Seduction in Clintonville or a bit of Graceland history - In my weekly installment about how Graceland Shopping Center got it's name... actually it has been weeks. I drove by the NEW business on High Street in the south end of Clintonville and it made me think about Graceland and how The Other Paper tells the story. Seduction....
Here is how The Other Paper tells the story of Graceland on Columbus northside, below.... The seduction today is at Target, health club, shops and restaurants in Graceland Shopping Center in north Columbus. Clintonville? Clintonville or perhaps the neighborhood is Sharon Heights, part of the Clintonville area! Clintonville does not have fixed borders, where Clintonville starts and ends is subjective.
Where Graceland is today was farmland in Sharon Township in the 30s, 40s and 1950s.....
The land was developed into a shopping center in the 1950s.
Without further ado.... The Other Paper says:
"In the 1930s, the Graceland Shopping Center-where Clintonville-ites now work out, bank and are seduced by the latest Target fashions-once was a horse farm belonging to Patrick Murnam, a gambling man whose mistress, Grace Backenstoe, operated a famous brothel Downtown, according to local historians. Police shut down the operation and the building eventually was sold to the Lazarus family, but that didn't stop ol' Grace from working at home, according to lore.
"In 1952, investors purchased (the farm) and Graceland Shoppers' Mart was developed by Don Casto, who had played there as a youth," said Shirley Hyatt, author of the book Clintonville and Beechwold (Images of America).
The May 2011 article by Lyndsey Teter of The Other Paper was about a new business moving to Clintonville. A business owned by Larry Flynt. Did you know the infamous Cincinnatian owned a business on Gay Street in downtown Columbus? That was long, long ago. I heard that story at City Hop this fall....
The story of Graceland
Graceland's name... would you buy this story?
Graceland a colorful story in black and white
Graceland Shopping Center - 2010
The photo of the sign on the land that was a horse farm but would soon be a place for people in Clintonville and Worthington to shop is Don O'Brien's taken for the Worthington News, a newspaper in 1953. O'Brien shared the photo with a Creative Commons license.
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