RECREATION AREAS SIXTY
YEARS AGO
Tuesday, January 10, 1978
EDITOR'S NOTE:
One of the most popular Potluck articles about the streetcar era, appeared
sometime ago. Unfortunately, even though it consisted of three installments,
it was impossible to include photos and some additional data about the
two parks...Reeves and Meadowbrook. The column today provides interesting
photos and data about them, as well as other spots in the Fostoria area
where kids frequented years ago.
Reeves and Meadowbrook
parks were actually built to increase the traffic on the electric lines
that served them.
The TF&E (Tiffin,
Fostoria & Eastern) served Tiffin, and Bascom where Meadowbrook was
located then and still is today.
The TF&F (Toledo,
Fostoria & Findlay) served Reeves park at Arcadia. It was located where
Dicken Mfg. Co., is now, at the north edge of Arcadia.
Reeves Park was
named after Sam Reeves, President of the TF&F, who also headed up reeves
Steel & Mfg. Co. at Canal Dover, Ohio.
Meadowbrook was
built by those affiliated with the TF&E. It was in the approximate area
it is now, but the entrance to the park was west of Gem Mfg. Co. The
accompanying photo shows how the pavilion was reached by a boardwalk,
which the old-timers will remember.
Both parks offered
ample picnic facilities and swings and slides for the kids. Both had
dance floors in the pavilions and picnic areas for inclement weather.
Reeves had the
added inducement of bowling, roller skating and a baseball diamond.
The original Meadowbrook
pavilion, shown by the photo, burned in 1925. It was rebuilt in 1933,
but again burned and the present pavilion was rebuilt in 1935.
The Reeves pavilion
was struck by lightning and burned in the late 1920's. It was never
rebuilt and the other buildings were later demolished.
There were other
places in the Fostoria area that were not in the same class as Meadowbrook
and Reeves Parks, but still frequented by the kids... especially boys.
One such place
was Woods Pond, where Gray Park is now, prior to the time George M.
Gray purchased it. It was popular spot in summer for the boys to cool
off with a dip in the water - even though muddy. In the winter time
it provided a place to ice skate.
Another place
I enjoyed when a boy way Wolf Creek. Older Fostorians know about Wolf
Creek, but younger ones or newcomers probably pass it on their way to
Bascom and Tiffin, unaware of its location. The bridge spanning it is
just a few feet east of the defunct motel and bowling alley.
Wolf Creek was
named by early settlers because wolves frequented the area.
In summer, my
older sister, Ruth, took the neighborhood kids for picnicing and swimming.
It was a pleasant place then, as can be seen by the accompanying photo.
There were fish and turtles in the creek for catching.
Often we went
there aftwe we had stopped to visit with the Kinnaman family, who lived
in the house next to the site where the Arthur Kaubisch house is now.
As you drive toward
West Independence you pass Lakeland Golf Course at Hancock County Road
216, known years ago as Bull Frog Road. Today there is a housing community
there, but 60 years ago it was all farm land and a good creek is where
"Jake" Seever's mother, Sarah, took him and all his neighborhood friends
for picnics, fishing and swimming on hot summer days... both boys and
girls.
Older Fostorians
will remember "Jake" Seever as the popular executive secretary at The
Ohio Savings & Loan for many years. He was one of my boyhood friends.
Those who frequented
Meadowbrook and Reeves parks could get there by the electric cars...open-air
models in the summer, which were a delight to ride.
But to get to
the old swimming holes, it required hiking...distances that most kids
would scoff at today.
The walking and
the not too clean water didn't seem to bother us then. In fact the hike
in the country where the ari was fresh strengthened our bodies, improved
our lungs and got us closer to nature.
There are many
other photos which show places to go sixty years ago, and some dialogue
to accompany them, but space is not available in today's column. I'll
tell you more another time.
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