number 1.
The neighborhood that surrounded Poindexter Tower. Notice that several houses were boarded up.
Most of the apartments had a nice large window with a view.
Another damaged hallway.
Downtown Columbus could be seen from this window.
The refrigerator in this apartment had been knocked over.
A utility area off of the hallway.
The blue ladder led to an area above the elevator.
Miscellaneous busted equipment on the floor.
A bird took flight as we took this photo of the Columbus skyline.
The stairwell that was apparently seldom used in the 1980s.
Various items left behind by the owner of this apartment.
Debris lined this hallway, but at least the ceiling tiles were still mostly intact.
Another view of OSU East Hospital from an upper floor.
This green bathtub was full of grime.
Smoking was not permitted in the women's restroom.
Junk littered the floor of the basement.
A hallway in the basement.
A small utility area off of the basement hall.
There was a laundry room in the basement along with a cold war fallout shelter.
Multiple tables were set up in this room.
The boiler room of Poindexter Tower.
Another piano was housed in the basement.
Lots of insulation was on the floor of this room.
Some type of machinery. Perhaps it was related to the fallout shelter.
This is where tower residents would receive their mail.
Some mailboxes appeared to still contain letters.
The pool room is where residents could play pool (billiards). Not a place to swim.
The wallpaper peeled from the wall and tiles fell from the ceiling.
Large benches blocked access to this boarded over entrance.
Lots of damage to the first floor walls. Notice the vine growing into the building.
This appeared to be the apartment's management office area.
