NORWOOD HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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Historical Dates for Norwood, Ohio.
1870s

  • 1870 (January 29)
    The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that "the old town of Sharpsburg has been changed to Norwood since the Marietta Railroad converted it into a station."

  • 1870 (May 9)
    The Sharpsburg P.O.'s name is officially changed to the Norwood P.O.

  • 1870 (July) W. R. Phipps, a Cincinnati boot and shoe merchant, sold his residence in Avondale for $35,000, and bought a site in Norwood to build a permanent residence. This becomes the only house to be built in the newly created Norwood Heights.

  • 1870 (summer) Mound Avenue, in Norwood Heights, is completed. It 60 feet wide and more than a mile in length, in the form of a semi-circle at the base of the "Indian Mound." It was built under the supervision of the well-known landscape gardener Herman Haerlein. An earlier newspaper column stated that the other avenues in Norwood Heights were built under the supervision of Mr. Strauch, of Spring Grove Cemetery. It was reported that from the summit of the Mound, seventeen villages and towns could be seen.

  • 1872 (June 1)
    The Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad opens a connection to the Cincinnati & Baltimore Railroad in the Mill Creek Valley. The M. & C. R. R. is given control over the 5.8 miles line into Cincinnati under a lease arrangement. Previously, the M. & C. used the Hamilton & Dayton Railroad's Mill Creek tracks to Cincinnati. It isn't clear how, or if, this influenced the train travel through Norwood's section of the M. & C.

  • 1873 (March)
    For $2,000, Jackson Slane and wife Hettie sign a 10-year lease of 5 lots in Slane's subdivision to Mary A. McBride. Peter Fitzgerald sells lot number 1 of his Norwood subdivision to Matthias Kopf for $1,040.

  • 1873 (April)
    For $6,000, Jackson & Hettie Slane sell property to A. H. Smith and W. S. Hedges. One lot, 700 ft. x 210 ft. was on the south side of Maple Avenue (later renamed Slane Avenue), 200 feet east of Montgomery Pike. The second lot, 100.9 ft. x 210.56 ft., was on the north side of Locust Avenue (later renamed Williams Avenue), 371 feet east of Montgomery Pike. A few of the streets had to be renamed after the incorporation of the village because the several subdivisions had used the same names for some of the streets.

  • 1873 (June 13)
    The 1st auction sales of lots at Franklin and Allison Streets is held. These streets were platted earlier in the year. Three other subdivisions are created by Wood & Reilly and L. C. Hopkins this year. (should this be corrected to "created at Wood & Reilly by L. C. Hopkins"?)

  • 1873
    A 50 acre farm, south of the properties of T. T. Drake, an early settler, and Charles F. Low, Secretary of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, is purchased by Robert Hedger, James Bradford, George H. Hafer, and Maddox & Hobart. They plat the land into fifty-feet front lots on Montgomery Road, and Maple and Elm Avenues. It is known as "Hedger's Subdivision," "The Heart of Norwood" and simply "Norwood." After East Norwood and South Norwood are platted, residents of the area often refer to the Hedger subdivision as "old Norwood," in order to differentiate it from East and South Norwoods. (A nickname for the area is "Swamp Poodle Town.") Together these three Norwoods, with West Norwood often included, are commonly called "The Norwoods."

  • 1874 (March)
    Even though developers were creating residential subdivisions in the young Norwood, farms and country life still enjoyed success in the village. Cavagna's farm advertised pasturing and feeding of horses on his land in what would later become the Elsmere Subdivision of south Norwood.

  • 1874 (spring)
    The Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad completed reducing the grade through Norwood from 105.5 feet to the mile to 26.4 feet to the mile. To allow for the Montgomery Pike to traverse this lowering of the roadway, a wrought iron bridge was built over the tracks. (This was apparently the first of many Montgomery Road bridges at this location.) Also, at this time, a second track was laid for a distance of three and one-third miles. This gave the railroad a nine and one-third miles of continuous double track from Cincinnati. Soon afterwards, construction of a new station at Norwood was started.

  • 1874 (June 13)
    Eighty-six lots in L. C. Hopkins' Subdivision at Norwood are offered for auction. The subdivision fronted on Hopkins Avenue, Franklin and Allison Streets. A. C. Horton, Hoeffes & Bauman, and Hemmelgarn & Co, handled the sales. A special no-charge train brought buyers from the Depot at Plum and Pearl Streets in Cincinnati to Norwood.
    Within a couple of weeks, 118 lots in Hopkins' two subdivisions were sold. This and other sales encouraged a newspaper to proclaim that "in time this village will prove one of our most thriving and beautiful suburbs by reason of its ease of access and picturesque surroundings."

