German Village is a National Historic Landmark district a short walk south of downtown, a dense grid of narrow brick streets lined with small 19th-century brick cottages built by German immigrants in the 1850s and 1860s. It is well-preserved, walkable, and unexpectedly charming for a Midwestern city.
The two main draws are the Book Loft and Schmidt's Sausage Haus, but the neighbourhood itself repays a slow walk. Schiller Park at its heart has a small German garden and an open-air theatre that hosts Shakespeare in the summer. The coffeehouses and beer gardens along Mohican Street fill up on warm weekends. German Village is Columbus's most successful historic preservation story.