Remarkable Ohio

Results for: real-estate-development
Grove City

, OH

The origin of Beulah Park Race Track began in 1889 when local businessman A. G. Grant petitioned the village of Grove City to create the Beulah Addition housing development on farmland once owned by town founder William Foster Breck. Grant named the new addition, located west of Harrisburg Pike, in honor of his daughter, Beulah. Grant, whose grandparents, Hugh and Catherine Grant, were Jackson Township’s first settlers in 1803, added a recreational park to the development to attract potential buyers. The beautifully wooded park attracted visitors who enjoyed picnics, concerts, speeches, and baseball games there. Soon the park was expanded to include a small racetrack on the grounds.

20001 Euclid Avenue
Euclid

, OH

By 1922, the Ambler Realty Company of Cleveland owned this site along with 68 acres of land between Euclid Avenue and the Nickel Plate rail line. Upon learning of the company’s plans for industrial development, the Euclid Village Council enacted a zoning code based on New York City’ building restrictions. Represented by Newton D. Baker, former Cleveland mayor and U.S. Secretary of War under Woodrow Wilson, Ambler sued the village claiming a loss of property value. In 1926, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Euclid and upheld the constitutionality of zoning and land-use regulations by local governments. The federal government eventually acquired the Ambler site during World War II to build a factory to make aircraft engines and landing gear. From 1948 to 1992, the site was used as a production facility by the Fisher Body Division of General Motors.

26900 Cook Road
Olmsted Township

, OH

The community of Olmsted commemorated its bicentennial in 2014. In 1795, the Connecticut Land Company auctioned a tract of land called Township 6, Range 15. Almost half the northern side was purchased by Aaron Olmsted, though he would die before seeing the land. In 1814, James Geer cleared a plot in the southeastern corner of the township to grow corn. He built a log house and moved his family there. Originally called Kingston, the township was renamed Lenox in 1823. In 1829, the settlement became Olmsted; in return, Aaron Olmsted’s son Charles donated 500 books for the creation of a community library.

12700 Lake Avenue
Lakewood

, OH

On this site, Alexander Winton (1860-1932), an American automobile pioneer, built and lived in a lakefront estate named Roseneath. Winton was born in Scotland and immigrated to the United States as a young man, settling in Cleveland. In the early 1890s, Winton founded the Winton Bicycle Company; six years later, he incorporated the Winton Motor Carriage Company. In 1903, Winton’s auto plant on Berea Road was one of the largest in the world, and he produced the first car to cross America from coast to coast. These business successes enabled him to build the 25-room Roseneath. In 1912, Winton founded the Winton Gas Engine & Manufacturing Company, which would eventually become part of General Motors Corporation. Winton is buried in Lakeview Cemetery. A fire in 1962 destroyed Roseneath.

791 Sunbury Road
Columbus

, OH

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson (1940-2015) and her son Sydney moved into this home in 1974. The artist, a visual historian, lived and worked here in the Shepard community until her passing. Raised in Columbus’s Poindexter Village and educated in the local public schools, Robinson also studied at Columbus College of Art and Design and The Ohio State University. Her art reflected stories handed down from her elders, experienced within her community, and the local history she researched while working at the Columbus Metropolitan Library. She received a 2004 MacArthur Award for her celebration of “family, ancestry, and the grandeur of simple objects in drawings, paintings, and large-scale, mixed-media assemblages.” (Continued on the other side)

6665 Shier Rings Road
Dublin

, OH

German immigrant Louis Rings (1826-1911) and his wife, Magdalena Wolpert (1835-1924), built their farmhouse in the early 1860s. As they prospered, the Rings purchased more land, added outbuildings, and grew their family. In 1904, the couple transferred land to their sons John and William. Although the farmhouse passed outside the family in 1929, descendants lived and farmed nearby until the 21st century. Farmsteads like Rings Farm provided the economic foundation for European immigrants to build Ohio communities. In Washington Township, Rings family members participated in the school board while Magdalena’s Wolpert family helped establish Dublin’s St. John Lutheran Church. Spreading development slowly converted the farm’s 150 acres to businesses and homes. In 1979, the Rings house and barns were listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their connection to Ohio’s agricultural development.

1422 West 29th Street
Cleveland

, OH

This block of W. 29th Street was home to Cleveland’s vibrant LGBT community and central to the development of the modern LGBT civil rights movement. In 1988, the Striebinger Building, at 1418 W. 29th, housed Cleveland’s Lesbian-Gay Community Services Center, which addressed the needs of the LGBT community. Cleveland’s first Pride Festival since the mid-1970s was held on the block in 1989, and in 1990 Cleveland’s first Pride Parade culminated here. During the HIV/AIDS crisis, The Living Room and ACT UP were located in the Striebinger Building and gave support to those with HIV/AIDs and provided a platform for political activism. It was on this block where many people could find their voices to “come-out” and advocate for their rights and their humanity. (Continued on other side)

Corner of Forest Hill Blvd. and Lee Blvd.
Cleveland Heights

, OH

Beginning in 1873, oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller purchased 700 acres of land in East Cleveland Township, now located in East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights. A failed hotel built in 1874-1875 served as the family’s summer home until it was destroyed by fire in 1917, although Rockefeller’s son, John, Jr., continued to visit the grounds. The Rockefellers spent much of their time outdoors, where they built on the land’s natural beauty and carefully designed and built carriage, foot and bridle paths, scenic views, lakes, a lily pond, stone bridges, a horse track and a gold course. John, Jr. purhcased all of his father’s Forest Hill property in 1923 and continued to buy adjacent land.