Feature articles in Grandview ThisWeek Newspaper
Weekly Moment in Time Column

February, 2006 - August, 2006

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September, 2005 - February, 2006

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	Olentangy Bridges
	In the mid-1800s the area that would become Grandview Heights was separated from Columbus by the Olentangy River (mistakenly renamed in 1833 from the original Whetstone River). Wagons had to ford the river at Fifth Avenue until the first bridge, a steel truss bridge similar to the upper right inset, was built over the river at King Avenue in 1863. Another steel truss bridge was built at Third Avenue in 1885. In response to Architect Frank Packard's 1908 downtown master plan, famous bridge designer Wilber Watson was hired to design new bridges at King (photo, 1913) and Third, which were built in 1912 and 1919. These bridges and the Fifth Avenue bridge, which were designed to accommodate 50 ton trolleys and to withstand the worse possible floods, played a large role in opening up the village to development. They were some of the first concrete arch bridges to be built and were seen as experimental and untested construction techniques at the time. The left two insets show the incorporated light posts and the wing at the end of the Third Avenue bridge, looking south toward downtown.
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	1499 Roxbury
	Pastoral and serene, like many other homes in the area this Marble Cliff estate at 1499 Roxbury Road served as a refuge one hundred years ago from the heat, smoke, and industrial dirt in down town Columbus. Nestled on almost three acres at the NW corner of Cardigan and Roxbury, it encompassed lots 7 and 8 of the Arlington Place Subdivision. The photo dates from 1906 and at the time members of the Price family who platted Arlington Place in 1889 owned the estate. A split and development of lot 8 in 1989 resulted in two contemporary homes (inset, left and middle) being constructed on the property. The original house has undergone modifications but still stands (inset, right).
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	1800 Goodale
	“Castles on the hill in the millionaire suburb of the Capital City” is how these home lining Goodale Boulevard were described in an article in the July 21, 1907 edition of the Columbus Press. Prominent in this photo is the square, tile-roofed stone house of Clifton Harrison and Jeanette “Nettie” Howard Walcutt at 1800 Goodale Boulevard. Their home was built in 1901 with limestone from the family-owned quarry that was part of Nettie’s dowry. The house (also shown in inset) served as a refuge for extended family members living on Dublin Road from the 1913 flood that ravaged Columbus. Also, visible in the main photo looking to the northeast along Goodale from left to right are “Spring Oaks”, the home of Colonel George Freeman built in 1904, and the tower from the Urlin mansion at 1600 Goodale Boulevard, currently the site of the Summit Chase tower.
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	Price family homes
	This photograph is a view, taken around 1890, looking west from Dublin Pike (now Route 33) at the summer homes of the Price family. Railroad tracks leading to the Marble Cliff Station run along the base of the hill (the center inset below is a view of the same homes from the corner of Fifth and Dublin Pike). 'Dolgradog', Welsh for 'Lord of the Valley', on the left was the home of Mary Jane Price Griswold. It was razed to build the French Quarter around 1960. Timothy J. Price's home on the right occupied the site of the current Roxbury Arms Apartments and was moved a considerable distance to the corner of Arlington and Cardigan Avenues around 1914. It is currently home to the McGregor family (lower left inset). The fronts of these stately summer homes faced west to take advantage of the breezes from the Scioto river as evidenced by members of the Price family sitting in their front yard (enlargement, lower right). The Prices were founders of Marble Cliff and developed 'Arlington Place', the first subdivision in the area in 1889.
