Special places to Grandma and Grandad White in Ohio

 Here is a list of places important to Grandma Kathleen and Granddad Jerry in Ohio, in their own words:

Amelia.  Population was 550 when we were growing up.  No traffic signals, Rte 125 was a two lane road until 1951.  HS basketball games were the major social event.  Places of interest:

• Wallace Music Shop.  Grandma's home.  Where her dad sold and repaired musical instruments.  Later run by your great aunt Janet.
• Little green house next door to the West.  Owned by the Wallaces, where Janet lived, after her marriage,until she moved into the Music Shop.
• White Acres.  156 acres.  I think it is now all homes, it's called Quail Creek, except for a small commercial area on Main St.  Big house with really high ceilings, a grand staircase.  Other buildings.  Two barns, one for horses, one for cows.  Groom's House.  Combined 3 car garage, tobacco stripping shed and hired hand's two tiny rooms, and a two-hole outhouse.  Tenant house next door (It once caught on fire) and another tenant house about 3/4 of a mile back from the road.  A long walk to a highway.  The tenant house was later moved to front on 125.

White Acres House

 

• Amelia Elementary School.  This was the HS in our time, our elementary school building was torn down.  You might be interested in how small the school was.  Also the gym where Granddad was the hero in two straight basketball games where we won by three and one points to keep our home streak winning alive at 46 and 47 games.  He scored the winning points in the last 30 and 5 seconds respectively.  He was carried around on shoulders after the last game.  Ex girl friend cheer leader kissed him and professed her love while Grandma looked on.  NOTE: Both Grandma and Granddad walked to school.  See how close they lived to each other.
• Wallace Restaurant.  About a block in distance to the west of the Wallace Music shop (where the old CG&P railroad crossed 125).  Was next to a gas station, while the lumber yards were across the street.  NOTE:  CG&P stood for Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth.  But the railroad never got past Georgetown.  Ran through White Acres.  Granddad remembers seeing the cars.  Abandoned circa 1940.  When the road was abandoned the ties and rails were removed.  The railroad fill was used by White Acres to get across a small stream.  Prior to that we had to go through the stream.  There were times our truck got stuck and had to be pulled out by our horses.  NOTE: Granddad was driving the tractor across the fill when he lost his steering.  The tractor went over the side and started to tip over when the front wheel got to the bottom of the fill and the tractor righted itself.  He was really scared.
• Granddad's best friend, Jack Francis, lived on Cleveland Lane.  Granda and his brother Jock occasionally rode work horses to get there.  We took the back route through our farm.  Usually Jack picked us up on his bike.  I rode on the crossbar, Jock on the carrier on the rear.
  
• Coffey's store.  A few homes east of grandma's house.  Doug and Peg went there for candy when we stopped at Granny and Gramp's house on Main Street after they moved from White Acres.
• New Richmond, Ohio.  Granny and Gramp lived on Front St. before moving to White Acres.  The last we knew the big homes were still there.  It was a great view of the Ohio River.  Granddad had relatives there when he was growing up.  Great view of the river and towboats moving along.  There was a ferry that White Acres horse truck used to get across to fairs at Germantown and Alexandria.  Later the ferry closed at 6PM.  Once our family was going to Clermont County from Frankfort and we tore along the roads to get there in time.  However we were just a little late getting there.  We raced down the drive blowing our horn.  Thankfully the pilot was a nice guy and came back and picked us up.  Otherwise we would have had an extra two hours drive.  NOTE:  The Ohio used to flood enough every few years that the homes on Front St were flooded.  Granny said the secret to the clean up was to sweep out the water and mud as the water level dropped below the level of the floor.
• Ohio River.  That was our primary place to water ski.  Initially we were at Varnholdt's marina on Front St.  There was about twice the difference in elevation compared to our Lake Anna home.  It was all steps.  Granny Jo and her boys used to camp in pup tents on a deserted beach at Point Pleasant.  We tubed, especially when a big stern wheeler went by.  There used to be a Dam just below New Richmond.  However it was eliminated and the water level is now higher eliminating almost all the beaches we used to visit.
• Coney Island.  Entrance at Kellogg Ave and Three Mile Road.  Really clean.  It was the big amusement park in southwestern Ohio.  Where your Great Uncle Cecil played in Clyde Trask's band at Moonlight Gardens.  He made a lot of money as a teenager.  Coney had at the time the largest swimming pool in the world with circulating water.  There were three coasters plus a very steep descent in a boat on Lost River.  There were a lot of other rides.  Than Coney developed King's Island and closed just about everything but the pool.  Since then they reopened some rides; how many we do not know.
• FYI.  The Island Queen used to transport passengers from the foot of Broadway to Coney.  It also made trips to places like New Orleans and Pittsburg.  There was a huge dance floor and Trask's band played on the Queen.  While tied up in Pittsburg, Cecil was watching a welder when he decide to go uptown.  The Queen blew up just a little after he left the boat.  Probably caused by the welder .  Coney opened up for orphans once a year before opening to the public.  They would board at Broadway and ride the Queen both ways.  Rides were free.  Granddad's Aunt Marie worked with the orphans.  So Jerry joined in with the orphans for their ride on the Queen and Coney's rides.  Granddad and his friends spent a fair amount of time at Sunlight Pool.  Coney is on US 52, just up from the Circle Freeway.
• TP White Funeral home.  TP White originally had funeral homes in New Richmond and Mt. Washington.  AS TP passed the homes on to his sons, the ultimate result is the MT. Washington home was owned and operated by the Croxtons and the New Richmond one by Sumner Powers.  He later opened a 2nd funeral home in Amelia.
• Clermont County Fairgrounds in Owensville.  The County Fair ran almost a whole week.  Granddad Cliff was on the Fair Board until he moved away and he was replaced by Granny Jo.  Granny Jo was always the Secretary of the Horse Show.  Granddad used to be at the fair every day it was open.  He got to sit in the Judges stand by the announcer.  While White Acres showed Registered Saddle Horses, he always liked the Hunter and Jumper classes best.
• We have no knowledge of the house Frank Gruppenhoff built, nor where Granddad Cecil studied music.