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We got ourselves a facelift!
Surprise! If you were looking for ClintonvilleHistory.com or ClintonvilleHistory.org, you are in the right place. Due to circumstances beyond my control, my ClintonvilleHistory web site had to be redesigned. Thanks to Ellie at Centipede Graphics and Chris from Cube Development for making this happen.
The content is the same as the original site. Inevitably there will be some hiccups with the transition, so if you spot anything that needs to be fixed or areas to be improved, be sure to let me know.
Beth Tikvah in Clintonville
I recently learned that Congregation Beth Tikvah–a synagogue currently located at 6121 Olentangy River Rd in Worthington–was once located at 3392 North High (southeast corner of North High and East North Broadway). The congregation met there from July 1962 until development plans for that corner required that they move. According to this February 1968 news article, they located a building to purchase after much hunting and just in time. In March they moved to 3199 Indianola until they built a new larger synagogue in 1981.
The 3392 N High assembly-house location was a house that was torn down to make way for an office building–this is the current white office building at 3400 N High. I do not have any pictures of the older Beth Tikvah building but would love one!
Here‘s a very nice history of Beth Tikvah written by one of its members and past presidents Marty Seltzer.
As a small sidenote: this is another location near that corner, probably also torn down to be replaced by the larger white brick building. This is a 1965 picture of a building at 3382-3384 North High, 1 or 2 doors south of the Beth Tikvah assembly house. It housed a dentist in the front, a doctor in the back, and also had space upstairs for another professional.
(Newspaper articles courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch and accessed from the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s NewsBank database. The 3384 N High photo is from the library’s MLS database. The synagogue shared their history with us.)
Tropicana Record Bar (3361 N High)
On November 10, 1945, Lloyd Hinton–the owner of Clintonville Electric–opened the Tropicana Record Bar at 3361 North High. It was described as having “a continental atmosphere… with four recording rooms each complete with custom-built high-fidelity sound equipment.” Another description called it a “tropical motif with cabana style wall settings and palm trees completing an atmospheric layout” with 5 listening rooms. The store sold records and record players, and hosted music celebrities for signings and photo ops.
Unfortunately in September 1953, a raging fire destroyed the Tropicana Record Bar and the restaurant next door. It began in the basement and became an intense fire, “felling” 15 firemen (all of whom survived). Lloyd Hinton owned the record business and said his loss was estimated to be $5000 (several thousand records). The owner of the buildings (Sam Spandos and his brother) stated the property was almost a total loss.
In March 1954, Hinton announced the opening of a new sales room for Clintonville Electric Appliances at 3361-3363, taking over the spaces after the fire destroyed the businesses at those addresses.
(Images courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch, accessed via the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s NewsBank database. Specific citations can be found by clicking through each link.)
Clintonville Electric
In my previous post, I described the progressive “takeover” of the addresses 3361 North High through 3367 North High, by the business Clintonville Electric [Appliance] Store. Lloyd Beaman Hinton owned that business.
From the library:
Lloyd Beaman Hinton (6/3/1904 – 4/18/1994) is said to have founded Clintonville Electric Company in 1939. Hinton was an appliance salesman in Springfield, Ohio before moving to Columbus and becoming manager of Clintonville Electric at 3367 North High. He ran and expanded the business for 20 years until his stepson, Phillip William Karshner (6/1/1934 – 7/9/2022) took over. Karshner retired in 2004 and sold the business to Paul Holmes, Scott Jester and Tom Cover. The store moved to 2136 Bethel Road the same year and was closed in 2008 due to bankruptcy.
Some very nice photos can be found on the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s web site here. You’ll see photos of the founder Lloyd Hinton, and employees, as well as some terrific pix of the interiors and exteriors of the business.
In 1945, Lloyd Hinton lived at 35 West North Broadway (but it seems he was renting that home) and later at 541 Walhalla (and eventually on Teteridge.)
(Link courtesy of The Columbus Metropolitan Library, Local History & Genealogy Dept.)
3361-3367 N High
This is a terrific picture of the 3361-3379 block of North High Street. To the left (south), at 3361 N High, is the Tropicana Record Bar. Next to that at 3363 N High is the Clinton Inn Restaurant. 3365 N High was occupied by J. L Oelgoetz Plumber; 3367 N High by Clintonville Electric. Then there are 2 more addresses (hidden behind the streetcar) to the south of the Clinton Theatre; one was a real estate broker and the other a beauty shop during this era. The Tropicana Record Bar opened in 1948, as a branch of Clintonville Electric. It burned down in 1953, along with the Clinton Inn Restaurant next door. So, the photo was taken between 1948 and 1953.