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	The Rustic Bridge
	The 'Rustic Bridge at Arlington' shown here in a circa 1895 photograph was somewhat of landmark in the years prior to 1908 when Marble Cliff was known as Arlington. The highly ornamental footbridge with an integrated bench spanned the ravine between Roxbury and Arlington Avenues just north of the former St. Raphael's nursing home. The 'Arlington Inn' was located immediately to the south and hosted many Columbus elite at the time. The cottage in the background (located at 1600 Roxbury) was built in 1895; it still stands and is registered as a National Historic Site. Both buildings were designed by Frank Packard and owned by James F. Miller, a wealthy railroad executive from Richmond, Indiana. These accommodations, together with the proximity of the Arlington Gun and riding club suggest a resort-like ambiance. The identity of the young girl on the rocks in the center of the photo is unknown, however, research suggests that she may be Marie Newhouse. Her father, Clinton Newhouse was the Marble Cliff stationmaster.
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	The Murray Lincoln Residence
	This residence at 1234 West 1st Avenue (near the corner of Parkway and Virginia) has evolved from its humble beginnings into a Grandview architectural landmark (right inset). The home was built in 1924 by the Northwest Boulevard Company, the primary developers of property east of Grandview Avenue. The original home was wood shingle-sided and with entry from a long porch on the east side. The first owner was Murray Lincoln (left inset), founder of the Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company, which evolved into the Nationwide Insurance Company. The home's transformation into an English Tudor complete with a majestic tower began in 1968 when the home was purchased by Columbus architect Lajos Szabo and his family. The photo shows the Szabo's sons on the porch and tree lawn, circa 1968, after the conversion to the new front entrance. Renovations and additions to the residence, carriage house, and grounds took place over the entire 36-year period that the Szabo's owned the home until its sale last year.
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	The Newhouse Residence
	This photograph shows the development and new construction in 'Arlington Place' subdivision near the northwest corner of Third and Arlington Avenues around 1896 (looking northwest). Utility poles and street signs are evident, but the streets are yet to be paved. The home in the forefront is the Newhouse residence at 2020 West Third. It is flanked by the one-story residence of the Skeele family at 1492 Roxbury in the background left and the house at 2049 Cardigan in the background center. Clinton Newhouse, his wife Blanche Gray Newhouse, and their daughter Marie are shown in the inset. Mr. Newhouse worked for the railroad for 52 years and was Station Master at Marble Cliff at the time of his retirement in 1936. The area has changed significantly during the past 110 years. 'Arlington Place' evolved into the Village of Marble Cliff. Fortunately all three homes have survived.
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	The 1913 Flood
	On March 23, 1913 heavy and relentless rain began pummeling cities and towns along the upper Mississippi and Ohio River valleys and continued for the next 5 days. The ground was frozen and unable to absorb the nine to eleven inches of rain that drenched the area, resulting in disastrous and widespread flooding, death, and destruction. Locally the flood waters covered the Goodale Bridge leading to Grandview (top left) and destroyed the Sandusky Street levy (right middle). The limited communication of the time prevented ample warning. Climbing the famous “rescue tree” at the left of the top right photograph saved thirteen people in Columbus who were rescued by boat, as were other fortunate citizens (left center). The bottom two photographs show the submerged intersection at Grandview Avenue and Goodale Boulevard. Ninety-six people died and 5,000 homes, and numerous stores and businesses were completely destroyed in the greater Columbus area as a result of the 1913 flood.
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	Northwest Boulevard Co.
	'Activity is Still Going On' is how this circa 1921 photograph from an advertisement for the King and Ben Thompson 'Northwest Boulevard Addition' was captioned. Beginning in 1916 with the purchase of the 385-acre Thomas Farm, the Thompsons' Northwest Boulevard Company developed and aggressively marketed the area east of Grandview Avenue. Three separate plats were produced, and by 1926 the 45 acres in the original Northwest Blvd. plat #1 contained 700 new homes. In 1921 the base price from a home in 'Northwest Boulevard Addition' was $7,000. The exact location of the home in this picture is not known. If you can identify it please contact the Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society.
