Leather, Better, and the Weather

Top of Mind

Leatherlips is one of those names in central Ohio that people recognize,

usually because they’ve driven past the giant stone face in Dublin, but the actual story is far darker than the roadside version. Šaʔteyarǫnyes, better known to settlers as Leatherlips, was a Wyandot leader remembered for his integrity, so much so that white settlers said his lips were “like leather” because he would not lie. He was a signer of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville and, like Wyandot chief Tarhe, favored keeping peace with the United States rather than joining a broader Native war effort.

That choice made him a marked man. By 1810, Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, known as the Prophet, were trying to build a Native confederacy to resist further U.S. expansion. Leatherlips opposed that push toward war and was accused of witchcraft, a charge historians have long treated as political cover for a deeper fight over land, power, and whether accommodation with Americans had become surrender.

The end came near what is now Dublin. A small Wyandot party arrived to carry out the sentence, while local settler John Sells tried to intervene. One early retelling says Sells even offered a horse worth $300 to save Leatherlips, but the offer was rejected. Leatherlips then dressed in his finest clothes, prayed, and was killed by tomahawk on June 2, 1810.

And that is the part worth lingering on. Central Ohio still tends to tell this story like a tragic local legend, but it was really a story about the collapse of Native control over this land. Leatherlips was not killed because history is quirky and dramatic. He was killed because Native nations were being cornered into impossible choices: fight the United States and risk annihilation, or negotiate with it and risk being branded a traitor by your own people. Ohio was being carved up either way.

Today, Dublin memorializes him with the 12-foot limestone sculpture at Scioto Park, a striking monument and a reminder of how Columbus suburbs love to pave over the past and then commission a tasteful sculpture about it later.

Some versions of the story add one more detail, and it’s too good not to mention. According to local folklore, settlers tried to save Leatherlips by offering to tear up the treaty in exchange for his life. There’s no solid evidence that part actually happened, but it has survived anyway, which feels very Ohio: a mix of land theft, tragedy, and one last dramatic flourish passed down as it might somehow soften the ending.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many indigenous groups lived in Ohio?

A. 40
B. 60
C. 80
D. 100

Office Space

Columbus has spent the last few years hearing the same gloomy office story: empty desks, remote work, and downtown buildings, wondering if anyone still remembers how elevators work. But for the first time in a while, the numbers are moving in the right direction. Office vacancy in Columbus fell to 20% in the first quarter of 2026, down from a peak of 22.6% two years earlier, while asking rents climbed to $22.80 per square foot. That does not exactly mean downtown is back to 1999, but it does mean people are choosing Columbus, and companies are still willing to bet on being here.

And the comeback is not being led by sad fluorescent cubicles and a coffee pot from 2007. It is being driven by the nicer stuff. The kind of office space with rooftop terraces, better restaurants, lounges, updated lobbies, and enough polish to make employees feel like returning to work is not a punishment. Huntington Center, still one of the crown jewels on Capitol Square, has become the poster child for that shift. After major upgrades, including a living wall, tenant lounge, and rooftop terrace, the building has stayed roughly 85% occupied. Turns out people are more willing to come back to the office when the office does not feel like a hostage situation.

That is really the larger story here. Columbus is not winning because office culture has suddenly become beloved again. It is winning because the city is slowly figuring out that people want experience, not just square footage. The newest Class A space is getting snapped up faster, older buildings are either struggling or being rethought entirely, and downtown is being pushed toward something more mixed, more livable, and frankly more interesting. Office towers that no longer make sense as offices are becoming apartments. New projects like the conversion of 280 Plaza show that the future of downtown may be less about getting everyone back to their cubicle and more about putting more actual life on the street.

Yes, there are still real headwinds. Financing is tough, major projects like the Capitol Square Renaissance plan have been paused, and not every old building has the bones for a glamorous second act. But even that tells you something important: Columbus is not out of ideas, it is just in the awkward middle part of reinvention. The city is still attracting tenants, still converting dead weight into something useful, and still building the kind of downtown where offices, housing, restaurants, trails, and transit all feed off each other.

So maybe the optimistic version is this: downtown Columbus is not dying, it is editing. Shedding the buildings and layouts that no longer work, rewarding the ones that do, and slowly becoming a place people might actually want to spend time in after 5 p.m. For a city that has spent years trying to prove it is more than a government district with lunch specials, that is real progress. And if the buzz is returning one rooftop terrace at a time, honestly, we will take it.

And Now For The Weather

Just in case you got emotionally attached to the 70-degree fakeout, central Ohio has one more little prank lined up. A freeze warning is in effect early this morning, April 20, with temperatures around Columbus expected to dip to about 35 degrees overnight and frost possible by morning. So yes, your plants are once again being asked to survive an identity crisis. Cover sensitive vegetation, protect outdoor plumbing, and maybe do not let one sunny afternoon convince you that winter filed its paperwork and left for good.

The good news, because Ohio refuses to commit to a bit for more than 24 hours, is that the cold snap does not last. Monday tops out around 53, then Tuesday jumps to 74. Wednesday lands near 75, Thursday pushes 82, and Friday gets up to 83 with a chance of showers. In other words, we are speed-running all four seasons again, and by the end of the week you will be choosing between a patio drink and a thunderstorm warning.

A) 40
I feel like we did this one when I wrote about the hairy river…