In 1916, brothers King and Ben Thompson, who were eventually responsible for the early planning of Upper Arlington, established the Northwest Boulevard Company to realize a dream of developing a community similar to one they had visited in Kansas City. The plats of their Northwest Boulevard subdivision were filed in 1916 and 1917, and included properties carved out of the 345 acre Grandview Thomas farm. Northwest Blvd. was seen as a crucial step in the development, providing a convenient route from Upper Arlington directly to downtown Columbus.This photograph, captioned "The Skyline of Good Old Columbus Town, Taken from the Knolls of The Northwest Boulevard" appeared on the inside cover of the October 1918 Norwester magazine. It was part of an advertisement for residential lots for sale by the Thompson's company. Ben was president of the company and King was secretary. The advertisement boasted that, "as the crow flies, the Ohio Statehouse was less than two miles away from the development."

Marble Cliff resident Emily Moelchert is shown in this photo with two docile Brown Swiss cows in a field down the hill from her home near Roxbury and Cardigan. Emily was the daughter of Charlotte Wilkinson, who built their home at 1964 Cardigan in 1913. Charlotte was a widow who moved to Columbus from Ironton, Ohio with her 4 children so they could attend Ohio State University. Her husband, a West Point graduate, died while serving during the Indian wars in the western United States in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Emily married Chester Moelchert, and they resided in the home for 70 years. The cows were owned by the Willits Sawyer family who lived on a three-acre estate at 1499 Roxbury which comprised the entire western portion of Roxbury between Cardigan and Third. Sawyer provided fresh dairy products to local residents.

The Dublin Road Water Treatment Plant is shown in the center of this photo. The plant, constructed in 1908, was the first of three plants that provided water treatment and filtration for Columbus residents and businesses. Dublin Road , adjacent to the Scioto River, curves around the plant at the right of the photo.The Grandview Yard of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) is at the left edge of the photo, between the transmission tower of WBNS-TV (which opened in 1949, the same year this photo was taken) and Goodale Blvd. The PRR Spruce Street engine house and coach yard is the building at the top center of the photo, just left of the WBNS tower (WBNS opened this same year.) The coach yard was used for servicing passenger steam locomotives, passenger coaches, Pullman cars and dining cars.

The Northwest Boulevard Company advertised in early publications the development of new areas in Grandview Heights, including this view looking west on First Avenue at the triangular intersection of First and Virginia (Parkway to the right). Text from the advertisement in the Norwester magazine includes "The above view shows the development of the Northwest Boulevard at the corner of First and Virginia Avenues. Note the high class properties which are being built here. You will be interested in looking them over. Call Main 2620 or Citizens 7462 and one of our salesmen will be at your service." At least six large homes and two automobiles are visible in the photo. Houses shown at the left in this photograph include 1233, 1237, and 1243 West First.

In 1909 a small, nondenominational group of men and women began to meet for worship in Grandview Heights. The following year they joined the Congregational Church organization, and dedicated a building, now known as Lincoln Road Chapel, in 1911. Under the leadership of Reverend Fred L. Brownlee, the Grandview Congregational Church strived to be a church where all denominations could unite. This 1917 photo shows the choir standing at the front of the chapel. Left to right, beginning on the top row, are: Mrs. J. O. Thomas, Florence Field, Mrs. W. H. Whissen, Jas. O. Thomas, Robert Butterworth, H. A. Beach, Mrs. H. A. Beach, J. E. Ryder, Fred C. Nesbitt, Frank Semans, Richard Butterworth, T. G. Constable, and H. E. Penney. Next row down: Arthur Thompson, Verna Rains, Cyril Hammond, Nanna Altrude, Mary Brumell, Virginia Clark, Laura Walcutt, Dorothy Gardner, Hester Reed, Virginia Allen, Elma Rains, Miriam Northcraft, Ruth Smith, Jean Constable, and Sidney Morehead. Third row down: Nelson Butterworth, Jean Kirkpatrick, Zelma Childers, Elizabeth Paddock, Hazel Whittridge, Mabel McLeod. At the front: Irwin Whittridge, Elizabeth Nesbitt, William Lynn, Ned Thompson, Donald Beach, and Robert Beach.

