| (1)
Soon after the close of the American Revolution six men became the
owners of what is today considered Mount Washington. They were soldiers
of Virginia and it this land was part of the Virginia Military District.
Virginia's surveyor, Richard Clough Anderson, marked off the limits
of their property. Anderson Township and a Clough Creek are indebted
for to him for their names. These six men did not settle on their
property—they sold it to others who did the pioneering.
(2)
Indian troubles were not yet over in this region when the first
white men developed a settlement near the foot of today's Beechmont
Hill and by 1805 were developing farms on the top of the hill.
(3)
The first village to develop was called McCormick's settlement,
and later Salem. By 1805 Rev. Francis McCormick had founded the
Salem Methodist Episcopal Church and his large family had settled
around present Salem Road and Sutton Avenue.
(4)
The next village to develop was called Mount Washington. Stephen
J. Sutton probably gave the name. Sutton opened his store at what
is now the corner of Beechmont and Corbly in 1846 and the village
developed around it. His boyhood home was the little log cabin his
father had built in 1804 and which still stands at 1712 Longbourne.
(5)
A third village developed around today's Birney and Beechmont and
it was called Cedar Point. Vincent Shinn, who owned much property
along the narrow lane, gave it the name Birney Lane because he admired
the presidential aspirant of 1840, James G. Birney.
(6)
The first post office was established in 1830 at Salem. It was called
Mears Farm. It stood at the corner of today's Sutton and Mariwood
Lane. Stephen Sutton managed to have it transferred to his village
and to his merchandising establishment when he opened it in 1846.
(7)
The first three churches established were Methodist. First was the
Salem M. E. in 1805, and in 1851 both the Mt. Washington M. P. and
the Mt. Washington M. E. The former was later abandoned, then its
place of worship moved to Corbly near Sutton. Several other churches
have used it including the Lutherans. In 1866 the Baptists organized
under Rev. B. F. Harmon. He was the father of Judson Harmon, who
became governor of Ohio. The Harmon's were residents of Mt. Washington.
This church was abandoned before the turn of the century. Next,
in 1892, came the Roman Catholic Church of the guardian Angels.
In 1912 the Presbyterians organized. In 1927 the Nazerene's and
in 1929 the Church of Christ organized. In 1951 to churches organized
– the Faith Evangelical and Reformed and the Zion Lutheran.
In 1953 the present Baptist Church was organized.
(8)
From its conception the village was never without schools. As early
as 1836 there was a school where the Water Tower now stands. In
1847 one was built in the settlement at the foot of Beechmont hill.
Salem had one next door to the church, it was preceded by a log
school. In the 1850’s an Academy stood where 6110 Corbly is
now.
(9)
In 1859 a part of the Odd Fellows Hall was used as a school. It
stood where an earlier school had stood --where the water tower
now stands. Mount Washington was incorporated in 1867 and two years
later the Odd Fellows gave the building to the village. The public
school we made they air until 1933 when it moved into its present
building on Mears Avenue. Sunnyside Seminary, a boarding school
for girls, was organized in 1872 and located in the building, which
still stands at the end of Wasigo Drive. In 1892 the Roman Catholic
seminary, now named St. Gregory, was established and Guardian Angels
School followed two years later. In 1914 St. Joseph Academy for
Girls was organized and in 1951 it became McNicholas High School.
(10)
On June 5th, 1911, most of Mt. Washington was annexed to Cincinnati
and almost every street name had to be changed. Some of the old
names still remain in corner sidewalks, as at Cambridge and Mears,
where the names Woodburn and Harms appear.
(11)
Transportation to and from Cincinnati was always a problem. Stephen
Sutton, who, in 1847, operated omnibus line from Amelia through
Mt. Washington to the Linwood Station of the Little Miami Railroad,
now the Pennsylvania, first solved it.
(12)
Next, in 1876, Henry Brachman, who lived on Beechmont near the street
that still bears his name, organized a steam narrow-gauge railroad
company. It became the Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth Railroad
and operated from the East End to Georgetown. In 1902 it became
an electric interurban line which was abandoned in 1935. The station,
built in 1902, is used today as the American Legion Hall on Sutton
Avenue.
(13)
In 1897, Nicholas Wolf, another wealthy Village resident, operated
an omnibus line from Cedar Point to Linwood. John Widman drove the
four horses and the coach and finally became the owner of the line.
He had to give it up when, in 1903, the Interurban Railway and Terminal
Company began operating streetcars from Cincinnati to Bethel through
Mt. Washington. Even before this interurban folded in 1918 a bus
line was being operated from Cedar Point to Cincinnati. Buses and
private cars have linked the two places ever since.
(14)
One of the earliest industries in the village was the brickyard
operated by A. A. Rebold near Corbly and Oxford. He made the bricks
that built many of the early public buildings and residences. George
Strasser made carriages, wagons, plows and other farm implements.
W. E. Dunham had a thriving print shop where the old Kroger store
stood until the present one was built on the corner of Beechmont
and Corbly in 1999.
(15)
A. A. Colter canned the thousands of bushels of tomatoes and other
farm products at his cannery on Plaza and Beechmont. Later the Frugal
Electric Range Company used the building.
(16)
The first bridge across the Miami near Beechmont was built in 1836,
a half mile below the present one, where the old road forded this
stream. It was replaced in 1875 by a beautiful suspension bridge
just above the present one. This in turn was replaced after the
1913 flood by the one abandoned in 1954.
(17)
A tollhouse and gate stood near the foot of Beechmont hill, also
another stood at the foot of Salem and Kellogg – and still
another stood at Salem and Sutton. These roads then were privately
owned.
(18)
There were no less than two town pumps before city water was supplied.
One was located at Plymouth and Oxford and the other at Beechmont
and Roxbury near LeClere's grocery store.
(19)
Bucket brigades were the first form of fire protection and the volunteer
firemen came running at the sound of a bell, that stood opposite
LeClere's grocery store. Later, horse-drawn equipment was bought.
One piece is still preserved by the Ohio Mechanics Institute.
(20)
Beautiful Stanbery Park contains over 30 acres of ground. It had
been the property of Brigadier Sanford B. Stanbery, whose widow
sold it to the city for less than it had cost to build the beautiful
residence which stands in the park. The park was dedicated in 1940.
(21)
The water tower was built soon after the public school moved away
from Campus and Beechmont in 1933. It is now a landmark that can
be seen from miles around.
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