ALTA—
A Richland County town that wasn’t...and still isn’t
There is a crossroads down there; the intersection of Marion and Home Roads and a bicycle trail now exists where once a segment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad moved people and commerce through the area.
Today, there is a sprinkling of homes around but none at or very near the intersection. The only business with Alta in its name is the well known and long established Alta Florist Greenhouse...just a chip shot north of the crossroads.
Regardless, the little circular symbol for a town persists on today’s maps of the county, proudly proclaiming the non-existent town’s location down there in the hollow about 4 miles southwest of Mansfield.
The origin of the town’s name appears in Baughman’s History of Richland County where it says
that area is “...a stretch of Altanian country extending to the southwest....” The history goes on to say, “...this Altic country has a rolling surface of pleasant aspect and the sky seems to reach down...and kiss the rim of ridges that nearly encircle the plateau-like valley.”
Well, poetic jargon aside, bicyclists will readily admit Marion Ave., takes a huge bow as it passes by. Interestingly, what appears to be a level bike trail perpendicular to Marion Ave. actually peaks near that intersection with a geologic bench mark that advertises an elevation of 1,286 feet.
Elevations slide gently downhill from there to North Lake Park as well as in the opposite direction toward Lexington.
The land currently occupied by the greenhouse was part of the Northwest Territories under the land ordinance of 1785 enacted by the Continental Congress. It is painful to admit the politicians of the time didn’t get around to buying the land from the Indians until 1805.
The original tract for the greenhouse was a fuzz over 162 acres and was bought for $323.65 in 1814—the year the county was established.
By 1860 the railroad was making improvements with a 400 foot siding in that area. Since it was the highest point on the line between Sandusky and Newark it was named Summit Station and appears as such in the 1873 Atlas of Richland County.
The greenhouse, as we know it today, was started in 1923 by Sam Clever on 58 acres of his land there. Home Road was just rutted dirt then and Marion Ave, was surfaced with brick because it was the main road from Mansfield to Marion—hence the name.
Over the years there have been a lumber yard, a coal company and a roof truss plant nearby. In 1947 a company built pre-fabricated homes there. They were about 800 square feet in size and popular with servicemen returning from World War II. The president of that company was John Morley—well known in the memory of folks living in Lexington to this day.
____________
Editor’s Note: My curiosity about Alta took me to the Sherman Room of the Mansfield library where I found a marvelous series of articles centered on the greenhouse and published in the Black Swamp/Firelands Trader & Gazette, Port Clinton, OH beginning in March 2006.
The author of those articles was local historian Eric I. Sayers who, by pleasant irony, was a neighborhood friend of mine in the 1950s. An enthusiastic discussion with Eric, for which I am very grateful, also provided material for this blog story.
A Richland County town that wasn’t...and still isn’t
There is a crossroads down there; the intersection of Marion and Home Roads and a bicycle trail now exists where once a segment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad moved people and commerce through the area.
Today, there is a sprinkling of homes around but none at or very near the intersection. The only business with Alta in its name is the well known and long established Alta Florist Greenhouse...just a chip shot north of the crossroads.
Regardless, the little circular symbol for a town persists on today’s maps of the county, proudly proclaiming the non-existent town’s location down there in the hollow about 4 miles southwest of Mansfield.
The origin of the town’s name appears in Baughman’s History of Richland County where it says
that area is “...a stretch of Altanian country extending to the southwest....” The history goes on to say, “...this Altic country has a rolling surface of pleasant aspect and the sky seems to reach down...and kiss the rim of ridges that nearly encircle the plateau-like valley.”Well, poetic jargon aside, bicyclists will readily admit Marion Ave., takes a huge bow as it passes by. Interestingly, what appears to be a level bike trail perpendicular to Marion Ave. actually peaks near that intersection with a geologic bench mark that advertises an elevation of 1,286 feet.
Elevations slide gently downhill from there to North Lake Park as well as in the opposite direction toward Lexington.
The land currently occupied by the greenhouse was part of the Northwest Territories under the land ordinance of 1785 enacted by the Continental Congress. It is painful to admit the politicians of the time didn’t get around to buying the land from the Indians until 1805.
The original tract for the greenhouse was a fuzz over 162 acres and was bought for $323.65 in 1814—the year the county was established.
By 1860 the railroad was making improvements with a 400 foot siding in that area. Since it was the highest point on the line between Sandusky and Newark it was named Summit Station and appears as such in the 1873 Atlas of Richland County.
The greenhouse, as we know it today, was started in 1923 by Sam Clever on 58 acres of his land there. Home Road was just rutted dirt then and Marion Ave, was surfaced with brick because it was the main road from Mansfield to Marion—hence the name.
Over the years there have been a lumber yard, a coal company and a roof truss plant nearby. In 1947 a company built pre-fabricated homes there. They were about 800 square feet in size and popular with servicemen returning from World War II. The president of that company was John Morley—well known in the memory of folks living in Lexington to this day.
____________
Editor’s Note: My curiosity about Alta took me to the Sherman Room of the Mansfield library where I found a marvelous series of articles centered on the greenhouse and published in the Black Swamp/Firelands Trader & Gazette, Port Clinton, OH beginning in March 2006.
The author of those articles was local historian Eric I. Sayers who, by pleasant irony, was a neighborhood friend of mine in the 1950s. An enthusiastic discussion with Eric, for which I am very grateful, also provided material for this blog story.
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