The Columbus Canoe Club–which had been turned into a residence back in 1959–is currently on the market, and you can see the inside of this residence here. It has only had 4 owners since it was built, and long-time owner Donna Hickey had given me a tour of the house back in 2009. So sorry to learn that Donna passed away in 2021.
A bit more info here
(I doubt this link to the realtor post will be up long.)
I have no World War I photos of soldiers in Clintonville. But in honor of Armistice Day aka Veterans Day, I am posting this photo of WW I soldiers, being addressed by Norman Barnes Thorp. This might be in front of 180 East Northwood, though I have been unable to confirm that location.
Margaret Nelson, a long time Clintonville resident who has shared many other family pix with us, shared the World War I photo with us. 180 East Northwood was built by Margaret’s grandparents, Johanna Gertrude (Edmondson) (1880-1967) and Norman Barnes Thorp (1867-1934) around 1909, and the house was subsequently owned by the Thorp’s daughter, Norma Thorp Van Ness.
Norman B. Thorp was active in the Northwood Flower and Garden Club, which in turn was active in various ways in the war effort. Of its 60 members, 9 men were in military service and 1 woman was an active nurse.
[Photos courtesy of Margaret Nelson.]
On one of my daily walks, I noticed this grave in Union Cemetery, which set me a wonderin’. “School Mate” is such a peculiar thing to put on a grave marker! I did a bit of research, and Wendy Ritter Bayer joined me in the effort.
Here is the cluster of gravestones I was so curious about: Carrie Reid, Ellis & Nina Reid, Mary Frances Jones. Carrie Reid’s epitaph says “School Mate” but she shares a last name with Ellis and Nina Reid, and is their general age. Also, she died in her 70s, so it seemed unusual to hark back to her school friends.
Gravestones left to right are: Carrie Reid, Ellis & Nina Reid, Mary Frances Jones. Carrie Reid was Ellis’ 3rd and final wife. Nina married then was divorced from Ellis yet was buried alongside Ellis. Mary Frances is Nina’s child by a previous marriage.
(1) Ellis Harlen Reid was married 3 times:
–Flora Ellen Rice m. 1902. In 1903 he and Flora had 1 son, Russ, who died in 1991. Ellis and Flora presumably divorced.
–Nina Jones m. 1927. For some reason Ellis’ second wife Nina owed his first wife Flora $500 for a real estate matter which was paid in full by May 1937. Ellis Reid filed for divorce from Nina in May 1947, the same year Nina died–in September 1947–after a couple month’s illness “survived by her husband Ellis.”
–Carrie B Quinn m. 1950. Three years after divorcing Nina, Ellis married Carrie B. Quinn, who predeceased him.
(2) Nina was married 2 times:
–Thomas W Jones in West Virginia; he died in 1965 so presumably they divorced. They had a daughter, Marie Frances Jones; Marie died in 1934 and her stone is next to her mother’s.
–In 1927 she married Ellis Reid, divorced him in 1947, and died later that year. Her house at 524 Lincoln Ave was to be sold and proceeds paid “to my niece, Sylvia Cole, and my sister Ivy Robinson, share and share alike, or to the survivor of them.”
(3) Carrie was married 4 times:
–Oscar Bowman m. 1901; he died in 1954 so she must have divorced him. Carrie and Oscar had 2 living daughters: Bertha Leola, born 1903, and Helen E., b. 1906. Their address was 1268 1/2 N. High St. (Bertha married James Dolan in 1921 and Helen married Charles A. Taylor on 16 Aug 1927). Carrie and Oscar also had an infant daughter who died of “pre-mature birth” in 1909. Their address was 1181 Say Ave.
–Elmer Preston Buchanan m. 1918; he died in 1956 so presumably they divorced.
–Loren George Webster m. 1939; he died in 1940 from “barbital poisoning (addict).”
–Ellis Reid, m. 1950. He was 70, she was 67 when they married; she died 5 years after marrying him. He died in 1961.
I’m surprised at the sheer number of divorces–at least 4 between them. Ellis is buried alongside his second wife, rather than his 3rd and final wife, though that’s not all that uncommon; cemeteries and monument sellers often offer a “2 for one” price, so widowers ended up with a plot they might otherwise be unable to use. Also it wouldn’t surprise me if somehow Nina was instrumental in the choice, since her daughter by previous marriage is in the same plot and style stone.
Now, back to my original inquiry. Carrie was born and raised in Ohio, as was Ellis. Nina was born and raised in WV. So if Carrie was a “school mate,” it was with Ellis. I am unable to research whether that happened. But what kind of husband puts “school mate” on his newly deceased, current, wife’s stone? I’m wondering whether she was a SOUL Mate and the carvers got it wrong. If so, what a hoot.
