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The Ridgewood neighborhood, platted in 1914, was one of the first fully planned and restricted suburbs in the United States. Its innovative developer, Springfield native Harry S. Kissell, was among a small group of nationally-acclaimed real estate developers who, in the early twentieth century, created the modern suburb as we know it today. Their developments offered spacious lots in park-like settings; curvilinear, paved roads; utilities, and sewers. They also ushered in the practice of deed restrictions, which were both protective and exclusionary. Harry Kissell went on to become president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards in 1931. During his tenure, he conceived the idea for the Federal Home Loan Banking system, which, during the Great Depression, saved millioins of Americans from foreclosure and permanently opened up the possibility of home ownership to the middle class.
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By the mid 1830s, Ohio had developed a canal system that linked Lake Erie in the north to the Ohio River in the south. Despite the success of the canals, transportation companies searched for other methods to traverse the state. They found their answer in the railroad industry, which proved to be much faster, cheaper, and more reliable than canals. Located on Lake Erie, Sandusky, Ohio was a major trading depot in the area. Plans were made to connect Sandusky to Cincinnati’s port on the Ohio River. On September 4, 1835, construction began in Sandusky on the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad line, forming the first railroad line located entirely in Ohio. The railroad reached Tiffin by 1841 and Springfield by 1848, where it merged with the Little Miami Railroad line, connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River.
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Robert C. Henry, the first African-American mayor of an Ohio city, was born in Springfield, Ohio, on July 16, 1921. He attended Springfield High School and graduated in 1939. After high school, he attended Wittenberg University and the Cleveland College of Mortuary Science. He also received an honorary Doctorate of Law degree from Central State University. In 1961, Springfield citizens elected him to the City Commission, where he served until being appointed mayor by his fellow commissioners in 1966. Henry was among the first African-American mayors of a U.S. city, and is especially notable due to Springfield’s majority white population at the time. After his tenure as mayor ended in 1968, Henry was chosen by presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon for fact- finding missions in Vietnam. Robert C. Henry died on September 8, 1981.
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The commercial building that stood at 305 Main Street for over a century was built by Justus S. Law in 1897. On April 1, 1897, Law leased the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias joint-use of the third floor, rent-free, for 99 years after they completed its construction and added a slate roof to the building. Although the Pythians purchased the remainder of the building in 1921, they continued to share their “Castle Hall” with the Odd Fellows until 1965. In July 1974, the Pythians assigned their Pleasant City property to the Ohio Knights of Pythias Home in Springfield. From 1974 to 2012 the property exchanged private ownership multiple times until forfeited to the state in 2020. After the dilapidated Victorian building was demolished in 2021 the land was donated to the Village of Pleasant City.
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Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, the span is the oldest in Clark County a traveler can cross. It is also one of the oldest stone bridges in use in Ohio. Stone mason Samuel S. Taylor (1837-1930) built the culvert from locally quarried limestone in 1871, his first public works project. A Civil War veteran, Taylor worked on several projects, including the Mill Run underground sewer (1877), Champion’s East Street shops (1883), and the foundation for Springfield’s city hall (1890).
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Daniel Arthur Rudd was born into slavery on August 7, 1854, in Bardstown, Kentucky. He became a newspaperman, lecturer, publicist, and tireless advocate for the Roman Catholic Church. After the Civil War Rudd moved to Springfield. Baptized and raised in Catholicism, he joined St. Raphael Parish, where the philosophy of racial equality offered by the church solidified his vision of justice. By 1885 he had established his own weekly newspaper, The Ohio State Tribune. He rebranded it The American Catholic Tribune (ACT) after moving to Cincinnati. Rudd claimed ACT was the only Catholic newspaper owned by an African American. At the height of its popularity in 1892, the publication had a circulation of 10,000. In 1893 Rudd was asked to chair the Afro-American Press Association, representing more than 200 black-owned newspapers.
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Granville T. Woods was a pivotal African American inventor during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Woods’ invention of the telegraph device that enabled railway companies to know the location of each of their trains. This new technology greatly enhanced train scheduling and reduced the frequency of fatal collisions throughout the railway industry. From 1878 through 1880 Woods was a railroad locomotive engineer employeed by the Springfield, Jackson and Pomeroy Railroad Company and later by the Dayton and Southeastern Railroad. With frequent stops in Washington Courthouse and extensive leisure time, Woods learned telegraphy from a local telegraph operator. (Continued on other side)
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Sully Jaymes was an African American lawyer and tireless activist for equal rights in Springfield during the first half of the twentieth century. Born on March 30 sometime between 1875-1880, he graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1901. By 1903, he opened a Black-owned law practice at 17-1/2 Main Street in Springfield. Working primarily with the city’s Black residents, Jaymes offered his services free of charge if clients were unable to pay. He was a long-time member of North Street A.M.E. Church. Jaymes served on the first Board of Directors of the Center Street YMCA (a safe-haven for young Black people), on the Board of Trustees at Wilberforce University, and as a Grand Chancellor of Ohio for the Grand Lodge, Knights of Pythias. (Continued on other side)