3367, 3369 and 3377-3383 N. High St. were mostly derelict in 2010 when a car crashed into the buildings and caused the city to insist on demolition. One of these was the building described below; another was the old Clinton Theatre, and another a dance studio and a jewelry store. Because the 3 or 4 buildings formerly occupied by Clintonville Electric are finally disappearing from the Clintonville landscape, I’ve been writing several posts about them. This post is about 3367 North High, which was demolished in 2010.

An electric company was at the space (3367 North High) as early as 1929; that year someone named Walter Ernest “Tom” Metzger (b. 1897-07-24, d. 1980-10-22) purchased the business M Cupp & Son and renamed it Metzger Electric Shop. (There is no mention of appliances at that listing in the City Directory that year.) M Cupp & Son had occupied a variety of nearby North High addresses, selling assorted drugstore items, paints and eventually “radiolas.”

Metzger himself had earned an electric engineering degree from The Ohio State University and played on their Big 10 championship football and baseball teams in 1916 and 1917. He later started his own electrical consulting firms: Walter Metzger & Associates and Metzger & Blackburn. He also worked for the City of Columbus as assistant superintendent of the City Division of Electricity.

In 1939 Metzger was still listed at 3367 N High, but the business was described as an appliance shop. By 1940, the business was called Clintonville Electric, with Metzger described as in charge of the Construction Department, and LB Hinton over the Appliance Department. By 1945, only Hinton was listed for this business, and members of the Hinton family continued to own it until it went out of business. In 1945, Lloyd Hinton lived at 35 West North Broadway (but it seems he was renting that home) and later at 541 Walhalla (and eventually on Teteridge.)

[Newspaper clipping courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch, accessed through the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Newsbank database. The receipt for the stove is all mine. I gotta say, I miss that stove–but still have that washer and dryer.]