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The Loren House
I also found a handwritten history that said that this was the first house built on North Broadway and was lived in, or owned by, someone named Loren. I do not recognize the house—do you? (This very poor image was taken from a photocopy of a microfilm.)
According to the 1896-97 city directory, there was also a Jeremiah C. Loren (motorman) living 1 building north of North Broadway on the east side of North High Street.
Mary Rodgers (resident of East North Broadway who has been researching the houses along East North Broadway) believes this is a picture of 625 East North Broadway, a house which was in the Broadway Villa subdivision and which I have written about here. It was lived in by the MacIntosh family.
Broadway House No. 2
East North Broadway was developed by the Loren and Dennison company in 1897; it was designed to be a posh neighborhood, each house on a 1-acre plot of land. It had a small railroad depot and post office at North Broadway’s east end at the Big Four Railroad track. This house at 242 North Broadway Avenue was the second house built in the subdivision. (From Business First magazine)
242 East North Broadway was renovated beautifully by owner Gary Means. The care with which he selected materials and kept true to the house’s original design takes my breath away. The house has not always been so lovely. For several years–prior to the present owner–this (to the right) is what it looked like.
On Broadway (…on Broadway)
My book, Clintonville and Beechwold, page 19, shows an image of East North Broadway, looking east toward Indianola Avenue in the late 1800s The large house to the right of the photograph (south side of North Broadway) still exists at 489 East North Broadway (top photo).
The building just to the left of 489 in the photograph still exists as well, as a private residence; it was originally the carriage house of the large house on the south side of North Broadway in the distance (bottom photo). That large house was formerly 625 East North Broadway in the Broadway Villa subdivision.
Evanston Post Office and Depot
In my Clintonville & Beechwold book, I mentioned that there was a post office at the eastern end of North Broadway where it crossed the railroad tracks. It stood on the east side of the tracks near what is now Oakland Park Avenue. The “Evanston” post office was opened on May 22, 1893 and ran until November 23, 1893. The name was changed to North Broadway Post Office around July 6, 1894 and remained open until about September 1902.
The Evanston depot, shown in my book, was located where East North Broadway met the railroad tracks. The depot finally burned down but trains continued to stop upon signal for many years more. There is on old maps a short arc of a street there, called Depot Park Road.
A 1910 map reveals that a man named Charles F. Evans owned the property where the North Broadway depot and post office likely were located, so I assume this is how they got their names.
East North Broadway
According to a 1999 Booster article by Anne Barry, in 1923, East North Broadway was the only paved street north of Fifth Avenue. It was paved with Hallwood Block, and the sidewalks were paved with brick as well. Old maps show a traffic circle at the intersection of East North Broadway and Beech Hill Avenue/Calumet Street, which appears to have been put there for aesthetic reasons. I believe half of this circle remained as late as 1985.
Raison d’être for Broadway
According to a transcript of a WBNS-Radio broadcast salute to Clintonville on May 27, 1959 and reprinted in The Clintonville Historical Society’s January 2009 issue of its newsletter, Clintonville Heritage, Olentangy Park and East North Broadway’s development are linked. The street was supposedly laid out because of the Olentangy Park Theatre:
And one of the grandest streets was laid out because of the Olentangy Park Theatre–it was North Broadway, North Broadway was a lovely, tree-shaded, paved boulevard, when all around was nothing but dusty country roads. There lived famous actors from Broadway like Elsie Janis and Vaughn Blaise…