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	R. L. Stevenson Operetta "Peter Rabbit"
	From the opening of the school in 1926 until the end of the term in 1938, the staff of Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary school dutifully maintained a scrapbook of each year's major events. Shown above in this 1927 photograph are the characters from the school's first operetta, 'Peter Rabbit'. Some of the proceeds from the operetta supplemented with donations from the Grandview Civic Welfare Club were used to buy a stage curtain, and the P.T.A. donated funds to buy the school a piano. Excerpts from the scrapbook indicate that in addition to naming the school the children spent their recess time the first academic year removing stones from the field across Oxley Road to create a playground. The entire scrapbook has been scanned and can be viewed on the Historical Society web site at www.ghmchs.org/rls-scrapbook/page1.html
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	Wyandotte Road Field Day Float
	Between the years 1915 and 1925, the event of the year was the Grandview Heights, Marble Cliff and Upper Arlington Field Day Celebration. This photograph of the 'Wyandotte Indians' was taken as part of the June 1922 Field Day Parade. This photograph is representative of what was a very competitive street-based neighborhood spirit that provided the desire to present the best theme or float for the parade... sometimes months were spent designing floats and costumes. A newspaper article of the day states that 96% of the Wyandotte Road residents who could walk participated. Men, women and children covered themselves with grease paint and participated in various tableaus on floats that stretched for three blocks along First Avenue. A portrayal of the 'Execution of Chief Leatherlips' by the representatives of the float made spectators gasp with awe, and these 'Wyandotte Indians' won First Place. Famous Columbus photographer Fred Behmer is the fourth person from the left.
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	Harry Freeman Residence
	Construction of this landmark Grandview home for Harry D. Freeman at 1051 Urlin Avenue began in 1895 and was completed in 1897. Harry lived on the west side of Urlin Avenue just north of his father, Colonel George Freeman, and was a protégé of entrepreneur George Urlin. Mr. Urlin lived across the street from the Freemans and was obviously enamored of Harry Freeman’s business skills. He chose Harry to serve as secretary treasurer of several of his business enterprises including the Ohio Reality Company, The Laminated Tube Company, and the Grandview Lumber Company. Harry was elected as a trustee of the Hamlet of Marble Cliff in 1901. He was also a yachtsman of some renown as depicted in this 1911 drawing from the book The Clubmen of Columbus in Caricature (right inset). The home has undergone a remarkable restoration (left inset) during the past decade including the addition of a carriage house and attached pergola.
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	Grandview's First Mayor, Samuel Coate Jones
	The first Grandview Heights municipal election occurred 100 years ago on April 28, 1906. Samuel Coates Jones, an extremely active lawyer and politician, was elected the first mayor. He was born in West Milton, in Miami County in 1854. He attended Antioch College and the University of Michigan and was admitted to the bar in 1879. By the time he moved to Columbus in 1891 he had already served two terms as president of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorney’s Association. He maintained a private practice but was also elected to serve a two-year term as Chairman and Professor of Law at The Ohio State University. He was elected to the Columbus City Council in 1894. He moved to Grandview Heights in 1904 and resided at the southeast corner of Elmwood and First Avenues. Newspaper articles from the period indicate that he was a vocal advocate of incorporation for Grandview Heights. Tragically, he did not complete his term. He died of pneumonia at the age of 55 on April 24, 1909. As a final tribute the entire Franklin County Bar Association attended his funeral.
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	Jazz at the Grandview Inn
	During the 1940s, 50s and 60s live jazz performance was very popular around Columbus, with nationally known talent playing at The Deshler Hotel, the Neil House, The Clock and smaller clubs such as Tommy Heinrich's and the Office Lounge. The Grandview area had two of the more popular venues, the Gloria Night Club and the Grandview Inn. The Grandview Inn is shown in the drawing on this 1956 album cover of recording artist Pee Wee Irwin, who on many occasions performed to packed houses there. Other notable bands who played the noted Grandview steak house included the Dukes of Dixieland, Billy Maxted and the Manhattan Jazz Band, the Novelaires, Bob Haggert, Jimmy Granato's Dixieland Band, Ralph Sutton, and many other musical greats. The business also hosted many wedding receptions and prom parties, and was later revived as a Salvi's Restaurant. After a short time as a local church, it was torn down to make way for a Tim Horton's in 2001.
