Remarkable Ohio

Results for: city-founding
SE Corner of W. Elder Street and Elm Street
Cincinnati

, OH

Public markets housing butchers, fish merchants, and produce vendors were once the primary source of perishable foods for residents of America’s cities. Cincinnati operated nine in 1859. Only Findlay Market, built here in 1852, survives. Cincinnati’s lost indoor markets include: Fifth Street Market: 1829 to 1870, Fifth between Vine and Walnut Wade Street Market: 1848 to 1898, corner of Wade and Bauer Avenue Canal Market: 1829 to 1864, Court between Vine and Walnut Court Street Market: 1864 to 1914, replaced Canal Market Jabez Elliott Flower Market: 1890 to 1950, Sixth between Elm and Plum Sixth Street Market: 1895 to 1960, Sixth between Plum and Western Row Pearl Street Market: 1901 to 1934, Market between Sycamore and Broadway

1350 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland

, OH

The Theater District, bound by Chester Avenue, Prospect Avenue, East 18th, East 9th and East 12th Streets, came into being at the turn of the 20th century, when Cleveland emerged as a thriving metropolis. Built between 1890-1928, the area hosted a variety of fine retail stores, theaters, prestigious clubs, restaurants, and distinct office buildings. The rise of television and flight to the suburbs sent downtown entertainment into a death spiral, until a 1970 grass roots effort saved from demolition the surviving post-World War I theaters (the State, Ohio, Hanna, Allen, and Palace), making it the “world’s largest theater restoration project.” It became a catalyst for reinvestment in downtown properties, restoring civic pride and giving testimonial to the creative vision of the city’s civic leaders and citizenry. By the year 2000, Cleveland’s Theater District boasted the nation’s 2nd largest performing arts center.

5th Avenue and Upland Avenue
Youngstown

, OH

Crandall Park is the heart of the historic district and includes Fifth Avenue, Redondo Road, Catalina Avenue, and Tod Lane. Most of the district’s historic structures were built between 1904 and 1930, Youngstown’s heyday as an urban and industrial center. The district encompasses 92 houses, 32 outbuildings, a pavilion and rustic stone shelter in Crandall Park, and the concrete arch bridge carrying Fifth Avenue over the park. The North Heights Land Company and the Realty Guarantee Trust Company developed much of the neighborhood. Homes in the district were built for the city’s prominent industrialists and businessmen. The houses feature the work of architects Morris Scheibel, Charles F. Owsley, Fred Medicus, Barton Brooke, and Cook and Canfield and are distinguished by their grand scale, high-style design, spacious lots, landscaping, and orientation to the park or boulevard roads. (Continued on other side)

Piqua Public Square
Piqua

, OH

William McCulloch was born in Holmes County where he was educated in a one-room schoolhouse before moving to Wooster to attend high school and the College of Wooster. He attained prominence as Ohio’s Speaker of the House from 1939-1943 and House member from the Fourth Ohio Congressional District from 1948-1973. During his time in Washington, McCulloch was best known as a co-sponsor and staunch advocate of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was recognized by President Lyndon Johnson as the prime mover for passage of this landmark legislation. As a conservative Republican voice in the House, he was instrumental in championing other civil rights legislation, including fair housing and public accommodations. McCulloch was a founding partner in 1928 of the Piqua law firm that bears his name.

John S. Knight Center, 77 E. Mill Street
Akron

, OH

Five Depression-era strikes against many of Akron’s rubber companies culminated in a giant “sit-down” strike against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, the industry’s leader, in February and March of 1936. The fledgling United Rubber Workers (URW), created in September 1935, used the tactic of being at work but not working that had been pioneered by rank-and-file workers in a successful 1934 strike against the General Tire and Rubber Company. After a peaceful month-long strike, the URW won recognition from Goodyear and reached a settlement on March 22. The 1936 Akron Rubber Strike was one of the earliest successes for the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO), sparking a wave of industrial organizing and similar strikes in 1936 and 1937. The “sit-down” strategy extended beyond the rubber industry and was instrumental in the founding of the industrial union movement in the United States.

401 Lakeside Ave.
Lorain

, OH

On October 22, 1913, Congress appropriated $35,000 to build a light-and-fog station at Lorain harbor. Construction began after plans were approved in 1916. The concrete structure was finished and light placed in service in 1917, but the station was not completed until 1919. The lighthouse’s foundation is comprised of a wooden crib and boxes filled with stone. The lighthouse consists of a basement and three floors, topped by a lantern room. Like others, this lighthouse had its own identifying signals, namely, the duration of the fog horn’s blast and the rotation and duration of the light. A fourth order Fresnel lens was installed in 1919 and lit with an incandescent oil vapor lamp. The lamp was converted to electric power in 1932. The lighthouse was manned by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, a civilian organization, until the U.S. Coast Guard took control of all U.S. lighthouses in 1939.

Intersection of US 68 and OH 55
Urbana

, OH

The inhumanity of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 motivated anti-slavery activists to operate a covert network, the “Underground Railroad,” which helped fugitive slaves escape captivity. From the early 1800s to the end of the Civil War, local activists assisted runaway slaves on their journeys north to freedom. Guides (“conductors”) used their homes, farms, and churches (“stations”) to hide and shelter runaway slaves (“cargo.”) If captured, fugitives were severely punished and re-enslaved; “conductors” faced large fines and imprisonment, and Free Persons of Color risked being sold into slavery. A route often-traveled was once a path used by migrating buffalo, which became an Indian trail called the Bullskin Trace. It ran north from the Ohio River to Lake Erie and later became U.S. Route 68.

140 N. Valley Road
Xenia

, OH

Lewis Albert Jackson (December 29, 1912-January 8, 1994) was an African American aviator remembered for training Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. As a teenager in Indiana, he began flight lessons and soloed in 1932, flying his own Waco 10. Jackson spent 1932-1937 barnstorming to save money for college while earning his Transport Pilot’s License. He re-rated to a Commercial License with Instructor Rating in 1939, and then completed advanced acrobatic training at Coffey School of Aeronautics. In late 1940, he was appointed Director of Training in the Army Air Force 66th Flight Training Detachment at Tuskegee Institute. After the war he moved to Ohio and served as an FAA Flight Examiner from 1947 to 1960. The Lewis A. Jackson Greene County Regional Airport was posthumously renamed to honor this true aviation pioneer.