Moment in Time (October 13, 2021)
The rails played an important role as the area that is now Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff was opened to settlement. Several different types of “trains” carried passengers and freight that influenced how both the population and the economy of the region grew.
These photos represent the different kinds of railway technology that played a role in the early development of the Grandview and Marble Cliff communities. They include the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Hocking Valley Railway, the Marble Cliff Quarry locomotives, interurban cars, and local trollies, or electric streetcars.
In this photograph, a locomotive of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) travels north at the western edge of Marble Cliff. The PRR (built in this area in 1868 as the Columbus, Chicago, Indianapolis Central Railroad) had several lines in and out of Columbus. This portion of the PRR was known as "The Pan Handle” and connected Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis.
The line referenced here was known as the “Piqua Line” of the Panhandle. It ran west from Pittsburgh to Bradford, Ohio, where it split, with one line to Chicago and the other to East St. Louis, Illinois, via Indianapolis. According to the historical website columbusrailroads.com the Piqua Line entered Columbus from the west going through Marble Cliff, the southern edge of Grandview Heights, crossed the Olentangy River, went south of Goodale Street, crossed Dennison Avenue, it went north of the Ohio Penitentiary and finally entered Columbus Union Station. Along this route were Grandview Yard and the Spruce Street roundhouse, which was used for passenger locomotives. Spruce Street also included a coach and Pullman car yard as well as the dining car commissary. The Panhandle also included a line south of Grandview known as the Little Miami line of the PRR that connected Columbus with St Louis and points west along the way, including Dayton, Richmond, and Indianapolis. Between the two lines was the West Yard, which was located at Grandview Avenue and McKinley.
The Piqua line had a "flag stop" depot on Grandview Avenue, near where the NAPA store is currently located, and later the busy Marble Cliff station, originally called the Scioto Depot, at Fifth Avenue and Dublin Pike (later the site of the NiSource office complex.) In the 1930s, the depot building was moved about 3/4 mile across the Scioto River to 2057 Old Dublin Road, just north of Trabue Road, to become the office of the Marble Cliff Oil Company. The building still stands. A post office and general store were co-located with the depot building.
The east end of the region was served by the Hocking Valley Railway (HV). It was created in 1867 as the Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad, became the Columbus, Hocking Valley and Toledo Railway as a result of a merger in 1881, and was organized as the Hocking Valley Railway in 1899. HV had a main line from Toledo to Athens and Pomeroy, and also had several branches to the coal mines of the Hocking Valley near Athens. The company became part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway system in 1910, adding access to other coal producing states (this line now runs as CSX.) A Hocking Valley locomotive is at the upper left in the inset. It had a spur at Sellsville and played a large role in transporting the elephants of the Sells Circus. Stone from the quarries was shipped both north and south on HV and east and west on PRR.
The second inset photo is the #23 (renamed the #12) engine of the Marble Cliff Quarries. As was explained in a previous Moment In Time, the quarry company had its own tracks and a fleet of locomotives that were used to move cars within the quarry as well as loads of stone to connect with the trains in the GrandviewYard.
The third photo is the #103 interurban train, which ran from downtown past Marble Cliff to Fishinger Road (the interurban line was built in 1903 and was originally planned to go to Urbana). Interurbans, as their name suggests, were small trains that utilized electrified lines to connect cities with small towns, and they were a popular method of transportation throughout the country in the late 19th and early 20th century. This car was called the “Dam Car”, as people often rode on it from downtown to the newly built Griggs Dam. This line had three passenger cars, #101-#103, one work car and 15 trailer service cars. The trailer service cars were probably used to haul rock from the Marble Cliff Quarry. Power for the railroad was purchased from the Columbus Railway Power & Light Co. Although Ohio had a significant share of the nation’s interurban lines, the line referenced here, the Columbus Urbana & Western Electric Railway, was only nine miles long, falling victim to limited usage (even though the fare was less than 2 cents per mile) and the rise of of automobiles and improved roads.
The last photo at the upper right is the Arlington car of the Columbus trolley system. The trolley line from downtown to the Tri-Village area travelled from the center of Columbus, up what is now Goodale Blvd, up the Broadview Hill, west on First Avenue, and north on Arlington to Fifth Avenue on rails installed in the center of the streets. From a 1908 publication, The Homebuilder, the following excerpt appeared: "...the run from Grandview Heights to the center of the city [Columbus] takes less than twenty minutes. The cars on the line are among the best in the service of the Columbus Railway and Light Company. The fare is five cents, with transfers to any part of the city, on any of the other lines operated by the Company." The Arlington- Grandview line was popular with Tri-Village residents because of access to downtown businesses and shopping, and provided easy access for workers in downtown to the residential community. It changed from streetcar to bus operation in 1935.