1. Compliments from your new neighbor and proud to call
Fairfield its new home!
Southwest Ohio Amusement Park
Historical Society, Inc.
Check out our Facebook page and discover over 15
amusement parks that once called Southwest Ohio home!
WELCOME TO
MY WORLD
Fairfield, Ohio
Blasts from the past….. Memorial Day Parade
Fair Plaza Shopping Center Slowly
Becoming a Memory
Another section of the former Fair Plaza
Shopping Center (now called Patterson Place)
was torn down recently, This section used to be
home to Bob Frost’s Modern Sales Furniture,
Furniture Fair and most recently Dollar General.
Planet Fitness, located next door, remains open.
The former Marsh store located on the other
side of Planet Fitness remains vacant and is
being marketed for future use.
Piland Book Takes a Look at
Hamilton’s Industrial Heritage
Fairfield Historical Society member Richard Piland
has released his fourth book with Arcadia
Publishing called Images of America: Hamilton’s
Industrial Heritage.
Piland’s book examines Hamilton’s evolution from
an agricultural hub in the 1700’s to its status of
“the greatest manufacturing city of its size in the
world,” in 1900 and by the 1940’s home to several
of the world’s largest industries, including
Champion Paper, Niles Tool Works, Hooven-
Owens-Rentschler, Estate Stove, Mosler, among
others. Only three of these businesses still operate
in Hamilton today.
FHS members Don and Pam Bond and
Scott Fowler represented the Society in
the city’s annual Memorial Day parade.
FFHHSS BBooaarrdd ooff
TTrruusstteeeess 22001155
President
Debbie Pennington
Vice President
Dan Pennington
Secretary
Julie Roberts
Treasurer
Lois Kingsley
Trustees
Don Bond
Scott Fowler
Dr. Stanley Goodman
Pete Groh
Bob Pendergrass
Archivist
Bob Pendergrass
Trustee Emeritus/Legal
Counsel
Jim Irwin
Editor / Writer
Scott Fowler
Contributors
Ercel Eaton
Printed by
6600 Dixie Hwy. Suite H
Fairfield, OH 45014
(513) 860-3435
DDiidd yyoouu kknnooww??
...that the city's first
hostelry was the Capri
Motel on Dixie
Highway? The motel
continues to operate
today with the same
name. It opened for
business in 1959. The
city's second motel
was built in 1966 on
Dixie Highway near
Symmes Road and
debuted as a Holiday
Inn. Today, the facility
operates as a Budget
Inn.
FFaaiirrffiieelldd TTrriivviiaa
Fairfield's oldest
documented standing
residence still stands at
6089 Gray Road. It was
built in 1818 as a one-
room log building. Over
the years, the home was
remodeled and additions
were added. In 1967, the
state of Ohio recognized
the property as having
the state's largest Bald
Cypress tree.
Fairfield's oldest
standing structure is the
Elisha Morgan Mansion
at Gilbert Park. The
former residence was
built in 1817 and
purchased the same year
by its namesake, an
early settler of the area.
The residence was
abandoned in the mid
1970's and remained
vacant until 1980 when
the city purchased the
property along with 16
acres that later became
Gilbert Park. In 1990, the
mansion was listed on
the National Registry of
Historic Places.
Ercel Speaks with Ercel Eaton
Snippets of Our Lives
For several years I have been involved with a writing class which is a part of Miami
University’s Institute for Learning in Retirement. It is also called “A Lifelong Learning
Institute.”
Spring and fall semesters find us gathered at the wonderful Fairfield Community Arts
Center in a cozy classroom with hot coffee brewing. Now, don’t chuckle about the
coffee, sometimes we have doughnuts, too.
But the most fun, is the learning. Students from, Fairfield, Oxford, Cincinnati and
other locations around here gather and bring to each class a writing project
completed at home. Then we read them to each other. Class membership changes as
times change but most come back again and again I like that because of the learning
part. One must never, ever stop learning.
Topics people choose to write about ricochet from fishing trips to foreign travel,
backyard playground, kayaking, sewing and many more.
Then, the discussions: Read your lesson aloud in class and just wait for the questions.
A train ride into Shang Hai was a fascinating, a Swedish cow trying to win a beauty
contest pranced into several classes, a detective tale left us all hanging on for the
next class just like the whole process left us all wanting more.
Of course we started thinking about “family writing,” a theme many in the class
needed to address because of a desire to leave snippets of our own lives which have
become history as years fled by.
We started out doing the family stories and, as you might guess, much emotion got
loose in the classes. Themes ran the gamut from babies to parents and grandparents
(as well as great, great and more greats).
Tears and laughter are regular attendees. Ideas, the very threads of civilizations, it
seems to me. The exchange of ideas has lately gotten lost in swarms of technology---
--I don’t mean that technology hasn’t brought to us thousands more ideas that
perhaps would not have been born without it.
It seems to me something magical happens when folks of nearly the same age and a
lot of matching thoughts come together and let loose with written and verbal
exchanges.
I love trying to write. From as far back as my mind will take me I have been trying to
polish my prose, get right up next to a poem or two, and even compose a song now
and then. Writing is an opening of the soul, one that creates a connection between
people that cannot be achieved in any other form. And everyone can do it. So write
on, everyone. Write on.
Fairfield
City Council
Steve Miller
Mayor
Office: 513-867-5383
Home: 513-829-8739
Fax: 513-867-5329
5350 Pleasant Avenue
Fairfield, Ohio 45014
smiller@fairfieldoh.gov