Ohio
was Indian territory before 1795, the year the Indians agreed, in the Treaty
of Greenville, to move west. Only a few white hunters, hardy pioneers and surveyors
ventured across the Ohio River to explore its tributaries.
One such
surveyor was Lucas Sullivant. In the spring and summer of 1796, using Indian foot
paths, his surveying party followed the Scioto River northward to where it joined
the Whetstone (Olentangy) River.
Sullivant filed claim to huge tracts
of land and began laying out plats for his town, Franklinton, on the west side
of the Scioto River. Thomas Hutchins, geographer of the United States, and Mathews
and Buckingham, official surveyors, platted what is now Columbus, Grandview and
Marble Cliff. Lucas Sullivant was the original owner of the area, purchasing the
land at the land grant office in Chillicothe from an agent of President James
Madison.
Grandview and Marble Cliff were included in the Refugee Tract
of the Congress Lands and the Virginia Militia District, which came about after
the Revolutionary War. The land known as the Refugee Tract was designated for
the Canadian "Refugees" who aided the American Colonists and could not
return to their homes.
Virginia gave up her claim to land northwest
of the Ohio River in 1795 for the benefit of the union. However, if its Kentucky
lands would not be sufficient to satisfy Virginia's land grants to soldiers, then
lands between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers would make up the deficiency.
Thus was created the Virginia Military District between the rivers, extending
north as far as their headwaters.
When Ohio became the 17th state in
1803, Franklin County extended as far north as Lake Erie.
By 1816, the town
of Columbus was laid out 1832 found many farms in our area, including the one
sold by Joel Buttles for a County Poor Farm.
In 1842, the present Grandview
Heights area was divided into 12 plots; while A. O'Harra, J. O'Harra and A. Sperry
owned most of the present Marble Cliff, with county roads situated at the locations
of Dublin Road, Olentangy River Road, and Fifth Avenue. By 1850, the Columbus
and Xenia passenger train steamed into Columbus, accelerating growth of business
there.
The first school was established at the corner of Dublin and
Grandview Avenue (unofficially called Walcutt's School), and its designation was
Franklin Township School.
George Urlin, John Tilton, Fred H. Croughton
and Edward Denmead bought tracts of land and laid out the streets of the future
Grandview Heights. J. Slyh, J. H.
and J. Miller and A. Wood owned the farms that became Marble Cliff.
In 1901, the entire area between the
two rivers, and roughly King Avenue, became united as the
Hamlet of Marble Cliff for the first and last time. In 1902, Marble Cliff
detached all but its present area and what was to become, in 1906, a separate
village called Grandview Heights. The latter included both sides of Lincoln Rd.
(then Paul Ave.), the northern boundary went east on a line with Third Avenue
to the center of Glenn Avenue. It turned south and ran east along the north edge
of the lot lines of houses facing West First Avenue to Fairview. It included the
future Edison School and the Harding School tracts going south to the center line
of Broadview at First Avenue, then east to the center line of Grandview Avenue,
and hence south to a distance just below the railroad tracks, returning west to
the Marble Cliff corporation line.
The Grandview of today was formed
by annexation after 1912, including some Northwest
Boulevard tracts after 1920.
S. C. Jones, president of city council,
was the first mayor of Grandview in 1906, followed by James T. Carman in 1912,
C. K. Seibert in 1916 and John Ryder from 1918
to 1940.
Schools were important to the Tri-Village (Grandview Heights,
Marble Cliff and Upper Arlington) residents. The
Harding School was built in 1895, Edison
east 1911, Edison west 1922, Grandview High
School in 1923 and the Robert Louis Stevenson
School in 1926.
The Grandview
Avenue Bank Block, one of the first of its kind, was constructed in 1927.
In 1920, the whole area presented a quiet, sedate appearance. After
World War II there was a growth spurt that saw many multiple family units built.
Industry and shopping centers arose.
After Grandview became a city in
1931, it did not lose its small town charm. It remained the same in many ways.
There is still a close-knit feeling and neighborliness among the people. Few neighborhoods
in a city have remained so delightfully unspoiled for nearly a century.
