Last Updated: August 9, 2025

3141 Silver Drive Looking North



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 3141 Silver Drive and the panorama photo is captioned, “Possible industrial sites along C.A. and C.-looking north” [i.e. the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus Railway]. The houses that you see to the left (west) of the railway tracks may well be East North Broadway.

There is a white pole near the tracks on the right side. That would be the whistle sign letting the engineer know it’s time to start his whistling for the crossing ahead.

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.]

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