I’m delighted, and also sad, to learn that the derelict building that once housed Clintonville Electric is now in receivership. Why sad? The business most recently in that location was beloved by Clintonville residents; virtually everyone bought their appliances there. The original business owners were good citizens of their community. All that changed when the business changed hands and in 2004 left Clintonville (and subsequently went bankrupt, cheating half-dozen of its customers). Rumor has it that the property owners–who owned the properties from at least 1936 to the present day– simply declined to either sell or to fix up the buildings, yet kept the city from condemning it. I’ve heard that this building’s roof had a hole in it, and the water coming in caused the ground-level floor to collapse into the basement.

The family that owned the Clintonville Electric building owned a handful of other buildings that are so neglected that they affect the neighborhoods in which they are situated. The following Clintonville buildings have been put into receivership:

• 3361-3363 North High Street, Columbus, Ohio, Parcel No. 010-010845-00, shown above, which also includes
• 18 West Brighton;




• 4469 Rosemary Parkway, Columbus, Ohio, Parcel No. 010-086671-00–a lovely house that has also been allowed to go downhill;

  




• 4994 A North High Street;
  

These following buildings have also been put into receivership. I know nothing about their condition and some have business occupants unrelated to the landlords.

• 1101 Folkestone Road, Columbus, Ohio, Parcel No. 010-129831-00;
• 4480 Kenny Road, Columbus, Ohio, Parcel No. 010-136767-00;
• 4450-4454 Kenny Road, Columbus, Ohio, Parcel No. 010-129882-00;
• 4460 Kenny Road, Columbus, Ohio, Parcel No. 010-013993-00;
• 5701-5707 Maple Canyon Drive, Columbus, Ohio, Parcel No. 010-115253-00

Some legal documents about the case can be found on the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. Two are linked here and here.

I’ll write about the businesses that occupied this space, in upcoming months.

I was very sorry to recently learn of the death (in February 2025) of Bill Good, former owner of the Southwick-Good & Fortkamp Funeral Chapel. This funeral home, at 3100 N High, was located at the site of Clintonville’s Clinton Chapel, which later became the home of Mathias Armbruster, became a funeral home in 1938, and is currently a day care center.

I met Bill when I was working on my Clintonville and Beechwold book. He was a devoted caretaker of the building in which his funeral practice was located, knowledgeable about its architecture and history, and respectful of the entire property. He even made sure that expert wall builders were called in the rebuild the property’s perimeter wall, at considerable expense. He was always willing to share his knowledge, and was patient even as he had to explain to me what an “adze cut” is. He had civic pride and was pleased that the building served as a polling place each election day. More personally, he graciously advised me in planning for the funeral of my mother-in-law. I am grateful. I remember Bill fondly and extend my condolences to his wife and family.

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.]

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! ]

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.]

Here’s a very sad story about one of our Clintonville residents from former times. James Welsh, commonly called Jerry, was a dairyman along High Street. His farm burned on January 27, 1897, and Jerry was himself badly burned in the fire.  Jerry survived the fire, however, and he eventually died on Sept 5, 1905 at the age of 72 or 73 of dropsy (edema, or heart failure). He was originally from Ireland, was a Civil War veteran, and is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery.

There’s no record of his having owned a farm on High Street or in Clinton Township, so perhaps he leased the farm land. When he died, Jerry lived at 34 Richards Road with his wife Bridget; I presume he lived close to his dairy farm. The couple also lived with a lad named Fay Osborn; Osborn is likely the 14-year old boy who was also at the scene of the 1897 fire and who was credited with saving the 20 cows.

Dairy Barn Burned
Cows Saved With Difficulty From the Flames–Loss $900.

The big dairy barn of Jerry Welsh on High street above Clintonville was totally destroyed by fire Tuesday afternoon, together with a stock of fodder. In the barn at the time the blaze was discovered were about 2[0] cows and some horses. All the animals were finally removed though Welsh and his neighbors had a lively time of it taking the frantic beasts from the fiery furnace.

Luckily there was little, if any, wind and the other outbuildings and the house were saved.

There was no means of fighting the fire, and all that could be done was to run to the neighbors’ for buckets of water to pour upon the house. About [6]00 tons of millet was burned. The loss on the property will be about $900.

Nearly a Tragedy
Was Fire at Jerry Welch’s
Dairy Barn

Mr. Welch Himself Badly Burned And Narrowly Escaped Death 

There came near being a tragedy at the fire above Clintonville Tuesday afternoon.

It will be remembered that Jerry Welch’s big dairy barn was totally destroyed, as stated in The Dispatch at the time.

It seems that Welch, who is quite an old man, was in the barn when the fire broke out, but became so excited that had it not been for the efforts of a 14-year-old boy who was in an adjoining field gathering fodder, over 20 cows would have been burned. The lad released the maddened animals just as the roof of the structure fell in.

All this time Welch was working heroically at the other end of the barn endeavoring to save the horses. In some way he slipped and fell right into the awful furnace. He was dragged therefrom by a neighbor who had hastened to the scene. Welch’s hair was singed, his hand and face badly scorched, and he would have burned to death had not the neighbor pulled him out and extinguished the fire by rolling the victim in the snow.

Cindy at the Columbus Metropolitan Library shared most of the above details about Mr. Welsh with us. She writes: “I was able to find a little more information about Jerry Welsh. First, I believe the name was actually Welsh, not Welch [as in the 2nd article above]…I am attaching Mr. Welsh’s obituary. I was able to find him on the 1900 census with his wife, and it looks like he was a veteran of the Civil War because I found a grave registration card that matches up with his grave information in Mount Calvary Cemetery. Unfortunately, I was not able to find that he owned any property in Clinton Township. I checked maps, including a 1895 plat map that has landowners names on it. I also checked deed indexes on the recorder’s site for that time frame for both grantors and grantees and still did not find anything. It is possible he was renting the land that the barn was on.”

