A new jungle gym was recently installed at the Pierce Field playground as part of a renovation project designed to replace equipment that does not meet current safety standards. This photograph was taken in 1967 by Columbus Dispatch photographer, Thom Rockey, just after another renovation to upgrade the park's playground equipment. Students are crowded on a "Dome Whirl" which obviously would not meet modern safety standards. The "Dome Whirl" was located near the northeast corner of Oxley and First Avenues. It was removed from the playground over 25 years ago. The Texaco gas station in the background is the site currently occupied by the vacant medical office. None of the students in the picture are identified. If anyone has any additional information regarding this photograph please contact the Historical Society at tdemaria@columbus.rr.com.

This photograph shows orchestra leader, Don Crawford, playing the saxophone at the Grandview Heights High School's L.A.L. Sorority Spring Commencement Formal at Valley Dale in May of 1947. He had the privilege of debuting the new hit song, "I Had a Wonderful Time in Columbus" by Curt Weinberg and Kermit Goell. It was a national hit due to their clever promotion efforts. They convinced Columbus realtors to provide 50 apartments for housing needy World War II veterans. Any nationally prominent radio personality who promoted the song on their station was allowed to match one needy veteran with an apartment. An article in the May 31, 1947 issue of  The Billboard Magazine indicated that the record trade had never seen such an enormously successful song promotion. Bob Hope was one of the 50 celebrities promoting the song.

Grandview Heights High School classmates (left to right) David Purkey, Dick Poulton, and Dean Krichbaum graduated in 1948 and served in the Navy for four years. The trio is pictured here in their Navy uniforms. All three returned to Columbus and attended The Ohio State University. David received a law degree, Dick graduated with a degree in accounting, and Dean received a M.B.A. David and Dick are deceased. Dean made a poignant memorial contribution to the GHHS Alumni Association in honor of his friends, classmates, and shipmates in the fall of 2008 and at the last update was still living in Mayfield, Kentucky.

Grandview Heights City Schools will start the 2011-2012 school year next week. This photograph was taken at the start of the school year in 1955, and shows Edison Elementary students and their teacher, Mrs. Murray, examining new text books. The books are titled Magic Carpet and presumed to be individual textbooks since each student has their own copy. Good nutrition was also emphasized as indicated by the "Guide to Good Eating" posted on the bulletin board in the background. Harriet Gill is the only student identified. She is in the front row to the right of the teacher. (Editor's note: Resident Judy Kibele has identified several kids in this photo: Jeff Todd is in the cub scout uniform, Judy Kibele is at the far right in the front row, Linda McCall is behind her, and Mike McSweeney is behind Linda.)

This image is the cover of the football program from the November 8, 1946 Central Buckeye League Championship game between Arlington and Grandview. Both schools were undefeated (Grandview held teams scoreless in 4 of the 9 games this year, and in the remaining games only one team scored more than one touchdown) and were playing their 21st consecutive game since their first match up in 1926. Of the 20 preceding games the Bobcats won 9, the Bears 8, and 3 games ended in scoreless ties. The Bobcats had won the championship the year before but unfortunately lost this particular game to Arlington 13 to 6.  

What is wrong with this picture? This post card, from the GHMCHS archives, was published by THE CAMERA SHOP at 48 East Broad Street in Columbus and printed by Dexter Printing Company, West Nyack, NY. The caption on the reverse states that it is an aerial view of Ohio State University Stadium, the gridiron home of the famed Buckeyes of Ohio State University. The post card is not postmarked but appears to date from the 1950's.  e-mail your response to tdemaria@columbus.rr.com

(Editor's note: The post card was printed in reverse, as the river is shown to be on the wrong side of the stadium.)

The GHHS Highlander was published as an annual for the first time in 1922. Prior to that it was a tri-annual high school news magazine. The business manager was senior Darrell Smith (inset). He was credited for the managerial and financial success of the inaugural issue. The cashbook pictured here is his ledger and it contains the business records, receipts, bills, and cancelled checks for the Highlander Publishing Company from February to October 1922. The organization started with a cash balance of $14.25. Income from advertising and subscriptions sales totaled $581. Their net profit for the year was $37.51 which is approximately $490 in 2011 dollars.

This photograph, from the July 1975 Columbus Citizen Journal, shows Grandy, the Grandview Heights Fire Department dalmatian mascot, in the fire engine with his unidentified partner. The GHFD was started by Mayor Ryder in August of 1924, after Columbus the previous year effectively cut the service it had previously provided to the tri-village area. A new building on Grandview Avenue was built, two medium size fire vehicles were purchased, and a fire chief and two firefighters, one of whom lived in the new station, were hired.

The photograph on the left shows Grandview Heights High School's first homecoming queen, Bonnie Jean (B.J.) Martin McCullough in the fall of 1930. She is with Eddie Holloway driving Bob Ulrich's convertible. The homecoming game was with Upper Arlington and Grandview won. The photo on the right was taken 69 years later, in May of 1999, when Bonnie Jean represented the historical society in the annual Memorial Day parade. B.J. lives quietly today in her family home. She is ninety-eight years old, a proud member of the Class of 1931, and one of GHHS's oldest living alumni.

