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Considered a bold experiment in community planning, Greenhills was intended to relieve an acute housing shortage and to provide jobs during the Great Depression. In 1935, the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the construction of three greenbelt communities: Greendale, Wisconsin; Greenbelt, Maryland; and Greenhills, Ohio. The construction of Greenhills began on December 16, 1935. The project generated thousands of jobs and, ultimately, 676 units of housing for working people. On April 1, 1938, the first Greenhills “Pioneers” moved into homes on Avenell Lane. Greenhills reflects the town planning principles of the English “garden city” movement. Planners clustered homes around a common green space and a community shopping area was within easy walking distance. Like the original greenbelt of forests and farms, today Winton Woods Park serves as a buffer for the Village. The original federally built center of Greenhills was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
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The first religious society organized in Liberty Township was formed in 1810 by Elders Thomas Cellar, Josiah McKinnie, and Leonard Monroe. Cellar and McKinnie came to Delaware in 1802. In 1820, The Elders and others built Liberty Church and laid out a cemetery on land provided by Thomas Cellar. Along with the Cellar and McKinnie families, early settlers, church and community leaders are buried here. In 1855, John F. Cellar deeded the three acres on which the church was located to Liberty for one dollar. The land was to be used only for the Church, burying ground, and schoolhouse. In the 1990s, the congregation outgrew the old meeting house. A Barn Church was constructed by builder John Redding, assisted by Amish men Josie and son, Junior Miller and their crew. It was constructed in 1996 near the old Liberty Church.
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Following the Civil War, many of Ohio’s disabled and wounded veterans found inadequate provisions for their long-term needs. In response, the Grand Army of the Republic’s Department of Ohio lobbied for a state-operated veterans’ home. In 1886 Governor Joseph B. Foraker signed a bill establishing the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home for honorably discharged veterans. A board of trustees led by Sandusky publisher I.F. Mack selected the site, and the Sandusky community donated the tract of land, utilities, and a connection to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The facility opened in November 1888. (continued on other side)
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Established in 1873, Lakeside is a pioneer of the American Chautauqua Movement, one of the greatest revival movements in United States history which flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Founded by the Methodist Church, Lakeside is one of the few existing Chautauqua communities that remain and thrive today. Each summer, the late-Victorian community provides spiritual, cultural, intellectual, and recreational programs designed to nurture the mind, body, and spirit. It draws visitors from across the country and around the world for its Chautauqua program. Lakeside is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
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A direct descendent of original settlers in Jackson Township, Winter Zellar (Zero) Swartsel was born in 1876. Throughout his life he was a natural born showman, teacher, eccentric, anarchist, and “possibly the grandfather of American Pop Culture.” At a young age and tired of the routines of Farmersville, he declared that, “He would live by his wits while his brothers lived by the sweat of their brows.” He and a friend bicycled first to New York City and then turned around to head west and eventually the world. Later his home would overflow with items collected while traveling the world. Outside was a similar story. While chiding the American people for their wastefulness and abusing their environment, his 22 acres of farmland became his artist’s canvas filled with the thousands of items he collected from the “wasteful.” [continued on other side]
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In the early part of the twentieth century, most small villages in Ohio focused community pride on the accomplishments of their high school’s athletic teams. The Bellpoint basketball teams of the 1920s were a great example. In 1922-1925, the Bellpoint Buccaneers participated in the Ohio State Invitational Tournament to determine the state basketball champion. In 1922, they participated, and then, in 1923 the team lost by a single point to Plattsburg. The Bellpoint teams of 1924 and 1925 were victorious, earning the title of the State Basketball Champions. It was a much slower game in those days with a “center jump” after each score and forty points scored was quite a feat. The Bellpoint High School no longer stands but the accomplishments of these “Cinderella” teams remain an important source of pride for the Bellpoint community. These events are an integral part of the history of Delaware County.
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Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, the lone religious property within the Mt. Vernon Downtown Historic District, served what became only the second African American congregation in the city. The cornerstone for 13 South Mulberry Street was laid October 17, 1915, and a dedication service was celebrated in March 1916. Mt. Calvary grew out of the Black Baptist traditions brought by Southern refugees during the Great Migration. Although dwindling membership and resources closed the building, it provided Mt. Vernon’s African American community with a vital space of worship, communion, mutual assistance, asylum, social support, and community celebration for almost a century.
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Fawcettstown, later to become East Liverpool, marked the first Ohio community to be encountered by early river travelers as they headed toward new challenges and new lives in the expanding nation. Indian canoes, flatboats, and steamboats carried increasing traffic, both passenger and freight, along these Ohio “Gateway” shores. Many of these early craft were built locally and local residents served as crewmen. Products from farms and ceramics from this city’s pioneer potteries were shipped from this site. The wharf area also served as a landing place for many of the early English potters who came here to ply their trades and, in the process, create a defining industry. The river continues to play an important role in industrial and recreational capacities.
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