  • 1874 (July)
    L. C. Hopkins and wife sell lots 30 and 31 in Hopkins' 2nd addition to Norwood to E. D. Spooner for $800.

  • 1874 (August)
    L. C. Hopkins and wife sell lots 28 and 29 (50 ft. x 172.5 ft, each) of Hopkins' subdivision to H. M. Lane for $475.

  • 1874 (October 13)
    Norwood resident and Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad worker Henry Trollet is found this morning near the tracks in Oakley. He had been run over and crushed by the Monday evening train.

  • 1874 (November)
    L. C. Hopkins and wife sell lot no. 14 (50 ft. x 183 ft.) in Hopkins 4th Norwood subdivision to C. A. Hitchcock for $700.

  • 1875 (February)
    L. C. Hopkins and wife sell lots 3 and 7 in Hopkins' 2nd Addition to H. A. Smith for $787.50.

  • 1875 (April)
    L. C. Hopkins and wife sell lots 43, 56 and 57 (50 ft. x 172.5 ft., each) in Hopkins' Subdivision to Georgiana Davis for $912.50.

  • 1875 (July 17 & 24)
    During meetings (at L. C. Hopkins & Co.'s downtown office) of property-holders along Montgomery Road from Walnut Hills to Norwood, the main topics were the need for speedy transit between the suburbs along the road and Cincinnati and the growing demand for more houses and homes. The attendees agreed that the Marietta & Cincinnati Rairoad was a great benefit, but a direct north-south transit was needed. Mr. Hopkins, as Chairman of the group's Committee on Railroad, reported that there were plans to meet with the Directors of the Lebanon Narrow-gauge Railway Company to ask for a connection from the tracks at Norwood to some point on either the Route 10 or 18 streetcar lines at Walnut Hills. Captain Foraker, who would later become an Ohio governor and U. S. Senator, made a motion favoring "the building of a narrow-gauge railroad, to be run with a dummy engine, from Walnut Hills to Norwood, to connect with the Pleasant Ridge and Lebanon Road, and that a Committe of three, of which L. C. Hopkins shall be Chairman, be appointed to ascertain the best route and to obtain the necessary right of way." The selected appointees to the committee were L. C. Hopkins, Jackson Slane and Wm. C. Baker.

    Note: Six years later, in 1881, the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railroad is built through Norwood, connecting Dayton and Lebanon with Cincinnati. However, the route did not follow Montgomery Road, but went diagonally through Norwood and Avondale. The next year, 1882, another railroad, the Cincinnati & Eastern (later, the Cincinnati, Poustmouth and Virginia R.R. and, later, the Norfolk & Western R.R.), ran passenger trains from Cincinnati, using the C., L.& N. tracks to the Cleneay Station in Norwood. From there, using its own tracks along the southern border of Norwood, it provided service to Mornington Station at Wasson Avenue in what is now Hyde Park. (These tracks are the current subject of a bicycle trail.) It isn't until July 1891, after years of setbacks, that an electric street car line is finally built and running on Montgomery Road, providing the long desired north-south Montgomery Road commuter service.

  • 1875 (August 17)
    The "Indian" Mound land is deeded to the "Norwood Village" (Interestingly, Norwood is not incorporated as a Village until 1888 - and even then the Norwood Heights area doesn't become part of the village until the first annexation in early 1889; so, who actually takes ownership of the land? Since the only subdivisions at the time with the name Norwood, is Norwood Heights and Hedger's Subdivision, a.k.a Norwood, perhaps the deed is to the latter.). One half of the property is owned in common by S. H. Parvin, P. P. Lane and E. W. VanDuzen, who had purchased L. Bolles share of the Norwood Heights subdivision, and the other half by Lydia B. and William R. Phipps. The pathway around the Mound is called "Lookout Avenue" in the deed, which is recorded on March 9, 1876.

  • 1875 (September 16)
    A problem with a freight car on a west-bound train on the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad at Norwood caused a delay in trains traveling from the east to Cincinnati.

  • 1876 (February 1)
    The Duckcreek Baptist Church moves to Mt. Lookout.

