Richard Nixon in the 1970s and the US Department of the Interior helped set up 2 major greenbelts that set limits to urban growth. The Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation area was started in the Nixon Era and was implimented by December 27, 1974, President Gerald Ford signed the bill establishing the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. The concern was cleaning up the watershed of the Cuyahoga River which caught on fire a number of time from the 1960s and 1970s. Raw sewage was pouring into the river from Akron Ohio and concern that the two metro areas would merge into one unending gray goop. The National Park Service restricted private property and property could only be boaught or sold with there permission. The NPS condemed a number of private residences and also took over the land of a Defunct Paper Mill. The B and O railroad ran up the middle of the park and after abandonment of the route by CSX was taken over by the NPS and leased to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway.
The second effort by the NPS was the C and O National Historic Park which was championed by US Supreme Court Justice “Wild” Bill Donavan which preserved the Right of way of the CandO Canal Towpath for 120 miles west of Georgetown DC. There was danger that the ROW would become a major highway and the Judge along with his hiking club successfully lobbied to have Chessie System sell the canal to the National Park Service. This in effect created a green belt between DC and MD Suber
The second effort by the NPS was the C and O National Historic Park which was championed by US Supreme Court Justice “Wild” Bill Donavan which preserved the Right of way of the CandO Canal Towpath for 120 miles west of Georgetown DC.
The many accomplishments of General William J. Donovan do not incude a seat on the United States Supreme Court. Perhaps you refer to Jutice William O Douglas?
Speaking of Wild Bill, in Buffalo there’s a great bar called Pearl Street Brewing and there’s a large picture of him standing next to a train. He’s played by George Brent in the classic “The Fighting 69th” as great a movie as Warner Brothers ever made.
If you’re a fan of “The Fighting 69th” here’s something you should keep your eyes out for. It’s a book called “Father Duffy’s Story,” written in 1919 by Father Francis Duffy it’s an informal history of the 69th New York during the First World War. A great story, and you’re hearing it from the good Father himself, the chaplain of the regiment.
Father Duffy admits it wasn’t his idea to do the book, Joyce Kilmer was to write it, but sadly didn’t survive the war.
I’d imagine you’d have better luck finding it in the Greater New York City area, but again, it’s one you shouldn’t pass up.
I did some checking and I see it’s been reprinted. That’s good. But mine’s from 1919!
Grew up in Greenhills OH. Only public transportation was an Ohio Bus Lines* route that ran about ten round trips a day with none on SUndays. Dad used it to get to work in Cincinnati where it used the Greyhound Bus Station. After WWII, dad got a used car and we had some mobility. But bus was reasonable cost for commuting. I hitchhiked to Univ. of Cincinnati and took the bus home. Current service is provided by SORTA. It still has no service on Sundays.
*Ohio Bus Lines took the routes of the C&LE Electric Interurban.
It’s about 2 miles west of Greenbelt MD and is indicated to be in the suburb of COllege Park. Which is the next stop toward downtown DC. Greenbelt station is the end of the Green and Yellow lines and is where WMATA has a yard.
There is also a MARC commuter station at Greenbelt. In fact, both MARC and WMATA serve the same facility. I believe Greenbelt was a ‘planned’ community from the 1930’s whose development was interupted by WW II and not really resumed in the post war boom. Columbia, MD was the next ‘planned’ community developed by Rouse Company starting in the 1960’s - without any reliance on public transportation.
Small world - Greenhills HS - Pioneer Class of '74 (and sadly there is no High School anymore)…Assume that when you went, it was in the Community Building?
Firelock, If you’re ever in Times Square, in the north end of it which is actually Duffy Square, there is a statue of Father Duffy. No fair guessing who he looks like. Nearby is a statue of George M. Cohan. Yep, looks like Cagney.
You are correct. Later, a new high school was built off of Hadley Rd and is now a middle school after a newer high school was built in Forest Park of of Kemper Rd near Winton Rd. But you probably know that.
1935 WPA Artists Concept (showed streetcar line coming in from the NE from Sharon Rd. and swinging south through the center bottom of the image along Winton Rd. (Cincinnati Street Railway/Cincinnati Transit’s streetcar line / Cincinnati & Hamilton Traction RR never got up to over here and was already in decline by 1932) Source: http://www.jjakucyk.com/transit/ch.html
Electroliner: If your folks weren’t part of the original 1938 Pioneer bunch, they were darned close. My folks built a house on Deerhill LN in 1956 (Off of the original D-Block on Damon Road.)
Hey 54light, I’ve been to Times Square and seen Father Duffy’s statue. It’s a great likeness, and Pat O’Brian didn’t look anything like him.
What Pat O’Brian got right, and absolutely right (from what I’ve read) was Father Duffy’s personality. Most photographs of Father Duffy show what looks like a stern, forbidding individual, but he wasn’t like that at all. When Father Duffy died in 1932 New York writer and columnist Alexander Woolcott said it broke his heart to think that when he walked along Broadway in the future he’d never see Father Duffy’s smiling face there again.
I’m a great fan of George M. Cohan and think his statue in Times Square is a very fine likeness of this amiable, genial star of the American stage and music hall. Just compare it to his photographs.
To me, James Cagney looked a little like Mr. Cohan.
In Cortlandt Manor (Peekskill) NY there is a New York Army National Guard base called Camp Smith. On the base is the Father Duffy Chapel which is an older wood building with a statue of Father Duffy outside. He is standing holding his hat in his hand. I got to see the Chapel a few years ago at about 0530 on my way to work on the base. I had never seen it open, although it probably is. I went inside and amazingly there was an Irish Army Chaplain, brogue and all, who gave me a tour. You could probably see it, at least from the outside, by showing your driver’s license at the gate and telling the guards why you are visiting the post.
