History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 68

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II > Part 68

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1883.

Trustees : John W. Andrews, President ; Luther Donaldson, Vice President; Frederick Fieser, Secretary ; John J. Janney, Treasurer. Ex officio: George S. Peters, Mayor ; William Felton, President of the City Council ; Edward Pagels, President of the Board of Education. Librarian, James L. Grover ; Assistants, Charles H. Bell, John J. Pugh.

1884.

Trustees : John W. Andrews, President ; Luther Donaldson, Vice President ; Henry C. Taylor, Secretary ; John J. Janney, Treasurer. Ex officio : Charles C. Walcutt, Mayor ; Edward Pagels President of the Board of Education ; Henry C. Taylor, President of the City Council. Librarian, James L. Grover ; Assistants, Charles H. Bell, John J. Pugh.

1885.

Trustees : John W. Andrews, President; Luther Donaldson, Vice President ; Walter B Page, Secretary ; John J. Janney, Treasurer. Ex officio: Charles C. Walcutt, Mayor; Walter B. Page, President of the City Council; B. N. Spahr, President of the Board of Education. Librarian, James L. Grover ; Assistants, John J. Pugh, Evan J. Williams.

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

1886.

Trustees : John W. Andrews, President ; B. N. Spahr, Vice President; Frederick Fieser, Secretary ; I uther Donaldson, Treasurer ; E. O. Randall. Ex officio: C. C. Waleutt, Mayor ; Richard W. Reynolds, President of the City Council ; B. N. Spahr, President of the Board of Education. Librarian, James L. Grover ; Assistants, John J. Pugh, Evan J. Williams.

1887.

Trustees: John W. Andrews, President; B. N. Spahr, Vice President; Frederick Fieser, Secretary ; Francis C. Sessions, Treasurer; E. O. Randall. Er officio: C. C. Wal- cutt, Mavor ; Frank E. Hayden, President of the City Council ; B. N. Spahr, President of the Board of Education. Librarian, James L. Grover; Assistants, John J. Pugh, Evan J. Williams.

1888.

Trustees : John W. Andrews, President ; E. O. Randall, Vice President ; Frederick Fieser. Secretary ; Francis C, Sessions, Treasurer. Ex officio: Philip H. Bruck, Mayor ; J. E. Robinson, President of City Council ; J. E. Sater, President of the Board of Education. Librarian, James L. Grover ; Assistants, John J. Pugh, Evan J. Williams.

1889.

Trustees : John W. Andrews, President; E. O. Randall, Vice President ; Frederick Fieser, Secretary ; Francis C. Sessions, Treasurer. Ex officio : Philip H. Bruck, Mayor; D. J. Clahane, President of the City Council ; J. E. Sater, President of the Board of Educa- tion. Librarian, James L. Grover ; Assistants, John J. Pugh, Evan J. Williams.

1890.

Trustees: John W. Andrews, President; E. O. Randall, Vice President ; Frederick Fieser, Secretary ; Francis C. Sessions, Treasurer. Ex officio : Philip H. Brnek, Mayor ; D. S. Wilder, President of the City Council ; J. A. Hedges, President of the Board of Education. Librarian, James L. Grover ; Assistants, John J. Pugh, Evan J. Williams.

1891.

Trustees : 2 Francis C. Sessions, President ; James Kilbourn, Vice President ; C. O. Hun- ter, Secretary ; J. B. Schueller, Treasurer ; E. O. Randall. Ex officio : George J. Karb, Mayor ; C. O. Hunter. President of the City Council Librarian, James L. Grover ; Assis- tants, John J. Pugh, Evan J. Williams.

1892.

Trustees : James Kilbourn, President; John H. Culbertson, Vice President; Osman C. Hooper, Secretary ; J. B. Schueller, Treasurer ; E. O. Randall. Er officio: George J. Karb, Mayor; John H. Culbertson, President of the City Council. Librarian, James L. Grover ; Assistants, John J. Pugh, Evan J. Williams.

1. The author is indebted for the foregoing compilation to Librarian Grover and his assistants.

2. Pursnant to act of the General Assembly a reorganization of the Board of Trustees took place July 29, 1891.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

STREETS, SEWERS AND PARKS.