This seven room brick home at 1237 West First Avenue in Grandview Heights was advertised for sale in the November 1918 issue of the Norwester magazine. The first floor contained a large entry hall, an extra large living room with fireplace, a dining room, a kitchen and a pantry. The second floor had three bedrooms and a bathroom, and the home also featured a finished third floor. The advertisement was placed by the Northwest Boulevard Company with Ben Thompson listed as the president, King G. Thompson as the secretary, and F. A. Shawaker as the sales manager. The Northwest Boulevard Company deeded land to the Franklin County Commissioners to be used as the right of way for the construction of Northwest Boulevard. That street became a direct route from Upper Arlington to downtown Columbus and one of the most important developments in the growth of both UA and Grandview. The home, valued at $4520, was originally purchased by Gus B. Barlow (inset), the Ohio Manager for The Federal Life Insurance of Chicago.

The Grandview Parent Teacher Association (PTA) met on the east lawn of the Willits H. Sawyer residence at 1499 Roxbury Road on Wednesday, May 15, 1918. The Sawyer home was on the bluff, overlooking the Scioto River, near the intersection of Roxbury and Cardigan. Parents and children at the event included Grandview and Upper Arlington residents. Until Upper Arlington opened its school system in October 1918, children in the community attended the Grandview schools. The meeting consisted of a reception and business meeting, as well as a series of presentations on the lawn given by classes from the school, the Camp Fire Girls, and the Boy Scouts. Mrs. Willits was very active in the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Association, and was the President of the Ohio branch. Mr. Sawyer was an internationally known consulting engineer and the Vice-President of the E.W. Clark and Company Management Corp. in Columbus.

One of the keys to the development of the Grandview Heights, Marble Cliff and Arlington communities was the completion of the trolley line from downtown to the Tri-Village area. The trolley travelled from downtown, up what is now Goodale Blvd, up the Broadview Hill, west on First Avenue, and north on Arlington to Fifth Avenue. From a 1908 publication, The Homebuilder, the following excerpt appeared: "…the run from Grandview Heights to the center of the city [Columbus] takes less than twenty minutes. The cars on the line are among the best in the service of the Columbus Railway and Light Company. The fare is five cents, with transfers to any part of the city, on any of the other lines operated by the Company." The publication also touts the completion of Goodale Blvd. as an important part of opening the region to transportation. It was built in 1907 for $12,000 using crushed stone from the quarries, and was paid for by private funds from large property owners in Grandview.

In 1888, Columbus resident J.R. Anderson sold his farm and adjacent property (on Dublin Road just east of Grandview Avenue) to W.A. and Clara Pope, who maintained their farm there until the 1930s. On land just to the west of the farmhouse (shown in this 1892 photo) was an ancient indian mound, dating from 400.B.C. Constructed by the Adena Indians as a ceremonial burial ground, the mound was over 20 feet high and between 150 and 200 feet in diameter. The mound was identified in early archaeology records as the Anderson Mound, and had been carefully preserved by Mr. Anderson. Pope also actively preserved the integrity of the mound, and constructed stairs to the top, where he installed a pergola for he and his family to enjoy the view over the river valley. After his death, Clara and her daughter Florence moved to Santa Monica, and a decade later sold the property to Columbus car dealer, Joe Toepfner. Toepfner wanted to clear the land for development, and after a prolonged battle with Grandview residents and the Ohio Historical Society, the mound was excavated and cleared in 1954.

James Spencer Ricketts (1844-1918) was a traveling preacher from Monday Creek Township, Perry County, Ohio. In 1888, citing ill health, he retired from active ministry and was designated superannuated (retired). He and his wife settled in Columbus, where he had many interests. He established a real estate business in Columbus in 1889, helped build the 5th Avenue and King Avenue Methodist Churches, and developed tracts of real estate north of Fifth Avenue.  After several years as a Hamlet, Marble Cliff became a village, and James S. Ricketts was elected mayor. As a Methodist minister and ardent anti-liquor advocate, Ricketts attempted to make the entire area dry. This pitted him against saloon owners along Fifth Avenue, members of the Arlington Country Club, and even his own Village Marshall, C. E. Herrel, who took every opportunity to undermine the mayor’s authority. Press coverage at the time indicated that when the mayor ordered the arrest of a local saloon keeper the marshall retaliated by impounding the Mayor's cow and calf which escaped from their corral. The temperance controversy culminated in the arrest and jailing of Ricketts and a near revocation of the Village Charter in June of 1904, although he was eventually vindicated. He served almost two terms and abruptly resigned to become a book salesman in February of 1905.

