HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY

Established May, 1974

The first annual meeting of the infant Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society was held at the Grandview Library on September 18th, 1974. The constitution and bylaws were written the previous May, establishing the new Society (they were updated most recently in 2012). The first board of trustees was elected, consisting of Win Keller, Ann Larrick, Virginia Abbot, Dirk Voelker and Joseph Wyman. Jack Snyder, chairman of the library board, offered a place in the library for meetings and storage of memorabilia.

Credit for the concept of a local historical society goes to a conversation between Ann Larrick and Win Keller in Win's kitchen sometime in 1973. Their inspiration came from the research into Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff history by Mrs. Amelia Muhlbach and Miss Becky Laycock, teachers at Edison Elementary School, who were involving their students in programs designed to develop knowledge and appreciation of their heritage of local history.

The timing of the society's beginning was fortuitous. Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society rode the wave of interest in the national bicentennial of 1976. The Society's first major project was the publication of Sheltering a Heritage, a history of local homes built before about 1912, which was reprinted in 1999.