- 5 years ago, this year (2003)
- Norwood "celebrated" its 100th anniversary of incorporation as a city.
- Excavation began on the Cornerstone Project at the southeast corner of Smith Road and Williams Avenue.
- 10 years ago (1998)
- Former Norwood Mayor Joseph W. Shea, Jr. died.
- 20 years ago (1988)
- The Palm Brothers Decalcomania Company closed in Norwood.
- Norwood celebrated its 100th anniversary of incorporation as a village.
- Former Norwood Mayor Donald E. Prues died.
- A $200,000 grant established an Edison Business Incubator in Norwood at the old Foy-Johnson Paint Company Building (previously the home of the Pfau Plumbing Supply Manufacturing Company).
- 30 years ago (1978)
- 35 years ago (1973)
- Construction on Surrey Square Mall was begun late in the year on the site of The Strobridge Lithography Company on Montgomery Road.
- 40 years ago (1968)
- In a spectacular fire, the Norwood Albers Supermarket was destroyed on a Sunday afternoon. The blaze was blamed on electrical problems with compressors. Thousand of spectators watched as Norwood firemen fought to save Ohio's "first supermarket." The company indicated the store would be rebuilt, but it never was. The location is now the southwestern part of the Surrey Square parking lot.
- 50 years ago (1958)
- Former Norwood Mayor Frank J. Ward died.
- A memorial – a marble shaft with a bronze winged victory and bronze plaques with the names of veterans who died in the World War I, World War II and the Korean conflict – was dedicated at Victory Park.
- 55 years ago (1953)
- Norwood celebrated its 50th anniversary as a city. An estimated 100,000 spectators viewed the two-hour parade.
- The heavily traveled streets in North, South and East Norwood, east of Montgomery Road were seal coated. The coating consisted of asphalt and crushed rock. It was expected that the operation would take 3-4 weeks. The streets west of Montgomery Road were coated the previous year.
- Edmondson Road was excavated and water lines installed to connect the southeast section of South Norwood with the Norwood water lines. Cincinnati had supplied the water at a cost to the Norwood residents of 25 cents per cubic foot of water. With the Norwood connection, the 300 residents on Edmondson Road, Arbor Place, Atlantic Avenue, and Garland Avenue as well as some on Edwards Road, Williams Avenue and Smith Road now had water from Norwood's 10" mains for a cost of 16 cents per cubic foot. The work took around two months to complete.
- Police call boxes were installed at locations thoroughout the city. The phones were for use by city residents in cases of emergency or trouble. The first box was put into operation on August 18, at the B. & O. bridge. Soon after it was install, a motorist used it to report being in an accident.
- 60 years ago (1948)
- The Norwood Junior Chamber of Commerce (a.k.a. Norwood "Jaycees") held its preliminary organizational meeting.
- Norwood created a municipal parking lot on Washington Avenue near Montgomery Road. (This location is now at the Surrey Square lot.) With space for 337 automobiles, it was hoped that it would improve traffic flow and help the downtown businesses. Initially there was a small parking fee, but early the next year, the costs were absorbed by the city and the Norwood Businessmen's Association.
- 70 years ago (1938)
- Seventy-three year old Norwood Mayor Amos L. Eyler suffered a stroke at the conclusion of a city council meeting. After being worked on by Dr. W. B. Carmon and the fire department life squad, he regained consciouness over an hour later. He was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital.
- Norwood celebrated the semi-centennial of the village's founding.
- Just six years after selling his interest in the Norwood Frisch's Stag Lunch restaurant to his brothers, David Frisch opened a new restaurant in Norwood called Frisch's Caf�. Unfortunately, soon afterwards, he had to close it and his Oakley restaurant because of the Depression.
- 75 years ago (1933)
- Pennsylvania Railroad opened a new passenger depot on Harris Avenue. It was built to complement the new Union Terminal building in Cincinnati. This is of special interest since it was probably the last passenger depot built in Norwood, and The Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern Railroad may have stopped their passenger service this same year.
- The third mayor of Norwood (1895), David Davis, died. He was also the first Solicitor of the village, and a former Judge of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas.
- William H. Albers opened Ohio's first supermarket, the Albers Super Market, in Norwood at Mongomery Road and Madison Avenue. This may be the first grocery store anywhere to use the name "supermarket." Previously, Mr. Albers had been president of the Kroger Grocery & Baking Company.
- 80 years ago (1928)
- Norwood City Council authorized the Norwood City Planning Commission.
- Werter G. Betty, co-editor of the book Norwood, Her Homes and Her People, and one of Norwood's first official historians, died at his home on Madison Avenue, Norwood.
- Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company canceled the charter of The Bullock Electric Manufacturing Company of Ohio. However, it retained the name "Bullock Works" until 1930.