This 1962 photo, originally published in the Columbus Citizen-Journal, shows the site preparation and beginning construction phase of First Community Village, on the northern boundary of Grandview. The land on which it was built was the last 28 acres of the 1000 acre Miller Farm, 840 acres of which had already been purchased by King and Ben Thompson to develop Upper Arlington.This site was not the original intended site - it was property at Reed and McCoy - but was identified as being more at the heart of the community that it was intended to serve. Groundbreaking services were held in February of 1962, and construction began. FCV was originally envisioned as an independent living community with a small assisted living component, but it became a licensed nursing facility in 1965. FCV ran into financial difficulties because of stalled efforts to expand with new unit construction, and in April of 2010 declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the end of that year, they emerged from bankruptcy with new owners, Upper Arlington-based National Church Residences, and in 2013 repaid all outstanding bankruptcy debt.

Former resident and 1926 Grandview graduate Frank “Dude” Higgs is shown in 1943 with a wartime worker during a visit to a Curtiss Wright machine shop, which was assembling parts for World War II aircraft. Higgs graduated from Ohio State University and was called up to the Army Air Corps. Higgs was assigned to China as an aviation instructor but resigned his commission in 1941, right after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, so he could play a more active part in the war, but in the private employ of the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC). A few days after he went to work for the Chinese, he participated in the evacuation of Chinese civilians from Hong Kong after the Japanese invasion there. Under cover of night, Higgs flew planes with up to 80 passengers (the plane’s capacity was 25) to safety in China. At other times he transported such celebrated people as Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang, Wendell Wilkie when he was touring China as a candidate for U.S. President, and Clare Booth Luce, who devoted several paragraphs to their encounter in a story she wrote for Life Magazine. On October 20, 1945, Higgs lost his life when his plane, bound for Canton from Shanghai, crashed and killed all aboard. At that time, newspaper articles connected Higgs with fictional comic strip character Dude Hennick, drawn by Higgs’ OSU friend Milton Caniff, in the comic strip Terry and the Pirates. Higgs’ sister Alleyne married her Grandview High School coach, Stanton Jones, and their daughter Jeanne Holder donated this photo to the Aviation Museum and Collection at the San Francisco Airport.

Roderick (“RB”) Barden was a Professor in the Agricultural Extension Service at The Ohio State University when he started the Outdoors Store in 1934. He later operated the OSU Airport and ran the Aviation Department at OSU, and became the Chairman of the Department of Agricultural Engineering. Barden was also an avid boating enthusiast, and was a member of the U.S. and Columbus Power Squadrons and the Sandusky Yacht Club. He and his wife Frances (Janney) lived in a home at 1019 Dublin Road, located between the Water Plant and Grandview Avenue, where Barden started a business on the side repairing and upgrading power boat motors in an outbuilding behind his house. His other passion was outdoor activities, and he opened the Outdoors Store in the Masons Building at the corner of First and Grandview Avenues. Each year they held a boat show, which attracted hundreds to events at the store, often flowing out into the street (shown here in 1950). In the early 1950s, the store moved to a building adjacent to the Barden’s home at 1025 Dublin Road, where it remained until the business closed in 1982.

This 1872 map of northern Franklin Township shows the property owners of the land between the rivers, that would ultimately become the Village of Marble Cliff and later the City of Grandview Heights. The parallel line below the railroad tracks is Dublin Pike, later known as Dublin Road, and King Avenue borders the top of the map. Grandview Avenue will be located running north and south in the center of the map, dividing the Walcutt and Zollinger lands. The Adena Indian Mound (depicted as a radiating circle) was located on the J.R. Anderson property near the bend in the Scioto River, just west of the confluence with the Olentangy River. Note the many quarries adjacent to the river and the spring-fed pools on both sides of the railroad. The Walcutt School is located just north of Dublin Pike at Grandview Avenue. The Thomas Farm at the right will be purchased by the Thompson Brothers for their Northwest Boulevard Company development, and the farms at the top left will become the southern section of Upper Arlington, and First Community Village.

