Remembering the Rosemary Neighborhood by Knopf & Near
David Penniman, a resident of the Rosemary neighborhood, sleuthed out a copy of a document penned in 1984-88 by Richard C Knopf and Miriam F Near. The document, entitled Reminiscences: Not Memoirs, is a free-wheeling remembrance of growing up in the neighborhood around Henderson and Rosemary Parkway in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Dave’s copy came from Ann and Keith Bossard of Dominion Blvd; Dave then digitized the 97 page book and shared it with us. Thanks, Dave!
Both Richard and Miriam are deceased; their obituaries are linked below.
Richard C Knopf, 1/4/1925 – 7/17/2002
Miriam Fowle Near, 6/28/1924 – 12/10/2009
I’m so appreciative of people who preserve local history, as Richard and Miriam, and Dave, have done.
[Digital version of the Knopf and Near typescript courtesy of David Penniman. Knopf obituary came courtesy of the Ashtabula Public Library System based on a search and tip from Nick Taggart, retired librarian par excellence at the Columbus Metropolitan Library.]Calling Doctor Amy!
This is a Columbus Dispatch article, dated September 27, 1897, about an almost-epidemic of diphtheria. Though you can zoom in, the print is tiny, so I’m providing the text here:
“Dread Diphtheria Attacks Several Families in Clintonville.
“People in the Maple Grove and Clintonville school districts are very much alarmed over the appearance of dread diphtheria. The wells are all low and the country is as dry as a bone. The cold nights and hot days make a combination that is unhealthy to say the least; and added to this is the dust, minute seeds and other things blown by the wind and irritating to nose and throat. At present there are seven cases right on the pike between Clintonville and the Maple Grove switch.
“The school directors are thinking strongly of closing the schools before the disease becomes an epidemic.
“At Clintonville three little girls in the Snapp family have the dread throat trouble. At the switch, the Armstrong twins are ill and a child named Hardin is also down with the disease. There is another case over east and parents are becoming seriously alarmed. All the infected houses have been placarded.”
According to Wikipedia and the CDC, diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Signs and symptoms vary from mild to severe. They usually start two to five days after exposure. Symptoms often come on fairly gradually, beginning with a sore throat and fever. In severe cases, a grey or white patch develops in the throat; this can block the airway and create a barking cough as in croup. The neck may swell in part due to enlarged lymph nodes. Complications may include myocarditis, inflammation of nerves, kidney problems, and bleeding problems due to low levels of platelets. Nowadays, children are vaccinated against diphtheria in combination with tetanus and pertussis.
The Mastery of Frank Packard on Glen Echo, by Amanda Page
Amanda Page wrote a very nice article about Frank Packard, architect of the former North High School. The article is in Ravinia Spring/Summer 2014, pp 1,3.
Clinton Elementary School Deed
Former Clintonville Area Commissioner Judy Minister furnished us with a copy of the deed for Clinton Elementary School. It’s attached as a PDF.
Moseying with Rick Pfeiffer through Clintonville
Columbus City Attorney Rick Pfeiffer, who grew up in Clintonville, does a wonderful job giving an informal tour of the Clintonville community. (He has done this for the other neighborhoods of Columbus as well!) Thanks Rick! and we wish you well in your 2017 retirement.
Part One: https://bit.ly/CMosey1
Part Two: https://bit.ly/CMosey2
Notable Clintonvillites
I enjoy the attached article by Don Hollenback originally published in a 1997 Booster. It enumerates some of the residents who made their mark on the community–Doc Rymer, Bill Taylor, Cookie Stevens, Ted Barclay and many others who formed Clintonville Boy Association, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, and more.
Somebody Please Say “Cheese!”
First graders at the Clinton Township School on Clinton Heights Avenue (also called the “1904 Building”). Presumably Rand Hollenback is somewhere in this photograph. As of this web posting, the building is still there, though its fate is uncertain.