- Norwood youngster Lawrence Luebbers (who passed away in Norwood in 2004), pitched a no-hit game for the Norwood Wildcats against the Nixon Cubs in the Boys' Baseball Tournament at Deer Creek Commons. The tournament was sponsored by Cincinnati Community Services. Larry Luebbers, Lawrence's grand-nephew, pitched for the Cincinnati Reds in a few games of the 2002 season.
- WSAI was sold by the United States Playing Card Company of Norwood to the Crosley Radio Corporation.
- 85 years ago (1923)
- The Norwood General Motor's plants started operations. The Chevrolet Division of General Motors Corporation built an assembly plant on Smith Road, near the intersection with Montgomery road. Another G.M.C. unit, The Fisher Body Corporation, opened a body factory next to the Chevrolet plant.
- Norwood began work on its end of the joint Cincinnati-Norwood Duck Creek sewer project. Cincinnati started excavations on its part on March 8, 1924. The plan was to encase all of Duck Creek in a 4224 feet long concrete aqueduct. At Smith Road, where the Norwood connection was made, the interior dimensions of the sewer were eight by ten feet. Former creeks that drained into Duck Creek were also converted to lateral sewers. As a part of the project, the bridges over Duck Creek were to be removed and the creek bed filled in, thereby improving Duck Creek Road.
- WSAI radio was established by the United States Playing Card Company in Norwood. The broadcasts were transmitted from their facilities on Beech Avenue and were used to promote the companies cards.
- David Frisch graduated from Norwood High School and took over operation of the family's business, Frisch's Stag Lunch restaurant, after the death of his father. Nine years later, he sold his interest to his brothers.
- 90 years ago (1918)
- Norwood's first mayor and a widely respected pharmacist, John C. Weyer, died at his home on Harris Avenue.
- Norwood received the potential threat of annexation when Henry Guentert of Burwood Avenue had the Norwood Service Department's books examined by independent accountants. He apparently was trying to show that Norwood's water and light rates were no lower than Cincinnati's.
- 95 years ago (1913)
- An interurban train car split a switch at Cleneay and Main avenues shortly after 5 o'clock. Hundreds of Norwood factory workers waited in the cold for the cars.
- At a special meeting of Council, Mrs. Frank McGuire of the Norwood Federation of Women's Clubs stated that the organization withdrew its selection of the Central School as the location for the proposed City Hall. Now, they decided that the structure should be at the corner of Main and Mills avenues (Victory Park). This decision was denounced by West Norwood residents, who wanted to maintain the park. A determination that Norwood could lose the land upon which the current Town Hall sat, forced council to have the city hall built there. The land was given to the town, years before the Village was even incorporated, with the stipulation that it must be used for town hall. Therefore, it was decided that the old frame building would be demolished and a new municipal building would take its place.
- The Cincinnati Commercial-Times printed an article stating that an emergency hospital and auditorium were to be built in the future Norwood City Hall.
- Sandy Klein, who had been in the newspaper business in Norwood for the past 15 years, sold his interest in The Norwood News to the Hamilton County Publishing Company.
- Two-thousand marchers from the highest Masonic bodies of the country paraded through Norwood in a ceremony laying the corner-stone in the new temple of Norwood Lodge, F. and A. M., No. 576. Placed in a hermetically sealed copper box in the corner-stone were a Holy Bible, history of the Norwood Lodge, history of the present building, photos of the present lodgeroom and grounds on which the new temple was being erected, program of the corner-stone laying of Grace M. E. Church, Sharpsburg School and High School, copies of The Commercial Tribune, Enquirer, Times-Star, Post and the three Norwood papers, and a program of the services that day. This first Masonic Temple in Norwood was dedicated on Weyer Avenue. A later temple was built on Hopkins Avenue in 1927.
- Heekin Can Company moved to Norwood.
- The Norwood voters decided in favor of building a new City Hall. Two years later it was built and dedicated.
- 100 years ago (1908)
- Norwood-born Arthur Pickens won the Kentucky Derby while riding Stone Street. At 19, he was the youngest jockey to win the Derby in the 20th Century, until Steve Cauthen won at the age of 18. Pickens was born in Norwood in 1888.
- The Metropolitan, the first ice cream parlor of brothers Thomas and Nicholas Aglamesis, opened in Norwood. They churned the ice cream by hand, which was delivered by a horse-drawn wagon to Norwood homes. Soon they made their own candy for sale. Five years later, they added a second store in the adjacent neighborhood of Oakley. During the Depression, they sold The Metropolitan, and renamed the Oakley store, Aglamesis Brothers, the name it still has today.
- 105 years ago (1903)
- Norwood officials are elected as the City of Norwood's first officials. The newly elected Norwood officials were installed at city hall. This was the same frame building used as the village hall—not the brick and stone City Hall of today. This date was the last day the village officials met, and the first day the city officials took over.
