Whitehall

By William Flood

The city of Whitehall, skirting the eastern edge of Columbus, Ohio, is an undiscovered treasure of postwar America. The Lustron Corporation, based in Whitehall, lays claim to the origins of the prefabricated housing industry. The nation's first shopping center, the Town and Country, was built in the village in the late 1940s. The National Road passes through Whitehall, which helped create businesses offering lodging, meals, and entertainment on par with those along the storied Route 66. Images of America: Whitehall also pays homage to one of the most beloved tiki restaurants ever to grace the country: the famed Kahiki. This chronicle seeks to honor the amazing history of the "City of Pride."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781439653395

William Flood

William Flood is a freelance historian and researcher interested in 20th-century commercial culture. He has written numerous articles on subjects such as Route 66 and the National Road, roadside architecture, tiki culture, and 1950s modernism. He became fondly acquainted with Whitehall through his wife, who has been a teacher in the community since their arrival in Ohio. Flood is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Ohio History Connection, and the Whitehall Historical Society. Images of America: Whitehall draws upon Flood's personal collection, along with resources from the Whitehall community.

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generations.

INTRODUCTION

The term inner-ring suburb describes suburban development using the growth rings of a tree as an analogy. Inner-ring suburbs typically formed between 1945 and 1975, as outlying housing options multiplied and increased access to cars and other forms of transportation allowed people to migrate out of city cores. Whitehall, sitting seven miles east of Columbus’s city center, is a textbook example of the formation of this type of suburb.

Certain first-ring suburbs have almost become household names. New York’s Levittown, for example, is famous for pioneering the planned community. In comparison, Whitehall is noteworthy not for what it was, but for what it possessed—as you will discover within.

Until World War II, most urban growth happened inside cities like Columbus, which were employment and commercial hubs. Outside, there were mainly farming communities and small hamlets, which is how Whitehall started. Like much of central Ohio, Whitehall grew out of the rural landscape of the early 1800s, remaining mostly rural for almost a century. The National Road, dating back to Thomas Jefferson’s day, was the catalyst for the village springing up, first within Truro Township and then as an incorporated village in 1947.

Whitehall experienced tremendous evolution during the first four decades of the 20th century. World War I, the boom-time of the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression that started in 1929, and the United States’ entry into World War II each altered the largely rural Whitehall. While not the birthplace of aviation, Whitehall lays claim to notable developments in aviation’s infancy after World War I. The town’s first residential developments, and the establishment of a distinguished country club, happened around the boom, and during World War II defense logistics and military aviation played tremendous roles in Whitehall’s formation. As the community coalesced, local institutions—schools and businesses, along with volunteer fire and police forces—became the glue that solidified it.

In the post-war era of the late 1940s and 1950s, Whitehall took shape as a first-ring suburb. After the war’s end, Whitehall saw its veterans return home, marry, and start families. They attended school, started businesses, and purchased their first homes, compliments of the G.I. Bill. It was a golden age in the United States, and communities like Whitehall flourished. Employment prospects were good, consumer spending drove economic growth, and the middle class swelled. The government’s underwriting of low-cost mortgages fueled suburbanization, and home ownership increased substantially between 1940 and 1960. In Whitehall, thousands of new housing units were built between 1944 and 1965, many of them modest starter homes for returning veterans.

The post-war years were also a golden era for the automobile, which changed the way people lived. Automobiles made migration to sought-after new suburbs like Whitehall possible, while relocation kindled the demand for more cars. Cars also allowed people to travel freely, which necessitated the formation of good roads and services to support motorists. Evidence of this can be seen in what existed along US Route 40 (Whitehall’s East Main Street). Sadly, the development of the interstate highway system in the 1970s had the unexpected effect of carrying business away from community main streets, as happened to US Route 40 throughout Columbus.

Post-war economic growth lasted only until the 1970s in Whitehall. The bucolic years gave way to two decades of social change and occasional turmoil. The Korean conflict of the 1950s and the Space Race instigated by Russia, which launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, helped keep the aeronautics industry in Whitehall’s backyard. Televisions in every living room broadcast news of President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, along with the sagas of the Vietnam War and the Cold War. All the while, anti-establishment sentiment, civil rights concerns, and other upheavals changed the social landscape. Whitehall was not immune to these changes, and locals tell stories of drugs, political protests, and even violence. Despite the era, Whitehall remained rather levelheaded. The PGA was even hosted at the Columbus Country Club in 1964—a testament to the area holding on to its sensibilities.

By the 1970s, suburbanites’ pocketbooks felt the effects of double-digit inflation and an oil crisis. Smaller, fuel-efficient automobiles were in demand, and Japanese car manufacturers were taking competitive aim at Detroit. In the 1980s, Pres. Ronald Reagan served as a conservative force, pressing for a return to 1950s-style economic prosperity while trying to curb the excesses of the prior two decades via campaigns like the iconic Just Say No anti-drug effort. By 1980, the first commercially available personal computers made their way into Whitehall homes and schools. Video arcades were popular in every community, and cable TV changed home entertainment. Yet, just as people seemed to settle into the tail end of the 20th century, Whitehall, like many early suburbs, faced an impending decline.

By the 1980s, people were moving ever outward, enticed by newer outlying suburbs and ignoring older areas like Whitehall. In truth, they were simply pursuing the same factors inner-ring settlers sought when they moved out of downtown 30 years prior: better schools, lower tax rates, enticing housing, and open spaces. As the popularity of outlying suburbs grew, communities like Whitehall struggled to maintain their image, became more working class, and saw housing values decline as the areas were seen as less desirable.

Older suburbs like Whitehall face unique challenges. While original residents often remain in their homes, their children are grown and have typically moved elsewhere. As aging parents die, or can no longer live independently, their houses are usually sold, often to investors. This frequently leads to property decline and transient occupancy.

By the 1990s, changes in Whitehall were palpable, and it did not have the idyllic reputation it once had. Much of what defined it through the first 80 years of the 20th century was either lost or barely hanging on. Main Street’s lodgings were no longer needed by interstate travelers, fast-food franchises replaced most of the family-owned restaurants, and economic decline could be seen in the 50 percent or greater rental population, along with stores and services geared to lower-income consumers.

Yet, some first-ring suburbs avoid this decline or experience a resurgence in popularity. The question is, can Whitehall break free of its continued downward momentum and hitch a ride to a resurgence of its own? What may ultimately be