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Oral Histories
Upper Arlington is fortunate to have early residents who shared their memories of the community through oral histories. The Upper Arlington Historical Society has captured and preserved their memories on audio tapes which are available for your listening interest. Many of the tapes have been transcribed by Lynne Brown, so it is possible to read the interviews as well. The Upper Arlington Historical Society has oral histories by the following people:
Peggy Andrus
Warren Armstrong
Ben Bare
Eleanor Boardman
Marcie Brandes
Irene Brown
Robert A. Crane
Anne Cornell Christensen
John Dawson
Bob & Jo Defenbaugh
Sam Devine
John W. Galbreath
Margaret Hamlin
Walter Heischman
Pat Jones
Marcia & George Kepley
Si Lakin
Marge Kennedy Latham
Jean Lombard
Neal Magee
William M. Miller
Jean Moffett
Bob Murphy
Joseph Neff
Charles and Jo Nelson
Fred D. Pfening , Jr.
Margaret Postle
Elnora Price
Jim and Dusty Reider
John Royer
Dr. Joe Ryan
Earl Sala
Dr. Peter and Marjorie Sayers
Pete Sayers on King and Ben Thompson
Frank Sayers
Frances Sayers Owen
Martha Shipley
Phil Stoltz
Martha Sayers Suter
Victor K. Thompson
Ben Williams
Edith Williams
Jim Wiltberger
John Wuichet
Tom Wuichet
Dr. Ed Zartman
Below are some of the interesting and amusing tidbits found in the Society’s Oral Histories:
In 1918, Upper Arlington officially became a village. Also in 1918 the members of the Upper Arlington High School class of 1936 were born. Although just a few of the class members were natives of Upper Arlington, most of the classmates had arrived by the late 1920s and their lives through high school covered most of the first two decades in the history of Upper Arlington.
As the youngsters grew, the village also grew mainly north to The Woods, the area south of Lane and west of Northwest Boulevard. There were quite a few homes in the University district north of Guilford and east of Northwest, but only a couple of homes north of Lane Avenue.
The hub of Upper Arlington for the Class of 1936 was the cluster of buildings around the Mallway: the school, the pool and the Arlington Avenue shopping center. This class started school in the little white frame building on Waltham Road. However, classmates spent most of their school days in the building now known as Jones Middle School.
The pool was opened in June 1928. It was the prime hangout all through the summer. The stores that were the most important were the drugstores, with their soda fountains and candy cases. These stores were Mykrantz at the south end of the shopping center, known as Kunkler’s and Arlington Drugs on the north side of the Mallway, which later became Herpich’s, then Shaffer’s, and still later, Bowron’s. The proximity to the school and the pool, the stores and the homes meant that the youngsters could walk easily from one place to another, even at night. The streets were well lighted, and there was no fear. Most families didn't even lock their doors when they went away for short periods. Robberies were so rare; nobody worried about that possibility. As the kids walked along the streets, they would wave to policemen Frank and Wade Cary as they drove by on their motorcycle (with sidecar attached), knowing they were always nearby if needed.
From the earliest days, the streets of Upper Arlington were lovely when the crabapple trees were in bloom. In 1928 the community’s first dentist, Dr. Howard Rose set up practice. Doctors Earl Ryan and Sam Miller were already established as community physicians.
There were two lighted tennis courts at Miller Park in the middle 1920s. The man who built and maintained them skipped town with all the funds.
It is also mentioned that a bi-plane carrying U.S. Mail landed in the emergency field at Andover and Tremont. Eddie Rickenbacker was one of the barnstorming pilots who also landed on this field. Another bi-plane crashed on top of one of the Suffolk Road apartments, knocking part of the roof off and injuring the pilot.
Remember Harrington’s Drugstore and the free ice cream cone when the alarm clock went off?
There was a snowplow that had a V-shaped platform and steel runners, and was pulled by a horse driven by Charlie Holt, father of the beloved Alf Holt, the school janitor.
The best-remembered target of pranks by the boys of the Class of 1936 was the streetcar. One trick was to grease the tracks at the end of the line to force derailment of the car. The payoff was the sight of the irate motorman.
Updated 01/07
Upper Arlington Historical Society
1901 Arlington Avenue
Upper Arlington, Ohio 43212
Phone: 614-470-2610
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