Clintonville Book, Author at Clintonville History

242 East North Broadway

I’ve written in the past about this stunning house at 242 E. N. Broadway–a beautiful renovation job by the current owner.

This is the oldest existing house on E.N. Broadway. Here are some old and new pix.

Original house:

And today, after years of loving restoration:

[The older image was part of the Clinton League’s notebooks and the digitized equivalent is among the “Ohio History Connection Selections” of the Ohio Memory project. Click on the thumbnail image above to reach their page.]

Clintonville Book2026-02-24T16:52:53+00:00May 24, 2018|Categories: 1900-1940, Houses|1 Comment

Elford Company Develops Beechwold

Elford Inc., a commercial construction company located near Grandview on Dublin Road, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010.

To mark the occasion, the company published a 70-page hardcover book detailing Elford’s history, from its founding by Edward “Pop” Elford in 1910 to today. It’s available as a PDF here. The book chronicles the company’s history decade by decade, focusing on the marquee projects of each decade.

From a Clintonville and Beechwold perspective, the following are standouts:

Calumet Street Viaduct, 1924.

Beechwold Homes Company, 1941–South of Morse Rd between Indianola and North High Street; 3 streets, 600 homes in just 5 months!

Anderson Concrete Company, 1954–I’m not sure but this could be the concrete plant formerly located on Indianola behind the former Olympic Swimming Pool

Marzetti Manufacturing Plant and Offices, 1984

Wesley Glen Addition, 1995

[PDF booklet courtesy of Elford by way of Wendy Bayer.]

Clintonville Book2018-05-01T17:02:11+00:00May 1, 2018|Categories: 1900-1940, 1940-present, Businesses, Houses|Tags: Beechwold|2 Comments

The Mastery of Frank Packard on Glen Echo, by Amanda Page

Amanda Page wrote a very nice article about Frank Packard, architect of the former North High School. The article is in Ravinia Spring/Summer 2014, pp 1,3.

Clintonville Book2026-02-24T16:55:46+00:00April 10, 2018|Categories: 1900-1940, People, Schools|0 Comments

Clinton Elementary School Deed

Former Clintonville Area Commissioner Judy Minister furnished us with a copy of the deed for Clinton Elementary School. It’s attached as a PDF.

Clintonville Book2026-02-24T16:58:04+00:00March 15, 2018|Categories: 1900-1940, Schools|0 Comments

Calumet Street Viaduct

A nice image of the Calumet Street Viaduct i.e. the Glen Echo / Calumet Street bridge. Elford Company built the bridge around 1924. The photo was taken from the area where the scoreboard on football field of the high school (formerly North High) is located. You can see some houses in the background, which are along Olentangy Street east of Calumet. [Thanks to John Krygier for sending this along to us.]

And here is the view of those houses today, using September 2016 Google Streetview.

Clintonville Book2018-02-15T16:12:39+00:00February 15, 2018|Categories: 1900-1940, Houses, Transportation|0 Comments

Presbyterian Synod

From 1956 until 1975, the United Presbyterian Synod owned the building at 3040 North High Street, at the corner of Weber and North High Street. The building later served as the Capital Care Center, an adult health services clinic that provided, among many other health services, abortions, and as a consequence the building became known for the demonstrations held weekly at that corner for almost 20 years. The building has since been torn down, but this is a picture of the empty lot in 2007.

And here is a Google Earth image of the old building’s rooftop in 2004.

Clintonville Book2026-02-20T15:34:38+00:00January 22, 2018|Categories: 1940-present, Businesses, Churches|0 Comments

More Zinn Memorabilia

Some cool memorabilia from the Zinn Lumber Yard, courtesy of John Clark (great grandson of J. Harvey Zinn).

Clintonville Book2017-12-12T14:59:25+00:00December 12, 2017|Categories: 1900-1940, 1940-present, Businesses|0 Comments

Leeann Faust Passes Away

I just learned that Leeann Faust passed away. What a loss.

If I could describe Leeann in just one phrase, that phrase would be “all in”. When Leeann was enthusiastic about a person or cause, she was all in–whether it was an actress (Leeann was a long-standing president of the Carol Lawrence Fan Club) or the North High School Polar Bears (she was the historian/editor of the Alumni Association), or the history and legacy of her family (she was a descendant of Mathias Armbruster). Leeann was extremely generous with her time and her knowledge and her collection of articles, newspapers, & memorabilia. She was indefatigable in contributing to the community around her; she kept her friends close; and she was routinely cheerful.

Leeann, you will be missed.

Leeann’s obituaray can be found here.

Clintonville Book2017-11-19T13:22:28+00:00November 19, 2017|Categories: 1940-present, People|0 Comments

Ghosts of Ads Past (3230-32 N. High)

When I first moved to Clintonville, there was a prominent vintage-looking advertisement painted on the south side of the brick wall at 3230 North High Street. (Today, this faces the parking lot for the Clintonville Resource Center’s North High Street location.) Today the paint has mostly been removed, and I don’t have a picture of the billboard back then. The attached picture is from Google Street View in 2011.

I thought I remembered the billboard as being for “Clintonvilla Pizza,” and containing an ad for a cola drink with a tag line such as “Relieves Fatigue”–something that hearkens back to the days when soda drinks contained some invigorating pharmaceutical ingredient such as coca (or maybe just caffeine). Actually, that’s the real reason that the ad stuck with me. But truly, today I can no longer remember it.

Here is the history of that business:
—1956-1970: that address, or 3232 North High Street, was occupied by Pizza Villa Restaurant. Pizza Villa was owned by Fred DiPietro and Rose Bucci (both Clintonville residents in 1970). You can find an online obituary for Fred R. DiPietro (born April 25 1934, died Jan 17, 2007 at age 72), “owner of Pizza Villa in Delaware and Columbus OH”) here.

I found a Rose C. Bucci (born 11 Jul 1932, died 14 Sep 1994, lived initially in Columbus but died in a nursing home in Delaware County) who had been a manager of an eating establishment, but really, I’m just fishing and have no idea if this Rose was one of the owners.

Fred DiPietro may have gotten divorced in 1974. Regardless:
—1971-1973: Nothing was listed for that address.
—1974-1981: 3230 North High became PJ Villa Restaurant. It was PJ Villa until 1981.
—1984-86: it was Jim’s Pizza. After 1989, it was no longer a pizza establishment.

Does anyone remember the exact wording of the sign, or have any pictures of the billboard?

Clintonville Book2017-10-31T17:50:41+00:00October 31, 2017|Categories: 1940-present, Businesses|1 Comment

J. Harvey Zinn & Family

J. Harvey Zinn, owner of the Zinn lumber yard, lived in Clintonville and was a civic leader and philanthropist. Mr. Zinn was reported to be an ardent fisherman who followed his favorite sport in practically every part of Canada, as well as in Florida waters. His attractive estate “Edgewater,” was located at 285 Kenworth on the Olentangy River just north of West North Broadway. This estate still exists in Clintonville.

J. Harvey Zinn died in 1957.

Attached are some obituaries from The Columbus Dispatch and elsewhere.

The Zinns were very active in the North M. E. Church. Though the church is not, technically, in Clintonville, I’ve also posted some information about the church.

[Photos and clippings courtesy of John Clark]

Clintonville Book2026-02-25T20:04:13+00:00October 21, 2017|Categories: 1800s, 1900-1940, 1940-present, Businesses, People|Tags: South of Broadway|1 Comment

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