Columbus's Industrial Communities: Olentangy, Milo-Grogan, Steelton
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As a railroad network was fundamental in the location of factories along the Olentangy River and in the Milo-Grogan area, the excellent railroad connections just outside Columbus's southern boundary were instrumental to the factory development at the south end of Parsons Avenue. In choosing the southern border area of Columbus for their factory sites, the industrialists set in motion the growth of the southern end of the South Side. The older, northern end of the South Side, bordering on Livingston Avenue, had by the first of the 20th century already developed into a viable neighborhood with a busy hub at Livingston's intersection with Parsons Avenue, which would become the "Main Street" of the South Side. Dating from Columbus's original 1812 plat, Parsons Avenue (then labeled East Public Lane) began at Broad Street, extended south across Livingston, at which point Parsons was known as Groveport Pike until about 1895 when the street was formalized as "Parsons." As the South Side developed in the latter part of the 19th century, Parsons Avenue intersected with some thirty-two cross streets from Livingston Avenue to Marion Road at the southern end of the South Side. Parsons then crossed the Baltimore and Ohio tracks and the Hocking Valley tracks (where the future steel plants would locate), entered Pickaway County before its twelve-mile length came to an end. The geography of such a street with numerous intersections and serving as an artery to a cluster of factories all but guaranteed commercial success.
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About the Book
Columbus, Ohio, no longer has industrial communities - a triad of factories, retail, and worker housing, all in close proximity and well integrated. Beginning in the late 19th century, these communities were a function of both a walking city and an efficient railroad network available for factory use. This book surveys three of Columbus's industrial communities from their formation, growth and decline as the larger city grew around them creating forces that made their survival untenable. These forces involved transportation changes, corporation consolidation, racial composition, immigrant decline and changing residential patterns.
About the Author
Tom Dunham lives near Columbus, Ohio and has previously published Charleston in the 20th Century, Wheeling in the 20th Century, Dayton in the 20th Century and Covington, Kentucky, A Historical Guide.