Buy a Steak…or a Steer! Smith’s Deli
Eric Hartzell has been helping Jack Smith–of Smith’s Deli fame at 3737 N. High Street–rewire parts of the deli, and with some repairs. Along the way, Eric has found some fabulous pictures related to the deli.
First, the deli when it was a meat and frozen food center, and–get this–candle store! Eric estimates this picture is from around the mid-1960s.
Here’s another picture courtesy of The Clintonville Spotlight October 01, 2020.
Eric writes, “The first picture above seems to be from late 1960s judging by the cars on the side lot….maybe 1968…or it could be early 70’s. But it is different from the pic in that ad or menu…It is 1961-62 because of the car out front. But the sign on the top of the building is much bigger and goes from end to end on the building….and has the added candle and candy shop on the right end. Since they didn’t discontinue the meat part till 1982…..hard to completely say.”
In the early 1940s the site was Beem Motors, a Packard dealership; this ad is from a 1941 telephone book. There was an auto service station & filling station next door at 3729 N High Street at least as early as 1941 (but not before 1932). As Eric writes, “…[The car dealership] is the reason the 1920’s style garage/gas station is right next to it. There is even a garage door still inside Smith’s Deli right behind the pizza ovens. It was never removed, and infrastructure was just built around it.” By 1943, 3737 N High Street was a grocery, and by 1951 it had become Clintonville Lockers Frozen Food Lockers owned by Guy B. Harris. Jack Smith’s dad purchased the business in 1961.
Here’s a link to an aerial photo of that location from an unknown year. You can see the auto service center to the south of Smith’s.
And about Smith’s arch and counter, Eric writes: “When I asked Jack if I could rewire the arch for safety sake..(it was still with the original 1907 wiring) I started to also do the research on it. All he could tell me was that it came from a Chillicothe drug store, named A.B. Howson’s Pharmacy in the famous Carisle Building. Didn’t take long to find a picture of it inside that drug store with the help of the historical society down there. Was like finding buried treasure, there it was from a picture taken in 1909. It was built in 1907. Now [the arch] has 100% LED lights….even used the new LED Edison style lamps that really gave it that old time look. The drug store closed in 1967….or was it 1969….anyway, that was when his father purchased it and moved it to the current store, marble and all. More about the drugstore, including the names of the boys staffing the counter here.
Thanks for sharing, Eric!
[Images courtesy of Eric and his original sources, and to Dave Wenger at Northend Wrench for the aerial photo.]