ViewPoints SPRING, 1999 President's Letter Dear Members and Friends of GH/MCHS: Welcome to our new communications connection! You will be receiving a newsletter periodically with articles pertaining to our historical communities: Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff, and other interesting bits, along with news of upcoming events. Many have contributed to us pictures, memorabilia, personal stories and memories, and interesting highlights of life in our communities over the past twenty-five years. We know others will enjoy these, also. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our Board Members for 1998-1999. You may feel free to contact any one of us with your questions, suggestions, or contributions. These members donate their time in three-year commitments, and may serve longer if they so desire. Election of board members to rotating terms takes place by nomination at the annual meeting of the Society in September. Each September three positions are up for renewal or replacement. We currently have a full complement of eleven board members, as follows: Win Keller - President Patrick Mooney - Vice-President Sally Kosnik - Secretary Jo Ann Curry - Treasurer Wayne Carlson Thomas DeMaria RuthAnne James Lorna (Skip) Karlovec William Koch Tracy Liberatore Margie Wilson We wish to extend our thanks to each of you for your support. Sincerely, Win Keller We're Online! Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society Launches Website Tri-Village residents can now use the World Wide Web as a vehicle to take a tour of historic Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff, thanks to the local historical society. The Society has launched its own website, which contains a rich collection of interesting images, information, and activities. Designed by Grandview resident and society advisory board member Wayne Carlson, the site gives viewers access to information contained in the Society's archives. "We have made an effort to digitize a broad selection of interesting artifacts, and to place them in the virtual world for anyone with a Web browser to enjoy," said Carlson. "Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff have an extremely rich heritage, and it is the Society's goal to collect and preserve any materials that relate to this heritage, and to make them available to anyone interested in learning more about the community. The World Wide Web is a natural way to disseminate this information." Society Vice-President Patrick Mooney, who serves as a historical advisor for the project, says, "I'm really excited about the website, because it's going to allow us to take a lot of our material, much of which is too fragile to permit public physical access, and preserve it in a way which is readily available to the public. The site will be an invaluable tool for Grandview students working on local history projects. I've had the opportunity to visit the websites of 30 or 40 local historical societies around Ohio, and I'm confident that ours is a superior product. We owe Wayne Carlson a great debt. He has gifted us with his expertise, time, and enthusiasm, and has created a website that is easy and pleasing to use." Visitors to the site can read an account of the history of the community and learn more about the historical society itself. Membership forms are online, as are sample pages from the Society's four publications: "Sheltering a Heritage", "The Italian Heritage", "Final Salute", and "Our Town, Our Times". Links to other community web pages and those of other historical societies throughout the state are also included. "One of the most interesting activities on the site is a 'walking tour' of Grandview and Marble Cliff," said Carlson.ÒA map of the city contains markers that relate to historically significant locations within or near our boundaries. When the user clicks on a marker with the mouse, digital images are downloaded over the Web, along with a brief historical description." Carlson said the website, which has been under development since October, is a work in progress. "We're really committed to this project, and it's going to grow and evolve on a continual basis. There is a rich history from which to draw." Space for the website is being donated by the Grandview Heights Public Library. It can be accessed by typing the URL: http://www.ghpl.org/ghmchistorical/main.html into any browser, including Netscape and Internet Explorer. The site can also be "clicked on" from the main page of the Grandview Heights Public Library. Bookmark our website and check in frequently to see new additions! ANNIVERSARY CORNER SOCIETY CELEBRATES 25 Years More than twenty-five years ago, a Grandview Heights elementary school teacher asked her students to bring in historical artifacts and memorabilia as part of a study of local history. The response was overwhelming, enlightening, and exciting. Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society is a direct result of parental involvement in that school project. On Sunday afternoon, September 19, 1999, from 2 to 4 p.m. in Grandview Heights Public Library, the Society's Annual Meeting will be a celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary. The event will feature historical exhibits in the atrium, a presentation, and refreshments in the library meeting room. Details will be forthcoming as we approach the date. Some of the founders will be present to tell the story of how it all began! GRANDVIEW HEIGHTSÕ FIRE DEPARTMENT CELEBRATES... 75 Years and so does GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS LIBRARY! Visit Our New Website! http://www.ghpl.org/ghmchistorical/main.html If you are not on-line at home, the reference librarians at Grandview Heights Public Library will show you how to access us at the library. Test your Historical Knowledge! 1.Where was Sinclair's Woods? 2. Which mayor of Grandview Heights always rode a white horse in an annual Tri-Village area parade? 