Maple Grove School
In 1842, Clinton Township School District 1 acquired land at Henderson and High Street from Chauncey Cooke, and in 1878, built a brick school building on the southwest corner. The building was used both as a school and for worship services by various denominations. In 1920, the district deeded the school to the Methodist Church, and the Maple Grove Methodist Episcopal Church was organized. It was at the time the only church between Clintonville and Worthington. (Photo courtesy of the Ron Ohsner family)
Overcrowding–always
We tend to think of the use of prefabricated buildings for temporary quarters a new idea, but it seems to be as old as our township schools. I have found pictures of old World War I military barracks, and also portable voting booths, used for schools all over Clintonville. Our Lady of Peace used both types of buildings. Glenmont Elementary School began life as a cluster of portable schools. Clinton Elementary School handled overcrowding with temporary buildings. Shown here are some portable voting booths at the old tile factory along Arcadia (where North High School presently stands). (Photo courtesy of Wallie Palmer)
Clinton Elementary School
I would love to find a photograph of the original school at Clinton Heights and North High Street. According to one or two accounts, a Brevoort family member living in Michigan has one. The school pictured here ca. 1905 was the second Clinton Heights school building. It was yellow brick, contained 4 rooms, and faced High Street. Since students attended from all over Clinton Township in those days, many rode horses to school; the barn at the back was probably used for horses. According to the photo caption, most of the school moved into High Street for the picture. An interurban rail went up the center of High Street at the time, and the photographer probably stood on the tracks to take this picture. (Photo courtesy of Amy Westervelt)
This is a picture of children in the classroom of the Clinton Heights school. (Photo courtesy of Amy Westervelt)
The second Clinton School was built in 1895 at 10 Clinton Heights Avenue. At the time, it housed both a grammar school and a high school. In 1904, the Clinton Township High School Building was built (pictured); it remains today as the Clinton Elementary East Building. A successor to the original building—still used–was built in 1922. (Photo courtesy of Amy Westervelt)
Overcrowding has been a chronic problem for schools. This photograph, looking east up Clinton Heights Avenue, shows some of the portable school buildings that were used as classrooms until newer school buildings could be erected. (Photo courtesy of Amy Westervelt)
3070 N High Street
Here is an amazing photograph of High Street, given to me by Stu Koblentz, who found this image in an old student thesis by Forest Ira Blanchard. The photo looks north, taken around 3070 North High. On the right (east) side of High Street I believe is the house of Mathias Armbruster, which later became the Southwick Good Fortkamp Funeral Chapel at 3100 North High Street at Weber and High. I’m told that some gravestones from the old burial ground are visible on the right. Check my book, Clintonville and Beechwold, for a better photo of this house. You can click on the image to see it in more detail.
[Citation: Blanchard, Forest Ira. 1922. An introduction to the economic and social geography of Columbus, Ohio. Thesis (M.A.)–Ohio State University, 1922. On January 16, I replaced the grainy version of this image on this web site with a higher quality photo after Joe Smith alerted me to its existence.]Chesnut House
And another amazing old photo of North High Street from Stu Koblentz. This photo also looks north, and was taken just south of the intersection of High and North Broadway. The house on the west (left) behind the little shack (marked “ice”) is the Chesnut house (aka Chestnut house), described in this web site’s “Water for Cookies” entry and also found in my book. The school on the east (right) side of High Street is the old Clinton Township school building, a picture of which is also in my book. You can click on the image to see it in more detail.
Stu’s theory about the Chesnut house is as follows:
The image shows the Chesnut house, facing North High Street, about where it currently stands. The facade that faces Wall Street today is the facade facing High Street. This is verifiable in the chimney placements.
So I went through Joe Testa’s web site and I think I know what happened to the house.
As far as I can tell the house stood approximately at 3327-29 North High Street. In the 1910s, when the house (which appears to have been built in the 1860s or 70s) is pictured, the house had been moved on a pivot to its current location, with its northeast corner remaining close to its original placement. This would account for the front lot build out, the twist in the alley and the sudden reemergence of Wall Street as well as the placement of the house in the picture, and the current location of the house.
