A roller coaster at Olentangy Amusement Park. [Photo courtesy of Galen Gonser]

There’s been lots of news lately about the departure of Tee-Jaye’s Country Place Restaurant from the north east corner of North High and Morse Roads–and with that, much discussion of the neon sign on that corner. (I’m writing this in April 2021.)

Since 1960, the 4910 North High Street address has been a Jerry’s, then a Sisters’, then Tee-Jaye’s.

Mary Rodgers found this wonderful ad for the opening of Jerry’s in the Columbus Dispatch, Sept 12, 1961. The original neon sign was designed by Fred M. Ervin (Fred I and Fred II), of Fred M. Ervin Sign Service, 2447 Middlesex Rd, Upper Arlington. That company was later operated by Fred M. Ervin III until his death in 2006 as FM Ervin Sign and Lighting.

(As an aside, I love the “Cigarettes and Music Systems provided by Charies” in that ad.)

When Sisters took over the site and sign in 1986, the building was redesigned by architect Jerry Shremshock. The company modified the sign somewhat; Jim Baxter, of the DaNite Sign Company updated the sign.

[Research courtesy of Mary Rodgers, Jim Garrison; Source material from the Columbus Dispatch.]

This lovely home at 80 West Cooke Rd was originally built in 1925 for Lulu & Carl Cooke. The Cookes owned it for 40 years, and the house has only had 4 owners since it was built. Fortunately the home’s original character and charm has been maintained throughout the years.

I believe I’ve passed the house many times without noticing it, and suspect its lines were obscured by foliage until recently. What a gem it is!

The house is in the Rosemary housing division, developed by Charles Johnson in 1923 and named after his mother.

As a side note, the Mediterranean Revival style–so unusual in Clintonville–reminds me of the old Zimmerman home that used to be located at the NW corner of Henderson and Olentangy River Roads.

There are also examples of that style at 44 West Jeffrey Place (left photo below) and 223 West Beechwold Blvd (right photo below) in Old Beechwold. An historic inventory for 44 West Jeffrey can be found here. 223 West Beechwold seems to have had the address “4923 West Beechwold” and may have been designed by architect Frank Kinzig, according to the Old Beechwold Historic District Nomination.

My friend Nancy Campbell tells me that in the 1920s, there was a lot of interest in exotic styles for houses, usually attributed to the young men who came back from WWI. Having seen more of the world, they were interested in Tudor, Mediterranean, Mission, Chateauesque (French) styles. The Sears and Aladdin kit houses, though offering predominantly Craftsman or “plain” styles, also offered the others. These three houses were more upscale versions of an interesting mix of styles. According to Virginia McAlester’s book, A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture, tile roofs were used in Spanish Eclectic, Mission, Italian Renaissance, and Prairie styles. The Cooke Rd. house seems somewhat Tudor, with the “musicians’ balcony” overlooking the living room.

[Real estate listing & photos courtesy of Judy Minister; historic architecture information from Nancy Campbell.]

Mary Rodgers has written a very nice article about the Clintonville Woman’s Club.

The Clintonville Woman’s Club: The Women Before the Clubhouse
by Mary Rodgers

I was recently asked to speak at an evening meeting of the Clintonville Woman’s Club. Specifically, I was asked to speak on the subject of the history of the land that the Clubhouse occupies. I have always understood that the Clubhouse was located on land from the old Fuller Farm. I was surprised to learn more about the “Fuller” family.

In the 1820s, John Rathbone sold farm lot 5 to Edward Amaziah Stanley. Using today’s landmarks, that land would have been bounded on the east by Indianola Avenue, on the west by the river, on the south by roughly Torrence Road and on the north by roughly Overbrook Drive. When Mr. Stanley died in 1862, his land holdings were passed down to his children. Harriet Marie Stanley (aka Hattie) was one of those children. She was born in Connecticut in 1831. Based on the extensive land holdings throughout Ohio, I believe her father Edward was an Ohio land speculator. After acquiring several thousand acres, in 1829, he returned to Connecticut to marry Abagail Talcott Hooker. Sometime between 1831 and 1834, the family moved to the Clintonville area.

In 1856, Hattie married Erskine Asa Fuller, aka E. A. Fuller. E. A. was known as a dealer in stock animals. When her father passed away, Hattie inherited all of farm lot 5 in Clinton Township Ohio. The 1870 census shows a large extended family living together in Clintonville–the Fullers and their daughters, Hattie’s mother, brother, sister, and several farm hands and servants. The combined household value per that census was in excess of $25,000. Hattie passed away in 1879. E.A. passed away in 1894. After their deaths, the farm was transferred equally to the four Fuller daughters–Abby, Mary, Katherine and Martha.

