A danger Spot
Immoral Influences of a Well-Known North End Resort
Referring to the discussion, in the Pastor’s Union, of the subject of saving women, a North Columbus citizen suggests that one of the ways of preventing women from falling is to discourage the use of Olentangy Villa as a beer hall and dance house. Naturally it is a beautiful spot, but, he states, a resort for vicious persons from the city. The people of North Columbus, Patrolman Heyl and McManus, the conductors and drivers on the white line cars, and the farmers of Clintonville are referred to as being prepared to vouch for his statement. The people of North Columbus, the writer says, speak of the villa with scorn and horror with which they would speak of hell itself.

Dance halls, bands of music and next door to each dance hall a place where beer is sold, secluded spots to be reached by boat rides on the beautiful Olentangy, deep ravines whose thick underbrush affords secure hiding places! The abandon of the place–restraint thrown off, unrestrained hilarity, girls clicking beer glasses, with young men, promiscuous dancing, intoxicated women going about the grounds. The classes that are there–fallen women, fallen men, fast young men, and mingling with this crowd unfallen but thoughtless and giddy girls and boys.

Such is the picture that the citizen draws of the place, which he says is a most effective institution for swelling the ranks of fallen girls. He says North Columbus parents would look upon the fact of their girls frequenting the place as equivalent to almost certain ruin, but that many go up from the city for an enjooyable street car ride in the cool of the evening and a stroll through pleasant grounds. He regards the villa, though not in Columbus, as of it, and says Columbus is responsible for it. He predicts that the villa will not be run another summer as a pleasure resort of the present character if the press and pulpit do their duty.

[From the Columbus Dispatch (published as Columbus Evening Dispatch) Thursday December 6, 1888 page 1]

Joe Smith kindly shared this item with me, after discovering it at the Columbus Metropolitan Library.  It’s A History of the North Methodist Church, Clinton Chapel, North Columbus by Ruth Ellen (Grove) Rutherford.

Ruth Ellen (Grove) Rutherford [1891-1980], a long-time area resident, wrote the history in 1970. The book includes both some history of  the Clinton Chapel Cemetery, some information about the old Beers/Piatt log cabin and its move to 40 E. Norwich Ave, and info about the Underground Railroad activities of Pyrum and Polly Hunt.  Joe was pleased to see mentions of his own ancestors including the Hunts–Joe’s grandfather Smith‘s maternal 2nd great-grandparents (page 16)–and his grandfather’s maternal grandparents, Horace and Sarah Theresa Young, and his mother, Minnie Belle Young, who are listed as members of North M.E. Church (page 24) in 1898. Minnie married Joe’s great-grandfather, Roy Ripley Smith, a year later, on 20 Sep 1899.

As Joe says, this is a poignant message how the Clintonville community came together and rallied around a greater cause. It’s a message of inspiration just as relevant 142 years later.

[Courtesy of Joe Smith, and the Rutherford family.]

Ann Conner allowed me to see the inside of her 168 Westwood Road home when I was working on my book. You can get a glimpse of it here, in a 1988 10tv item.

Or here, as an AirBnB listing.

Sadly Ann died in 2018 as did Dale.

Here are some cool links for old maps:

City of Columbus Planning Maps, Historic Maps.

The City of Columbus’ web site gives us plenty of maps and data to play with, from Census demographic changes to despicable redlining and more. Check out especially the “City of Columbus Historic Panoramic Images, 1922,” which is based on a 1922 Ohio State University masters thesis by Forest Ira Blanchard. “Blanchard, inspired by the Chicago School of Sociology, sought to study the racial and ethnic composition of the city, with a particular focus on the role of transportation (railroads, roads) in shaping the urban landscape. Source: Forest Ira Blanchard, An Introduction to the Economic and Social Geography of Columbus, Ohio. Thesis (M.A.), Ohio State University, 1922.”

Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Columbus and Ohio Map Collection. If you haven’t donated to the library yet, now’s the time! It and and it’s staff are such great resources.

Sanborn Maps for Franklin County (scroll down to see Columbus). This is a Library of Congress site.

USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer allows you to specify a place you want to explore, then click on a location to see its historical maps.

Prolific programmer Randy Majors has produced several products of interest, including his Historical U.S. Counties Map Tool and Auto-Checker Extension. He has also created a couple of video walkthroughs of a couple of the the software tools he has created. I recommend you view them in order, as understanding the Historical U.S. Counties map tool will help you have better success with using the Auto-Checker chrome extension.

Old Maps Online OldMapsOnline.org indexes over 400,000 maps, thanks to the archives and libraries that were open to the idea and provided their online content.

Do you know of other map resources? Let me know and I will add them to this post.

