October 12, 1978
Picture #1 – No. 1: Remember the Hi-Jinks?
Picture #2 – No. 2: Nostalgic view of Central High School area
Picture #3 – No. 3: Kroger store stand here now
Picture #4 – No. 4: This church served several congregations
Picture #5 – No. 5: Building called “Risdon Meat Market”
Not too many readers will remember the building shown in photo NO. ONE. The location is the northwest corner of Perry at High Street, opposite what is now Emerson Jr. High School. On that site now stands the building where Dr. Hilty and Dr. Yarris have their offices. Perhaps 40 years ago, before being remodeled for offices, the same building was owned by Ed Covrett, who operated the Hi-Jinks there…a place for high school kids to congregate and “snack.”
The old building that stood on the site, shown by the photo, was originally a brass foundry. Older residents will remember that the S-C Regulator Company operated in the building before they moved to the building on east Crocker Street where Fostoria Auto and Truck Parts, Inc. is now. S-C Regula- tor manufactured control valves for water and steam piping systems.
When photo No. one was taken, Carl Copley operated the garage and machine shop. In later years Juckett and Wolfarth operated a car repair business there. Standard Oil also had a filling station on the north edge of the site after the old building was demolished.
NOSTALGIC VIEW
Across the street, just northwest of the school was Dr. T.T. Rosendale’s home and next to it the home of attorney R.C. Guernsey, where Fostoria attorney James D. grew up. Photo NO. TWO is a nostalgic view of that corner…including the old Central High School and the two homes mentioned above. Note the street car tracks.
Dr. Rosendale was one of F.M. Hopkins financial backers when he came to town and took over The Fostoria Review. I remember his inspection tours of The Review when I worked there. Rosendale was reared in the rural area north of Fostoria and used to tell me about the clear-water streams north of town where abundant catches of fish could be taken 100 years ago.
In the early days of Fostoria, the N.P. Skinner family owned several large tracts of land in the town, including all of it that layed on both sides of Perry Street from High nearly to Elm. The land where the Rosendale and Guernsey homes were was originally part of the Skinner plot.
The Laundrolux now occupies the site where The Rosendale and Guernsey homes once stood.
SKINNER/EBERSOLE HOME
Photo NO. THREE shows the home of Morris P. Skinner on Perry Street, the present site of the Kroger Store. Skinner came to the Fostoria area in 1832 from Pennsylvania. He first married the daughter of John Gorsuch, one of the early settlers of Risdon. (See Potluck article Nov. 29, 1977). After her death he married Jane Searless and to them were born five children, one of them being Clara, who married A.E. Ebersole. To them were born Mira, who never married and Mary (Reardon). The two sisters were the last descendants of the Skinner family.
The Skinner house was built in 1875 and through the years became known as both the Skinner and and Ebersole property. The home, prior to being demolished was inhabited by Mira who took in travelers, as can be seen by the sign by the tree, in the photo.
Mira and her sister Mary in their later years lived in a frame house just south of the one shown in photo No. three.
CHURCHES CAME AND WENT
At the corner of Perry and Liberty streets, where the Bethel United Methodist parsonage is now, there once stood a church, which many older Fostorians will remember, shown by photo NO. FOUR.
Researching the subject I was unable to learn when the church as built, but it must have been in the 1890’s, by The Church of God, affiliated with The Church of God, Findlay, and part of the denomination of Churches of God in North America.
In 1916, when Rev. F. T. Manchester was pastor of the church, it appears there were difficulties, because it was sold to The Progressive Brethren.
By 1928 The Progressive Brethren were evidently not doing so well, because the property was sold to Samuel Newcomer, a Fostorian of that era, who in turn sold it to The Evangelical Church which had been holding services in a building behind the church, shown by photo No. four, where originally The Apostolic Holiness Church as located, pastored by Rev. Fred T. Fuge. Fuge was surely a “man of God” who lived many years in Fostoria and passed away here. Some day I may write a story about his preaching career.
The Evangelical Church continued in the building at Union and Liberty and later built the parsonage which stands at Perry and Liberty. In recent years they became a part of the United Methodist Church.
The white frame house next to the parsonage, where the John Twinings now live, was once inhabited by the R.O. Nichols family. Nichols was a captain in the U.S. Army and also worked for The Ohio Power.
The large cement block house next, just north, was one time owned by Rev. Fuge and now by Rev. Haldeman.
RISDON MEAT MARKET
Many changes have taken place at both corners of Perry and Elm streets. Where Mr. B’s is now there was once a filling station, operated for many years by Mr. Blose. Before that there was a two-story frame building with two store rooms, where various businesses were conducted. Fred Scharf’s meats and groceries being one of the last before it was demolished sometime between 1940-45. Arthur and Dayton Walters operated a grocery in one of the rooms.
On the opposite corner, there have been many businesses too in the two separ- ate buildings which still stand there. Photo NO. FIVE shows the one building where F.E. England, father of Don, still living in the family home on Summit Street, had his store. The sign at the top appropriately called it the “Risdon Meat Market” since that area was originally part of Risdon, which joined with the village of Rome in 1854 to become Fostoria.
The two buildings have accommodated many groceries through the years besides England’s, including those operated by A and P, McArthur, Larry Firestine, Kenneth Thrailkill.
Where the two buildings are today there once stood the Hammond Flour Mill, which was wrecked by an explosion. (See Review Times, Nov. 9, 1977).
OLD NAMES REMEMBERED
There are many names and faces that can be associated with residences and businesses along Perry Street between High and Elm through the past 50 years or so. D.W. Nederhouser, Frank Oram, Amos Chance family, Whitmore family, Dr. Chilcoate, the Kenneth Thrailkills (still at 370). There was also T.G. LaRoss, 387, books and stationery, groceries, cigars and tobacco; M.S. White, 376, cigars and tobacco; E.H. Barto, 370, general construction; Century Mold Co., 385, concrete fence posts; J.L. Cruickshank, 385, hay, grain, seed shippers.
On Elm Street, where Perry intersects, today’s scene is completely changed from years ago. A filling station was where Kentucky Fried Chicken is now. In the area between Lanes and the Kentucky operation there once stood a frame building where Mary and Clara Glabb operated a rug weaving business.