This candid photograph captured Martha Agler in an animated conversation with GHHS principal Ralph Beery at a high school graduation ceremony. The date is unknown, but Martha was the Board of Education president at the time and handed out diplomas. She served on the board from 1958 until 1969 and was president for nine years. Martha will celebrate her 100th Birthday on October 4. The community is invited to a reception for her on Saturday Oct 1, 2011 at Boulevard Presbyterian Church, 1235 Northwest Blvd, from 1:30 to 3:00.

A popular teen sport recently is "car-surfing", an activity involving riding on the top or side of a moving car. In 1932, several Columbus accidents resulted in the deaths of teens performing similar stunts, often riding on the running boards of vehicles. As a result of one such accident, the Columbus Citizen newspaper printed this photo, showing Grandview and Arlington kids demonstrating this activity and "what not to do" in an attempt by local police to raise awareness of the dangers. This appeared in the July 17, 1932 edition.

This photograph is dated October 1923 and shows the Grandview vs Columbus Commerce game. Columbus Commerce was the original name of Central High School. The game was played on the open field north of the present high school in the area currently occupied by the baseball field. The houses in the background line Fifth Avenue.  There was no stadium. The fans had to stand and parked their cars on the field. The officials do not have uniforms. The game ended in a 6-6 tie.

This photo is a copy of the program used for the dedication of the Grandview Heights Public School, now called Edison, built 100 years ago. The public is invited to attend a presentation given by the Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society trustees Wayne Carlson and Tom DeMaria that will trace the early history of our community's oldest school building still in use. It will be Thursday October 13th, at 7:00PM in the Commons of Edison and is in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Historical Society.

Not all of the GHHS Homecoming games have been as perfect as last week's game against Fisher Catholic. For example, the caption on this picture of the 1948 homecoming court at the game is "RAIN, RAIN, RAIN…" Pictured (l to r) are: Freda Harris, Dortha Hoover, Homecoming Queen Dolores DiMenna, Sally Vance, and Jackie Soule. It is not clear whether their grimaces are due to the terrible weather or the fact that Arlington beat Grandview 13 to 6. 

Grandview Heights resident Julius F. Stone is shown in this photograph during an expedition down the Colorado River in 1909. Stone was an influential Columbus industrialist and entrepreneur, and a trustee of The Ohio State University. His former homestead is now the location of Stonegate Village. The expedition left Green River City, Wyoming in September of 1909, following the same course as the first river trip taken by Major John Wesley Powell in 1869. It arrived in Needles, California in January of 1912. The Stone Party expedition is one of only seven complete river trips and the first river trip taken only for sport. Stone documented the expedition in a book Canyon Country : The Romance of a Drop of Water and a Grain of Sand, in which he detailed the geologic characteristics of the nineteen canyons through which the river flowed.

GHHS's first undefeated, untied football team is pictured here in 1939. Grandview Heights, Upper Arlington, and Bexley were known as the "Little Three". They played each other yearly from 1927 -1965. The football team was also undefeated, 9-0, in 1947 and 1955. Last Friday evening, after a 55 year hiatus, the football team completed its fourth undefeated season and for the first time in school history was 10-0. Congratulations Bobcats!

Because of the rich layers of stone in the region around Grandview, there have been working quarries for many years. Everything from stone slabs that were used in the construction of notable buildings, such as the Statehouse, stones for fences up and down roads like Riverside Drive, to aggregate used in some of the first asphalt roads in the area, tons and tons of rock has been moved from the area. This 1954 photo shows operations in the quarry near Grandview Avenue and Dublin Road. Stone crushers worked throughout the day and night, and trucks and railroad cars moved the gravel and stone throughout the region. It was a dangerous job, and local newspapers recorded many deaths in the quarries over the years.

Julius Stone, owner of the Seagrave Co. (maker of fire engines) and the Ohio Buggy Works, was an adventurous man. He was an influential Columbus industrialist who was also interested in conservation issues and loved exploring, organizing the first Colorado River expedition in 1909. Stone was a trustee of The Ohio State University, and iIn 1925 he donated Gibraltar Island in Lake Erie near Put-In-Bay to OSU to establish what would become Stone Lab. The Julius Stone  residence was located at 1065 Westwood Avenue currently where Stonegate village is located. This undated photograph, which shows the elderly Stone posing in his yard on his motorcycle, was part of a collection of photos recently made available to the Historical Society.

M.M. (Milton) Williams was Grandview's second superintendent of schools, serving from 1919 to 1925. He is shown in this 1924 photo presenting certificates to students Doris Sutton and Bob Springer, both GHHS class of 1928. Irene Hankinson, Assistant Principal and math teacher at the Grandview Junior High School, is at the desk. In 1925 Hankinson married Thomas Newton Brown, former high school principal. Their son, Herbert Russell Brown, is a Columbus attorney and former Ohio Supreme Court Justice (1987- 1993). He also wrote several books and plays, including Presumption of Guilt, published in 1991 by Penguin and Shadows of Doubt.

