Spagna's

History

History information is some background and history about the location. This is meant to be a basic summary. Below the history records you will find sources in which you can click on to find out more information. There may be multiple history records per location.

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There’s a lot of history in the three-story brick building that houses Spagna’s on Gilman Avenue in Harmar.

For more than 170 years the building has played host to everything from dancers to grocery shoppers to barbers and more.

The building was constructed sometime around 1842 by a local fraternal order, according to current owner Kevin Whitby.

“It was built for the Odd Fellows for about $5,000,” said Whitby.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows first formed in America in Baltimore in 1819. The fraternity is an altruistic service organization which still exists in Marietta, said current member Pat Worstell, 82, of Devola.

“Their basis is to help your neighbor. They have three links- FLT, Friendship, Love and Truth,” said Worstell.

The site also features an addition from early in the building’s history, according to local historian and author Lynne Sturtevant

“On an old photo, you can see the three windows across the top and now you can see there are five windows across,” said Sturtevant.

The building is also the largest and oldest surviving building on the west side, she added.

It is uncertain how long the Odd Fellows used the original building on Gilman Avenue. Many of the original features of the building have been covered or altered over the years.

Whitby, who purchased the building in 2001 to develop Spagna’s, began discovering some of these original features as he began renovating.

At the time, the inside of the first floor-like the outside-was all brick.

“When we renovated everything was brick. There were not any windows or portholes. It was all bricked in,” he said.

As they began taking down the inside brick, they discovered beautiful round portholes in the side of the building, which now hold stained glass windows. The renovation also uncovered an arched pass-through in the thick walls between the original structure and the addition.

The second and third floors of the building-currently unoccupied-were likely meeting halls originally. Many of the upper windows are still bricked in, but Whitby hopes to one day take out the brick work and replace the windows for views of the Muskingum River.

On the third floor, a large open ballroom features a dome inset with a backlit cutout of a moon and seven stars. The symbol is not one of the Odd Fellows, but of its auxiliary, said Worstell.

“The moon and the stars, that’s part of the Rebekahs, which is the ladies’ branch of the Odd Fellows,” said Worstell.

After housing the Odd Fellows, 301 Gilman Ave. housed a pool room and later a barber shop. The barber shop, run by Albert and Walt Needers, would have been housed in the building around the turn of the century, said Whitby.

“They did haircuts for 25 cents,” he added.

Whitby even kept the original barber poles; the painted columns can be seen on the front of the building.

Later the building housed the West Side Meat Market, owned by Bill Ackerman, and W.A. Reed Groceries.

While Whitby is unsure of the precise dates, a photo he has preserved of the side-by-side shops shows Gilman Avenue as a dirt road in front.

Later in the 20th century, the building housed Hadley Products, which was involved in the manufacturing of ventilation louvers, said Whitby.

The building then housed two more fraternal orders-the Moose Lodge from the 1950s to 1980s and the Knights of Columbus from the 1980s until 2001.

The building also has a bit of imported history. The large antique bar back with stretches behind the counter was originally located in Murphy’s Supper Club in Marietta.

The Greene Street establishment closed a fire in the 1970s, but the bar back was spared and bought by another restaurant.

“The bar back went all the way up north to Cleveland and when I tracked it down it was in West Virginia,” said Whitby.

Added by: sdonley on 01/02/2025 DB#:593
Source(s):
https://www.mariettatimes.com/news/local-news/2015...

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