Merion Village - Columbus, Ohio

What a delight to have Darby Creek Nursery so close to home this year.  They’ve set up shop in the parking lot next to the Columbus Maennerchor on South High Street and have a wide variety of annuals, perennials and vegetables available.

Not only is a good use for an otherwise underused parking lot, it’s also nice to be able to walk home with the goods and eliminates having to drive for the garden essentials.

Information about the German Target Club, also known as the ‘Schuetzen Platz”, arrived in my mailbox thanks to Bob Leighty, president of the Merion Village Association. In an earlier post I questioned the information I had heard surrounding the building that now houses St. Paul United Church of Christ at 225 East Gates.

According to the articles, the Target Club opened the shooting range in the latter part of 1859. The three-acre area is said to have encompassed land between what is now Hanford Street to the south and Nursery Alley to the north. For thirty-three years the area was used for shooting practice. In July of 1892 the Target Club was dissolved as the younger generation of Germans lost interest in the activity.

Between 1892 and 1908 the building was owned by local florist Earl Metzmaier whose son William was a member of an organization known as The White Owl Club, but it is not stated with what activities the White Owl Club was involved.

The building later became a church and appears to have remained in use as such since 1908.

Merion Village is hoping to be among three neighborhoods chosen to pilot a new Columbus conservation program.Late last month, Columbus City Council unanimously passed neighborhood conservation district legislation, which will allow neighborhoods to identify what qualities make the area unique, and hopefully preserve these traits.Bob Leighty, Merion Village Association president, said his association is interested in the program, but wouldn’t like to see the strict standards of a historic preservation district imposed on the area.

Read the full article at This Week News.

Likely nearing the end of it’s life, a lone apple tree struggles with its last years on the eastern edge of Moeller Park. While I’m not sure exactly where the Moeller farm house sat, I envision the Moeller children of generations past picking the very best ones for Mrs. Moeller’s pies.

Apple orchards were nearby as well, at one time, as the Hanford family’s orchard now lies within the boundaries of Merion Village. Were they acquainted? Is the apple tree in Moeller park a remnant of the families’ relationship?

Thinking of the possible scenarios, I pondered how apples might fit into the future of Merion Village’s event calendar. Apple pie? Apple cider? Apple crisp? A couple new apple trees in Moeller park? Then I thought about an apple pie competition.

Warkworth, Ontario is a small town 2.5 hours east of Toronto and I’ve been there multiple times, but one of the most memorable times was during the Perfect Pie Contest. Entering it’s 29th year in 2008, this competition brings the community together for an event that turns grandmothers and granddaughters into cut-throat competitors, all in the name of community fun. There’s also a category for the men, and even a local artist crafted a nifty little rendition of Mockingbird Pie.

I thought some more and realized that an apple pie competition would be a perfect event to host at the Crafters and Artisan Market scheduled for October 4th.

Opening the event to people outside of Merion Village would draw more folks to the Crafters and Artisan Market, offering greater exposure to the neighborhood. We could bring in local food bloggers such as Jim of CMH Gourmand, Lisa from Restaurant Widow and Heather from Sopressata. They could be the judges, or perhaps find a story about one of our neighbors for their blogs. Whatever the case, they’d bring some added media attention to our corner of Columbus.

Could it be that a lone apple tree in a small neighborhood park sparks something truly delightful for Merion Village? Might Mrs. Moeller’s apple tree be the catalyst for an annual event that draws more participants each year?

I’d like to think that it shall be.

The Merion Village blog needs help in keeping neighbors in-the-know, so consider lending a hand. There’s more going on around here than I can keep tabs on, and the eyes and ears of other residents are a good way to keep everyone up to date.

While there’s no pay involved, new writers will receive log-in access to the blog. WordPress makes publishing easy and I’d be happy to give anyone interested a quick lesson or two on how to use the on-line templates.

Drop a line to UrbanInFill < at > mac < dot > com. Tell us a little about yourself and Merion Village and we’ll get you started.

This building sits behind the current St. Paul United Church of Christ on Gates Street, between Jaeger and Bruck. I’d heard that the original structure (under the hip roof) was once home to the German Village shooting range. What would now be the rear windows (in the alley) were where rifle enthusiasts would practice shooting out into a field which is now Hanford Street.

The rumor continues that the structure became a church, and a new entry was added to the west side of the building, though I’m unaware of any associated dates.

I’d stopped into the German Village Society and asked about this, and they stated that they’d never heard of such a place. Does anyone have some documents or photos to support this theory?

There are two models of thought when it comes to shoveling sidewalks. One is that, when left un-shoveled, the snow is considered an act of nature, and that a homeowner is not responsible for acts of nature. The other is that, once shoveled, it becomes the responsibility of the homeowner to keep the walks ice free. In essence, once human intervention is taken, it should be maintained.

I’m not sure which model the City subscribes to, as it relates to homeowner liability. I am sure that treks to the grocery store or post office become far more time consuming and certainly more dangerous when sidewalks remain covered in snow and ice.

Last night, after dinner at Mohawk, I walked past home to pick up a few items at the grocer. Few sidewalks had been cleared of the previous days snow. A days worth of foot traffic over the snow had created ridges of ice, making it difficult to navigate through both German and Merion Village.

Perhaps the lack of attention to sidewalks by homeowners is symptomatic of the City’s lack of attention to our streets. A behavioral model from the top down. While business routes should always receive attention first, the City of Columbus has a poor method of clearing residential streets, and both German and Merion Village residents suffer the consequences.