The first mayor of the Hamlet of Marble Cliff, James S. Ricketts, was elected in 1901. He was a Methodist minister who despised alcohol, and as a result he fined overly active wealthy visitors to the Arlington Country Club located on the.east side of the Hamlet. The lots on the west were sold with restrictions prohibiting the sale of the liquor, while only the Country Club was allowed to serve it. This action was taken to keep saloons out of the village. In 1903 the southern residents detached themselves from the Hamlet, and in 1908 Marble Cliff voted to incorporate as a village after a turbulent time in which the mayor was arrested and the village threatened with the near revocation of their charter. Mayor Ricketts served two terms then abruptly resigned in 1905. More information about Mayor Ricketts can be found on the Historical Society web site; he will also be featured in a forthcoming Society newsletter article.

Vaud-Villities has been an important part of the fibre of the tri-village area for years. It began as a minstrel show at Upper Arlington High School on March 12, 1943, with 27 singers from the Men's Glee Club of First Community Church directed by Lowell Riley, who was the musical director of WBNS. The high school girls of the church's Cloister Choir joined the cast the following year. With an ever expanding cast of singers and dancers, the show moved to Veterans Memorial in 1961 where it was staged for 49 years. Vaud-Villities now calls the Northland Performing Arts Center on Morse Road its home. This unique production is claimed to be the country's oldest and largest musical variety show. Pictured here  are some of the Cloisters from the 1951 production.

This residential home is located on the west side of Grandview Avenue across from the fire station.  The building was originally known as the Poor House and was  built in 1832 - 1833 for the poor and sick.  Since the Scioto River flooded every spring, people were unable to get to the Poor House and it was eventually closed and the commissioners sold the building and surrounding area. In 1915 William Bott of Bott Brothers Tavern (now known as The Elevator Brewery) bought the building and surrounding area. In 1946 James J. Hughes and his wife, Margaret, moved into the home.  After several other owners, the  daughter of James Hughes, Maureen and her husband Dennis Murphy bought the home in 1975.   Maureen  described the home as "the absolute best hide and seek house".  This photograph was used as a Christmas card and is in the files of the Historical Society.

For a hundred-plus years adults and  children alike have claimed Grandview Heights as the "coasting" center of Central Ohio. Though sledding is restricted on many of the private hills and city streets, Wyman Woods still seems to attract those willing to brave the snow and cold weather for a thrilling ride. This photo shows residents sledding in the early 1900s on the Grandview Avenue hill looking south toward Goodale Boulevard. Hilly streets were closed due to the inability to travel on them but the fun started shortly after the streets closed. Other sites for sledding were Broadview Avenue and Woodhill Drive, which was previously known as Utopia Drive.

This is an undated picture (taken prior to 1892) of the residence of early Marble Cliff pioneer T. J. Price, at the corner of Front and Gay Street, facing Front Street in downtown Columbus. T.J. Price built three "summer" homes for his family in Marble Cliff (which was then called Arlington) north of the Our Lady of Victory convent facing the Scioto valley to the west. The houses are no longer there, but the estate included all the land north of the OLV church south of Fifth Avenue. This house later became the first office of King Thompson Real Estate, developers of Upper Arlington.

In July of 1969, while looking for a project for his Boy Scout troop #73, Grandview resident Bruce Smith came up with the idea of sledding in July on cardboard boxes. He pursued the idea with other boy scouts who helped collect boxes and construct the slope. After a trial run, they put it together on the hill of Wyman Woods.The cardboard was stapled together and waxed and laid out from the bottom to the top of the hill in the woods. The troop then drove through Grandview and Marble Cliff in a car with loud speakers notifying all to come have a sled ride. It was a very successful day. After the event the Grandview maintenance crew collected the cardboard, sold it and provided money for that year's Christmas party.

This 1983 photo shows Grandview High School graduates Jackie Day Cherry, class of '49;  Shirley Arthur Hatch, '45; Barbara Gilchrist Boggs, '47; Nancy Stevens Hart, '49 and Jackie Soule Shifflette, '49. These ladies were together on July 2, 1983 for what they called  "The Fabulous Forties Reunion," which combined the graduates of the classes of 1945 through 1949. It was reported that the reunion committee had so much fun planning the event that they had a reunion of the reunion committee several weeks later. As one of the ladies commented, "Those Grandview bonds were so strong and they have remained that way through the years. It was a wonderful time to grow up in Grandview!"

In the late 19th Century the Grandview/Marble Cliff area was grazing land, woodland, a few summer homes on the river and farms.  One of the original homes in the Grandview area was the farmhouse built by the Salzgaber family. Their produce farm was located on the east side of Grandview  Avenue and the family sold vegetables to the North Market, Central Market and local farmer's market on Grandview Avenue.  Three generations of the Salzgaber family lived In this house and worked the farm until 1916 when it was sold to King Thompson's Northwest Boulevard Co.  The Salzgaber farm lands were subdivided into what is now Grandview Heights east of Grandview Avenue. The Salzgabers moved to farm lands north (now Upper Arlington, near what is now the Lane Ave. Shopping Center) where they continued their farming business. Betty Salzgaber and Ralph, Jr. continue to live in one of the Salzgaber houses on Grandview Avenue.