| With the Birch Tavern recently remodeling and the village of Groveport planning to redevelop parts of Groveport’s historic downtown area, I thought it would be interesting to look back to see what the old downtown looked like in the 1950s. In this photo from the early 1950s, taken by Ted Carruthers, one can see the downtown – except for modern signs, a paved Main Street and utility wires overhead – looked much like it did in the 19th century. Notations made by Carruthers with this photo identified the stores as follows, from left to right: Mae Kindred’s Gift Shop, Oasis Restaurant, Byron Seymour’s barbershop, Ackerman’s Drug Store, Henry Rostofer’s shoes and dry goods store, Frank Kindred’s IGA grocery, and Mose Dyer’s tavern and restaurant. The white building at the far right is Smith’s Grocery, which later became, and still is, Little Italy. Note there is no traffic signal at the intersection of Main and Front streets.
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