    Note: John Paul Jones, in his article on Hyde Park, "The Hermitage, The Pines, and Old Hyde Park," in the Spring 1972 issue of The Cincinnati Historical Society Bulletin, using John M. Lockhart's 1908 Memorial Volume of the Hyde Park Baptist Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, (page 14) as his reference source, says that the church site and its cemetery on Duck Creek, near Edmondson Road, were abandoned in 1875, when the church was moved to Grace Avenue at the northwest corner of Griest Avenue. In 1904, the present building at Erie and Michigan Avenues was dedicated.

  • 1876 (February 14)
    The Miami Valley Narrow-Gauge Railway proposed an ordinance be approved by the Cincinnati Board of Improvement that would allow the business to built a railroad from Broadway, by way of Deercreek Valley, up Limekiln Hollow, through the west part of Walnut Hills to Avondale, Norwood, Pleasant Ridge, Mason, Lebanon, Waynesville and Xenia. It would connect with other railroads—Dayton & Southeastern near Xenia and the Springfield, Jackson and Pomeroy road.

  • 1876 (February 24?)
    The Miami Valley Narrow Gauge Railroad Company asked Cincinnati City Council for the right of way for a railroad from Norwood to the city. Also, it proposed to extend the tracks to Lebanon. In the city, the line would start at Broadway, north of Court, go up Deercreek Valley, cross Effluent Pipe Street and Park Entrance street at grade, use bridges to cross Montgomery Road, Lafayette and Marion Streets, under McMillen Street, and under Home Street by tunnels. It would pass the corporation line near the intersection of Woodburn and Beresford Avenues and from there to Norwood.

  • 1876 (March 9)
    S. H. Parvin and others gave the Mound, at Norwood Heights, for public dedication in a deed recorded on this date.

  • 1876 (July)
    There were a couple of interesting real estate transfer in Norwood this month. Jackson Slane and wife sold a lot on the southwest (sic) corner of Maple Avenue (later renamed Slane Avenue) and Montgomery pike to J. S. Glazier for $2000. The lot was 200 ft. by 281.89 ft. Lot 7, in Baker's addition to Norwood, was sold by Samuel Amen and wife for $1500. The buyer was J. D. (sic) Foraker (the middle initial was probably "B."mdash;not "D." J. B. Foraker later became governor of Ohio and a U. S. Senator.

  • 1876 (July 18)
    Colonel P. P. Lane and wife celebrated their silver wedding anniversary this evening with an elaborate party at his Norwood mansion. The three acres at the property was lit with Chinese lanterns hung from trees and shrubs and the house was adorned with flowers. A forty by forty feet dancing platform covered by a muslin tent was built near the house. Supper was served on another platform added to the rear portico. The Ballenberg Orchestra played for the dancers late into the night.

    Note: The Lane home is now a funeral home at the northern boundary of Norwood, across from Cypress Way, on Montgomery Road.

  • 1876 (mid-July)
    Work was to begin soon on the Miami Valley Narrow Gauge railroad. The plan was for the road to go from Court Street, near Bowman's slaughter-house, up Gilbert Avenue, past West Walnut Hills, through Norwood and Lebanon, and eventually, maybe, to Xenia.

  • 1876 (August 17)
    The Western Star newspaper of Lebanon printed the terms of the contract, for the construction of the Miami Valley Railroad from Cincinnati (and through Norwood) to Waynesville. The contract, which had been signed on the previous day, had been awarded to John B. Benedict, of Cincinnati. The road was to be finished by July 1, 1877. The contract price for the section from Cincinnati to the Marietta & Cincinnati tracks at Norwood was $300,00. The remainder to Waynesville was $270,000. The newspaper questioned why the price for the 5.05 miles Cincinnati section was more than the 36.17 miles of the three other sections combined.

  • 1876 (August)
    Merritt Price sold to L. C. Hopkins lot 6 in Hopkins' second addition to Norwood for $614.20. To property was 65.33 ft. x 130.82 ft. Since Hopkins' was probably the previous owner, Mr. Price must have changed his mind on building on the lot or had purchased it for speculative investment purposes.

  • 1876 (October 5)
    A train due in Cincinnati at 6:40 this morning collided with a freight train at Norwood. The damaged was mainly with the lcomotives.

  • 1876 (November)
    The Home Literary Club of Norwood was oraganized in order to provide activities during the winter months.

  • 1876 (December 12)
    Clara H. Bosworth,51, died. She was the sister of Sarah Bosworth Bolles, who had suggested the name "Norwood" for the subdivison overlooking Sharpsburg. Clara's funeral was at another sister's home, that of her brother-in-law, Colonel P. P. Lane, one of the developer's of the Norwood Heights Subdivision.