This is a nice photo from a 1922 Ohio State University masters thesis by Forest Ira Blanchard. I believe, based on the metadata, that it was taken at 2734 Indianola Ave. It is captioned, “Glen Echo section beyond the ravine.”

Blanchard, inspired by the Chicago School of Sociology, sought to study the racial and ethnic composition of the city of Columbus, with a particular focus on the role of transportation (railroads, roads) in shaping the urban landscape.

[Courtesy of Forest Ira Blanchard, An Introduction to the Economic and Social Geography of Columbus, Ohio. Thesis (M.A.), Ohio State University, 1922; digital version from City of Columbus Historic Map Collection.]

Katie Knostman has shared some photos of the old pavers on Olentangy Blvd at Rustic Place (near the driveway for 4783 Olentangy Blvd), exposed during the recent construction that the residents of Old Beechwold have been enduring. 

On close inspection, two of the bricks say Hocking Dunn Patent):

And on the topic of bricks: Here is a photo of a brick that Clintonville Historical Society has in its archive.

CHS actually has 2 bricks. According to Mary Rodgers: “These are the actual pavers from the street [near American Vitrified Products, which was located on the former site of North High School at Arcadia and Calumet]. The official name of the brick is covered in mortar. You can see the diamonds. Those keep the horses from slipping when the bricks are wet. We might try to remove the mortar from one. It is interesting. They are porous–lighter than I thought…I have seen some articles that are associated with the early use of site. William Wassell seems like an interesting character. They made pipe and bricks. Supposedly, this is one of their bricks. In the late 1800s, they made a fountain for the fairgrounds-all out of pipe. I would love to find a photo of that!” Here’s an article about the fountain.

And finally, a house on East North Broadway has many bricks lining the driveway. These may have come from that roadbed.

[Photos courtesy of Katie Knostman, and Mary Rodgers and the CHS.]

Joseph Wilton Smith IV recently contacted me. Joe’s ancestors owned a house at the southeast corner of East North Broadway and North High Streets, perhaps where the Cochran House was before it was demolished…or–as Mary Rodgers speculated in the May 2020 CHS Newsletter– possibly that very house. Joe has kindly sent along an image that includes several maps:

1) An 1875 map of the legal division of Joseph Wilson Smith’s farmland in Clintonville, Ohio to his heirs
2) A modern map extracted from the website of the Franklin County Auditor that outlines these lands in orange over the current Clintonville area streets. And,

3) The property lines from the 1910 Baist map superimposed on the 2023 satellite view of E.N Broadway and N High.

Joe writes:

I am a direct descendent of three early Clintonville settlers: Thomas Bull, Deacon John Smith, and Pirum Hunt.

I am named after my grandfather, who was named after his grandfather, who was named (sort of) after his father, Joseph Wilson Smith. His wife, Catharine Gray (Piatt) Smith was my third great-grandmother. For the past three months, I have been working closely with Mary Rodgers to sponsor a historical marker honoring my ancestors and their contributions to early Clintonville. My great-grandfather was Roy Ripley Smith, who lived at 145 W. Royal Forest Blvd. in Beechwold. My dad told me Roy also owned a farm that later became part of Highbanks Metro Park.

In January 2024, Joe Smith gave a presentation to the Clintonville Historical Society about his ancestors, and most especially his ancestor Deacon John Smith. John was a churchman and also an abolitionist in our area. Joe’s presentation is also a great example of what you can do if you set about researching your family’s history.

Joe’s presentation can be found here. The handout for that presentation can be found here.

Thanks Joe!

[Thanks to Joe Smith for sharing his research and his presentation. He welcomes additional information and input on his research, and extends his thanks in advance. Contributors to his research include Sharon Hendershot, Nancy J. Pendleton, Mary Rodgers, Elizabeth Renker, and Kathie Smith Brzoska.]

Sometimes a house tells the story of a person, right? In this case the story is about Frank and Bertha Rorer.

This story was sent to me by Wendy Bayer, who writes, “During COVID, I did quite a bit of walking around Clintonville and found myself on West Kanawha one afternoon…I noticed an intriguing house at 314 W Kanawha and did some research on it (naturally! My curiosity is so strong!) I found this great newspaper article from 1939 about the builders and residents; you might find them interesting, too.”

The Rorers bought a tract of undeveloped land on what is now West Kanawha. They took scout troops there, and hiked their property. Their first house on Kanawha was a tiny house constructed from washing machine crates. (Why? because Mr. Rorer was a plumber.) They also built a cave on the property for refrigeration. They initially used this tiny house as a weekend getaway, but Bertha spent more and more time there. Later they built a white clapboard house nearby, and then in the late 1930s they built their dream house at 314 West Kanawha from salvaged walnut-wood logs.

