Here’s a picture of High Street looking north. Lulu Pearle Browne (Ohsner) and her dog are at the entrance to the driveway dividing the Browne and Al Cooke homes—presently the corner of West Cooke Road. The Aldrich house is on the left and Maple Grove church is in the center left. (Photo courtesy of the Ron Ohsner family)
Elsewhere on this web site, I’ve praised Lulu Pearle Browne, who in 1992 gave a presentation to her church, Maple Grove United Methodist Church, and in so doing preserved some wonderful Clintonville history. Her son Ron and the church allowed me to copy some of the materials that she prepared for these presentations, as I wrote my book. Some of the material can also be found elsewhere on this web site.
Just for the archival record, I’m also including PDFs of the some of the material Lulu wrote.
She wrote her memories of some of the plays the Maple Grove community produced, up to and including the 1950s (29 pages); and she gave a presentation on changes in the neighborhood (24 pages).
(Documents courtesy of the Ron Ohsner family)
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)
A handwritten map of the neighborhood, created by Lulu Pearle Browne (Ohsner), helps to clarify who lived where in the Maple Grove neighborhood in the early 1900s. You can click on this thumbnail and zoom in for a better view. (Photo courtesy of the Ron Ohsner family)
The Cooke family cemetery was located near the southeast corner of Cooke Road and High Street. According to genealogy records, the earliest headstone dated to 1817. Most of the graves were moved to Greenlawn or Union Cemeteries when Bishop Watterson High School was built in 1958. A few headstones were later discovered on a lot on Lenappe Drive. I would love to have some pictures of this cemetery.
There was also a John Rathbone Cemetery at the intersection of Morse and High.
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.
One of the oldest families in Clintonville is the Whipp Family (sometimes spelled Whip). They owned a farm, and a couple of stands along High Street that had big large orange signs advertising a refreshing drink consisting of freshly squeezed orange juice. The Whipps may have been the first owners of the mill located just north of Henderson Road and the Olentangy River. Here is a picture of the Whipp family circa 1889: George, Oscar, Everett, Laura, Cora, and Mabel. (Photo courtesy of Sue Gallogly)
The Whips lived at 73 East Weisheimer.
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.
This is a train wreck that occurred in 1880 north of Hudson, at the Big Four Railroad tracks. (Photo courtesy of Judy Cohen)
