Not many years ago, much of Grove City was farmland where corn, soybeans, grains and hogs were raised. Most of those acres now grow families in new housing developments. The Grove City Farmers Exchange in the downtown was an important destination for area farmers and their families, a place where they could shop, visit and discuss crops. Today, that same building is a place to shop for antiques, dine at a popular restaurant or patronize other businesses within the old structure. The Grange was another important place where farmers and families could meet and exchange ideas. Once such meeting place was the Borror’s Corners Grange Hall. In 1899, snakes, women’s rights andsanitary arrangements on the farm were principal topics on the program. Learn more about Grove City’s past in a 200-page pictorial history available at the museum, 3378 Park Street.

The SWFCHS Annual Yard Sale is this Saturday, 9a-1p, at the Depot at Century Village on Orders Road. Come on in and help us raise funds for the many ongoing Society projects. It’s inside the depot—rain or shine!

One man Grove City history will long remember is Dr. Leslie A. (Les) Bostic who, in an earlier life, was a North Carolina prison guard. After moving here, he assumed duties as the founding executive director of the Buckeye Ranch, a position he held nearly 40 years. A humanitarian and visionary, Bostic earned an undergraduate degree and his master in social work at the College of William and Mary in Virginia and a Ph.D. at the Ohio State University. Bostic created the Buckeye Tennis Championships in Grove City which ran 14 years bringing nationally ranked tennis players to town. He received state awards from two different Ohio governors and was instrumental in the creation of a variety of Central Ohio youth educational programs. After retirement from the Buckeye Ranch, Bostic served as city administration as part of the Cheryl Grossman administration. His service and commitment to the community is recognized today with a Rotary Club plaque mounted on the Park Street side of the municipal building. Bostic is pictured with Tennis legend Arthur Ash. A detailed pictorial history of Grove City is available at the museum, 3378 Park Street.

A story published in the book, Columbus Ghosts II by Robin Smith in 2003, tells a story by Joy Schmitt about a ghostly figure at Grove City’s downtown Little Theatre off Broadway. Schmitt and others said they had heard steps, slamming doors and other unusual unexplained sounds inside the old building. In 1978, while sitting in the auditorium she heard a crashing sound near the stage area. Moments later, a similar sound occurred from above. She searched the building and found nothing out of place. Schmitt also admitted she once saw the hem of a dress of a ghostly figure moving silently in the building. Others reported seeing the reflection of a woman in a high-necked blouse and skirt standing in the doorway at the top of the stairs. Schmitt believed the LTOB ghostly figure might be Ethel King, the blind daughter of the woman who built the Kingdom Theatre in 1916.

Historical references indicate William Foster Breck may have played a role in the construction of the old hotel and saloon in the Grove City Town Center, known best today as Plank’s on Broadway. The hotel was built by William Blackburn in 1854, two years after Breck created the village in 1852. Breck had a history with hotel operations and viewed such a business as important to the town. He built and operated the first hotel in Carroll, Ohio that was located on the Ohio Erie Canal. He was a prominent businessman in that community building and operating a large grain warehouse and a mercantile before relocating to Jackson Township in the late 1840s. The earliest known operators of the Grove City hotel and saloon were Alexander Frankenburg, John Douglas, T. E. Booth, Jack Goldsmith, John Corilius, Dude Strife, Unknown Jones, William Voelkel Sr., and Joseph Enders. When Dick Robinson purchased the business, he renamed it the Charlie Enders Saloon. In 1994, Bill Plank, as senior partner, purchased the business and opened Plank’s on Broadway.