Remarkable Ohio

Results for: natural-history
2320 Airport Drive
Columbus

, OH

In 1937, Anne O’Hare McCormick became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for foreign correspondence. She was born in Yorkshire, England and moved to Ohio as a child. She was educated at the Academy of St. Mary of the Springs. As a freelance writer, McCormick contributed to the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, and others. She became a regular correspondent for the Times in 1922 and was the first woman to join its editorial board in 1936. As a Times correspondent in Europe during the tumultuous years before and during World War II, she conducted interviews with leaders including Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin.

681-665 King Avenue
Columbus

, OH

Streams are both a principal economic resource and a natural hazard in Ohio. Accurate and systematic streamflow records are crucial in protecting lives and property and ensuring an adequate water supply. At this site in 1892 and 1893, engineering students from The Ohio State University (OSU) made the first streamflow measurements in Ohio with a current meter – a technology still in use at the beginning of the 21st century. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), an agency that cooperated with OSU in stream-data collection until the early 1900s, furnished the current meters.

4521 Spring Grove Avenue
Cincinnati

, OH

Spring Grove received its charter by an act of the Ohio Legislature in January 1845. Motivated by crowded conditions of small cemeteries created by the cholera epidemics of the 1830s and 1840s, the Cincinnati Horticultural Society formed a cemetery association in 1844 to find a location for a rural cemetery. Under the guidance of Robert Buchanan, local attorney Salmon P. Chase drafted the charter that was granted, and Spring Grove, consisting of 166 acres designed with a natural setting embellished with shrubbery, flowers, trees, and walks, was dedicated on August 28, 1845. A leader in cemetery design and the landscape “lawn plan” concept, Spring Grove officially changed its name to Spring Grove Cemetery & Arboretum in 1987.

100 Joe Nuxhall Way
Cincinnati

, OH

The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings made history not only as the most dominant baseball club of its time, but also as the first band of professional ballplayers. Cincinnati’s decision to pay players proved to be a success, and other cities soon began establishing their own professional clubs throughout America. In 1876, the Reds joined the newly formed National League. Baseball soon became one of Cincinnati’s most popular entertainment venues, aided in part by the team’s World Series titles in 1919 and 1940. Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine,” featuring players such as Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Pete Rose, dominated baseball in the 1970s, picking up additional titles in 1975 and 1976. A surprise wire-to-wire title again in 1990 strengthened the Reds’ legacy and helped ensure future generations of Reds fans.

Cleveland

, OH

Dedicated in 1939 in a ceremony that turned the gardens over to the city, the Cleveland Cultural Gardens are a unique memorial to world peace and the celebration of cultural diversity. The Gardens date to 1916 when the Shakespeare garden was built, and are a celebration of cultural identity in the form of natural landscaping, formal architectural elements, and commemorative sculpture. Consisting of 23 individual gardens, the Gardens reflect the diversity of cultures that shaped Cleveland and the nation. The Gardens pay tribute to the many philosophers, scientists, composers, and other great thinkers who have made significant and lasting contributions to civilization. More importantly, the Gardens are symbolic of the fact that through preservation of many different traditions, beliefs, and practices, we may be better able to accept and respect one another – that we may achieve a true and lasting peace through mutual understanding.

401 Farnsworth Rd
Waterville

, OH

Henry Hanford Wakeman (1840-1879) of New York came to Waterville and became a successful businessman. He conceived the idea of a local Masonic Lodge, which became Wakeman Lodge No. 522 Free and Accepted Masons in 1879, and bequeathed $1,000 toward the construction of a meeting place. In 1880, a cornerstone was laid and this building was dedicated on October 21, 1881. For over 100 years, the Masons held their meetings upstairs while the lower floor was often rented out to a succession of businesses or used for public gatherings. Rising maintenance expenses and lower membership numbers caused the Masons to put Wakeman Hall up for sale in 1995. The Waterville Historical Society purchased the building in 1997 and spent several years rehabilitating it to serve as a local history archive and the Historical Society’s meeting place.

Saint Lucas Evangelical Lutheran Church, 745 Walbridge Ave
Toledo

, OH

In 1886, thirty-six members from Toledo’s downtown Lutheran church, St. Paul’s, met to form a German-speaking Lutheran congregation for immigrants from Pommern, Mecklenburg and Hanover. Initially worshipping at St. Stephen’s at the corner of Harrison and Oliver Street, the congregation built a frame church on this site in 1887. That same year St. Lucas pioneered an early form of health insurance, The Mutual Sick Benefit Society, that later became a larger fraternal organization called The Mutual Sick Benefit Society for Ohio and Other States. In 1999, after joining a program called Reconciling in Christ, St. Lucas became the first Lutheran congregation in northern Ohio to publicaly welcome the LGBT communities. Named after Saint Luke, the patron saint of physicians, the church’s history is one of healing.

1190 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive
Cleveland

, OH

The Union and League of Romanian Societies, Incorporated was formed in 1928 from a unification of two separate fraternal organizations, the Union and the League. The Union, founded on July 4, 1906, was originally organized for the purpose of promoting the general welfare of its members through life insurance policies obtained through individual societies located in the United States and Canada. The societies of the Union and League offer social interaction within their local lodges and through the strength of the larger parent organization. The purpose of the current Union and League is to maintain and encourage Romanian cultural heritage by promoting interest in Romanian ethnic values through cultural activities and to sustain loyalty to the United States and Canada among its respective members.