Today there are a cluster of properties along Kanawha formerly affiliated with the Rorers; here are some of their ownership histories:
290 W. Kanawha–nothing
300 W. Kanawha–1922-1937 Rorers owned it. This is where they lived in April 1931.
304 W. Kanawha–1923-1959 Rorers owned it, new house built 1959
310 W. Kanawha–1937-1959 Rorers owned it, new house built 1960
314 W. Kanawha–log home. Rorers owned it 1923?-59
320 W. Kanawha– nothing

Here’s the “Ohio Historic Inventory sheet” for 314 West Kanawha, from the Ohio Historic Preservation Office at Ohio History Connection.

Bertha Rorer died in 1974, her husband Frank Rorer died 1976 (You can click through to read their obituaries.)

[Research courtesy of Wendy Bauer, and inventory courtesy of Nancy Campbell/OHPO.]

In April 2024 I wrote that Flora Hess sold her property, a flower shop at the intersection of Dodridge and Olentangy River Road, to the state in 1932. She lived in a house close by at 2637 Olentangy River Road; in 1968 Johnny Jones wrote an article about an antique sale at the Hess homestead.

I believe Flora lived in that house for many years. She ran the property as a trailer park from at least the 1930s until the late 1940s. I found several Columbus Dispatch articles that reported her conviction in 1946 of illegally operating a trailer camp on the property. The county had declined to issue her a permit because the property did not meet sanitary requirements. The trailers were mostly occupied by students. I also found many ads for sales of trailers, so the land may have been a dealership. I would love to have learned her side of this story.

The Ohio State University archives has some aerial photos of the old Hess farm with what Jones described as “part of an old windmill;” there’s a map in the collection’s finding aid and you can see the set of aerials here.

Now here’s the sad, sad, story about this homestead. According to a Hess family historian, Flora’s father John Moses Hess Jr. “received his education in the public schools of Franklin County and later attended Otterbein University. He was a farmer all his life. Uncle Moses was well over six feet tall, quiet and easy going. He always had a well groomed driving horse and took me on several Sunday afternoon drives in the north end of Franklin County, telling the history of the Dublin community. I never saw him when he was not wearing a stiff bosomed white shirt. This was one of his several oddities. Aunt Hannah was very opposite, being small and wiry and a human dynamo, and I always marveled how one so small could turn out so much work. Aunt Hannah died August 17, 1922, being murdered by an irresponsible farm hand who died from self-inflicted wounds the following day. Uncle Moses died December 15, 1923 and both are buried in Union Cemetery across the road from the farm home.” You can read the details of this sad tale of murder and suicide is the Columbus Dispatch here.

Flora died in 1962 (b. 06 Mar 1883, d. 06 Nov 1962) and is buried in Union Cemetery near her parents. Her sister Elizabeth died in 1968 at age 89 (b.30 Sep 1879 d. 5 Dec 1968) and is also buried there.

[Photos courtesy of The Ohio State University Archives. Research help courtesy of Harry Campbell.]

These lovely pictures are of the Albrecht Floral Shop at 2703 River (or Olentangy) Road–the intersection of Dodridge and Olentangy River Road, looking north.

According to librarian Cindy at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, the flower shop went through several hands in the 1930s.

In 1941 it finally appears as Albrecht Florists.

Cindy found a parcel sheet for what she believes is the property in question. The parcel sheet shows the greenhouse listed as well as a brick building.

There is an ad for Flora Louise Hess, Florist in a 1925 Columbus Women’s Club cookbook that features an illustration of the building matching these photos.

Flora Hess sold the property to the state in 1932. She lived in a house close by at 2637 Olentangy River Road, however. In 1968 Johnny Jones wrote an article about an antique sale at the Hess homestead.

Across the street from the flower shop is a gas station. The Moosehead Filling Station and Moosehead Tavern was across the street at 2696 Olentangy Road as early as 1937. It advertised selling H-C gas; H-C was the first high-octane gasoline. In 1926, Sinclair leapt ahead of most of its competitors with H-C, the industry’s original high-octane premium gasoline for motorcars. The 72-octane auto fuel, developed at its Houston refinery, was better than anything then marketed (Lindbergh’s flight to Paris the following year was on 73-octane gasoline). H-C stood for “Houston Concentrate,” though some advertising men called it “High Compression.”

The Moosewood Tavern was apparently a trouble spot; this Columbus Dispatch newspaper article documents one incident of rowdiness.

[Photos courtesy of the Franklin County Engineers. Articles are from the Columbus Dispatch. Research on these photos and news items mostly came from Cindy at the Columbus Metropolitan Library Local History & Genealogy Desk; thank you Cindy! ]