Martha Fuller and her sister Katherine Fuller Peters lived all of their lives in Clintonville. They owned two brick homes along High Street–Katherine’s just south of where the Library sits today and Martha’s where the Christian Science church sits today. Martha Fuller passed away in 1938. She left half of her land holdings to long time farm hand Matthew McCallen and half to her niece (sister Mary’s daughter) Helen Osborn.

Eventually, all the land was sold off, some to the Christian Science Church, some to the Calvary Bible Church, and the balance to the City of Columbus.

The Clintonville Woman’s Club land was purchased by the Kiwanis Club of Northern Columbus. That Club loaned the ladies the funds needed to build the Clubhouse. In turn, they held a mortgage on the property. The Woman’s Club members worked tirelessly and retire their debt to the Kiwanis within five short years! They have owned the Club house and property ever since.

[Courtesy of Mary Rodgers]

Gary Mean’s stunning restoration effort of 242 East North Broadway was included in Old House Journal, April-May 2011 issue.

This is a very nice picture of Kelley Buick at 3415 North High Street (corner of North High and North Broadway Streets, where Kroger’s parking lot is today). Kelley Buick was at that location from 1936/37 until 1949, after which it became Bob Daniel Buick. (Before 1936/37 it was a Chevy dealership.)

[Image courtesy of the Hollenback Collection at the Clintonville Historical Society.]

Mary Rodgers, President of the Clintonville Historical Society, did some wonderful research on the Balser Hess family graves at Union Cemetery, in response to a reader’s inquiry about this post. Apparently the reader believed that Balser Hess’s wife is not buried in this location despite the tombstone.

From Mary Rodgers:

There are lots of burials on the Hess property prior to the establishment of the Union Cemetery Association in 1847. The Association purchased the Hess burial ground in 1862. The only known records of the early burials are the tombstones. Unfortunately, there are lots of illegible and missing stones.

Union Cemetery and the Historical Society believe Balser to be the earliest burial. The family arrived in Ohio around 1799. They had a child (John) born in Hopetown in 1799. He lived to adulthood. Attached is a family history that was done many years ago by Frank Hess. It states that Balser was the first burial on the family farm. I confirmed that John was the last of George’s children; she didn’t find any grandchildren prior to his death in 1806.

Balser’s wife (Mary Eva) is represented on the tombstone. We have no reason to believe that she is not buried at Union. The property was still in the family’s control at the time of her death. The tombstone that is in the cemetery is not the original. It was lost to the test of time and replaced by the family.

John was the last child to be born to Balser and Mary Eve. No mention of “lost infants” for that couple.

The only child of Balser who married prior to his death was his daughter Mary Ann. She married Henry Cryder before the Hesses moved to Franklinton. She and Henry ultimately moved to Delaware, OH (then to Illinois) but I don’t see anything that would suggest they had a child that would have been buried on the family homestead in Franklin Co. prior to her father’s death. At that time, they lived in New Hope, OH.

[Images courtesy of Mary Rodgers]

Last November, I posted a photo of a drugstore that carried a sign, “Bob is Home”. The photo spurred Clintonville Historical Society president Mary Rodgers to do some sleuthing. Here’s what she learned:

We have a photo in the Clintonville Historical Society’s archive that shows a storefront door with a sign that reads: “Closed Today –Bob is home after 5 years and 21 days in the Army for prescriptions call LA.5462 or LA. 9170”. I thought I might try to find out more about veteran “Bob”. From the sign, I know his name is Bob and that is most likely short for Robert. I know he served for 5 years and 21 days in the Army. I know this photo appeared in the Booster, a local newspaper founded in 1933 (post WWI-pre WWII). I went to Ancestry.com and searched for first name “Robert”, lived in Clinton Twp., Franklin County, OH with military service from 1941-1945 (i.e. WWII). The sign also told me that someone close to Bob owned a pharmacy (“for prescriptions call…”). I added pharmacy to my search. The top search results included Robert Ranck. Could this be the right solider? I went to the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s research site and pulled up the Columbus Dispatch newspaper. I typed in “Bob Ranck”. I found a newspaper article from November 14, 1945 that read as follows: “Druggists Back From Service Are Honored–Seven druggists and the son of another druggist who recently returned from the service were honored by the Servall Druggists Alliance at a dinner-dance at the Beechwold Tavern . Sgt. Bob Ranck, son of Paul Ranck, Oakland Park Av and High St. came home after five years in the service and his father promptly closed his store for the day…”.