The Borough of Columbus began without thoroughfares of any kind other than trails through the forest. No wagonroads entered it from any direction. Its earliest paths for wheels were private lanes, crossed by gates. The first task of the original settlers was to build their cabins ; having accomplished this, they began to study public conveniences and to prepare the way for village traffic and neigh- borhood intercourse. Foresttrees standing in the streets laid out by the State Director were cut down, and a portion of their stumps were pulled out or burned. The stems were used in building or were split up and corded for fuel. Through the clearings thus formed crooked footpaths were soon beaten by the busy villag- ers and wagon tracks, disdainful of the surveyor's lines or corners, were cut in the virgin soil. As marshes, treestumps, brushheaps and other obstructions had to be avoided, the first streets of Columbus were very devious, and in wet weather very difficult.

Probably not much attention was paid to their improvement until the incor- poration of the borough, a consummation which their condition may have hast- ened. The first street ordinance of the village, of which we have any account, was passed May 23, 1816. By this measure obstruction of the thoroughfares by lumber, firewood, stable garbage, earth from cellars or any other means, was for- bidden under penalty of a fine at the discretion of the mayor. At a later date which does not appear on the records, but which seems to have been in May, 1818, John Kerr and Caleb Houston were appointed a street committee with authority to gravel " the centre of High Street seventyfive feet wide," from a point " oppo- site inlot No. 268, and extending to the south side of Town Street," being in all about sixty poles. The ordinance required that the thickness of the gravel should be one foot at the centre of the street and six inches at the sides. By an ordi- nance of June 26, 1820, the marshal was " directed to remove any logs from Broad Street, west of Fourth Street, that may have grown on the ground and is fallen thereon." On July 17, same year, Henry Brown was allowed twentyfour dollars for the erection of two bridges on Fourth Street. On May 21 a graveled sidewalk was ordered to be laid on the north side of Friend Street from High to Front and thence to Scioto Street and the Penitentiary. On March 1, 1822, a council committee reported against graveling the sidewalk on High Street from Broad to the Run. On May 8, same year, a contractor was required to " make a good bridge " on Rich Street " between inlots 104 and 105."" On March 12, 1827, the gutters on High Street " from Broad Street to the alley on the south side of the Mound," were ordered to be paved at the expense of the lotowners. On January 11, 1832, the sidewalks on Broad Street, between High and the Scioto River, on Front between Broad and Friend, and on State between Front and the first alley east, were ordered to be

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

paved. Another ordinance of the same year, date not given, required the occu- pants of lots on High Street between Broad and Friend, " to collect the dirt into convenient heaps on Saturday of each week before ten o'clock, from May 1 to November 1." On September 8, 1834, all improved lots on Front Street, between Broad and Friend, were ordered " to be paved on the credit of the city." The appointment of a street commissioner was provided for by an ordinance of January 9, 1835. An ordinance for protection of the Public Square was passed August 22, 1836.

On May 15, 1837, it was ordered that the member of the council from each ward be authorized to contract for and superintend whatever public improvements might be necessary in his ward The members charged with these duties were furnished funds sufficient for the execution of a programme of improvement map- ped out in council beforehand. This arrangement grew into a practice which was kept up for many years, and led to abuses. On May 14, 1838, the marshal was instructed to inspect the streets and gutters every two weeks, and see that they were kept clear of all obstructions. By ordinance of June 29, 1840, it was required that no member of the council should spend more, as superintendent of any public work, than was specifically appropriated. On April 19, 1840, the marshal was directed to employ some one as often as necessary to "clean the paved gutters within the city of all dirt and filth." On petition of A. H. Pinney, P. Hayden, S. T. Heffner, J. Ridgway & Co. and William Phelan, Scioto Street was " extended, laid out and established " in 1845. Its required width was seventy feet ; its direc- tion " from the centre of the second door from the east end of the Franklin Build- ing (socalled) to the centre of the front of the Ohio Penitentiary." On petition of John Walentt, Philip Reed, Charles Scott and others an ordinance was passed June 14, 1845, to lay out Pearl Street. In September, same year, a gutter at the corner of Fourth and Town was complained of as being dangerous; also as not being so constructed as to drain " the flats in the eastern part of the city." On April 19, 1847, a supervisor was appointed by the council for every ward in the city. An ordinance directing that the streets, lanes and alleys be cleared of fences and other obstructions was passed February 16, 1848. On March 23, same year, proposals were invited for cleaning market spaces and all paved gutters, removing and burying dead animals, removing firewood, ete. The houses of the city were imperfectly numbered in 1849. In that year North and South High Street began to be so designated. The construction of a bridge over the canal on Mound Street was ordered September 10.