The building at the north end of the Grandview Bank Block at 1305-1307 Grandview Ave. is currently the home of Cameron Mitchell's The Avenue Steak Tavern. When the Bank Block opened in 1927 the south side of the building was an ice cream shop, and for many years was Isaly's, part of the chain out of Pittsburgh famous for the Klondike Bar. The building was part of the Bank Block complex, built by Don Casto. For several years it was in disrepair when it was deeded to the Cadiz Methodist Church by the trust of the previous owner, Scott Knell. Just prior to becoming The Avenue, it was a Panera Bread restaurant, and prior to that it housed Rainbow Cleaners, which is shown in this photo.

The property at 1117 West First, at the southeast corner of First Avenue and Oxley Road, is currently the home of Health and Harmony Animal Hospital, which replaced the offices of physician Gary Erdy. Long before the existing building was built, a filling station was built, becoming the home of Neff’s Texaco, and later Browning's Texaco, shown in this photograph from 1976. The property was previously owned by Harold Voelker, followed by Luther L. Boger, a principal in the Automatic Food Dispensing Company, Columbus distributors of vending machines. Several others managed the service station before it was purchased by Wilson Farms, Inc, and housed the Corner Ice Cream store. Many local children walked from the neighborhood, or crossed from the playground at Pierce Field to buy ice cream, sometimes served in mini baseball helmets, from the walk-up window. Note the price of Fire Chief gasoline, Texaco's regular, at 58.9 cents per gallon.

Between the years 1915 and 1925, the event of the year was the Grandview Heights, Marble Cliff, and Upper Arlington Field Day Celebration. This annual holiday activity was held in early summer and featured a parade, food, a baseball game between Grandview and Arlington, children's games, etc. It was the brainchild of the dynamic and progressive pastor of First Community Church, Oliver Clyde Weist. The tradition (lasting ten years) grew out of a decision by teachers that they could plan something bigger and better than the usual Sunday School picnic. A queen reigned over the day’s festivities, which included a parade, field events, dinner at the church, a baseball game, and concerts. The name of any female between the ages of 9 and 40 could be placed on the ballot for 25 cents, and a nickel bought 100 votes for a favorite candidate for the queen title. The 1919 Field Day ended with a movie, another innovation of Weist. He thought it would be a good idea for a committee to choose films suitable for family viewing and then show them at church. These weekly movies became so popular that a second showing was added. Subsequently, movies were shown every Saturday night till 1926, when the Grandview Theater opened.

Joseph L. Gaudieri was born in Italy in 1890, to Panfino and Vita Antonia Gaudieri. Joe learned the tailoring trade at an early age in his father's shop and worked there until he was 18. In 1912, he was drafted into the Italian Army and served for two years during the Turkish-Italian War. After he was discharged in 1914, he came to America and settled in Columbus, where he worked as a tailor until he was inducted into the army for service in WWI. After he was discharged, he came back to Columbus and resumed his trade as a tailor. In 1921, he married Margaret Thomas, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Thomas, also natives of Italy and residents of Columbus. In 1922, he established a business of his own and in 1925 opened his store at 1629 West First Avenue (previously Gutches' Market, and later the Celeste Realty office) at the corner of First and Oakland in Grandview. He and Margaret operated the business, Gaudieri's Cleaners and Tailor Shop, until 1970, while living in the apartment over the store.

Coming off of two losses and a tie for the previous three games, Grandview played Arlington in the last matchup of the 1942 football season. The game was homecoming for Grandview, and it was spoiled as they lost to the Arlington squad 13 to 6. The overall season (3-4-1) concluded with the football banquet, featuring speakers Carl Widdoes (Ohio State assistant football coach, who would become OSU’s head coach the next year) and Jimmy Hull, Ohio State’s All American basketball player. Co-captain Sam Wippel, and Howard Yerges were named outstanding players for the season by Grandview Coach “Pug” Hood. The team then enjoyed a turkey dinner provided by the football mothers, and watched movies of Ohio State football games narrated by Coach Widdoes. This photo was taken at the kickoff for the game.

