The Brundige Tavern

Pictured here is the Brundige Tavern, which was located on the northwest corner of Stafford Avenue and High Street. The Worthington News identified it as the “Brundage” Tavern at the time of the Worthington Sesquicentennial in 1953. However, the building was associated with the Brundige family in the nineteenth century and the “Brundage” misspelling may date from the mid-twentieth century.

The building was one of Worthington’s early frame structures, appearing in the village’s first tax assessment in 1826. John Goodrich, the original owner, held a tavern license as early as 1820, suggesting an even earlier date.

The Brundige family is associated with the building in the early 1850s. In the 1850 Census, James Brundige, age 45, appears as a landlord hosting five male tenants, which the census identifies as a wagonmaker and laborers. The “tavern” may have served primarily as a boarding house.

Brundige’s name first turns up in Worthington records in 1844, when he rented the Worthington Hotel from March to November, presumably to run as an inn. The Worthington Hotel was part of the Kilbourn family complex, which included the commercial building that still stands on the west side of High Street. Colonel James Brundige served as the marshal of Worthington’s Fourth of July parade in 1849, further evidence that he remained in Worthington after his brief sojourn running the Worthington Hotel.

The Brundige family had a long association with tavern keeping. In 1806, James Kilbourn arranged a land purchase in northern Delaware County for the Brundige and Wyatt families. Nathaniel Wyatt had married Anna Brundige, and the couple ran the well-known Wyatt tavern and hotel in Norton, Ohio, located along what is now Route 23. However, James Brundige’s connection to Worthington may not have lasted longer than a decade; by 1860 he and his wife show up in the census as farmers in Iowa.

By 1920, the Brundige Tavern had changed hands multiple times. As Worthington acquired street addresses, the location began to be identified as 825 High Street in official records. The building’s last owner was Clarice S. Hobensack, who purchased it in 1926. It may have been purchased as a real estate investment, as there is no evidence that she ever lived there. Columbus city directories from 1926, 1927, and 1931, identify Hobensack as a mathematics instructor at The Ohio State University, living across from campus on Chittenden Avenue. Beginning in 1933 she appears regularly in Cincinnati city directories, listed as a high school math teacher.

The Station Development Corporation purchased the property in November 1955. In a February 1956 story, the Worthington News lamented that “Brundage [sic] Tavern, a landmark of Early Worthington is being torn down to make way for a modern service station. Used recently as an apartment building, the former tavern is located at the northwest corner of Stafford Ave. and High St.” Four families were obliged to move as their homes were demolished to accommodate a Pure Oil Service Station.