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In 1879, local hardware store owners L.W. Loomis and H.E. Parks established a summer resort at Front Street and Prospect Avenue. The High Bridge Glens and Caves park spanned both sides of the Cuyahoga River and featured a dance and dining pavilion, scenic trails and overlooks, cascades and waterfalls, deep caverns, curious geological formations, and a suspension footbridge. The park also offered several manmade attractions, including what is believed to have been one of the earliest roller coasters in the area. At the height of its popularity, the park attracted more than 8,000 visitors a day, including Congressman (later president of the United States) William McKinley. (continued on other side)
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The Civil War created orphaned and impoverished children across the nation. To establish a home for area children, a group of Hamilton women met with Reverends Thane Miller and Benjamin W. Chidlaw in January 1869. By May, the women had rented a house on North C Street. Five years later, a new house was needed. Local businessmen Clark Lane and Elbridge G. Dyer pledged a combined $10,000 to purchase the property at 425 South D Street. One condition of the gift was that home’s operators had to raise an additional $2,000 to cover expenses. The newer, larger home opened in September 1875. In 1902, Robert and Eleanor Beckett McKinney donated funds to build a hospital on the property, named Ruth Hospital, to honor their deceased infant daughter. Mrs. McKinney and her mother, Martha Beckett, had long supported the home’s work. (Continued on other side)
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Established as the Oxford Township Cemetery in 1880, this public graveyard replaced the original one at the corner of College Avenue and Spring Street. That earlier burial ground was abandoned when the railroad bisected it in the 1850s. New cemeteries were established including the privately incorporated Oxford Cemetery, the Catholic Mt. Olivet Cemetery, and this one, renamed Woodside Cemetery in 1931. Bodies transferred here from the original graveyard included those of early 19th-century settlers, who were reinterred in the “Pioneer Quad” at the south end. The cemetery includes veterans of the nation’s wars, including one from the 54th Massachusetts regiment of Civil War fame, and generations of African Americans, who comprised 20% of Oxford’s population in the late 19th century. Maintained by the township and then jointly by the township and city, Woodside became solely the city’s responsibility in 2002.
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The Covington-Cincinnati Bridge Company under the leadership of Amos Shinkle built the first Ohio River bridge linking the North and South following the Civil War. The bridge was privately operated until purchased in 1955 by Kentucky and later renamed the “John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge.” Completed in 1866, this National Civil Engineering Landmark was the only bridge in service over the Ohio River during the 1937 flood. Since 1976, its national and local heritage has been commemorated with beautification lighting and flags sponsored by the citizens and institutions for which the bridge stands as a community symbol. (Continued on other side)
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The Lincoln School building stood at 2402 Central Avenue for almost a century. In 1919, a twenty-year bond levy provided for the construction of five schools, including the “new east school” Lincoln Elementary. Construction began in 1921 on the eight-acre site while students attended classes in temporary structures. Lincoln School opened in 1923 with 500 students enrolled. Lincoln Field, football grounds for McKinley High School’s “Middies,” stood behind Lincoln from 1930 until 1950 when Barnitz Field Stadium was built on South Main Street. Additions to the original Lincoln building included a maintenance annex in 1935 and a gymnasium in 1959. Lincoln School closed in November 1980 during a 1980-1981 Middletown City School District reorganization. Students from Lincoln and Sherman schools moved to the refurbished Roosevelt School at 2701 Central Avenue.
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Toledo State Hospital opened in January 1888 as the Toledo Asylum for the Insane. Originally located immediately south of this cemetery, the hospital was designed to function as a self-contained community for 650 people. Patients lived in large cottages, surrounded by a post office, church, library, male and female hospital, strong wards, bakery, and dining hall. People were admitted with mild to severe forms of mental illness, and a variety of other disabling conditions, including developmental, medical or neurological, as well as for addictions, injuries, and old age. Work became a form of treatment, with patients involved in construction, farming, laundry, and other jobs to help maintain the hospital. Patients could also participate in recreational activities from gardening to playing in the hospital band. The State Hospital became home for many, as hospitalization could last a lifetime, often spanning decades. (continued on other side)
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In the early 1900s, Ohio led the nation in interurban track mileage. The electrically powered interurban was favored over steam railroads for short distance passenger travel and the transport of local freight. Incorporated in 1899, the Columbus, Buckeye Lake, and Newark Traction Railway served Bexley from a terminal on Gay Street in downtown Columbus. Running south on High Street and then east on Mound Street, the line crossed Alum Creek into Bexley, went north up Pleasant Ridge Avenue past Capital University, and continued to the National Road (Main Street). Interurban cars stopped at the northeast corner of Main Street and Remington Road and thence sped on to Buckeye Lake, Newark, and later Zanesville. The popularity of the automobile spelled doom for the interurban. Service on the line ended in 1929.
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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.
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