On May 14, 1850. contracts were made, on proposals, for cleaning the streets and alleys. On July 11, 1851, the City Engineer invited proposals for surfacing High Street from Broad to North Public Lane with broken limestone, the grade to be first brought up to the proper level with unscreened gravel. On February 10, same year, a committee was appointed to consider the propriety of the names of streets at all intersections, but there is no record of its having been done. In March the Statehouse Commissioners were authorized to lay a track on Third Street from the Columbus & Xenia Railway to the Capitol Square. On February 28, 1852, a citizen thus wrote of the condition of East Broad Street:

On Tuesday last a couple of friends from Cleveland, delegates to the Temperance Con- vention, wishing to visit the Lunatic Asylum [then on the grounds now known as East Park Place], I took them in my carriage and set out on the perilous undertaking of reaching that institution : and by trespassing on the gravel sidewalk of Mr. Kelley, and some others, we contrived to get within 40 or 50 rods of the Asylum gate, when we were stuck fast in the mud, and after breaking the carriage and harness in endeavoring to proceed, we were compelled to wade on foot through the mire.

The same writer stated that farmers " frequently broke down or got mired in hauling their produce to market, after getting within the limits of the corporation."

N. B. abbott

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STREETS, SEWERS AND PARKS.

In August, 1852, Spring Street was sewered and filled from Front to Third, and Friend Street was graded west of Front. During the summer of the same year Broad Street was macadamized from Fourth Street to the eastern boundary of the city, and Town Street was newly graded, guttered and paved. As a measure of economy in street improvement, the city purchased over seventeen acres of gravel- bearing land on the northern side of the Harrisburg Road, west of the Scioto, at 8400 per acre. This did not prove to be a profitable investment. Washington Dickson was elected Street Commissioner May 6.

In 1853 shade trees were planted in front of the Deaf and Dumb Institution's grounds, which were also enelosed with a new fence. Grading was begun on Rich Street, " east of the Catholic Church," in April. The west side of Fourth Street, between Town and State, was yet destitute of a pavement in 1854. In the same year the inconvenience resulting from the absence of numbers from the houses was much complained of. The amount of street improvement which had been accom - plished up to April, 1854, was thus stated :

The city can now boast of having 52,300 lineal feet, or abont ten miles of pavement, aver- aging seventeen feet wide, and about 15,200 lineal feet of paved gutters and graveled walks in the public streets. The alleys, 33 feet wide, have 28,000 lineal feet of paved gutters and walks. The streets are 8212 feet wide, with the exception of High Street, which is 100 feet and Broadway 120 fret wide. The Plank Road leading from Broadway to the Northern Rail- road Depot is 2,400 feet long. The city is drained by 12,600 feet of underground sewers, aver- aging four feet in diameter. besides several thousand feet of lateral branches connecting with the main sewers, built by private enterprise. There are 30 public cisterns, varying in capacity from 200 to 400 barrels each. Five plank roads lead into the city north of its centre, and five graveled turnpikes, and the Ohio Canal, into its south part.

An additional bridge over the Scioto was very much in demand. Public pumps had been placed at several street corners; one of them stood at the corner of Rich and High streets, another at the corner of High and State. The waste water from the latter formed a pond on State Street, between High and Third, which was much complained of, and the drainage of which was long neglected. The plank roadway on High Street did not prove to be satisfactory, and in 1854 a demand began to be heard for its substitution by gravel surfacing. On November 3, 1855, we encounter this newspaper wail : " Owing to the continual wet weather our thoroughfares are in awful condition. The holes in the pavement are chuck full of water, and the depth of the mud in the middle of the street is almost past finding out."

In June, 1856, the couneil appropriated 8600 for planking High Street from the Capitol to the railway station. In December, same year, the City Engineer was directed to make accurate profile drawings and crosssections of all the streets and alleys, showing their grades at every intersection. On June 9, 1857, this wail was emitted by the Ohio Statesman : " After a rainy day, Columbus is a per- fect slush - a mudhole -- a swamp; when the sun prevails " dust super-

abundant strews its thoroughfares." In July, 1858, a very bad culvert at the cor- ner of Spring and Fourth streets was repaired, and Long Street, between Third and Fourth, was graded and paved. The offensive odor of the ailanthus tree, about this time a common street ornament, was much complained of. Street run- aways, particularly on High Street, were frequent subjects of newspaper mention for at least forty years. Some of these runaways were of a terrific character, and many of them resulted in loss of life or limb

General ordinances regulating the construction and use of roadway and side- walk paving were passed in 1857. An ordinance directing that the names of the streets should be posted, and prescribing how it should be done, was passed June 14, 1858. The requirements of this ordinance were executed, under contract, at a cost of 8528.87. The ordinance contained the following clause: " The letters N., E., S. or W. shall be prefixed to the name of the street, so as to distinguish that