Real estate-wise, 3361-3367 N High are part of the “Chesnut Addition” (platted in 1895); the theatre at 3379 N High is part of the “John R Dunlap North Broadway Extension.” The first building shows up at 3361 N High in 1920 according to the 1920 Baist Real Estate Atlas for Columbus, but no buildings at 3363 or 3365 do. I cannot determine exactly when the other buildings were put there but they are there by 1936.
There were originally 2 additional addresses immediately north of the Brighton Rd intersection, at 3355 and at 3357 North High. I think this was a bungalow house based on a glimpse of the edifice in a very old photo.
The ownership of the lots and businesses at 3361-3379 is complex. My short version is that as early as 1933, Frances Webb leased a building at 3361 N High to Sam Spandos (aka Spiros Spantithos). (I’ve written about Sam elsewhere.) Sam got a beer license for the place in April, 1933. In 1934, Sam, age 48, pleaded guilty to selling beer after 1:00 a.m., and he had some skirmishes with the law over dancing on Sunday, so that might give you some flavor of the 24-hour nightclub. In 1934 his restaurant was called the Oakland Park Restaurant. In 1935 Sam “took over the adjoining storeroom.” Upon Frances Webb’s death in ~1936, Sam purchased or inherited the property. (The value of the property went up in 1936, so I assume Sam improved the lot.) From 1936-42 the business at 3361 and 3363 N High was called the Sam Spandos restaurant; in 1944-45 the addresses were called Lee’s Restaurant; in 1946, 3361 N High was taken over by Clintonville Electric Appliance Store, and 3365 N High continued as a restaurant. By 1954, both addresses became Clintonville Electric.
3365 N High was occupied by J.L Oelgoetz Plumbers from 1924 to at least 1956; by 1967 it was Clintonville Electric.
3367 N High was M. Cupp & Sons Hardware from 1924-1929, and Metzger Electric Shop from 1929-1939. After that, it became Clintonville Electric.
I’ll write more about these businesses in subsequent posts.
(Loraine Wilmers, from the Local History & Genealogy desk of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, gave me considerable assistance with the research about this span of addresses.)
Spiros Spantithos
I enjoy immigrant stories so thought I’d share the story of former Clintonville resident and business owner Spiros Spantithos, aka Sam Spandos. I’m piecing this story together from public records, so I may be wrong in the details and would be happy to be corrected or to receive more information!
Spantithos is the original owner of the building(s) that eventually housed Clintonville Electric.
Spantithos was born in Sparta, Greece, on Feb 15, 1884, and came to this country in 1902. In 1912 he returned to Greece and stayed until 1921, during which time he served 8 months (or perhaps 8 years, depending on the source) in the Greek army. Greece was involved in several wars during this time–the Balkan wars with Bulgaria, and a war with Turkey. I’m not sure when Spantithos married, but on this first trip home to Greece he fathered 2 sons and a daughter.
He returned to the States in 1921, and became a naturalized citizen around 1926, at age 42. Spiros names two boys on his 1926 naturalization papers—-George, age 8 [sic], and Demetros, age 6, both in Greece. His naturalization papers do not mention his wife, Nicoleta Sicaras, nor his daughter. Neither his wife nor his daughter seems to have come to the States. (Nicoleta does have a record in the Social Security Applications and Claims Index 1936-2007.) His son George came to the States in 1935 at the age of 19.
Spantithos’ U.S. draft card states he lived at 18 West Brighton (he lived there along with his brother James), and he purchased 3361 N High in November 1936. That is where he and his brother opened the Oakland Park Restaurant. (He got a beer license for his restaurant at 3361 N High in 1933, and he leased the space before he purchased it.) On occasion the 24-hour restaurant, or nightclub, had skirmishes with the law–notably for Sunday dancing (!!) and for serving alcohol after hours. He also leased an adjacent “storeroom.”
In 1938-39, Spantithos returned to Greece for a 7-month visit, and this was the first time he saw his daughter, who was by then 17 years old. I found Spiros’s name on a passenger list for a ship arriving in NY from Italy, 6-Jul 1939, and travelling back to Europe with son George and George’s wife Susan in 1951, but again, no mention of his wife. In the 1940 and 1950 censuses, he is listed as married but his wife Nicoleta isn’t listed in his household.
Spiros died in November 1970.
His son George (born Jan 25, 1920 [sic] in Sparta Greece) assumed ownership of 3361 N High, in 1972 after Spiros died. He and his wife Susan had purchased property at 4469 Rosemary Parkway in 1953 and lived there until George died in February 1994. I believe it was George and Susan who accumulated the additional properties in the Spantithos portfolio, including, for awhile, The Blue Dube.
(Newspaper clippings courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch, accessed through the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s NewsBank database. Detailed citations can be found on each clipping by clicking through their links.)
