North Ridgeville Review The Community That Cares
Courtesy North Ridgeville Historical Society, northridgevillehistoricalsociety.com
Lear Nagle to Jaycox:
This section of road, like most of Ridgeville, was farm land in the distant past. In the late 1960s to 1970s here is what you might find:
The southeast corner of Lear Nagle was home to the VanArdsdale farm- where acres of flowers were grown. This later became the Hale’s Greenhouse, which was recently a victim of the widening of Center Ridge. Moving west was a string of farms of all sorts. Emerald Valley Nursery had a big farm and barn, then the current R. B. Minute’s Greenhouse is a family business that became Garden Village Nursery to accommodate our local need for gardening plants and flowers. Where Giant Eagle plaza is now was home to a favorite restaurant, Bess and Andy’s. It later became Chicken Manor and later was torn down for another restaurant-Buffalo Wild Wings, which changed to Santa Fe Express and a few other short term eating establishments. A little further west was Stobe’s Truck Farm. Pitts Blvd. was created and many houses were built there in the 1960s and a Open Pantry convenience store was put on the corner. There was the Kitchel Bowling alley on the south side- where many of us enjoyed bowling a game or two.
The 1896 map shows a saw mill on the northern side, but in the 1900s the north side of the street was mostly residential homes. In the 1960s the whole town was excited when the current Marc’s plaza was built. Ridgeville was going to have a new shopping spot! Over the years the plaza has been home to many retailers including Grants, Fischer Big Wheel, Yum Yum Tree candy shop, Revco Drugs, Big Lots, Meyer Goldberg grocery store, and now Marc’s and the Post Office. Across the street from this plaza was the Pitts farm, which was a large grower of pansies and other flowers.
In the 1800s the corner of Center Ridge and Jaycox on the north side was owned by Horatio Tyrrell (Terrell), who was said to be one of the first white children born here in town. Later his daughter, Helen, and her husband Henry Culver would own this area. In the mid 1900s it became the Hildebrandt farm, where one could see horses romping in the rear field- before IGA was built behind on Jaycox. Some might remember the Phillips 66 gas station on that corner or the current CVS pharmacy store. MANY changes have come along even in the last 50 years! One can only imagine where it will go from here!
Jaycox Rd./Ranger Way west to Root Rd:
Continuing our journey west along Center Ridge- exploring homes and businesses along the way from the distant and recent past.
In the mid 1970’s a small plaza was built at the southwest corner that housed a Denny’s Pizza and Dry Cleaner. Denny’s was really popular and had great pizza! They changed with the times -eventually adding a pizza buffet, party room and a few video games when they came into popularity. Later this plaza was the first home of Fiesta Jalapeño Restaurant and a Verizon store, but was torn down when Center Ridge was widened and became part of the outlot for the Aldi’s plaza. The ALDI’s plaza started out as home to another grocery store for a very short time, then Ace hardware took over the grocery store, and a few other businesses filled in the plaza, but the Ace later moved into the current Dollar Tree by Giant Eagle and the other stores either moved or closed. Across the street was a gas station on the NW corner of Jaycox and next door to that was a Lawson’s store, which was the second one here in town. It wasn’t there for very long, and this storefront then became J & P Custom Flooring, which is still there. Local guys Jim and Pat Ginley have been providing flooring for the community for a little over 40 years from this spot.
Across the street from this former Lawson’s store was one of the most exciting places for my younger self- Diederich’s pumpkin farm! In October the whole place was just rows and rows of pumpkins- all shapes and sizes. There were lights strung across the area for evening shopping and every kid in town dreamed of getting the biggest pumpkin their parents would allow. The Diederichs- Albert and Mary were really nice and both were active in the community. Al was one of the first firemen here in town and Mary was well known for her sewing skills. Many local girls had a special dress made by her!
The Ridgewood Motor Court was a trailer park that is still in operation as Ridgewood Estates. It was a small, nicely kept place in the 1950s, when it was started, and now has 120 homes according to its advertising!
The SE corner of Root Rd. had a small plaza in the past that had some interesting history. From 1944 to 1959 this corner housed a business called Ridge Freezer [or Ridge Freeze Locker]. With rationing from the war years, families needed cold storage for their meats and other foods. There were 700 meat lockers here that could be rented so families could purchase a side of beef, or whole hog, have it processed and store it in their rented locker. The freezer business started to dwindle in the early 1950s, when home freezers started coming into use, and the business started to sell groceries as the locker usage got smaller. In 1957 David Towner purchased the location and opened Towner’s Pharmacy and a small convenience store called Clovervale. Most recently this plaza was home to an auto parts store and “The Corner Store” where many of us picked up milk, bread, beverages and candy. Sadly, this mainstay of the neighborhood was demolished for the recent widening of Center Ridge.
Center Ridge Part 4:
Center Ridge from Root Road west to Avon Belden was part of the original “downtown” North Ridgeville, and there is a LOT of history in this small block! One of the earliest businesses in this section was the Humphrey Inn on the NE corner of Route #83. Built in 1830, this building was a hotel for many years, then, in the 1900’s had apartments upstairs and various businesses downstairs including a beauty shop, jeweler, post office, and a gift shop amongst other businesses. This was one of the oldest buildings here in town when it was demolished in 1962 to become a Shell Gas station. The Shell station later became Mad Hatter Muffler, and this building is currently being renovated to become a neighborhood store. Dairy Grove is a fun business located in this section of road. It’s been around about 70 years- delighting children of all ages with ice cream treats and other goodies.
In the 1870’s there was a Cheese Factory on the north side near the current car wash. This area also was home to a tiny building which housed North Ridgeville Shoe Service, and later Luigi’s Pizza. The first Blacksmith Shop here in town was in this area near the Center Creek. At one time there were many blacksmith shops around the area. The Gilder Family opened their blacksmith shop in this area- on the north side of the street in 1896. Charlie Gilder started out in the blacksmith business across town near Lorain Road and Root Road and then moved to the Center Ridge location. His sons and grandsons carried on this business for many years- changing with the times to offer automobile repair, then adding service, gas pumps and towing.
A world – renowned business located here in the past was the Ridge Tool Company on the SE corner of Center Ridge and Route #83. Although they now consider themselves an Elyria business, we know their roots were established here in town where they operated for about 20 years until they outgrew this location.
Education was well established in this area of town. The District #1 schoolhouse was built in this area in 1869-about where the St. Peter Gym is now located. It was a two story brick building with two classrooms and all the students in town attended this school at one time. Later, additional schools were built -first on the east end of Center Ridge, then the western end of town and eventually ten “one-room” schools would be built as the township grew. Across the creek from this schoolhouse, on the south side of the road would be the location of the Ridgeville High School. Built in 1923 to house all twelve grades, it was the first consolidated school and the first high school here in town. In the 1950s, as our population continued to grow it would be joined by elementary schools around town, and then in 1967, when the current high school was built, it would be transformed into first a Junior High School, and then Middle School. It was demolished in 2018 after the Academic Center was built. St. Peter parish had a school in this area as well. Built in 1912 to replace an earlier parochial school, it was replaced in 1965 by the current St. Peter School.
St. Peter Church was built on it’s current site in 1923- replacing the first St. Peter Church, which was on Avon Belden and had been destroyed by a fire in 1914. The gymnasium was added to the campus in 1974, and the school’s sports teams finally had a place to practice their skills..
To be continued in next month’s North Ridgeville Review.
