1560 Richmond Avenue - Styron House

1560 Richmond Avenue

Woodland Park, Columbus, Ohio
Lots 32 and 33 Smith's Woodland Park Addition.

On August 4, 1904, lot 33 was sold by the Smiths to Marion Meikle for $800.

On March 24, 1908 the Styrons bought lot 33 from George H. Bulford for $850. This house may have been designed by architect Bulford for the Styrons.

This house was probably built between 1908 and 1911.

Newark Advocate, October 29, 1906

Edwin S. Styron was born January 20, 1874 in Utica, New York, son of John L. and Ann B. Eddy Styron. He married Georgia Roberts in Newark, Ohio on October 27, 1906. Georgia was born about 1877 in Worthington, Ohio, daughter of William and Viola Case Roberts. They had three children: Martha R. (1909), Marion Elizabeth (May 13, 1913-February 19, 1914) and Edwin, Jr. (August 10, 1915).

Georgia's father died December 4, 1879. Her mother married Horace Chambers on December 15, 1887 in Franklin County. They were divorced before 1910. Viola Chambers lived with the Styrons. Viola was born May 12, 1846 in Linworth, Ohio, daughter of Alvin O. and Milan Case. Viola was a school teacher in 1870 before she married William Roberts.

In 1900 Edwin lived with his parents in Newark, Ohio. Frank L. Beggs and John L. Styron started the Styron Beggs Company in Newark in 1893. Frank married Edwin's sister Cora in May 1893.

Edwin was Vice President of the Styron-Beggs Company. They were a manufacturing chemists. They manufactured flavorings and extracts, sewing machine oil, toothpaste, aspirin, cough syrup, veterinary insect powder, saccharin and other products they marketed under the "Great Seal" trade name. They packaged turpentine and some other products in "coffin" shaped shaped bottles embossed with the company name that many now misidentify as whiskey flasks. The 1909 Centennial History of the City of Newark and Licking County, Ohio, says, "Styron, Beggs & Company, manufacturers of the Great Seal brands of grocers' drugs, flavoring extracts, ammonia, bluing and home remedies, have, from a small beginning in 1895, built up a business with a monthly payroll of from $1,800 to $2,000, and a force of sixty or seventy people, besides a dozen traveling salesmen." The 1911 City Directory and the 1920 Census list Edwin as a commercial traveler, so he must have been one of the company salesmen as well as Vice President.

On February 25, 1913 Georgia bought the adjoining lot 32 from Charles A. and Margaret P. Workman assuming a mortgage balance of $219.86.

Viola died at 1560 Richmond Avenue on November 19, 1929. Edwin died of pneumonia at 1560 on November 14, 1943. Georgia died April 27, 1948 in St. Augustine, Florida. They are all buried in the Styron plot at Walnut Grove Cemetery in Worthington.

Corner card from Styron-Beggs envelope, circa 1935

Edwin Jr. and his wife, Jayne, lived at 1560 at the time of Georgia's death in 1948.

Duvall A. and Mary E. Granger of 299 Taylor Avenue purchased the house on February 4, 1950 from Edwin Jr. for $10,750 at 5% interest payable in monthly installments of $80.

Duvall Ashby Granger was born in 1911 in Roanoke, Virginia, probably the son of William and Phoebe Granger. He married Mary E. in Virginia before 1939. They had a daughter, Jennifer born about 1952.

In 1936 Duvall lived in Roanoke, Virginia and he was a trucker for the N&W Railway Freight Station. In 1939 they lived with Duvall's older brother John W. and his wife, Lillian, at 1141 Medill Street. Duvall and Mary probably came from Virginia to join John here in Columbus in 1939. John and Lillian are listed in the 1930 Census rooming at 226 Smith Street. John was a laborer on a steam railroad and Lillian was an elevator operator at a bookstore.

Duvall was a paper handler/warehouseman for the Columbus Dispatch in the late 40s and through the 50s. Duvall died in Columbus on November 4, 1964.

Mary remarried and divorced between 1964 and 1978. Jennifer married Jerry E. Walker. Mary E. Taylor and Jennifer A. Walker sold the house on September 25, 1978 to Paul E. and Vivian D. Moorman. The Moormans were living at 1295 East 25th Street before they bought the house.