- The new St. Elizabeth Roman Catholic Church building was dedicated. The start of the celebration was a parade beginning from Hopkins and Main, and traveling over the principal streets of Norwood.
- 110 years ago (1898)
- The Bullock Electric Manufacturing Company moved into a new plant on Forest Avenue in "East Norwood" as Norwood's first (modern) industry (excluding the McFarlan Lumber Company on Montgomery Pike and the Cincinnati Brick Company on Duck Creek). The officers were George Bullock, President and Treasurer; J. S. Neave, Vice-president; J. W. Bullock, Secretary, and William Cooper. By the early 1900s, this company would become part of Allis-Chalmers, and in 1985, the German company, Siemens.
- The fifth annexation was accepted by Norwood. This land was basically west of Montgomery Road and Ivanhoe Avenue, south of Wayland Avenue, north of the C., P. & V. R. R tracks, and at the current corporation line on the west.
- The road surface of Montgomery Road was leveled and macadamized. The largest cut was at Williams Avenue. Before that, traveling on the road was said to have been like a toboggan slide, up one hill and down another. The decline was greatest coming into Norwood from Evanston.
- The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the method that Norwood used to increase the tax on Ellen R. Baker's property, adjacent to a newly constructed street (Hopkins Avenue extension) was unconstitutional. The village had used imminent domain to acquire part of the Baker land for the street. There was no question of the use of imminent domain, but it appeared to the court that the village was trying to recoup the price it paid Mrs. Baker for her land by increasing her taxes. The Village had argued that the taxes were now higher because they were based upon the increased value of the Baker property, which was now on both sides of the new street.
- 115 years ago (1893)
- Two ordinances concerning streets were passed by Norwood Council. The first was Ordinance No. 483. Its purpose was to widen and straighten Smith Road between Montgomery Road and Duck Creek Road. The improvement required the taking of strips of land, varying from 5 to 15 feet wide, from the properties along the street. The second, Ordinance No. 487, appropriated property in the "triangle area" between Carthage Avenue and Montgomery Road, so that Highland Avenue could be extended from Montgomery Road to Carthage Avenue.
- At the sixth municipal election, Mayor McNeill was re-elected.
- 120 years ago (1888)
- The South Norwood Fire Brigade was organized at a meeting of citizens. This is the first record of a fire brigade in the Norwoods. The elected officers were F. A. Zimmerman, Captain, Dr. H. P. Hopkins, First Lieutenant, and J. H. Bosse, Second Lieutenant.
- Only six days after its creation, the South Norwood Fire Brigade was called to action by a gasoline fire in the basement of Robert Leslie's Floral Avenue home. The members were alerted by Charles E. Slane firing his revolver four times as an alarm call. Using buckets of water, the brigade extinguished the fire, saving Mr. Leslie's residence, which survives today.
- Twenty-five citizens of Norwood and property-holders in the vicinity and abutting on Montgomery Pike met in Cincinnati, to discuss the building of an electric road through Norwood. The plan was to connect to Kerper's road and run up the (Montgomery) pike, for which exclusive right for railroad purposes had been acquired, then onto Ashland avenue to the C. W. and B. R. R.
- A resolution was adopted by the Hamilton County Commissioners requesting sealed proposals for the construction and operation of a street railroad beginning at the north corporation line of the city of Cincinnati, on the Montgomery Pike, to a point in Norwood where the pike intersects the Cincinnati, Washington and Baltimore Railroad.
- A petition, signed by Casper H. Rowe and 116 others, requesting the incorporation of the Village of Norwood, was presented to the County Commissioners. A Hamilton County Plat Book contains the signed petition with a map of the area of incorporation.
- With the approval of the County Commissioners, , with V. C. Tidball and Casper H. Rowe named as agents. The village initially encompassed only Section 34 of Columbia Township. The election for village officials had to wait at least two months, as required by state law. The incorporation was probably overshadowed by Cincinnati's centennial celebrations, which included the biggest exposition in that city's history — the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition of 1888.
- The first municipal election was held in Norwood with 199 votes cast. Dr. John C. Weyer was elected the village's first mayor.
- 125 years ago (1883)
- The McFarlan Lumber Company opened a lumber outlet in Norwood. At the turn of the century the name was changed to The Dexter Lumber Company. Its location was at today's Frisch's.
- The first phone in Norwood was installed at The McFarlan Lumber Company by The City & Suburban Telephone Association.
- 130 years ago (1878)
- At a stockholders meeting, L. C. Hopkins was elected president of the newly formed Norwood Town Hall Association. Also elected to office were Edwards Mills, treasurer, and Joseph B. Foraker, secretary. The elected board consisted of L. C. Hopkins, P. P. Lane, J. B. Foraker, Edward Mills and Frank Wiehe. The organization was created to follow up on the demand of local women to build a village center. However, because of lack of funds, it was four years later before they build the center.