"Italians Like Dancing and Feasting," said the headlines in a story in the January 27, 1932 issue of the Columbus Citizen. The article was part of a series featuring the lifestyles of different nationalities living in the Columbus metropolitan area. The many Italian immigrants that settled in Columbus resided in Flytown (along Goodale Blvd.), in Italian Village (near the Short North, west of High Street), in Grandview Heights, Marble Cliff, and San Margherita. They were drawn to these areas for work in places like Jeffery Manufacturing, Smith Bros. Hardware, nearby railroad yards, and the quarries near Marble Cliff and San Margherita. This photo from the newspaper article shows Grandview residents Grace Martina, 1352 Westwood, and Tony Tedeschi, 1500 West Third, in a pose from the Italian dance La Tarantella. The popular Italian dance, according to an old Italian legend, got its name when a Neapolitan couple was bitten by a tarantula, and the only way to cure the resulting irrepressible desire to dance was to keep right on dancing.

American civilians first received ration books—War Ration Book Number One, or the "Sugar Book"— on May 4, 1942. By the end of that year, gasoline and eight other items were also rationed. In the case of gas rationing, the main idea was to conserve rubber, not gasoline. The best way to accomplish that was to limit the amount of gasoline an individual could purchase, as well as the maximum driving speed. (Voluntary rationing was first tried, but it was unsuccessful, so the government intervened.) The "A" sticker (sample shown here in inset) was the basic sticker issued to drivers. It was attached to the windshield, and allowed for only three gallons per week. There were four other stickers which allowed for more gallons for qualified individuals (the "B" sticker was for factory workers and traveling salesmen and allowed eight gallons; "C", shown here, was for police and postal workers; "T" was for truck drivers; the "X" sticker was for politicians and allowed unlimited usage!) The following appeared in the Nov. 20, 1942 Tri-Village News: "Northwest automobile owners whose driving requirements-for business purposes-entitles them to more gasoline than provided by the 'A' ration book, may apply for supplemental ration books 'B' or 'C' at R.L. Stevenson school Nov. 23-30."

This 1924 photo, taken in a GHHS classroom, shows Irene Hankinson, the Assistant Principal and math teacher at Grandview Junior High School, Milton M.Williams, Superintendent of Grandview Heights Public Schools and Upper Arlington Public Schools, and GH students Doris Sutton and Bob Springer, both of whom would graduate in 1928. Sup't. Williams (known by students as "Milty Wilty") shared 1/3 of his appointment with Arlington from 1919 until 1924, and he left Grandview Schools in 1925. The photograph is one of many taken by Fred A. Behmer, Sr., at that time a resident of Wyandotte Road in Grandview. Behmer was chief photographer for Jeffrey Manufacturing for nearly 50 years. In 1925 Irene Hankinson married Thomas Newton Brown, former Grandview Heights High School Principal and teacher at West High School in Columbus. Their son, Herbert Russell Brown, is a Columbus attorney, former Ohio Supreme Court Justice (1987- 1993), novelist and playwright.

Some of the overcrowdedness of the Grandview Heights schools was reduced when the Village of Upper Arlington was allowed by the Franklin County Board of Education to establish a separate school district, which they did in August, 1918. They built a temporary four-room building with funds provided by King and Ben Thompson at the southeast corner of Arlington Avenue and Tremont Road, using the remains of some of the barracks that were part of Camp Willis. Designed by architect Edgar Outcalt, who also designed the Grandview Pool building and the Linden Theateron Cleveland Avenue, the school was informally called the Barracks School, given its history. It contained grades one through three in one room, four through six in another, and seven through nine in a third. The fourth room was a larger common space used for school activities. Upper Arlington opened this school in October, taking 56 children out of the crowded Grandview schools, and immediately planned a more permanent building, which opened as the Waltham Road School in September, 1919, built near the current location of Jones Middle School.

