August 11, 1983
Picture #1 – The main portion of The First Church of the Nazarene property, 339 Sandusky Street, showing The Heritage House on the left and the church on the right.
Picture #2 – This is the magnolia tree, mentioned in the article, which was saved by pleas by neighbors. It continues to give thanks each season with beautiful blossoms.
Picture #3 – The Clover Farm Stores Co. was once located about where the Nazarene Church Heritage House is today. William Sendelbaugh operated the grocery and Reber and Miller operated the meat market. Reber is shown in the left of the photo and “Am” Sendelbach, son of William in the center. The girl on the right is unknown.
Picture #4 – This house still standing at northwest corner of Caples and Sandusky Streets is where Ed Retan once lived and is now owned by Mrs. Lawrence.
Prior to the time The First Church of the Nazarene purchased the Caples property it was owned by Harry Mergenthaler.
In addition to living in the Caples house, Mergenthaler also had a car repair business in part of the property.
In about 1928-29 William Sendelbach who had been in the grocery business in the building beside the C&O racks, started a Clover Farm Store in a newly- erected building in front of the Caples property (see photo)
Sendelbaugh operated the grocery store in half of the building and John Reber and Bill Miller operated the meat market in the other half. The business continued for 4-5 years. The building was then converted into two residential apartments.
As explained in last week’s article, The First Church of the Nazarene built its new church in 1955-56. Previously it had a one story frame building which earlier had been a church at Old Fort; then it was dismantled and rebuilt at Caples and Stadium Drive.
Starting from very humble beginnings in a tent and a number of rented rooms about town, the Nazarene Church continued to grow and needed larger facilities. That is how the new church came about in 1955, under the direction of the Rev. Glenn Flannery, now deceased.
The Nazarene’s new facilities at 339 Sandusky St. came about in an unorthodox way for most church buildings in this age. An architect who devoted his time to church clientele dre plans which incorporated part of the old Caples house, surrounding the old and the new. The old built on massive stone foundations and of sturdy native timbers, continued to house all of the church and Sunday school offices, with basement area salvaged from the old house for heating and air conditioning equipment.
The basement, wit its rugged construction, could be used for emergency shelter from tornadoes and air raids.
The accompanying photo shows The First Church of the Nazarene facilities, including the sanctuary offices, Sunday school rooms, library, music room, nursery, restrooms on the right and The Heritage House on the left. The garage for buses is on Caples Street, where the first church stood. Present parking facilities are behind the church and future parking facilities will be to the west.
The Rev. D.E. Clay once pastor of the local church, who succeeded Rev. Flannery is now district superintendent of the church’s North Central Ohio District.
The Rev. Vernon Hurles was the church’s pastor until succeeded by the Rev. Tom Hoppe, the present pastor.
East of The Heritage House is a two-story house, owned by the church and east of that at Caples and Sandusky is the residence where the Ed Retan family once lived, named in one of the earlier articles about Sandusky Street. It is a well-kept old home, with a beautiful circular staircase leading to the second floor from the front entrance (see accompanying photo).
Before ending the history of the Nazarene property, there is one more story to be told. It is about a tree on the property which if it could talk could probably tell some valuable and interesting history about that area.
In one photo of the church buildings, the tree which is a magnolia, can be detected just on the left of the bell tower in the center of the photo. The Review Times photographer took a separate picture of it, which also accompanies this article.
The tree may be living today because when the new church was being built a number of people including neighbors, in the area pleaded “Save that tree”. How many years it has put forth beautiful blossoms in season no one knows, except God. An like its creator, it continues to give.
READER FEEDBACK B-17 STORY WORLD WAR II
Weeks have passed since I reported on reader response to the B-17 article. Much of the reader response has gone directly to Mr. Lonsway, who provided all the passing along what he has told me.
It would appear that it was one of the best received Potluck articles. Perhaps because it pertained to patriotism, our country, its defense and some facts about what happened in World War II.
Lonsway reported that he finally lost count on the number of people who stopped to talk to him wherever he was or by phone, but it more than 100.
I had one unsigned letter from someone with a Toledo postmark, in which the the writer reminded me that smaller planes in the large photo of the B-17 were also B-17’s. I did learn that from Lonsway after the article was published.
The writer of the unsigned letter highly recommended the book “Flying Forts” by Martin Caidan, to learn more about the B-17, its history and the war it waged. That book is available at Kaubisch Memorial Public Library.
Mrs. Lester (Celia) Cadwallader, a good Republican, sent a copy of the B-17 article to President Reagan.
WHERE WAS MCDOLE STORY
In one of the Sandusky Street articles, I placed the U.C. McDole grocery in the same building where Superette is today.
It was listed as being there in old directories. I also remember going to that store in that location when I was a boy. Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Lawrence remodeled that building after McDole left it and started Superette.
However, one reader insisted McDole was never in that location and that he was east of the tracks in the same building where Sendelbaugh and others were at various times.
So, I did some further checking and discovered that McDole had been in the location east of the tracks before he was on the west side, which was probably before I lived in the area. I guess we can put the difference to rest.
ABOUT THE FITZSIMMONS
A faithful reader who doesn’t want to be mentioned, telephoned to inform me that Mr. Fitzsimmons who lived the Fishers (Elmer and May), has a wife, Ollie who was a sister to May Fisher. As we talked, it came back to me that there was an Ollie Fitzsimmons. We both agreed that they were Chicago folks who had settled here.
ANOTHER PICTURE IDENTIFIED
Many readers enjoyed seeing the old photos from “yesteryear” which have appeared with the Sandusky Street series.
The one photo showing the watchman’s shelter and the old Hocking depot was especially appreciated. In the photo, the only person identified was J.C. Harriman, the local agent, who was on the left.
John Bowman, the barber who always has some comment about Potluck, as he trims my hair, told me the man in the center of the photo was Tom Bowman, his grandfather, who was an engineer on the railroad. John knew that because his mother has the photo too.