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

part of each street lying either side of High or Broad streets, and intersecting therewith." Trees were first planted on Broad Street in 1857, under the direction of a committee the members of which were William G. Deshler, John Noble and Alfred Kelley. Mr. Deshler has informed the author that the idea of planting the street with these trees was suggested to his mind while visiting Havana, Cuba, where he was impressed with the sylvan beauty of the avenues of that city. Upon his return from Havana, Mr. Deshler suggested to the City Council the propriety of a double line of trees on either side of Broad Street, but two years elapsed before the necessary legislation could be obtained. The original trees set in the street were planted by John L. Stelzig, Superintendent of the City Park, Mr. Deshler giving his personal attention to selection of the positions and other details of the work.

In October, 1859, a council committee was appointed to consider the propriety of macadamizing High Street. In February, 1859, the council ordered the removal of a wood market on Gay Street, west of High. The Ohio Statesman of March 4, 1860, contained these distressing statements :

The streets and thoroughfares of this city are really in an intolerably bad condition. Between dust at one time and mud at another, the public comfort and convenience are sacrificed. . . . The Street Commissioner has not done a day's work npon the streets since sometime in December, because the appropriation was exhausted and the City Council refuses to appropriate money.

The same paper of September 19, 1861, stated that Long Street had, prior to that time, been almost impassable, but was then being filled up and surfaced. In January, 1862, the City Engineer was directed to prepare a plat showing the loca- tion of all sewers, drops and underground improvements.

In November and December, 1862, High Street was surfaced with gravel and stone. The cost of this improvement was seventyfour cents per eubie yard. The city gravel bank was leased in January, 1862, and again in May, 1863. The condition of the streets from January to May, 1863, was bitterly complained of. In 1864 these complaints were redoubled. " The streets look like huge mortar beds," said the Ohio State Journal in April. The same paper of June 17, 1864, said : " High Street between Broadway and State Street is at present, on account of the dust, the greatest nuisance in the city." Same paper, April 21, 1865 ;

"Our Street Commissioner, having wakened up from his Rip Van Winkle slumber, was out yesterday with an overwhelming force, consisting of a onelegged man and two assistants, actively engaged in cleaning up. Two gutters and a back alley have already been cleansed, and still the work goes bravely on. Heaven knows there is need of it." The same paper of September 20. same year, spoke of the condition of some of the streets as "deplorable." The same paper of March 17, 1866, posted this bulletin : "Latest - 4 A. M. Communication across High Street reestablished. The street is frozen and there is now good skating the whole length of it." A particularly bad section of the High Street roadway from Spring Street north to the street railway stables was at this time called " the ripraps." Vehicles stalled and were disabled there almost daily. " A High Street Skiff Navigation Company" was the subject of a State Journal editorial of December 8, 1866. In March, 1867, the same paper remarked: "The condition of High Street is a disgrace to our city. The street looks more like a tanal than a roadway in the capital of Ohio." On August 21, 1865, an ordinance was passed requiring that " every owner or occupant of a house, building or vacant lot, or persons having charge of the same"-such is the classic phrascology of the statute - should " cause the sidewalks, gutters and alleys ou which such houses, buildings or lots may front, to be thoroughly cleaned between the first day of March and the first day of December of each year, and the dirt, filth, or manure or other rubbish to be collected into heaps convenient to be removed." Most of

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STREETS, SEWERS AND PARKS.

the citizens complied with this ordinance within twentyfour hours after it was passed, expecting that the piles of filth would be removed immediately by the Street Commissioner, but they were disappointed. The rubbish remained until washed by the rain back to its original position. The commissioner's excuse was that the council had not provided him with the facilities necessary for performing the service required of him.