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 70 E Henderson Rd. It is captioned, “Indian Springs will soon be utilized for better-class homes.”
It makes me curious about the “class of homes” about to be torn down.
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.]
Here’s a nice plat map from 1923 of the Rosemary housing development.
[Courtesy of Dave Penniman and Meri-Jo Warner]
Transportation expert and collector Alex Campbell sent along some Olentangy Park pictures. Though you may or may not have already seen these pictures, Alex’ knowledge is invaluable. From Alex:
This is the streetcar and pedestrian entrance to Olentangy Park. Olentangy Park was purchased by the Columbus Railway & Light Co. in 1897 as a way to generate business. The high Street line ended at Arcadia. The North High Streetcar house was on the northeast corner of Arcadia and High Streets and directly across the street this park entrance. The Clintonville–Worthington streetcar line terminated at Arcadia as well hence the need for the pedestrian walkway.
Glenn Echo ravine runs east-west along the north side of the ravine. Crossing under the bridge is a north-south ravine that paralleled high Street. More on the north-south ravine on Wednesday.
The single track branches into two tracks, perhaps a loop. There is a loading platform beyond the arch. The single track into the park is going to be unsatisfactory as you will see on Wednesday.
In 1907 the streetcar entrance to Olentangy Park was rebuilt. The ravine paralleling High Street was filled in eliminating the bridge. The inbound and outbound cars no longer had to share a single track. The Clintonville-Worthington visitors still had to walk in using the gravel path to the left of the entrance. (The CR&L Co was wide gauge and the Worthington line standard gauge.)
In 1899 the CR&L Co. sold the park to the Dusenbury brothers who transitioned it from a nature park to an amusement park. The brothers also built a 2248 seat theater.
When the theater let out the surge of streetcar customers must have required tens of streetcars. If they packed the cars with 60 riders each they would need 37 streetcars. That may be the reason the company made the improvements to the park streetcar loop and terminal.
At 5 cents a ride they would have collected $112, good money since they paid so little to their employees.
Alex also put together a super helpful Olentangy Park Chronology as an aid in dating all the Park photos that have shown up in the last few years. (Ohiomemory.org has a number of good Park photos.) Many of the chronology dates came from websites–so they are susceptible to error. Still it does give a sense of the life cycle of the park.
[ca1900 photo from the Christopher Trumbull Collection, by way of Alex Campbell. Postcard postmarked 1909 from the Alex Campbell Collection. Chronology courtesy of Alex Campbell]
The Van Ness family lived at 310 East Weber from about 1947 to about 1950.
This is the front of the house with Margaret Van Ness Nelson’s brother John Van Ness standing in front.
Though the house was on the north side of Weber, the building itself faced north toward a right-of-way that was never developed into a street. Or maybe the right of way was partially developed and is now “Iswald Road”?
There were 4 houses between 310 E Weber, and the corner of Weber and Calumet. The current house on that corner hadn’t been built yet when the Van Nesses lived there.
This is a side view–the east side–of 310 E Weber.
Margaret writes, “Our front yard was a ditch that was supposed to be a street but was never built. We played in the woods. We called it the Hala [after ‘Walhalla’]. There was the first Hala and the second Hala, which is where the white Mooney house still stands. It was sort of scary so we didn’t go near it. On the other side of Hala #2 was where Darien and Jan Mooney lived in a one-story house, which intrigued us with the kitchen on the first floor.”
The house at 310 Weber was eventually torn down to make a parking lot for Crestview School.
[Vintage photos courtesy of Margaret Van Ness Nelson.]
According to an article in the TCB web site written by Dan Niepow:
…The idea came to fruition in the form of HouseNovel.com, a website that Zielike describes as one part Zillow and one part Ancestry.com. It essentially operates as a social media platform where users upload historical photos, personal anecdotes, construction dates, and other details about residential properties. It’s designed to show how properties have changed over the years. The site is free to use, but the two aim to generate revenue through a subscription-based advertising model. Advertisers pay a monthly fee starting at $349.
“We’re going after real estate professionals who care about home history, whether that’s real estate agents, architects, general contractors, or any other people in the real estate trade that focus on older homes,” Decker says. “We feel there’s a huge market for that and for those sorts of services.”
The couple worked with Square 1 Group, a California-based web developer focused on real estate websites. In addition to crowdsourced material, HouseNovel is sharing its platform with any interested local historical groups to supplement property information and partner on special projects; the company has already landed a partnership with Edina’s Heritage Preservation Commission and St. Paul-based historic preservation nonprofit Rethos.