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	James and Sarah Newhouse Residence
	James M. and Sarah Newhouse built the home pictured on the bottom left in approximately 1893 at the corner of Roxbury and Arlington Avenue. It occupied the east end of the current #10 Arlington Place condominium complex. Mr. Newhouse was a machinist and was elected as one of the first school board members when the Village of Marble Cliff was incorporated in 1908. Surprisingly, it is one of several homes in the area that were moved to a new location in an era when the “horse power” required for construction was literally supplied by teams of horses. In 1907 Sylvio Casparis, owner of the Marble Cliff Quarry, purchased the 5-acre tract comprising lot #10 from Mr. Newhouse and had the home moved across the street to lot #45 as shown on the 1895 plat of “Arlington Place”. The home has since undergone at least 5 different changes. The Voelker family added a south wing in 1936. The porch has been removed and the roof design altered (upper right). The home underwent another significant renovation in 2005. What was once a humble farmhouse and home for Mr. Casparis’s grounds-keeper has now become a magnificent estate in its own right.
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	Mayor John Ryder
	John Ryder (shown in this 1939 re-election campaign flyer) has the distinction of serving the longest term as mayor of Grandview Heights. He lived with his family at 1130 Westwood (lower left) and was a two-term councilman prior to his election in 1918. His tenure as mayor was at a very formative time during the City’s history, ending with his retirement in 1940. He was instrumental in establishing the City fire department, overseeing the construction of the municipal building, and shepherding the expansion of city services to the rapidly developing eastern quadrant of the city. Perhaps he gained the most "notoriety" as Grand Marshall of the annual Field Day parades. Mayor Ryder was famous for participating in the parade each year on his horse. In 1916 he led the parade dressed as a fairy godmother, and in 1921 he wore a ballerina tutu and tights as he rode his horse (shown in the 1921 cartoon).
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	Covered Bridge over the Scioto River
	Wooden bridges were common throughout the Midwest during the nineteenth century. Most were covered to protect the trusses and supports from the rain, snow, and ice, which could promote rot and structural damage. A magnificent covered bridge spanned the Scioto River at Trabue Road and was a local landmark. Ferdinand and Valentine Bierberg are shown with their bicycles around 1900 (left). Ferdinand and Valentine were Columbus tailors by trade and were also accomplished amateur photographers. Together with their brother Henry, they developed an extensive photographic record of late nineteenth century central Ohio. Maggie Shrum (seated, inset top right) and her sister-in-law are enjoying a picnic below the bridge around the turn of the century. The bridge was still in use in 1936 as depicted in the photograph from the November 2, 1936 Ohio State Journal (inset bottom right).
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	William Weinman Residence
	William N. Weinman and his young daughter Ruth are shown in the 1914 photo standing on Lot 9 of the original 1889 Plat of Arlington Place, the site of their new home at 1445 Roxbury. The former Our Lady of Victory Convent and the home at 1499 Roxbury are in the background. Mr. Weinman was president of the Weinman Pump Manufacturing Company and retained the services of noted Columbus architect, Frank Packard to design his home in 1914. It was the last Packard home built in the area. The home has the distinction have having only three resident families in its ninety-two years. The original nine-room home underwent a major renovation in 1997. The exterior roofline, windows, central hall, and first floor rooms maintain their original configuration, however, the square footage has been nearly tripled resulting in a 21st Century home with 22 rooms.
