City of Springdale History On-Line

In the 1960s, the middle-class suburban dream that offered escape from big city woes ended abruptly. Drugs, crime, pornography, escalating divorce rates and racial tensions afflicted all parts of American society. Like thousands of other suburban communities, Springdale responded with teen curfews, a tough drug policy, support for law-enforcement agencies and a reaffirmation of "family values." All were attempts to cope with social forces beyond Springdale's control.

Other national trends and tensions also touched Springdale. It shared in the agony of Vietnam. The generation that had experienced World War II felt shock and confusion at the lack of support this war generated. Springdale lost more men in this war than it had in World War II. Vietnam, however, could not be handled, only endured. In this war, as in all past wars, Springdale sent her sons to battle and, year after year, council passed resolutions memorializing the dead. On Memorial Day 1969 the community held a parade and honored the village's gold star mothers. One year later, Councilmember Voelkel organized another Memorial Day parade and Springdale dedicated a Memorial Park wall on Northland Boulevard. In 1976, the city placed a plaque in the amphitheater honoring "the victims" of Vietnam.

The civil rights movement touched Springdale directly, and the inclusion of the all-black Lincoln Heights School population in the Princeton School District and its increasing number of black residents required the community to broaden its perspective in matters of race.

Springdale residents responded by turning inward during these years. The village-wide sociability of the past ended. Springdale people preferred weekend trips in their R.V.'s, boating on the Ohio River, yoga or other personal-enrichment classes at the recreation center to community projects. Springdale also followed the national trend in segregating according to age. Golden-age groups now organized functions for the elderly who were no longer integrated into the rest of the community. Despite the national character of these trends, Springdale was still a community with its own particular character and uniqueness that affected its response on many of these matters.

In 1970, the Springfield's total population was 8217, of which .68 percent, or fifty-five, were nonwhite. Of that group, thirty-one were black. Ten years later and new federal fair housing laws saw a significant increase in the number of blacks, which grew to 8.2%, or 838 of 10,111. To place this increase in historical perspective, it merely brought Springdale back to the black/white ratio of 1870 when twenty-seven black residents in Springdale comprised almost 8 percent of its population.

Springdale's citizens apparently had about the same level of racial tolerance, or intolerance, as their peers in other area suburbs. An area civil rights group organized "Operation Welcome" in May 1968, to encourage local governments to pass resolutions in favor of open housing. The sample resolution read:

Like other cities, Springdale council tabled the motion. By August, only Woodlawn had embraced "Operation Welcome".

"Operation Welcome" came at a time when the frustrations of urban renewal, increased poverty and displacement led many blacks to take to the streets. Riots erupted in predominantly black neighborhoods in Cincinnati in 1967 and 1968, and although a very small percentage of the population came into contact with the violence, tensions mounted throughout the metropolitan area. Springdale council passed a riot ordinance on October 11, 1967.

When the state ordered the transfer of Lincoln Heights students to the Princeton School District, rational planning and level-headed common sense led to a smooth transition. Superintendent of Schools Lucas and his team formed a Superintendent's Advisory Committee of each district to monitor the mood within each community, and as a result, open communication derailed potentially damaging rumors. The merger increased black enrollment in Princeton schools from 13 percent to 33.7 percent with a minimum of problems, testimony to Lucas's masterful handling of the situation.

Springdale also worried about increased crime although the new village did not have its first homicide until December 21, 1965. Nevertheless the village's situation differed somewhat from that of other municipalities of a similar size because the shopping mall attracted great numbers of non-residents to Springdale each day. The village had responded quickly to the pressure on the police department created by the task of patrolling Tri-County Center. As the numbers of shopping centers in the city increased, so too did the number of burglaries and theft. The police department began its first K-9 unit in 1980 which included Patrolman David Buschmann and his trusty companion Trooper. The K-9 innovation proved quite popular and successful.

Juvenile crime was another worry for Springdale residents. A wave of teen vandalism, including tire-slashing and spray-painting, hit the city in the fall of 1970. In his report, Mayor Norrish expressed his concerns over what he saw as the loss of parental control.

On October 29, 1970, more than 100 voiced their opinions on a proposed strict curfew. Children under twelve years of age would be banned from the streets after sunset unless accompanied by a parent or a guardian. The ordinance set limits on those up to age eighteen, including a provision that would have prohibited more than two persons, eighteen or younger, driving a car after sunset "aimlessly or with no specific destination." After the more obvious objections were voiced as to enforcement, council tabled the ordinance. In September 1974, however, several residents appeared at a council meeting to support a more precise ordinance and this time the measure passed. At about the same time, the city added thirty new policemen.

