- 1981 (August)
Tokoyo firm, Makino, acquires the Norwood based LeBlond Machine Tool
Company.
- 1985 (July 20)
Burwood Park reopens after the lower section is cleared and
furnished. Picnic tables, grills, trees and a parking lot are
installed.
- 1985 (September 14)
Dedication ceremonies for the dedication of Lindner Park and
McCullough Estate Nature Preserve, 2726 Cypress Way.
- 1985 (September 16)
Lindner Park/McCullough Nature Preserve officially becomes a Norwood
park. Although the 14 acres are in Cincinnati, it is owned by the
City of Norwood.
- 1986 (November 6)
General Motors announces that it will close its 64-year-old Norwood
plant, as well as 20 other plants around the country. Two popular GM
vehicles, the Chevrolet Camaro and the Pontiac Firebird are
assembled here.
- 1986 Sheller-Globe, the previously named Globe-Wernicke
Industries — the one-time parent company of Globe-Wernicke
Company, is acquired by Knoll International Holdings.
- 1987
Using CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funds, the city makes
streetscape improvements on the west side of Montgomery Road at
Sherman Avenue, as part of the urban renewal Phase II district. The
improvements included interlocking pavers for the sidewalk, trees
and decorative pedestrian lights.
- 1987 (August 26)
The 64-year old General Motors plant in Norwood closes. Forty-three
hundred people lose their jobs. This accelerates the change of
Norwood from an industrial-based city to a office center.
- 1987
Globe-Weis (office filing manufacturer which continued the
Globe-Wernicke Company's business in that line) is sold by Knoll
International Holdings to the American Trading and Production
Company.
- 1988 (April)
The Palm Brothers Decalcomania Company closes in Norwood.
- 1988 (May 10)
Norwood celebrates its 100th anniversary of incorporation as a
village.
- 1988 (July)
Former Norwood Mayor Donald E. Prues dies.
- 1988 (November)
A $200,000 grant establishes an Edison Business Incubator in Norwood
at the old Foy-Johnson Paint Company Building.
- 1988
United Technologies Corporation partners with merchant bankers
Gibbons, Green, van Amerongen to purchase Sheller-Globe (the
successor to Globe-Wernicke Industires). Although U.T. said they
would operate Sheller-Globe as an independent company, they merge it
with U.T.'s automotive parts operations into a new division United
Technologies Automotive Systems.
- 1989 (February)
The movie "An Innocent Man" starring Tom Selleck films
scenes in the Norwood Middle School (the old Norwood High School). A
stage of a jail is built in the school. The working title of the
movie at the time was "Hard Rain" (not to be confused with
the 1998 movie of the same name), probably in reference to Selleck's
character — Jamie Rainwood.
- 1989 (November 28)
Norwood reaches agreement with the Belvedere Coporation for
development of the former General Motors site and the city's Urban
Renewal Phase III area. A $100 million mixed-use business park is
the plan. The site is eventually given the name Central Parke.
- 1989
LeBlond-Makino moves from Norwood to Mason, Ohio.
- 1989 (September)
The demolition of the old LeBlond Plant begins in preparation for a
retail center (Rookwood Pavilion). This successful "mall"
is the catalyst for a series of nearby retail and office
developments along I-71 in Norwood (Rookwood Commons, Rookwood
Towers, Cornerstone, etal.), Oakley (Cincinnati Center at the old
Milacron Industrial Park) and Evanston. It even encourages the
development of other so-called "life-style centers" north
of Hamilton County and in northern Kentucky.
- 1989 (December?)
The Norwood Enterprise ceases
publication, leaving Norwood without a community newspaper. Reduced
advertisement revenue is an indicator that the Norwood business
community has fallen below a critical point needed to support a
local newspaper. Another newspaper, The
Norwood Times, begins publishing 10 months later, but it too
succumbs to financial reality.
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