I love the story of the concrete block building near Brighton and Milton just south of West North Broadway. Miles Elmers owned AGI, a business that he situated in this concrete barn during the 1930s. Elmers contracted with Monsanto to test and package a low-sudsing detergent. When Monsanto decided to discontinue the product, Elmers purchased all rights to it, renamed, repackaged and remarketed it…and “All” detergent was born.
There are rumors that the building was once a candy factory, that the owners gave out candy from this location, but I was unable to confirm this. It is presently a private residence.
When the Elmers family owned All, they had to travel to the various plants around the country, and so they worked with the Flexible Bus Company to customize a bus to make their travels more comfortable. People along the way asked them where they got the bus/RV, and asked them to replicate it. The result was a new business for the Elmers family: Custom Coach.
During the course of researching my book, I encountered what surely must have been one of the earliest chain bakeries in Columbus. Hansen’s Bakery Company outlets were located at 3358 Indianola, 1404 Cleveland Avenue, 3135 North High Street, 3387 North High Street, and 3514 North High Street, in the 1920s. Peter A. Hansen lived at 207 West North Broadway from 1923 to 1957. I was unable to unearth additional information about this bakery.
Beechwold Barbecue, 4784 North High Street. “The home of choice barbecue & toasted sandwiches, special Italian Spaghetti dinner. After the theatre or after a dance, drive out to the most popular barbecue in Columbus. Auto parking space. Come hear the wonderful Violano Virtuoso.” [Photo from a 1939 North High Memory Book advertisement]
Oh how hard I searched for a good photo for my book of Jimmie’s Drug Store, a legendary community landmark! I located this one after my book had been published. Jimmy D. Kinnaird lived at 63 East Longview from 1920 on, and in 1924 he founded Jimmie’s Drug Store at 3347 North High Street on the corner of Brighton and North High. He sold pharmacal goods, cosmetics, newspapers and magazines, candy, school supplies, toys, and had a lending library. Perhaps most memorably, Jimmie’s also had a soda fountain This photo was taken in 1939.
Merrick Funeral Home was located at 3099 North High Street, approximately across the street from Clinton Chapel a.k.a. the Armbruster home. I believe you can see this fine building in other images of that section of North High Street on this web site.
The Clintonville White Castle, 1941. Note the tracks in the middle of North High Street, and also the buildings to the north and northwest of the 5-cent hamburger joint! Sadly, the Clintonville White Castle closed on Christmas Eve this past December 2010.
Here is one of the many newspaper articles announcing the closure.
I previously stated that I was unsure where this photos was taken. A reader named James wrote in that it’s “the view from atop the school, facing South East. You can see the edge of the football field along the fence line in the middle left of the pic. The white house in the middle right is still there, at the corner of Adams and Arcadia. That large apt building on the other corner is still there, too.” Thanks, James! The photo was in one of the North High School Memory Books (their yearbook). [From a North High School Memory Book]
Robert Ohaver (b. 1920) lived most of his life in Clintonville and on West North Broadway. He had many stories of old Clintonville to share with us. On September 12, 2003, several community members (Ann and Alan Woods, Barbara Hotchkiss, Nancy Kuhel) interviewed him and preserved the conversation on tape. Now you, too, can listen to Mr. Ohaver’s oral history.
Sadly, Bob Ohaver passed away on June 11, 2009. You can find his obituary here. There is another small entry about his aunt on this web site here.
Bob mother was Laura Ohaver and his father was Walter Harvey Ohaver. Bob also had an older brother named Jack Ohaver who lived in Clintonville at 116 E. Dunedin with his wife Clara Ohaver. Clara passed away May 24, 1993, and Jack passed away on June 14, 2000. Jack and Clara had two daughters. Sue Bowman was born May 8, 1940; she passed away January 4, 2000. Sandra Urban born July 30, 1945. [This family information came to me from Jack’s granddaughter and Sandy’s daughter, Lisa Adkins. Thanks, Lisa!]
Each file is about 30 minutes long.
Contents
Track 1.
Brief Ohaver biography; origins of his family moving to West North Broadway; his World War II years; Clinton Theatre; businesses and homes at the interesection of North Broadway and North High Streets; drugstores and candy stores in Clintonville; the house behind 3391 North High Street; Dispatch carrier’s substation; Olentangy Park; the streetcar storage barn at Arcadia.
Track 2.
Olentangy Park cont’d; street fair at North Broadway and High to celebrate Clinton Theatre, the opening of Clinton School pedestrain subway, and the paving of North High Street after a new sewer line had been installed; the Olentangy River; 3 canoe clubs; development of West North Broadway (“the Broadway Extension”) and the Scott farm; development of the area along the adjoining river bank; the Herron [spelling uncertain]/Zinn home at 285 West Kenworth; Bill Moose AKA “Indian Bill”; Chief Leatherlips. Note: the “Dr. John Scott” is William H. Scott, president of OSU 1883-1895. See my book, page 17, for a photo of his house.
Track 3.
Chief Leatherlips cont’d; house at 273 Erie Road and excavation of nearby gravel pit; the Fuller farm/Whetstone Park; rambling through the woods; Indian Springs golf course; Bill Moose AKA “Indian Bill”; Olentangy Park; North Columbus including the Ramlow Building; Picadilly Theatre; streetcars and interurbans.
Track 4.
Southwick funeral home; Joy Hunt home; Graceland Shopper’s Mart and Patrick Murnan; Clinton Theatre; the Great Depression; Ohaver family; Brighton Road development; Ohaver’s WWII and postwar years.
Track 5.
Ohaver’s return to Columbus from California in 1962; bombing of the Clinton Theatre in the 1930s.
Some lovely pictures of the northwest corner of Hudson and North High, in 1930. This corner looks about the same today! (Photos courtesy of Frank Jones.)