As of August, Zielike says there have been more than 18,000 home profile records uploaded to the site, about 10,000 of those in Minnesota. For now, HouseNovel is focusing on residential properties, but eventually it aims to open it up more broadly to commercial real estate.
You can read more here.
The HouseNovel web site may be found here.
Margaret Nelson (née Van Ness) grew up in Clintonville, and has shared some old family photos. Her family lived at the following addresses:
I’ll be sharing these old house photos in the months to come.
This photo is 139 West Dunedin. Ralph Taylor Van Ness (1902-1989) and his wife Norma Thorp Van Ness (1910-2000) bought this house in 1939; it was their first house as a married couple. They lived here until August 1942, when they moved to 175 Tibet Road.
Here’s are some present-day photos; the house has since been screened in and added on to.
[Vintage photo Courtesy of Margaret Van Ness Nelson.]
Last month I provided a glimpse of James Chesnut, who lived at 3338 N. Wall Street. James Chesnut was involved in significant litigation with the North Broadway developers and neighbors. Though last month I said James appears to have been irascible, I’d certainly be that way too if this happened to me. From the Dispatch:
Whew!
James Chesnut Sues North Broadway Residents
Wants Big Damages and Their Sewerage System Declared a NuisanceJames Chesnut, who owns a 20-acre tract along High Street near North Broadway, this morning brought a damage and injunction suit against the owners of property and residents of North Broadway addition. The residences in the addition run their waste water into private sewers, which empty into an open ditch that runs onto the Chesnut land near the owner’s residence. Chesnut’s purpose is to have the courts declare this sewer system a nuisance and order it abated. He says the filth from the vaults, stables, and wasteways runs down near his house, polluting the water in the ditch, where he used to water his stock; that the winds carry noxious and offensive vapors and stenches into his residence, annoys his family, and is a continual menace to their life and health, besides decreasing the value of the premises. He sues for $6,000 damages, $1,000 of this amount because of the pollution of the ditch water on his land. He wants an injunction against the use of the ditch for sewer purposes…
[From Columbus Dispatch (published as Columbus Evening Dispatch) March 21, 1883 page 7.]
A couple months later, the North Broadway developers issued a rejoinder:
A Tart Answer
That Will Scarcely Turn Away Wrath
Filed by James M. Loren in the North Broadway Sewage CaseSome time ago James Chesnut, who lives on High Street north of North Columbus, filed a suit against the owners and residents of North Broadway dwellings and lots to prevent the use of an open ditch for sewer purposes, on the ground that it created a nuisance on the plaintiff’s premises. It was claimed that the suit, if successful, would compel the abandonment of the entire sewage system of North Broadway. Mr. James M. Loren this morning filed an answer, in which he claims that all the sewage from the houses on North Broadway passes into two large cisterns located at least 1,000 feet from Mr. Chesnut’s residence, and that no bad odor can come from the cisterns. About five years ago, Mr. Chesnut himself put in pipes draining his vaults and stables into the open trench. Some time ago, Mr. Loren says, Mr. Chesnut offered to sell him all his premises except the house and yard at a certain price, but he refused to take the offer, and then Mr. Chesnut for the first time objected to the North Broadway sewer system.
[From Columbus Dispatch (published as Columbus Evening Dispatch) May 20, 1883, page 6.]
Apparently Loren’s response was not accepted by the courts, for this article followed along in 1897:
North Broadway Sewage Causing Trouble
About a year ago James Chestnut, a farmer who lives between North Columbus and Clintonville, brought proceedings against property owners on North Broadway for damages on account of the sewer system which drains property along North Broadway. He sued for something over $4,000 damages. The case went to the circuit court and that tribunal issued an injunction preventing the use of the sewer system until it was remedied.
It seemed that when the sewers up there were constructed they were left in such shape that they dumped the refuse of the vaults and houses onto land either belonging to Mr. Chestnut or so close to his house that it created a nuisance. The injunction issued by the circuit court was made permanent and still stands. It now appears that the sewers are still in use and it is said that Mr. L. G. Addison, the attorney who represented Mr. Chestnut, has notified the people of North Broadway that unless they comply with the order of court he will have contempt proceedings instituted against them. One trouble which Mr. Chestnut’s attorney labors under is that the residents of North Broadway change quite often and it thus becomes necessary to notify the new comers of the […] order of court. New comers who are in ignorance of the facts, of course, cannot be held for a violation of an order of court of which they are in ignorance.
[From Columbus Dispatch (published as Columbus Evening Dispatch) Monday August 23, 1897 page 6.]
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