In 1865 a council committee reported adversely to any kind of metal surfac- ing for High Street. The street therefore remained in a very unsatisfactory condition until May 9, 1867, when a contract was signed for laying it, from Naghten Street to a point 125 feet south of Friend Street, with the Nicholson wooden block. The contractor was Robert McClelland, of Chicago. A meeting of citizens to protest against the Nicholson surfacing was held March 16. Doctor J. B Thompson was chairman of that meeting, Francis C. Sessions its secretary. Among its principal speakers, adverse to the Nicholson, were William Neil, Lincoln Kilbourn and William A. Platt. This protest was ineffectnal and work in pursuance of the contract began May 23, but after a few feet of the old surfac- ing had been torn up the workmen, then receiving $1.75 per day, struck for $2.00, and the work was suspended. This trouble was soon arranged, the first plank for the new surfacing was laid June 15, and on October 15, 1867, the City Engineer reported that the entire work contracted for had been completed at a net cost of $82,955.99, or $10.88 per front foot. Thereupon the council committee on Highways recommended settlement with the contractor and commended him for " the very faithful manner " in which he had fulfilled his contract.1

On August 2, 1867, " Spivins," of the Ohio Statesman, thus wrote :

Many a time, when weary with our day's labor and seeking our couch to enjoy a healthy sleep, has our nasal protuberance been regaled with a delicious whiff of the fragrant dog- fennel growing so luxuriantly on the street. .. . As raisists of the Canadian thistle, the citizens of Columbus are without equals in the world. Not a street but you find it blooming in beauty. Not a vacant lot but where its wonderfully armed leaves may be seen. . . . Our city now needs but a liberal policy in planting burdock to be perfect in floral treasures.

An ordinance changing the name of Bond Street to Goodale Street was intro- duced in the council on March 2, 1868. On May 18, same year, an ordinance was passed providing for extension of the Nicholson pavement on High Street to South Publie Lane; on November 26, 1868, this extension was completed. An ordinance to provide for laying the Nicholson wooden block on Town Street was passed May 17, 1869 ; work in execution of the ordinance was begun the ensuing July. Broad Street was graded and graveled from the eastern corporation boundary to the County Fair Grounds in 1870. During the same year the Nichol- son pavement on High Street began to show signs of giving way. An old bridge, three or four feet below the surface, was unearthed in August by workmen on the Fourth Street sewer. During the same month and year the City Solicitor was directed to institute proceedings to appropriate the necessary grounds for widen- ing and extending Long Street. A contemporary proposition was that of extend- ing Dennison Avenue to King Avenue. An ordinance providing for cleaning the streets, by districts, under contract, was passed March 29, 1872. As to the con- dition of North High Street iu January of that year the Ohio State Journal remarked :

The weather at the present writing warrants a hope that navigation between the Na- tional Hotel and the North Graveyard will be closed today. For several days it has been impossible to get a respectable footing anywhere in the territory described above. We doubt whether such a sea of mud ever afflicted any other city.

In September, 1872, an ordinance was pending which according to the State Journal, made, as revised, the following changes in street names :

The Re did no 6 anali from Dag

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

Dépot and Kerr streets changed to Third Street; Phelan and Parsons streets to Fourth Street ; Latham and George to Fifth ; East and Siegel to Sixth ; Medary to Sixth ; Church to Seventh ; Cleveland Avenue to Eighth Street; Centre Street, Eighth Street extending from Broad to Oak, and Eighth Street extending from South Public Lane southwardly, to Ninth Street; Morrison, Pike and Gift streets and Northrup Alley to Eleventh Street; Albert and Cedar streets to Fifteenth; Australia to Seventeenth ; Grant and Corn to Nineteenth; Windsor Lane and Mulberry Street to Twentieth Street ; East Public Lane to Parsons Avenue ; Expansion Street and Public, Medary, Converse and Prentiss alleys to Capital Alley; South Publie Lane to Livingston Avenue; Sycamore Street to Noble Street ; South and Franklin alleys and Armstrong Street to Stauring Alley ; Johnstown Road and John Street to Mt. Vernon Avenue; Centre Alley to Pearl Street ; Clinton and Swan Alleys to Miami Alley ; Oak Alley to Columbus Street ; Third Alley to Court Street ; Fourth Alley, Division Street and South Lane to Beck Street ; Fifth Alley to Willow Alley ; First Alley to Brewers' Alley ; Franklin Avenue to State Street ; Second and Ball Alleys to Rhine Street ; Fifth Alley to Linden Alley; Mulberry and Sterrit Alleys to Lafayette Street; North Street to Chestnut Street; Wilson to Russell ; North Avenue, with the street extending westwardly, to Fourth Avenue; State Avenue to Scioto Street; Mechanic Street to Mitchell Street ; Plumb to Lucas ; Prospect and Short streets to Kelley Alley ; Patch Street to University ; Perry to Schiller ; North and Straight Alleys to Lazelle Street; Last Street to Randolph ; Meadow Lane to Bryden Street; Elm Alley to Bismarck Alley; South Street to Fulton ; Bank Alley to Park Street ; North Alley to Plymouth Alley.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 68

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196