  • 1877 (February 21)
    William Phipps opened his Norwood Heights home to the E. T. O. Dancing Club

  • 1877 (April 13)
    M. B. McCullough, wife of J. M. McCullough, died at her Norwood residence.

  • 1877 (July 2)
    Warren M. Langdon, 23, son of William and Joanna Langdon died. The funeral was at the parents' Norwood residence on the 4th.

  • 1877 (October)
    Colonel P. P. Lane was host at his Norwood home to the Rev. Mr. Lisle, formerly Chaplain of the Colonel's Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Regiment during the Civil War.

  • 1877 (October 29)
    Mrs. Anthony Ferguson, one of the oldest residents of Norwood, died this afternoon.

  • 1877 (November 6)
    Several people, including Miami Valley Railroad President Seth S. Haines, spoke at the stockholders' meeting, on providing means (preferred stock had been issued to raise funds) for the immdiate completion of the line from Cincinnati to the intersection with the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad (at Norwood?).

  • 1878 (August 1)
    Katie L. Junkins, 22, died at her residence and the home of her uncle and long-time Norwood resident, Moses F. Buxton. She had received injury to her brain in a railroad accident on the Pan-handle Railroad during the Centennial celebration.

  • 1878 (August)
    Fred Behrens, a Columbia Township Trustee, reported five unsafe bridges in the township. One of the bridges spanned the Duck Creek, between Madisonville Pike (today's Madison Road) and Norwood, near French's dairy.

  • 1878 (October 13)
    George E. S. Slane, 15, died. He was the eldest son of long-time Norwood residents and land owners, Jackson and Hettie Cameron Slane.

  • 1878 (mid-December)
    The builder, John B. Benedict, of the Miami Valley Railroad from Cincinnati, through Norwood, to Xenia, filed suit in the Court of Common Pleas, claiming the railroad owned him $392,000. Later, it was reported that Miami Valley President S. S. Haines had secretly received $125,000 for giving the contract for building the road to Mr. Benedict.

  • 1878 (December 19)
    At a stockholders meeting, L. C. Hopkins is elected president of the newly formed Norwood Town Hall Association. Also elected to office are Edwards Mills, treasurer, and Joseph B. Foraker, secretary. The elected board consists of L. C. Hopkins, P. P. Lane, J. B. Foraker, Edward Mills and Frank Wiehe. The organization is created to follow up on the demand of local women to build a village center. However, because of lack of funds, it is four years later before they build the center.

    On two evenings (Thursday and Friday, December 19-20), at Thomas T. Drake residence, the ladies prepared a supper with "fiddlers" providing dance music for the benefit of the Town Hall. They also sold articles for Christmas presents.

  • 1879 (March 5)
    In an investigative report in the Cincinnati Enquirer, it was stated that the Miami Valley Railroad officials told the contractor to stop on the Cincinnati section and to complete the portion from the M & C. R. R. at Norwood to Waynesville. It was reported that the grading, bridges and ties were completed from Norwood to Waynesville and all that were needed were the rails. The contractor proceeded to work on the Cincinnati section and when told to finish the other sections instead, he stopped work— and that was over a year ago. When a Director of the railroad was asked if they intend to abandon the line through Avondale and Walnut Hills into Cincinnati, he replied "no." He mentioned that the Avondale people were pushing for a street railroad, and he had asked them to wait since he hoped to have the lower end of the line done soon, so a street car line would not be necessary.

  • 1879 (April 19)
    The stockholders of the Miami Valley Narrow-Gauge Railroad held a secret meeting in Lebanon, Ohio. It was reported that the purpose was to appoint a Receiver for the railroad. It was said by an unnamed officer of the company that the Receiver was Nathan Keever, a well-known local farmer.

  • 1879 (June 19)
    Mr. S. S. Haines, the late President of the Miami Valley Railroad (which ran through Norwood) was preparing to sue for slander The Western Star newspaper publisher, William C. McClintlock.

  • 1879 (December 3)
    After spending nine weeks on the trial of John Benedict v. Miami Valley Railroad Company, the jury was discharged by Judge Johnston. They could not come to an agreement on the verdict.

  • 1879 (December 4)
    Sarah P. Mills, 73, died. She was the wife of the late Stephen Mills, from one of the early residents of Norwood back when it was called Sharpsburg. Her funeral was from the Norwood residence of her son, Edward Mills.

    

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