Tour of Homes

The landscape of Pataskala, Ohio, has changed quite a bit since its official establishment in 1851, and especially over the past decade, expanding from a rural village of 3,000, into a growing city of over 10,000, with a geographic range that quadrupled to its current approximate 40 square miles following a merger with Lima Township in 1996.  Every time I visit, it seems another half-dozen businesses and housing developments have popped up out of nowhere.  With this in mind, I thought I'd post some before and after photos of Eleanor Youmans' homes in Pataskala. 

Youmans was born in Maxville, Missouri, in 1876. When she was about five, she and her younger sister moved to Licking County, Ohio, to live on their grandfather's farm. The Williams homestead was located on the corner of St. Route 16 and York Street in Pataskala.  Here it is, off the "old mud pike," circa 1900:

Today, the Williams family farm has become the site of the Jefferson Ridge Condos, as pictured below:

Eleanor and her sister returned to Missouri in 1886, where she finished school and then taught for a year.  Back in Ohio in 1895, she lived with cousins in Celina, before moving to Canton.  She frequently visited her family in Pataskala during these years, and married Brigg Youmans in 1900. 

As newlyweds, Eleanor and Brigg moved into the house on the corner of Willow and Main Streets in Pataskala.  They spent their entire married life in this home, raising their son William, here.  If you look closely at the photo below, taken around 1900, you can see their dog Toodles sitting on a chair in the front lawn:

The house still stands, but the exterior has undergone a transformation, as has the street name (it was North Main when the Youmans' lived there, but it is South Main today).

William was married in the spring of 1927, and Brigg passed away that fall.  Eleanor spent a year in California, and when came back to Pataskala in 1928, she moved into the Redhead property, located on what was then North High Street, just north of the Railroad tracks, staying there until 1938. [Sorry, no before photo for this property].

After her decade in "the little five-room cottage" on High Street, she moved to a house on East Atkinson Street, which she cheekily nick-named "Grey Shingles."  According to an article by Carolyn Bentz, "the house was built by James Coons, the grandfather of Florence Coons Wilson and Aimee Coons Atkinson.  In fact, a niece was born in the house.  She was the wife of Charles and mother of Stanton and Ewing.  The house was over a hundred years old [when it was torn down]."  Pictured below circa 1945 and 1950:

Youmans resided on Atkinson until October 1968, when failing health prompted her move to the home of her son and daughter-in-law in Plain City, Ohio.  William sold the property in 1971 to the local fire department, and the house was torn down to increase the size of the fire department's parking lot:

Images from top:  Williams Farm, located on St. Rt. 16, photo courtesy of West Licking Historical Society, from Eleanor Youmans Glass Plate Negative Collection; Jefferson Ridge Condominiums on St. Rt 16, east of Pataskala; Brigg and Eleanor Youmans Home on southeast corner of Main and Willow Streets, from Eleanor Youmans Glass Plate Negative Collection, courtesy of West Licking Historical Society; House at what is now 245 South Main Street today; 291 South High Street today; East Atkinson Street house, circa 1945 courtesy of the Ohioana Library; East Atkinson Street house, circa 1950, courtesy of the Ohioana Library; Old Pataskala firehouse today, side view