John Hussey was born in 1864, attended Ironton High School, and started Ohio State in 1881 at the age of 17 to study art. Unfortunately, OSU had no Fine Arts Department, so he was advised to transfer to the newly formed Columbus Art School (now Columbus College of Art and Design), where he graduated in 1885. Hussey then spent more than 25 years at CCAD teaching drawing and design, and also served as director and curator of what became the Columbus Museum of Art. Hussey and his wife Margaret had two children, Donald and Eleanor, shown here with their cat sitting on the porch of the family home at 1367 Wyandotte Road, built in 1905 as one of the first homes in the Gladdington Heights Subdivision. Hussey was also a founder of First Community Church, and was the church’s first Sunday School superintendent. In 1920 Hussey was brought out of CCAD retirement by Professor Wendell Paddock, Dean of the OSU College of Agriculture and also a resident of Grandview, to take the position 'Assistant in Horticulture'. For the next 26 years, until his OSU retirement in 1946, as the university's oldest staff member, Hussey beautified the campus, designing gardens, supervising the planting of trees and shrubs, and developing OSU's own nursery. Hussey and his wife were married for 68 years before her death at 87.

Columbus Mayor Jack Sensenbrenner (left) prepares for his heat in the 1955 Soapbox Derby. His opponent on the right is Joe Wyman, who was the Columbus district shop superintendent. Wyman, who was substituting for Grandview Heights Mayor A.K. Pierce, would himself later become Grandview’s mayor. Wyman was the General Chairman of the Soapbox Derby race, which was an annual event that saw local youngsters racing their constructed cars down the Grandview Hill on Grandview Avenue from the Municipal Building to Goodale Blvd. After losing the race, Sensenbrenner joked that “Wyman had a slight weight advantage!” A few years later, Grandview would again face off in a more serious battle, when the “golden finger” business tax base was lost due to annexation decisions by Columbus.

The four Sells brothers, Ephraim, Allen, Lewis, and Peter, created a circus troupe in 1871. After adding an elephant in 1873, the Sells Brothers Circus became one of the premiere traveling shows in the country, and by 1890 was the 2nd largest in the country and the largest in the midwest. At its peak, it wintered in Sellsville, on the west side of the Olentangy River north of Fifth Avenue, and travelled in 47 railroad cars to the hundreds of show locations across the country where the circus was held. In 1891, it travelled to Australia, and many of its animals died from an epidemic of glanders. The circus struggled when it returned, but continued until it was sold in 1905. This newspaper drawing from the January 11, 1905, Ohio State Journal depicts the major circus moguls who attended the auction of the circus. They included Otto Ringling, Mike Welch, James Bailey, Willie Sells, Walter Main, Ernest Haag, John Robinson, Harry Tammen, William Cole, and Benjamin Wallace. It was bought by James Bailey, who then immediately sold half to the Ringling Brothers. Bailey died the next year, and the Ringlings bought his stake. It continued as the Sells Circus, headquartered in Columbus, until the Sellsville location closed in 1910. The last show as the Sell Circus was in 1911, and eventually became part of the Ringing Brothers, Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth.

In 1939 the W. G. Barnhart Company, 36 East Gay Street in Columbus, purchased the property fronting Cambridge Boulevard and Arlington Avenue that was part of the Aladdin Country Club. The $35,000 purchase from Capital Investment Co. included the 3.87 reserve west of Arlington Avenue, on which the Arlington Country Club clubhouse (designed by Frank Packard and built in 1895) was located. Twenty lots were platted on the Cambridge Boulevard and Arlington Avenue frontage. The project was slated to cost $175,000, and construction of the first home began in late summer of 1939. All the new homes were in the $14,000 price range, and the first one to be completed was sold in April 1940. The first four locations completed were 1271 and 1291 Cambridge Blvd. and 1291 and 1321 Arlington Avenue. The home in this advertisement was at 1271 Cambridge Blvd. The Barnhart Co. was owned by Wilber G. "Barney" Barnhart and started in 1922. One of his company’s first projects was the Masonic Hall at the northwest corner of First and Grandview. He was also actively building in Bexley and Lancaster at this time.