An Evening Walk Through Galion (Part One)

 

Galion, Ohio.  Population 11,500.  Primarily in Crawford County, but now also sneaking into both Richland and Morrow Counties.

 

Galion was settled by German Lutherans starting in the 1820s.  The city was a center for railroads, road-making machinery and the telecommunications industry.  The latter brought many inventors and entrepreneurs to town; Alexander Graham Bell tested the telephone hear in the late 1870s, hiring local schoolchildren to run wires across Public Square from his room at the Central Hotel (still standing, picture in this thread), and then the modern switchboard -- and the dial tone -- were invented and perfected here.  It was also the home of Bishop William Montgomery Brown, the first Episcopal/Anglican Bishop deposed since the Middle Ages -- his home and study survive intact.

 

Between 1920 and 1970, it was a dynamic place, headquarters of thriving industries employing over 5,000; by 1990, only 500 or so employees remained from these companies.  In 1997, Galion became one of Ohio’s first three “Main Street” communities, and has a historic preservation ordinance which protects approximately 150 buildings.

 

I took an evening stroll through town….this is Part One; Part Two will come soon.

 

 

 

Galion Public Library.  Built in 1901 with funds from Andrew Carnegie.

 

 

 

Southwest corner of Galion’s Public Square.  To the right, the Central Hotel, the oldest part of which dates to 1851; to the left is the Hackedorn Building, location of an independent drug store from 1859 to the present day.  The Central Hotel was vacant from 1980 to 2003, and literally had crumbling walls and gaping holes in its roof; it was saved at the very last moment and will open next month as a new senior residential complex.

 

 

Central Hotel.

 

 

Southeast corner of Public Square.

 

 

Harding Way East, first block east of the Square.

 

 

 

 

The Galion Theater, built in 1949, home of the last surviving original porcelain enameled-front, all-neon marquee in Ohio.  Recently renovated to house the local community theater.

 

 

The Galion Theater this evening.

 

 

US Post Office.

 

 

The “Professional Building,” one of Galion’s original hospitals.

 

 

The next few shots are of the Big Four Depot, owned by the City of Galion and currently under restoration.  The first shot explains its significance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Henry D. Lee House, one block from Public Square.  This is the only home ever lived in by Henry and Emma Lee.  Henry got his start in the business world as a clerk at the Central Hotel, later owned an oil company which was purchased by John D. Rockefeller, and after he moved to Kansas, founded the Lee Jean Company.  Henry and Emma were only married a few months, and neither remarried during their lifetimes.  Emma stayed in Galion; when she died in the 1920s, it was discovered that she had hoarded massive quantities of clothes, furnishings, etc., so that only small pathways were left in each room (different house than the one pictured).  The massive auction was covered by the New York Times.

 

 

Galion’s Odd Fellows Building, soon to be restored/renovated into condominiums and ground-floor retail.

 

 

A bit of “the future” -- these signs are sitting next to the intersection of the new US30 and State Route 598, just north of Galion, waiting to be installed.  The new stretch of US30 between Mansfield and Bucyrus opens next month.  It’s safe to say that it will change things around here -- for better or worse remains to be determined.

 

 

Sigining off with another shot of the Galion Theater...

 

:-) Great tour!  I'm looking forward to part 2.

Thanks for the tour. I've visited Galion numerous times over the past 10 years or so, to secure support for the 3-C Corridor. I've never had any problem getting the community's interest and support. It's a terrific community that appreciates its past, while looking forward to the future.

 

KJP

great shots!

 

galion looks to be one of the the best non-county seats around!

Very nice!

Gorgeous town!

Wonderful!

Really nice looking city!

Wow...that has to be one of the nicer-looking smaller towns in Ohio.

Yes, Galion does have its spiffy side, however just like every other small rural Ohio town, much of it is tired and, well, not-so-pretty.  Interesting thing, though -- depresssed economies are typically good environments for historic architecture -- as development interests, of course, tend to exploit and destroy those resources which give a community its character.

 

I guess its just in my nature to try and highlight the "good parts."  As one of my good friends E-mailed me this evening, "Beware when giving a digital camera to an architectural history junkie."

 

Galion maintainer (age unknown) and 1935 Case C tractor in regular use on a private road on the family farm south of Bluffton, Indiana.

 

 

A maintainer differs from a grader; a grader can exert heavy down pressure on the blade to cut through packed surfaces and change the contour of a road. A maintainer's blade is carried on runners and can't exert much down pressure. It is used to redistribute surface gravel to fill in holes and ruts and keep the road smooth.

Very nice tour - looking forward to Part II...is that to be titled, "The Seedy Side of Galion"?

Looking at an online map of Galion, I would personally think the town would have about 20,000 people not 11,500!  And I did not realize the Olentangy River started near Galion!

Very, very impressed!  I wonder what it looked like before the Main Street Project and how much of a difference the Main Street program had.

Actually, the primary catalyst for revitalization was an entrepreneur who came to town, purchased fifteen buildings in the Uptowne area over a ten-year period, and put his money into building rehab, including upper-floor residential.  At the same time, his wife opened what is now the most successful specialty retail store in the county.  This building owner/developer is now on the Board of Trustees of Preservation Ohio.

 

It would be almost impossible to overestimate the importance of these individuals to make the difference in a downtown area.  I know of similar stories in Marion, Zanesville, Mount Vernon and other places.

 

And you bet, the Olentangy River starts near here and flows right through town, about two blocks north of Public Square.  Like all Galion kids, I used to spend time throwing rocks into the "creek" on my way home from school.

 

presOhio