I do love our Columbus Metropolitan Library System and especially appreciate the Local History and Genealogy staff. THANK YOU CINDY!

[Newspaper articles from the Columbus Evening Dispatch Jan 27, 1897 and the Columbus Dispatch Thursday Jan 28, 1897. Research ny Cindy at the Columbus Metropolitan Library Local History & Genealogy Desk.]

Amy Ervin Smithson shared this wonderful web site that shows the range of signage created by sign vendor Fred M. Ervin Sign Service, 2447 Middlesex Rd, Upper Arlington OH.

[Site courtesy of Amy Ervin Smithson, by way of Jim Garrison.]

Pierce Cleaners is technically in Worthington, but here’s a great photo of its sign back in the day. This neon sign is by Fred Ervin–same company that created the Jerry’s/Sisters/Tee-Jaye’s sign at Morse and N High, and created around the same time.

If you click on that photo of Pierce Cleaners to enlarge it, you may also notice the Ford dealership just north, on the east side of North High. Another of Fred Ervin’s signs! His signs are everywhere. On the left, the older Ford sign; on the right, a newer version.

And while we’re pretending to be in Worthington, here’s an old photo of the Dairy Queen sign on North High Street just south of the Orange Johnson House Museum (which is itself worth a visit).

[Photos courtesy of Amy Ervin Smithson, by way of Jim Garrison.]

If you have not yet joined the Clintonville Historical Society, well, you ought to! Mary Rodgers sends out an interesting monthly newsletter that is chock-a-block full of good articles. In the October 2017 issue, she penned an article about Clintonville’s first post office.

Celebrating 170 years: The first Post Office
by Mary Rodgers
October 2017

We celebrate Clintonville’s birthday on September 13, 1847. That is the day that a post office opened using the name “Clintonville”. We know that the small town between Columbus and Worthington existed prior to the date but because the town was never formally platted, we do not have an alternative formal start date. On September 13, 1847, James Ferguson was appointed postmaster at the Clintonville Post Office. It was the practice at the time to locate the post office in a business operated by the postmaster. The names of the offices were determined by the postmaster and were usually associated with the area that they were located, the postmaster’s name or the postmaster’s business. In 1933, The Booster printed a photo of the post office. That photo is of a rug store! Mr. Ferguson was a blacksmith. Maybe he had a side operation?

Or, maybe this photo captured the building where Clintonville’s second postmaster set up operation? Harmon “Hammer” Houck was Clintonville’s second postmaster. He reigned from November of 1852 to April of 1854. The 1850 census lists him as a peddler. That might be consistent with a rag rug dealer.

James Ferguson reclaimed the position of postmaster in April of 1854. He and family originated in Lancaster Co. Pennsylvania. He was the son of John and Susanah (Hood) Ferguson. James was married to Hannah Murray around 1824. The Fergusons, at least three generations, came to Ohio in 1843. They arrived by wagon (note: Lancaster County, Pa is the birthplace of the Conestoga wagon!). Based on area maps, James purchased his Clintonville property from Alanson Bull. A question would be: How did Ferguson become aware of Bull’s interest in building a town? Did Bull run advertisements in Eastern newspapers of the time? That is a question for another day.

According to the 1850 Census, James Ferguson owned 5 acres of land, a home, two milk cows, a beef cow, five pigs, and 100 bushels of corn. His livestock was valued a $98, his machinery at $41 and his overall estate at $950. His estate was higher in value then his neighbors with more land. Perhaps that is an indication of its geographical position “in town”? Hannah Murray Ferguson, James’s wife, was a Quaker. Quakers were known to be involved in the Underground Railroad and the Fergusons are a part of the Clintonville Underground Railroad story. The Ferguson sons Joseph, John and Samuel all served in the Civil War. His son Joseph died in action in Perryville, KY. According to K. Haefner, 3rd great granddaughter of Hannah and James Ferguson, when sons John and Samuel returned from the war, the family moved to Findlay, OH. It would seem that John and Samuel met a number of men from Hancock County while serving. Those men told stories of the land and those tales impressed these young men. In Findlay, Samuel and John pursed wagon making. The shop they opened remained in operation beyond 1911.

Last month I mentioned the new Clintonville store, Re-Wash, owned by Samantha White. While Sam was renovating the space, she uncovered this wonderful sign from a previous era. It was on the wall–undoubtedly the exterior wall–of 3131 North High (now “Lucky 13 Salon”). In 1926, 3131 North High Street was occupied by Wilke’s Quality Market.

Here’s an ad from the Columbus Evening Dispatch on April 22, 1926. The Wilke family business–which eventually became Ohio Packing Company–lasted for some 107 years in Columbus. (The Wilke’s Quality Market in Clintonville seems to have been one of the Wilke family’s more minor locations.) The business was established in 1907 by Fritz Wilke as a neighborhood butcher shop in Columbus, eventually focusing on meat cutting and packing. Different aspects of the business were run by various family members–finally by 3rd and 4th generations of the family. Ohio Packing Company closed in April, 2014. You can read a little history of that business here.

In case you are wondering: that other Clintonville market mentioned in the Shredded Wheat ad, Quality Market at 3496 North High Street, was located where Seitan’s Realm is today.

And about that Dispatch ad: Yes, I would LOVE to see them making Shredded Wheat, back in the day; wouldn’t you? You can read more about Henry Perky, the inventor of Shredded Wheat, Triscuits, and the machine that made them, here.

[The ad was provided to me by Loraine of the Columbus Metropolitan Library–Local History and Genealogy Desk; it’s from the Columbus Dispatch published as Columbus Evening Dispatch, April 22, 1926, p14.]