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	William Herbert Page
	OSU Professor William Herbert Page served as the second mayor of Grandview Heights from 1909 to 1912. He was born in Mt. Union, Ohio in 1868. Professor Page was an 1889 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale and a member of the first law class graduated from O.S.U. in 1892. He was a member of the faculty of the OSU Law School from 1896 to 1917 when he was recruited to the University of Wisconsin. He was a prolific writer and published numerous articles including 15 volumes on the Ohio General Code. During his tenure in Columbus his name became synonymous with Ohio law. He resided with his family on a 3-acre estate at 1122 Fairview Ave. The main and carriage houses still stand (top right) but the magnificent formal gardens at the south end of Fairview Avenue (bottom right) were developed into two home sites in the early 1980’s. He died in Madison, Wisconsin at the age of 83 in 1952. Probably not all that austere in real life, his New York Times obituary noted that his middle initial H stood for “Herbie”.
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	Carl Lindenberg Residence
	This rare photograph (upper right) shows the home of Carl Lindenberg, with its brown shingle siding, as originally designed in 1903 by Frank Packard. This view, looking northeast from approximately the middle of Village Court Drive, shows the actual front of the home which faced west. The home, at the corner of Cambridge Blvd. and Village Court, retains the large overhangs but has been stuccoed and the port cochere has been removed (lower left). It is now accessed from Cambridge Blvd, which was originally the rear side of the home. It was one of three Lindenberg homes in a gated subdivision known as the “Country Club Addition” (background plat - the Packard firm stamp below the label depicts the Arlington Country Club). The Slabaugh family developed the acreage around the estate and platted the Village Court Development approximately 50 years ago.
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	Long's Drugstore
	Long's Pharmacy, located in the Bank Block at 1275 Grandview Avenue, was a local landmark in the years prior to and just after World War II. Shown on the right is a segment of a full page cartoon published prior to 1950 that has caricatures of owner Bob Long, OSU and Grandview Heights students, loyal patrons, local business leaders, and pharmacy employees (the entire cartoon can be viewed on the Historical Society website at http://ghmchs.org). It depicts the very popular soda fountain area of the store, as well as the pharmacy and general store sections. The photograph on the left, taken for the ad section of the high school yearbook, shows high school students with product promotions from the pharmacy. The storefront no longer exists - half of the pharmacy was removed to construct the breezeway in the Bank Block. If you can identify any of the students in the picture please contact the GH/MCHS.
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	Franklin County Poor House
	Margaret Murphy descends the staircase during her wedding in the family home at 987 Grandview Avenue. The stone walls of this home are part of the oldest standing structure in the City of Grandview Heights. It was not originally a private residence – the Franklin County Commissioners built it in 1832-1833 as part of the “Franklin County Poor Farm” for the accommodation of paupers and indigent ill. The regular spring flooding of the Scioto River valley made the site inaccessible and the house and surrounding farmland were sold by the commissioners in 1839. It is located in an area now known as Grandview Terrace, developed in 1915 by Billy Bott (top right), owner of Bott Brothers Billiards (later known as the Clock restaurant). The Murphy family occupied the home for nearly fifty years until 1994.
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	Frank Griffith Residence
	Frank Griffith (upper left) was very influential in Columbus, Ohio financial circles. Born in 1873, he was employed by the firm of Otis and Company Investment Brokers. He also founded the Daily Reporter Newspaper in 1896 and was president of the Columbus Stock Exchange. The picture of the Griffith family home is from a circa 1908 Ohio Realty promotional publication called the Home Builder. In 1912 a smoldering fire presumably started by lightning severely damaged two bedrooms on the second floor while the family was away. The local press reported the home was valued at $10,000 and incurred $1,500 worth of damage. The Day family currently owns this home, located at 1238 Cambridge Boulevard.
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	Grandview Swimming Pool Co.
	The Grandview Heights Municipal Pool was built in 1932 as a private limited membership pool. The drawing here shows the concept of architect J. Edgar Outcalt, and was used as a postcard by the Grandview Swimming Pool Co. The pool was fed by a natural spring, and provided an alternative to the public swimming area at the quarry lake near Dublin Road and Grandview Avenue. It was sold in 1945 to Robert Wasmus, who later sold it to the City of Grandview. The city opened it as a community swimming pool in 1978.
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