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Established in 1873, Lakeside is a pioneer of the American Chautauqua Movement, one of the greatest revival movements in United States history which flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Founded by the Methodist Church, Lakeside is one of the few existing Chautauqua communities that remain and thrive today. Each summer, the late-Victorian community provides spiritual, cultural, intellectual, and recreational programs designed to nurture the mind, body, and spirit. It draws visitors from across the country and around the world for its Chautauqua program. Lakeside is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Considered a bold experiment in community planning, Greenhills was intended to relieve an acute housing shortage and to provide jobs during the Great Depression. In 1935, the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the construction of three greenbelt communities: Greendale, Wisconsin; Greenbelt, Maryland; and Greenhills, Ohio. The construction of Greenhills began on December 16, 1935. The project generated thousands of jobs and, ultimately, 676 units of housing for working people. On April 1, 1938, the first Greenhills “Pioneers” moved into homes on Avenell Lane. Greenhills reflects the town planning principles of the English “garden city” movement. Planners clustered homes around a common green space and a community shopping area was within easy walking distance. Like the original greenbelt of forests and farms, today Winton Woods Park serves as a buffer for the Village. The original federally built center of Greenhills was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
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“I say white brother, because I believe that to be the proper phrase, inasmuch as I believe in the principle of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of all mankind no matter what the color of his skin may be.” Richard L. Davis championed the cause of racial equality throughout the eastern coalfields, calling for an end to the color line and for all miners to unite against wage slavery. He was born in Roanoke County, Virginia in 1862 and arrived in racially integrated Rendville in 1882, where he became an organizer for the Knights of Labor. In 1886, a year after the Great Hocking Valley Strike, Davis wrote his first letters to the editor of the National Labor Tribune, establishing himself as voice for miners in the labor movement. (Continued on other side)
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Christopher Evans was a celebrated district, state, and national union builder. Born in England in 1841, he began coal mining as a young boy. Evans immigrated to Pennsylvania around 1869-1870. By 1874 he was president of his local mining union. Evans moved to New Straitsville between 1875-1877, where he organized union meetings in Robinson’s Cave. During the miners’ strike of 1884-1885, Evans served as president of the Hocking Valley District of Ohio and its Relief Committee. After area mines were set on fire, miners were forced to abandon New Straitsville when its mines closed forever. Evans helped organize the United Mine Workers of America in 1890 and later authored a two-volume history of the movement. He remained in union leadership until retiring in 1908. Christopher Evans died in 1924 and is buried in New Straitsville Joint Cemetery.
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The Bridgeport Iron Bridge, often called the Streng Road Iron Bridge, was built in 1914. It replaced a wooden covered bridge built in 1869 by Reuben L. Partridge (1823-1900) and Isaac J. Grummons (1828-1921), which was damaged by the flood of 1913. The 200′ steel superstructure uses a pin-connected Pratt Through truss design and was constructed by the Central Concrete & Construction Company, Canton, Ohio, at a cost of $8,987. The original substructure abutments were constructed by John A. Maugans (1861-1933) for $3,248, but have since been replaced. In 1992 and 1993, the bridge was renovated under the leadership of County Engineer Steve A. Stolte and Assistant Engineer Jeff Stauch.
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In 1832, Sylvanus Allen’s property became the site of Brown Township’s sixth and final school district. Following many building expansions, the current building, constructed in 1916, became the home of the Lena-Conover Consolidated School and became part of the Miami East Local School District in 1958. In 1991, the building’s educational legacy continued when it was returned to the trustees and became the home of the A.B. Graham Memorial Center Inc, named in honor of the Lena-Conover alumnus, educator and founder of the 4-H club movement.
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Ottawa Park, the largest city park, was developed in the early 1890s on the 280-acre farm of John B. Ketcham. Based on a design by the famous landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, Ottawa Park was intended to be central to a vast park and boulevard system. By 1920 the Toledo Park movement had provided fifteen parks totaling nearly 1400 acres.
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Benajah Cook and the families who settled in Harlem Township, Delaware County are honored for creating a community of productive farms. The Benajah and Cassandra Cook family arrived when the land was forested and settled on 500 acres of the 4,000 acres that Benajah purchased at a sheriff’s auction on June 12, 1807. The millrace, visible along the north side of Duncan Run near the Gorsuch Road bridge is the last vestige of the sawmill operated by Benajah on the Cook farmstead. The Cook farmstead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.