Concerns over juvenile crime also contributed to the support for the community recreation center. As parents had 40 years earlier, many felt recreational facilities for youth would reduce crime. The recreation center, which opened in 1972, offered Springdale's young people sports and recreational facilities that were the envy of many private clubs. Yet, despite its obvious benefits, the center alone could not combat the temptations or the pressures that faced the young in the 1970s and 1980s.

Parents, police and city officials also worried about drug use. After an investigation of the constitutional aspects, council adopted a licensing ordinance on November 17, 1982 restricting and regulating the sale and display of drug paraphernalia. Fears that children spent their time playing video games rather than attending classes led the city to license and place restrictions on the exhibitors of these amusements.

The city's concerns about protecting the public morality extended to adults. Springdale, which had no motion picture theaters until the Mid-States company built the Princeton Plaza Cinemas in 1965, soon found itself with many now which the city sometimes considered to be a mixed blessing. In 1975, when the Showcase Cinemas booked the R-rated film "Emmanuelle" Mayor Norrish and the Springdale police threatened the theater manager with arrest. Columbia Pictures and National Amusements, Inc., the owner of the Showcase, sought an injunction against Norrish and Police Chief Stemann. On October 31, 1975, U.S. District Court Judge David S. Potter judged the film not to be obscene. Springdale's concerns were typical American concerns and their responses were typical midwest responses. Some measures worked better than others.

One successful measure was the city's support of programs for the elderly, and during these years Springdale's elderly citizens had much to cheer about. For one thing, the Southwest Ohio Senior Services, Inc. acquired thirty-two acres of the old Maple Knoll property, and planned to build thirty cottages for independent living and a four-story 120-unit building for those needing assisted care. The planning commission and council approved these plans in early 1975.

A year later, Southwestern Senior Services proposed a health care facility at Maple Knoll, which was financed by Springdale revenue bonds. The city acquired the site, financed construction and leased it back to Southwestern at a rate sufficient to pay off the bonds. On May 19, 1977, The Maple Knoll Village Senior Citizen's facility was dedicated. Three years later, the Center for Older Adults opened and provided an outreach program that included meals-on-wheels, day care and bus service. When Maple Knoll established a Gerontology Institute to train personnel, Springdale pursued Community Development Funds for the project, continuing an ongoing, positive and mutually-beneficial relationship.

Now the community did not have to suffer inadequate health care as it had for so many decades. The city established its own health department in 1973 and employed Ronald Elbe as the first health commissioner in early 1974. While the health commissioner discharged the city's responsibilities through inspection and licensing of public facilities, and in caring for other sanitation and environmental concerns, the public health nurse probably made a greater impact on the individual Springdale resident through educational, screening and testing programs. At first, the health nurse worked only twenty hours per week but in January 1976 it became a full-time position at the instigation of councilperson Marge Boice. Other new medical centers were built in Springdale giving residents access to a number of medical specialists. The location of Mercy Hospital in nearby Fairfield provided the community with a modern hospital.

A variety of churches ministered to Springdale's spiritual health. The venerable Presbyterian church moved from its 1886 brick building into a new modern structure in the early 1960s. The Springdale Church of the Nazarene, founded in 1938 as a storefront church, grew steadily in the following decades. The Atonement Lutheran Church of Springdale, organized in 1961, held its first services in the Hayloft. Others have followed and while none has exercised the same long-term influence on Springdale as the Presbyterian church all have contributed to the community.

As new theaters and restaurants opened the residents found a plethora of entertainment choices. Many preferred to create their own entertainment. In fact, nothing created a more heated controversy in Springdale than the infamous R.V. ordinances. In the original ordinance council restricted parking for these vehicles, prohibiting parking on the street and even in the side yards of residences. Bombarded by the complaints of furious R.V. owners, council decided in 1980 not to enforce the ordinance until it could be modified. After three years of periodic deliberation and heated public hearings, council passed a relaxed regulation in October 1983. Residents simply would not be deprived of their R.V.'s just because they lived in houses built on small lots or with narrow driveways.

Throughout it all, council hoped to enhance the aesthetic qualities of the city by developing and implementing a "streetscape" for Springfield Pike that included widening the Pike and the planting of numerous trees. In just a few years, the greatly expanded and spruced up old pike once again had rows of mature trees lining it which was its nineteenth-century characteristic.

Council and the residents of Springdale cared about the city's public image. Since the development of Tri-County and the focus on the Princeton Pike - Kemper Road area, the city's identity became obscured. The shopper-visitors to the area never saw the attractive residential neighborhoods and, as a result, perceptions of Springdale were based on the commercial district. A sensitivity about the inevitable confusion developed, yet many Springdale residents took a certain pride in the fact that their tidy, prosperous city was such a well-kept secret. That sense of pride, however, was forged out of much adversity.