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In 1931, the France Stone Company ceased operations. Robert Burge leased 19 acres of the site for recreational swimming and opened Centennial Quarry in 1934. Five years later, Burge and associates opened Centennial Terrace, whose centerpiece was “Dancing Under the Stars,” an outdoor, 10,000 square-foot Terrazzo dance floor. Centennial Terrace was a regular stop for many big bands of the 1940s and ’50s. In 1969, the complex was donated to Lucas County and local band leaders kept the people dancing from 1971 to 1993. In 1994, the City of Sylvania leased the facility and renovated and reopened the quarry. The Sylvania Area Joint Recreation District purchased the complex in 2007 and made further improvements to insure that Centennial Terrace and Quarry remains a popular recreation destination.
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In 1866, Gaines High School (grades 7-12), one of the first high schools for African Americans in Ohio, opened just west of this site in the same building as the Western District Elementary School, completed in 1859 and enlarged in 1866 and 1868. The school was named for John I. Gaines, whose leadership was responsible for securing passage of the Ohio law authorizing public schools for African Americans. Gaines was clerk and chief administrator of the African American school board when he died in 1859 at age 38. Gaines High School’s Normal Department trained almost all of the African American teachers for southwest Ohio; schools in other states hired many of the students before they had even completed their studies. From 1866-1886, Gaines High School and its principal Peter H. Clark were nationally recognized for their excellence.
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The Brewery District contains the majority of Cincinnati’s remaining breweries and associated structures such as icehouses, bottling buildings, offices, and stables. With the first brewery north of Liberty Street founded in1829, German immigrants fueled the growth of the brewing industry; by 1891, Cincinnati breweries produced over four barrels of beer per resident annually, almost twice as much as any other city in the nation. The brick breweries were typically designed in the Romanesque Revival style, and larger complexes often covered multiple city blocks. To produce the lager style beer common by 1860, typically very deep basements were dug or tunnels were cut into hillsides for the lagering process. At the height of production, 18 of the 36 breweries in greater Cincinnati were operating in Over-the-Rhine and the West End. Prohibition in 1919 closed most of the breweries permanently.
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The Sarah Benedict House is a rare survivor of the once fashionable Upper Prospect neighborhood that included “Millionaires Row” on adjacent Euclid Avenue. Sarah Rathbone Benedict had this Queen Anne-inspired house built in 1883, when she was 68, and lived here until her death in 1902. She was active in the social, religious, and charitable life of Cleveland. Sarah Benedict was the widow of George A. Benedict, editor of the Cleveland Daily Herald. The house was given to the Cleveland Restoration Society by Dr. Maxine Goodman Levin in 1997 and rehabilitated for its headquarters in 1998. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and contributes to the locally designated Prospect Avenue Historic District.
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Eckstein Elementary School operated on this site from 1915 to 1958, serving Glendale’s Negro children from Kindergarten through eighth grade. The school was named in honor of Eleanor Eckstein, who taught the children at various locations in the village during the time of segregation in America. Upon completing eighth grade, Eckstein School’s students were integrated with their white counterparts in grades nine through twelve at Congress Avenue School. The Eckstein School building evolved from a single family dwelling into its present structure through a series of expansions, the last of which was the addition of the gymnasium in 1928. In the mid-1950s Glendale became a part of the Princeton School District. A new consolidated high school opened in 1958, the Congress Avenue School became Glendale Elementary, and Eckstein was closed. This commemorative text was composed by alumni of the Eckstein School.
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One of the outstanding American humorists of the twentieth century, James Thurber was born and educated in Columbus. He launched his writing career as a reporter for The Columbus Dispatch in 1920. In 1927 he began writing for The New Yorker, where the first of his distinctively spare cartoons appeared in 1930. Thurber’s concise, witty prose spanned a remarkable breadth of genres, including autobiography, fiction, children’s fantasy, and modern commentary. Two of his short stories, “The Catbird Seat” and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” are among the best-known classics of American literature. Though hampered by failing eyesight, Thurber published almost thirty books in his lifetime. He and his family lived at 77 Jefferson Avenue from 1913 to 1917; the house, listed as part of the Jefferson Avenue Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places, became a literary center and museum in 1984. Thurber is buried in Columbus’ Green Lawn Cemetery.
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The town of Bedford was settled in 1837. Early residents, Hezekiah and Clarissa Dunham donated the land that serves as Bedford Public Square. The Dunhams built one of the area’s first homes in 1832, which stands at 729 Broadway with the letters H & D above the doorway. Early settlers were attracted to the area by the abundance of natural resources and a large waterfall for mill sites. Bedford also served as a stagecoach stop on the route from Cleveland to Pittsburgh. The road or Turnpike Road as it was called was originally part of the Mahoning Indian Trail. By 1895 the road was renamed Main Street (and later Broadway) when the Akron, Bedford, and Cleveland Railway Company (ABC) traversed the middle of the street carrying passengers. The interurban is called “America’s first high speed long distance electric interurban” with speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour. [continued on other side]
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The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur were founded in 1804 by Saint Julie Billiart to spread the message “Ah, how good it is to serve God.” In 1840, at the request of Bishop John B. Purcell in 1840, the Sisters travelled to Cincinnati, Ohio to help educate the city’s growing Catholic population. Choosing to serve the poor, the Sisters turned down land in Brown County and instead founded schools at Sixth Street in Cincinnati. Since the start of the 21st century, the Sisters serve in twenty-seven other states, the District of Columbia, and in South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Sister Dorothy Stang, while working for land reforms for the poor in Brazil, was martyred in 2004.