Mystery solved! Jesse Paul Ranck owned the Oakland Park Pharmacy–where Shim’s is today. The Ranck family lived at 234 Erie Road. Mr. Ranck was very involved in the Clintonville community. He loved nature and was an avid hunter and fisherman. In 1959, the Columbus Dispatch reported that then retired Pharmacist Ranck continued to visit the shop at Oakland Park and High. On one particular day, May 8, 1959, he told the story of a mother raccoon who had brought her babies down the chimney of his home. He was worried that the kits would become too heavy for her to remove. His son, Bob Ranck, returned from the war and attended The Ohio State University. He graduated from the School of Dentistry. For many years, his dental practice was above the Oakland Park Pharmacy. According to his 2012 obituary, he ultimately received the military rank of Captain and was awarded the Bronze Star for his heroic service to our country.

[Image is from The Booster, and courtesy of the Hollenback Collection at the Clintonville Historical Society. Mary’s article was published in the May 2020 CHS Newsletter.]

At a recent CHS meeting, Glenn Williams and Stuart Smith shared a song commissioned by the Clintonville Community Band for its 20th anniversary. Snapshots of Clintonville premiered on Oct 1, 2005. It is 11-minute 47-second duration.

Snapshots of Clintonville‘s composer was Barry E. Kopetz, who was Director of Bands and Professor of Conducting at Capital University at that time. Richard Burkart was the Clintonville Community Band’s director. The band has kept a great archive of its history; the program for this concert is here and the announcement of the commissioning of the piece is here.

The individual movements are
1) Main Theme
2) Gothic Gateway Entrance
3) Glen Echo Ravine
4) Bill Moose – Last Of The Wyandots
5) Dance
6) From The Banks Of The Olentangy
7) Underground Railroad
8) Columbus and Worthington Plank Road
9) Weisheimer House
10) McKendree Cemetery
11) Main Theme

The band has made a huge contribution to the community, by providing concerts year after year for more than 30 years. That doesn’t mean they don’t need your support and donations! I recommend going to their web site and donating today.

Are you still reading this? what are you waiting for? Donate!

Wendy Bayer found these great photos and generously shared them with us. The photos show Big Tom’s Restaurant (or Big Tom’s Drive-In Restaurant), which occupied the southeast corner of North High and East Jeffrey from 1956 – 1959. Big Tom’s was owned by Thos H Fetty, who lived with his wife Ella M. at 353 Clinton St.

Here is Big Tom and his wife Ella’s marriage certificate:

Tom Fetty died in 1995.

Here’s some history on the location, based on the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s collection of business directories:

• –In 1950 the address did not exist.
• –From 1953 until 1956 it was Hi-Jeffrey Sandwich Shop, owned by Pete Freemas. (In April 1954 it was called Hi-Jeffrey Sandwich Shop, presumably for its corner location. By June 1954 it was also called Pete’s Drive-In. Pete passed away from a heart attack in April 1955; here’s his obituary.)
• –From 1956 to 1959 it was Big Tom’s Restaurant. There’s an April 1959 Dispatch article about an attack on “the diner’s operator Donald Acree.”
• –In August 1957, January 1958, and July 1959, there were attempts by “owner Elizabeth F. Baker” to sell or auction the restaurant including furnishings and equipment. I’m not sure whether Elizabeth F. Baker had been Pete Freemas’s wife Betty, or whether she had some other connection to the property.
• –By 1960 it had become Chicken Delight Restaurant, owned by Richard A. Potts (& Forrest W. Womeldorff). It was still Chicken Delight in 1961, but I was unable to check additional years.
• –By 1966 it had become a Kut n’ Kurl Beauty Salon.

According to Wendy, Frank B. and Ola Faye Hyatt owned the parcel for a short time; they are buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery. Orr Zimmerman of Olympic Pool fame also owned the parcel… Some neighborhood folks say that it was called “Corky’s” at one time and that the “owner lived down on W. Jeffrey”; I didn’t find record of that. Someone else thought it became Ricardi’s Italian Restaurant, but my research says that Ricardi’s had an address of 4874 North High, just north of this.

Wendy Bayer found the photos on the MLS Real Estate Cards collection that Carriage Trade Realty and the Columbus Metropolitan library uploaded. Nick Taggart of the Columbus Metropolitan Library Local History and Genealogy Desk furnished the Dispatch articles.

[Images courtesy of Wendy Bayer, the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Nick Taggart at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and The Columbus Dispatch.]