Ed Cooke was one of the sons of H. C. Cooke. This was the house of Ed Cooke; it was located on the east side of High Street where the Beechwold Theatre building—now the Columbus Sports Connection– now stands.

This is a picture taken from Ed Cooke’s yard, looking northwest toward the Webster and Browne homes. According to the picture caption written by Lulu Pearle Browne (Ohsner), the fence at the right divided Ed Cooke’s “dooryard” and “barnyard;” and a hollowed stone watering trough stood under the big tree at the corner of the picket fence to water horses going and coming from the barnyard. The larger figure standing in High Street looking north is Al Cooke. The barn across High Street is the Hess barn. (Photos courtesy of the Ron Ohsner family)

Albert Clement Cooke (shown here) was one of the sons of H. C. Cooke. To the right is a picture of Albert’s house.

Albert’s land was in modern times rented for a Sandy’s restaurant, which later became a G.D. Ritzy’s ice cream parlor. Albert’s son was the first OSU athlete to participate in the Olympics; he ran in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. Albert’s grandsons Carl and Grant Cooke still live in central Ohio (Photos courtesy of Carl Cooke)

George Whipp came to the area with his wife and two sons from Maryland in 1833. His son George P. was 16 years at the time, and initially worked as a carpenter. Son George married Lucinda Smiley, and they had 10 children one of whom was also named George. The family farmed and had two truck stands along North High Street. (Note: Sometimes the family spells its name with one “p”.) A bit more biographical information can be found in A Centennial Biographical History of the City of Columbus and Franklin County Ohio (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1901) p. 770 excerpted here.

How I would love to acquire a picture of the old Schreyer House. This was described as being one of the first high-class homes in its neighborhood. The property was 50 acres, from High Street to the Olentangy River, bounded by Henderson to the south and the “Stewart and Weisheimer farms to the north.” The grand house was built by Barney Phinney (one of the owners of the Worthington Pike) about 1893, and was subsequently sold to G. Schreyer, a Columbus stove and furnace manufacturer.

Two excellent orchards grew on the place. A windbrake of splendid walnut trees protected one orchard and a row of fine maples formed the windbrake for the other. There was also a very good spring just west of what is now Rosemary Parkway. Surrounded by rose gardens and shrubbery, the house was an imposing structure with pointed gables and the interior finished throughout with solid walnut.

Mr. Schreyer died in 1901, and his wife (Ernestine Zeller, after whom Zeller Road was named) moved elsewhere. The old Schreyer house was eventually subdivided into apartments. The house burned down in 1913; the Columbus Fire Department had been called but could not respond, because there were no water lines in that vicinity at the time. The land was purchased by Charles Johnson in 1923 and subdivided into the Rosemary Development.

And as a side note: “Rosemary” was the name of Charles Johnson’s mother.

North Broadway was developed by the Loren and Dennison company in 1897; it was intended to be the place to live, and it was. James Loren originally planned to call it the Oakland Addition, but the post office requested he change the name to avoid confusion with another neighborhood. It had a small railroad depot and post office at North Broadway’s east end at the Big Four Railroad track. This house at 510 North Broadway Street was the first house built in the subdivision. It was built around 1890.  It was sometimes called Acton Place, for reasons I was unable to discover.  By 1894 it was owned by a man named E. Howard Gilkey.  The William W. Daniel family purchased it in 1896, and the house remained in that family’s hands until 1961.  It burned down in 1966. My Clintonville and Beechwold book has a photograph of the original house; this photograph shows the fire. The spot is now occupied by Columbus Speech and Hearing Center.  (Photo from an unnamed newspaper clipping)

I also found a handwritten history that said that this was the first house built on North Broadway and was lived in, or owned by, someone named Loren. I do not recognize the house—do you? (This very poor image was taken from a photocopy of a microfilm.)

According to the 1896-97 city directory, there was also a Jeremiah C. Loren (motorman) living 1 building north of North Broadway on the east side of North High Street.

Mary Rodgers (resident of East North Broadway who has been researching the houses along East North Broadway) believes this is a picture of 625 East North Broadway, a house which was in the Broadway Villa subdivision and which I have written about here. It was lived in by the MacIntosh family.

East North Broadway was developed by the Loren and Dennison company in 1897; it was designed to be a posh neighborhood, each house on a 1-acre plot of land. It had a small railroad depot and post office at North Broadway’s east end at the Big Four Railroad track. This house at 242 North Broadway Avenue was the second house built in the subdivision. (From Business First magazine)

242 East North Broadway was renovated beautifully by owner Gary Means. The care with which he selected materials and kept true to the house’s original design takes my breath away. The house has not always been so lovely. For several years–prior to the present owner–this (to the right) is what it looked like.

My book, Clintonville and Beechwold, page 19, shows an image of East North Broadway, looking east toward Indianola Avenue in the late 1800s The large house to the right of the photograph (south side of North Broadway) still exists at 489 East North Broadway (top photo).

The building just to the left of 489 in the photograph still exists as well, as a private residence; it was originally the carriage house of the large house on the south side of North Broadway in the distance (bottom photo). That large house was formerly 625 East North Broadway in the Broadway Villa subdivision.

This photograph was labeled, “Looking west from 3134 N. High, 1896”. It’s an exciting glimpse of how Clintonville used to look. (Photo courtesy of the Dawson family.)

Pearl Fisher lived at 129 West Pacemont for nearly 70 years until her death in 1970 at age 82. [The house has since been torn down.] She moved there as a young girl, when Pacemont (then called Jason Avenue), was a gravel road with houses far apart and the mailman traveled his route in a buggy. There was a spring on the West Pacemont farm which her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fisher, owned. They sold this spring water in bottles to residents all over Clintonville, delivering it by horse-drawn wagon. They stored the bottles in a little shed attached to the house. –from The Booster, January 4, 1978.