What is interesting to me is why did they go to all that trouble, when its fairly common in urban settings to build a street facade onto a house and call it a commercial building. I think that part of the reason is that the house sat further back from High Street, making it too far away to convert to a commercial space commonly found in that era.
Update 2025-08-25 by Shirley–Another possible reason for reorienting this house might be found here.
Water for cookies
The township school located at Clinton Heights Avenue and North High Street did not, originally, have running water. Every day a child was designated to carry one bucket and dipper across High Street to the Chesnut house (see page 12 in my book, Clintonville and Beechwold) to fetch water that would be shared by the students. Legend has it that there were no lack of volunteers for water duty, as Mrs. Chesnut (or perhaps it was her daughter Fannie) always had cookies for the volunteer. This is a bad, yet significantly older, image of the Chesnut house.
Clinton El West
Overcrowded schools were a chronic problem, and the schools supplemented their brick-and-mortar ediifices with portable buildings. In response to the overcrowding of the east building, Clinton Elementary School’s west building was constructed in 1922. Both the east and west buildings have been in use for elementary and kindergarten grades since that time. (Photo courtesy of Columbus City Schools)
The play’s the thing
In 1925, members of Maple Grove Church presented a play at the church. The play was Friendly Helpers Class. It was a success and was taken on the road to the Linworth and King Avenue Methodist Churches. The left photo shows cast members Katherine Cooke (Barbee) and Lulu Browne (Ohsner), Dorothy Cooke (Hambleton) and a neighbor playacting for the camera in 1925. The photo on the right is the program for the June production. (Photo courtesy of the Ron Ohsner Family)
North High School
The original North High School, located at 100 West 4th Street at the corner of 4th Avenue and Dennison Avenue, had opened its doors on February 3, 1893 with eight teachers and 300 students. The student body quickly outgrew the building and an annex was constructed in 1902. That, too, became overcrowded.
After a new high school was completed, the old building became Everett Junior High School, named after the first North High School principal C. D. Everett. This first building—designed by Frank Packard and built at a cost of $14,000—is still in use. As shown in the lower photograph, the turrets and other elaborate structures have since been removed from the school. (Photo courtesy of Columbus Metropolitan Libraries)
In 1921, the Columbus Board of Education purchased 13.15 acres for $35,000 to build a new high school. The property had been owned by the American Vitrified Products Company. The land bordered on a deep ravine; the ravine was considered to be an asset for science classes, as was the proximity of the property to the streetcar tracks. Many other sites had been considered, including somewhere on the campus of Ohio State University. Discarded bricks and baked clay shards had to be removed from the old brick yard before construction of the school could begin.
The new building was designed by architect Frank Packard and cost $1,000,000. Construction began in 1923 and the building opened on September 2, 1924. It graduated its first class in January of 1925. For a brief time, the new high school was named Edward Orton High School. It served as an anchor for the community; often three generations of Clintonville families attended the school. It was one of the city’s top college-preparation schools; between 90 and 95 percent of the students went on to higher education. North High School was closed in 1979 as part of the city’s desegregation plan and subsequently became an adult education center and has also served as temporary quarters for schools undergoing renovations. (Photos courtesy of Leeann Faust)
Sherman Private School
The Sherman Private School existed at 30 Webster Park Avenue in the early 1920s. Webster Park was a King-Thompson housing development and the school may have been an inducement to purchase houses in the area. (Advertisement courtesy of North Broadway Methodist Church)
Glen Echo Bridge
Three lovely views of Glen Echo bridge near North High School, were taken in the later 1920s or early 1930s. [From North High Memory books.]
Glenmont Elementary School
In the spring of 1929, the first portable building at Glenmont was erected and about 6 weeks of school were held in the new building before the summer vacation. Celia Vanderiff was the principal and the first grade teacher was Elsie Elliott. Frances Jones taught the 2nd grade. In February 1930, the third grade was added but no new teacher employed. During the summer of 1930, the second double portable was added. The third double portable was built during the first semester of 1930-31.
