The Act of February 18, 1801, established the boundaries of the Refugee Tract and named the claimants and the quantity of land which they were entitled. Additional claimants were named in the acts of April 23, 1812.
Land at the western edge of Truro Township (section 7) was granted to John Taylor, as part of The Refugee Tract. Truro was a city in Nova Scotia where some of the Refugees came from. Originally, the name was borrowed from a port city in Cornwall (The east coast of Britain)
1833 The Columbus portion of The National Road is completed. This would become the present day
Main Street.
1850 Henry Stanberry purchased the a portion of the land with Calvin T. Solis (roughly: south of Elbern to Fair, James to Chesterfield, plus Eastmoor Blvd south of Fair) see notes.
By 1900, the land that was still in the family was bordered for the most part by Broad, Cawldwell
(James Rd), Fair, and present day Broadleigh. George Kellner owned a section of the original property at the northeast corner. The land on the west side of present day Broadleigh was owned by several other families.
Prior to 1923
In 1923, The Eastmoor Hunt Club’s buildings burnt down. They housed the dogs used for the hunts. You can imagine that Eastmoor was a swamp and the dogs could be used for both pheasants and ducks. Also, the land, prior to 1923 was owned by the Stanberry family, which were purchased by Henry
Stanberry in 1850. He was a lawyer and land speculator who was elected as a state rep. from Lancaster. He later served as President Andrew Johnson’s AG and defended him during the impeachment. He died in Ft. Thomas, Ky (where there is museum honoring him), in 1881. The Eastrmoor land, plus the Bexley land north of Broad, passed on to his decendents.
The Rocky Fork Hunt Club was established for the “exclusive use of the Eastmoor Polo Club”, by the Jeffrey family. Given that the Stanberry’s property in Bexley is adjacent to the Jeffrey properties, it is
reasonable to assume they had a relationship.
1920’s Columbus Lawyer, Charles Johnson, purchases the Stanberry land and plots out a development with a Polo field in the middle. The plot includes an extension from Fair to Main St., which then becomes Eastmoor Blvd. The field is encircled by homes with horse barns. The location of these
homes would be on Eastmoor and Harding, which would connect at present day Dale and Elbern.
Virginialee was named for Virginia Smith and Lee Huntington as a
wedding present from the developer in 1924
1930’s
St. Catharine Parish was established by Bishop James Hartley at Fair and Gould. Dedicated Sept. 13th, 1931, the first church was built from wood with four classrooms to serve the growing Catholic population on the east side of Columbus, with plans to expand at the end of the Great Depression.
More homes are built, as Columbus continues to expand eastward.
1940’s The Far East Restaurant moves from Bexley to Kenwick and Main.
The war stopped all building. After the war, the area bordered by Main, Gould, Broad, and James was further subdivided and the lots sold.
In 1949, St. Catharine School began construction on the brick building that stands today.
1950’s Home construction in the area explodes. More ranch and cape cods mix in with the old horse farms. Virginia Lee Circle is added and partitioned.
In the late fifties, the residents north of Fair form an association and build a private pool on Eastmoor Blvd. just south of Main St.
Maury Portman purchases a home on Chesterfield. He served on Columbus City Council for 3 decades and later became president. He also was very active in many Jewish organizations on the east side of Columbus.
His position on Council began a history of Eastmoor residents serving on Council including Cynthia Lazarus and Priscilla Tyson.
The Germain family opens a Mercury/Edsel dealership in the present location of the 43209 Post
Office.
Construction of the present day St. Catharine Church begins.
1960’s
In 1961, Huntington Bank’s first de novo branch, The Eastmoor Office, opened
A Burger Boy fast food restaurant operates at Kellner and Main. The residents on Kellner opt to make their street one way to deal with the traffic. The restaurant chains owners later combined with Dave Thomas and create Wendy’s.
The Far East Restaurant closes. A few other ventures failed at the location. Wing Yee, a former waiter at the Far East purchased the building and opened the restaurant he and his family still operate today, Wing’s.
1970’s
1980’s
1990’s An incarnation of the Civic Association forms a blockwatch to serve the area north of Fair.
2000’s A blockwatch on Kellner south of Fair is formed to deal with flooding issues and crime on Main
St. The Kel-Brook Blockwatch is still active today.
The Eastmoor Civic Association has a community meeting to lay out the plans for the Bliss Run Sewer
project. The goal of the association is to make sure this sewer serves its area of Eastmoor (north of Fair) and St. Catharine Church, which sustained heavy damage in the floods of 2002.
In 2004, the Eastmoor Civic Association and Blockwatch is formed to serve the area bordered
by Main, Gould, Broad and James. Their first major success, in conjunction with the Kel-Brook Blockwatch, is to temporarily shut down Motel 1 on Main St. in the Franklin County Environmental Court.
If you have addition information or stories,
please contact Scott Huggins