- 135 years ago (1873)
- The 1st auction sales of lots at Franklin and Allison Streets was held. These streets were platted earlier in the year. Three other subdivisions were created by Wood & Reilly and L. C. Hopkins this year.
- A 50-acre farm, south of the properties of T. T. Drake, an early settler, and Charles F. Low, Secretary of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, was purchased by Robert Hedger, James Bradford, George H. Hafer, and Maddox & Hobart. They platted the land into fifty-feet front lots on Montgomery Road, and Maple and Elm Avenues. It was known as "Hedger's Subdivision," "The Heart of Norwood" or simply "Norwood."
- 140 years ago (1868)
- L. C. Hopkins sold his downtown Cincinnati dry goods store to partner B. F. Turner and George R. Littster, giving them permission to continue business with the name L. C. Hopkins & Company. Then, Hopkins directed his efforts to land development, some of which was in what would become Norwood.
- L. C. Hopkins placed his land holdings in Norwood, Cincinnati, Covington and other places under the control of George Maxwell and Isaac Jordan, "Trustees of the Estate & Effects of Lewis C. Hopkins a Bankrupt & their Successors." (Some sources have placed the year he lost his Norwood lands as 1872! But, that was probably the year he re-acquired them.)
- On February 18th, a call for a vote on the establishment of a separate Sharpsburg school district was issued and signed by Sharpsburg pioneers. Ten days later, in a special election, Jackson Slane, Columbus Williams, and John N. Siebern were chosen members of the first independent board of education of the new district. There were only 61 families in the district, with a population of 318.
- Although the area was known as Sharpsburg since the early 1800s, a development with that name wasn't laid out until 1868, just north of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, on land previously owned by a Mr. Holt. The full name of the development was "Joseph G. Langdon Subdivision at Sharpsburg." Across Montgomery Pike, the "Baker Addition to Sharpsburg" was platted at about the same time.
- 180 years ago (1828)
- David Mills (Abner's son) and his wife, Elizabeth, leased land between what is now called Smith and Montgomery Roads to the Sharpsburg School District for the Central School. At this time it was a sub-district under control of the Columbia Township trustees.
- 200 years ago (1808)
- The Columbia Baptist Church at Duck Creek was permanently occupied after being built five years earlier. It was renamed the Duck Creek Baptist Church. Eventually, it moved to its current location in Hyde Park and was renamed the Hyde Park Baptist Church. So many members left the original Columbia Church (near what is now Lunken Airport) that it was abandoned and finally demolished in 1837. The current Columbia Baptist Church was built later on Eastern Avenue.
- 205 years ago (1803)
- The Columbia Baptist Church completed the new log cabin meeting-house on the lot of Mrs. Ginnings, overlooking the Duck Creek, in what was later to become Norwood.
- 215 years ago (1793)
- Possibly the first constructed road through (or near) what was to become Norwood was ordered to be built in 1793. The road would connect the settlements of Columbia with Carthage, only five years after Columbia was first settled. The road (which was likely called "Columbia Road" or "Columbia-Carthage Road") was ordered to be built from Kibby's draw-well, in Columbia, to Crawfish creek, thence to Duck creek, thence to a run in Samuel Bonnell's section, thence to the "great road" (now Lockland avenue, Carthage) thence northeast to White's Station, a distance of six miles from Columbia to White's Station. John Reily was in charge of the construction with William Brown and Aaron Mercer as assistants. Sharpsburg would have been approximately half-way between Columbia and White's Station. It was probably the first path the settlers would take to get to their properties in the future Sharpsburg/Norwood area. This path would follow Cincinnati-Columbia Road (Kellogg Avenue) to Crawfish Road (Delta Avenue) to Plank Road (Linwood Road) to Sharpsburg Road (Smith Road) to Carthage Road to "the great road" (Lockland Avenue). The northern part of the Plank Road path is now replaced by Erie Avenue, Edwards Road, Edmundson Road and Smith Road in a slightly different position.
- 220 years ago (1788)
- The first permanent settlement on the northern side of the Ohio River, was named Columbia. It was located near the mouth of the Little Miami River at Turkey Bottoms (Lunken Airport). Later, some of these pioneer families would move north to Norwood.
- The second permanent settlement on the northern side of the Ohio River was started. This settlement was located across from Kentucky's Licking River and was named Losantiville, which was a made-up name meaning "town opposite the Licking." In 1790, Governor St. Clair renamed it "Cincinnati," in honor of the Society of Cincinnatus, a post-revolutionary war soldiers' organization. Eventually, this small settlement would grow into the City of Cincinnati and completely surround the City of Norwood.
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