On Top of the World…or at least Arcadia (Street)
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 (1937-2009)
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.
Our Lady of Peace Church
Our Lady of Peace is another church that met in the Beechwold Theatre before their building was erected.
The new parish was decreed on January 17, 1946. In the earliest days, weekday masses were said in the apartment of the new pastor, Father George H. Foley. Sunday mass was held in the Beechwold Theatre and later, at the A.A. Schroyer funeral home (now Weir Arendt). The church purchased land on the northeast corner of Dominion Boulevard and N. High Street, which at the time contained two buildings: an old farm house that was torn down, and a second building that served as a rectory and convent. The first church consisted of a barracks (side view of which is shown above) obtained from the Army Supply Depot at Marion. Prisoners of War constructed the kneelers. A double barracks was used for the first school, which opened September 3, 1947. An old mobile voting booth was used by the nuns as a kitchenette.
It’s customary for Catholic churches to build a permanent school first, followed by the church. Cornerstone rites were held in 1951 and the school opened in 1952. The present church was built in the late 1960s. (Photo from Our Lady of Peace dedication brochure)
Our Lady of Peace School
These children are a little stiff, and obviously no one told them to “say cheese”. But the children are cute and some of my readers may be in this photo. These are Our Lady of Peace students in the late 1940s, taken by photographer Ken Hauer. (Photo courtesy of Marge Hauer)
Nicodemus’s Feats of Clay
Here’s a very nice Columbus Dispatch article about Chester Nicodemus.
“Between work and play a midmorning snack is welcomed”
The Ohio State School for the Blind was built in the 1950s on land that had previously been a renown golf course, Wyandot Country Club also known as the Elks Country Club. This picture and its caption are from a brochure for the school published in the mid 1950s. (Photo courtesy of the Ohio State School for the Blind)
Who Was Bishop Watterson?
He was the second bishop of Columbus, occupying the episcopacy from 1880-1899. He was born in 1844 in Blairsville, PA and was ordained in 1868. He was president of Mt. St. Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, Maryland when he was selected to become Bishop of Columbus. His special interest was development of parochial schools. (Photo courtesy of Bishop Watterson High School)
Strings at North
North High School was a top ranked high school; alumni are rightfully proud of their alma mater. Here is a string ensemble from 1957-58: Tom Lange, first violin; Carol Lowry, second violin; Dorothy Neban, viola; and Mary Anne Brown, cello. (Photo courtesy of Leeann Faust)
Following my Bliss (College)
Another picture that I was unable to acquire for my book was one of Bliss College, which moved to 3770 North High Street Clintonville in September 1973 from 131 N. E. State Street. Today the building is occupied by COVA. Since Bliss College folded, I have been unable to fix on a source for photos of the school while it was in Clintonville. Are any graduates out there?
Halloween
I wonder how long school children have been parading in their costumes on Halloween day. Certainly they were doing so early on at Glenmont Elementary School. In the early days, neighbors probably turned out to watch the parade; nowadays they are more likely to watch from inside their houses. (Photo courtesy of Indian Springs Elementary School)
Schools
Here are a few photographs of schools that I was unable to fit into my book.
Colerain School, which is located at 499 East Weisheimer Road.
Calumet Elementary School, at 2774 Calumet Street.
Dominion Middle School, located at 330 E Dominion Blvd.
Skyline Mural
This 9 foot by 15 foot Columbus Skyline Mural is all that’s left of the Savings of America National Savings and Loan that was located from 1987 to 1992 at Graceland Shopping Center. The mural was created for the bank by renowned tile artist Marlo Bartels in the mid-1980s. The Casto Corporation donated it to Clinton Elementary School; it adorned the Gail Paris Discovery Garden for awhile and was moved into the cafeteria after the school’s 2011-2012 renovation. (Photo courtesy of Terry Miller)
