The City of Columbus is transferring ownership of the house and garage near Eddie Rickenbacker’s childhood home on East Livingston Avenue to the Rickenbacker-Woods Technology Museum and Historic Park group, a nonprofit that plans to turn the Rickenbacker home into a museum. The garage will become a community center. The transfers cost 1 million dollars. Columbus Development Director Steve Schoeny says the group will lease the properties to Buckeye Community 44, which will use the house being transferred as a leasing office for an affordable housing complex its partner, Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, is building.
Schoeny says Buckeye Community Hope Foundation is getting state tax credits and a 46 thousand dollar municipal grant to build the 12 million dollar project. The Rickenbacker house is a National Historic Landmark. The World War I flying ace was born in Columbus in 1890. His family moved into the house three years later. City Council approved the transfers last night.