1680 East Broad Street
Davis House

Lot 7 and part of Lots 7 and 8, John Stone's Broad Street and Woodland Avenue Subdivision.

This house was built about 1904 for Charles Q. Davis. It was razed in about 1988.

Charles Q. Davis was born September 29, 1863 in Jackson County, Ohio, son of Joseph J. and Mary A. Clewers Davis. He married Bertha Longbon in Jackson County on October 27, 1885. Bertha was born in Jackson County, Ohio about 1866, daughter of James W. and Jane E. Wooster Longbon. They had a daughter Muriel Longbon (July 29, 1882).

Davis came to Columbus in 1869. He attended Ohio State University for three years, and began newspaper work as a reporter for the Sunday Morning News, and when he left college in 1885 became a member of the Ohio State Journal local staff. After about a year he took the job of State Correspondent for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a job he held until December 1890. In April, 1891, he bought a controlling interest in the Columbus Evening Post, and became its general manager, thought this was short lived. The Post was bankrupt by August 1892.

In 1884 Mr. Davis was Secretary of the Democratic State Executive Committee, and in 1890 he was Secretary of the Democratic State Central Committee. He was a member of the legislature, the 72nd General Assembly, for a single term, 1896-1897.

In 1896, Davis was head of the Davis Lubricating Oil Company. In 1897 and 1898 he was Manager of Light of Truth Publishing Company. Davis did field work in West Virginia estimating the value of coal lands for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He then went to Mexico to locate coal and copper mines. After a year's work, Davis located claims which Banker's Mining and Development Company operated and financed.  Davis was President and General Manager of the company which was incorporated in Delaware in November 1909. He went on to start several other businesses.

Davis' crony seems to have been Ohio Senator Calvin S. Brice, and contemporary accounts of their political and business dealings intimate a certain sketchiness. 

In 1907 and 1908 the Davises lived at the Lenox Hotel. Their daughter, Muriel, married Herbert M. Hayward in Columbus on December 10, 1909. In 1910 the Davises lived at the Southern Hotel. They moved to New York City in 1911. They lived at 790 Riverside Drive in New York.

Davis died at his home in New York on July 10, 1914, from a fever he contracted while working in Mexico. He is buried at Greenlawn Cemetery. Bertha married John F. Graham in Cleveland on November 9, 1919. She died in Cleveland on May 30, 1925.

About 1907 the Davises sold the house to Dr. John Edwin Brown.

Dr. John Edwin Brown was born May 30, 1864 in Malta, Ohio, son of John and Mary Ann Longstreth Brown. He married Fanny Wilkin Barker in Morgan County on November 28, 1889. Fanny was born April 3, 1866 in McConnelsville, Ohio, daughter of Charles L. and Rachel Maxwell Barker. They had two sons: William Acheson, who lived only one day, May 8, 1900 and John Edwin, Jr. (May 29, 1903).

Brown was an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist.He practiced both ophthalmology and otolaryngology and was Professor of Otology and Rhinolaryngology at the earlier Ohio Medical University and later at The Ohio State University College of Medicine where he was also head of the Department of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology beginning in 1914. Dr. Brown became President of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology. Dr. Brown also served as a physician to the Ohio Penitentiary.

In 1930 the Browns lived at 135 Preston Road in Bexley.

Fanny died in Columbus on August 26, 1940. John died in November 1966. They are buried in McConnelsville, Ohio. 

On October 20, 1928, The Schoenborns bought the house.

Edward Martin Schoenborn was born in September 5, 1867 in St. Louis, Missouri, son of Peter and Catherine Huffman Schoenborn. He married Emma C. Wolfram in Franklin County on June 18, 1908. Emma was born November 24, 1879 in Peru, Indiana, daughter of Theodore W.H. and Mary I. Wiederholt Wolfram. They had four children: Edward Martin Jr., (May 3, 1909 - March 13, 1979) , Joseph Urlin (1912), Helen M. (1914) and Emma Marie (February 14, 1916 - February 4, 1917). 

Came to Columbus from St. Louis in 1893. He started a successful cigar business, The E.M. Schoenborn Cigar Company. He sold cigars wholesale and retail and had cigar stands in all the Columbus hotels in 1911.

In 1910 the Schoenborns lived at 1083 Madison Avenue. 

In 1901 when it was impossible to raise money to keep a baseball team in Columbus, Schoenborn put his money behind the Columbus Senators, becoming President of the team in 1909. In 1923, Schoenborn was part of the group that purchased the Boston Red Sox.

Edward died July 2, 1933. Emma died in Upper Arlington January 25, 1961. They are buried at St. Joseph's Cemetery.

On June 20, 1957, The State Convention of Baptists in Ohio bought the house.

A demolition permit was issued in January 2012 for a 3 story, 9600 square foot commercial building at this address.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1951, 1680 East Broad Street

Charles Q. Davis, circa 1896

Leather cigar case advertising The E.M. Schoenborn Cigar Co.

The Passing Show, Columbus Dispatch, May 11, 1914, features Edward Schoenborn.