In Minneapolis, for example, the city restricts parking to one side of the street following the first snow fall. When plowing is required, within 48 hours after the snow stops, one side of every street is cleared to the curb. Once completed, residents must move their parked cars to the cleared side of the street, so that the remaining half of the street can be plowed. Seventy-two hours later, residential streets are cleared, all the way to the curb. When both sides of the street have been cleared to the curb, normal parking may resume.

When I suggested this model to the city as an example of efficiency, I was told that Columbus is too dense of a city for it to work. Too dense? In other words, not enough street parking to reduce it by 50% following a snow event. While such an example may require parking in a spot NOT immediately in front of one’s home, certainly there would be parking accommodations within reasonable reach.

Could it be that Columbus’ requirement of automobile ownership due to the lack of adequate and efficient public transportation is the reason our streets are lined with automobiles? Could it be that this automobile-dependent microcosm is, in fact, creating further inefficiencies for the the City’s public-works departments?

Merion Village Association members delayed voting to support a Starbucks proposed for the southeast corner of Front Street and Greenlawn Avenue. Instead, they put the recommendation in the hands of member Ken Fultz, who will discuss the matter further with Starbucks representatives….

The article in This Week News by the Columbus Dispatch goes on to say…

Despite their concerns over traffic, an informal show of hands indicated that about half of the MVA members at the meeting would approve the plan, as long as Starbucks pays for a “Welcome to Merion Village” sign for the corner.

I would have to label this as blatant pandering. If traffic is an issue because of location, then define it as such and help solve the problem. Personally, I’d be unlikely to visit this Starbucks location because I’d play hell trying to get in and out of there.

Wouldn’t it be nicer walk to a neighborhood coffee shop, Starbucks or otherwise, somewhere in the neighborhood? There is available retail space on Thurman, High Street, Parsons as well as vacant land for sale along 4th. Starbucks, however, is attracted to the traffic counts at Greenlawn.

A sign demarcating Merion Village isn’t going to solve a traffic problem and neighborhoods are not defined by a sign in someone else’s front yard.

While checkin in on my favorite local blog sites, I was reading about the City Center redevelopment on Andrew’s site, Elephants on Bicycles. Links posted on Andrew’s site take readers to the web sites of two of the local architects who’ve created re-use concepts for City Center.

As I was browsing the sites, I noticed that, at least in the case of the two listed, local architects are creating great designs in various cities around the US. From large projects such as City Center to small projects such as individual homes and cluster housing. There’s some really neat stuff being created by local architects.

Over the course of the past few years, we’ve seen some new construction taking place in Merion Village. A new duplex was recently built on Southwood. Further south there have been a handful of single-family homes constructed on vacant lots. The good news is that these new structures fit in so well, one can hardly notice. The bad news is that these new structures fit in so well that one can hardly notice.

Perhaps its time for some innovative design, not only in Merion Village, but Columbus’ other neighborhoods. Why not hold a design competition for local architects to create unique solutions for in-fill housing? A showcase property with unique design is a great way to pull in perspective buyers and drive interest.

In Minneapolis’ Seward neighborhood, one finds a variety of home styles, many of which were built through design competitions. There’s historic, restoration, new-build, solar, earth-sheltered, underground, historic rebuilds, pedestrian only streets, row houses, all creating a unique flavor that is distinctly Seward. It too, is a not more than a mile from downtown.

Seward struggled for decades with decay and it’s commercial street, Franklin Avenue was not unlike our own Parsons Avenue. Over the course of years of planning and innovation, however, Seward and Franklin Avenue have found rebirth through innovative design.

While there is always a need for required set-backs and height restrictions, there’s also a need for innovation within those parameters to create distinction. The groups, both architectural and civic, are here and can do this in Columbus.

WOSU and COSI hosted an event this evening known as the Columbus Social Media Cafe. The goal of these two groups was to create a dialogue that addressed this question: “What can we do together that we cannot do along to change this community using social media tools?” I was delighted to be asked to attend.

Bloggers, media experts, professors, teachers, real-estate agents, shop owners and a wide variety of others were in attendance. The topic I chose to host was “Capturing the stories of our citizens. Their past and present as a celebration of a rich and dynamic population”.

I told the group, that of all the cities in which I’ve lived, I’ve met the most interesting people in Columbus. Interesting because so many of our friends and neighbors have come from other parts of the country, and from other countries, all to find something for themselves in Columbus. We’ve lived in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Florida, yet we’re all come to Columbus now.

I suggested that perhaps because of our midwestern mind-set, we shy away from talking about ourselves out of modesty. While Columbus is the social and political engine for Ohio, we’re a very modest city, and maybe to our own detriment. I feel its important to our identity, the city’s identity, that we capture the stories of the new immigrants.

Who are all these people that are arriving in Columbus? Why have they chosen Columbus? What do they bring with them that will assist in Columbus as it emerges into the world-class city it’s about to become? How do we find these people who might otherwise just blend in?

With that in mind, I’d like to bring the discussion to our neighborhood. When I moved here seven years ago, the most common question I was asked was, “Where did you move from?” It’s a question I find myself asking often to the people I’ve met over the course of seven years. Its why I love Columbus.

Tell us your story. How did you get here? Why did you choose Columbus? Why Merion Village?

It is, after all, the stories of our history, and our presence, that make a place a community.