3. Where was the "Arlington" from which "Upper Arlington got its name? 4. What Central Ohio sports competition was for many years an annual event on Grandview Avenue Hill? 5. When was the first "ox roast" held, who sponsored it, and what annual event was it a part of? 6. What area business, founded in Grandview Heights in 1908, has the distinction of being the oldest local business still operating under its original name? 7. What Grandview man was the prototype for a character in the famous "Terry and the Pirates" comic strip by OSU grad and cartoonist Milt Caniff ? 8. What organization has the longest history of continuous community service in the Tri-Village area? Search your memory, ask the Òold-timers", debate the data, and look for the answers in the next GH/MC Historical Society ViewPoints. About Our NewsletterÕs Masthead... On the left... 1490 Arlington Avenue McGregor Residence This Victorian Queen Anne-style house was originally presumed to have been built for Timothy J. Price or a member of his family. In 1889, Price, with his son, John E. Price, and his son-in-law, Charles C. Griswold, platted 58 acres east of the Scioto River and south of West Fifth Avenue as "Arlington Place," the nucleus of the present Marble Cliff. This house originally stood somewhere northwest of its present location. In 1909, Butler Sheldon, Mayor of Marble Cliff, purchased the two lots on which the house now stands. Sometime between 1909 and 1914 this house was moved to its present location. In 1914, the house was sold to Professor Lewis Anderson of The Ohio State University. The Anderson family occupied the house until 1953. (For a research update on this house, see page four.) --PATRICK MOONEY On the Right... The Rook Cabin This log cabin, located behind 1096 Wyandotte Road, was originally built in the late 1860s near what is now Cardigan Avenue and Cambridge Boulevard by Garrett Henry Miller. His farm extended north to West Fifth Avenue, and was part of the 58 acres purchased in 1889 by Price, Price and Griswold and platted as Arlington Place, the nucleus of the present Marble Cliff. There was a deep well, an apple orchard and a milk house on the property. The Gilbert Dresback's were the last known occupants. In 1915, a group of Grandview Heights High School boys organized The Brotherhood of Rooks, and with the help of their fathers, moved the cabin, log by log, to its present site. The Rooks used the cabin as a club house until 1920, when the Bronson family, whose son Joe was a Rook, moved and the boys lost the use of the cabin. The logs are hand-hewn, the cabin measures 18 by 20 feet, and it has a fieldstone fireplace. --Skip Karlovec CAN YOU HELP? Most of the historical materials in the archives of GH/MCHS are the gifts of members of the community, ranging from single items to complete scrapbooks, from a spike from the track of the trolley line which once ran up Broadview Avenue hill to athletic letters from the 1920s, and from hand-written memoirs to published books. We have spent many hours during the past several years sorting, organizing and filing our research materials in preparation for writing a history of Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff. Research continues in newspaper microfilm, county records and numerous other sources. You can help! We welcome the donation or loan for copying of any materials which shed light on the history of our communities. If you have anything which might be of interest, please contact us. Sometimes the most ephemeral items shed the most interesting light on the ways of the past. So let us see it before you put it back in the trunk or throw it out! The Society has a complete run of the Grandview Heights High School Highlander, from 1915 when it was a quarterly publication, until the 1960s. Following is a list of years which we do not have, and would appreciate having to fill the gaps: 1968-1972, 1977,1979,1983,1987- 1991,1993-1998. Sometimes Abstracts of Title contain the only clue to when a house was built. They are no longer used to establish title to property, and are a fast disappearing artifact. Do you happen to have the Abstract of Title to your property? could the Society become the archival custodian of this piece of local history? What else is "out there"? For example, does anyone have a menu from Stew Harrison's, The Flame, Presutti's, or Esther's Club? Ah, say the rising generation, where were those places? Exactly! Can you help? Historical Research/Writing Committee: Skip Karlovec and Patrick Mooney Also... DID YOU KNOW? Many in our community are not aware of the interesting historical photography display located along the breezeway in the Bank Block building (beside StaufÕs). Wagenbrenner & Co. who owns the building, had the lighted display cases built and underwrote the reproduction costs of the vintage photographs from the SocietyÕs collection to help us showcase local history. The display is intended to change from time to time. A collection of material called ÒThe Brothers-in-LawÓ has recently been placed in one display case. This new topic focuses on the Marble Cliff community circa 1910. RESEARCH NOTES... The McGregor house at 1490 Arlington Avenue was identified in 1998 as having originally stood just south of West Fifth Avenue, immediately east of the railroad tracks, looking west across the Scioto Valley. Recently, however, two different circa 1900 photographs have been discovered. They show, on the above site, a handsome Victorian house clearly identified as the John E. Price residence which surprisingly does not match the 1490 Arlington Avenue MacGregor residence. Research will continue to establish the original site and owner of this historic home. (To see one of the recently discovered photographs of the John E. Price residence, visit the "virtual walking tour" on our website.) ViewPoints is an occasional publication of the Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society. 1685 West First Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43212 EDITOR Patrick Mooney DESIGN/PRODUCTION Margie Wilson Contact Editor Patrick Mooney (279-6665) for any interesting article ideas or to discuss photo contributions.