Terrace, Ohio

The claims of Zanesville are thus summed up by the board of trade: "Zanesville, Ohio is beautifully located on the Muskingum river, the only interior city of Ohio on a navigable stream, tributary to all points on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The scenery on the Muskingum is beautiful, and the valley most fertile. The United States Government has control of the river, and' is now spending large sums of money improving the same. Schools, seminaries, churches, parks, etc., a fine opera house, admitting only the best troupes traveling. A new memorial building, erected to the memory of the Union soldiers and sailors of this county; this building has the largest and best convention room or assembly hall in the state, with but one exception ( that of music hall at Cincinnati, Ohio). Seating 2,500 comfortably. We have gas light, electric light, and fuel water gas, one of the best systems of electric street cars, with the latest and most approved equipment. Our water works system is the pride of the city, our fire department first class. Fine suburban residences. Our Fair Oaks, Buckingham Place, Terrace, Maplewood and Belle View, are all new additions to the city of Zanesville. and for places of residence are truly beautiful, and must be seen to be fully appreciated. Greenwood cemetery, Woodlawn cemetery, and Mount Calvary cemetery, places that will justify your visiting.

Passage source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio; Embracing an Authentic and Comprehensive Account of the Chief Events in the History of the County and a Record of the Lives of Many of the Most Worthy Families and Individuals, published 1892.

The history of the real estate business in Zanesville, is different from that of most other American cities in that it is characterized neither by periods when prices were unreasonably inflated, nor by times when property could be purchased far below its actual value. Zanesville, conservative from the very first of its history, has suffered only when the entire country has been demoralized by panic. After the laying out of Zanesville and its sister villages on the opposite bank of the river, the rise in the prices of realty was unusually steady, although slow, until 1836, when the figures reached by property in the heart of the town were almost as high as at present. The terrific panic which swept over the United States the following year, dragged real estate here as everywhere else, to the bott m. Instances are cited where valuable lots in the most thoroughly desirable locations, were sold in 1837, at seventy per cent, less than the prices at which they had been bought twelve months before. The recovery was not rapid, and it was nearly 1850 before property owners could realize anything like the actual value of their town lots. However, after 1851 there was a steady, healthy advance, continuing without interruption until 1866, when property was sold at better prices than ever before in the history of the town. A noticeable feature of this advance was that it affected suburban property as never before. After this time there was little or no increase of the actual selling prices of Zanesville real estate. It held its own, but as practically none had been bought for purely speculative purposes, it was not pushed beyond its real value. In 1873 of course "everything went.'' The recovery of real estate values was slow, it being some time before Zanesville property would bring what it was actually worth. After getting back to the ante-panic figures, there was little if any advance. A good deal of city property was on the market, but sales were not numerous, as owners were not willing to make concessions and buyers were not eager. This state of affairs continued until 1886, the autumn of which year marked the beginning of a new area in local real estate business. The occasion was the first speculation of any magnitude in suburban property, - the platting of the beautiful farm of the Hon. H. J. Jewett, "Fair Oaks," just south of Putnam. The first sale of lots look place in October, and the sales for the single day aggregated $24,000, the lots bringing an average price of $175. Since that the increase of the sales and prices of suburban property has been gratifying. The revival of Putnam property, which began at that time, has continued and still continues. Immediately after this came the advance in property on the Terrace; where in a great many cases lots have doubled, and in some instances trebled, in value. Natchez, also came in for an appreciation in the prices of its lots, with and without improvements. Lots in the higher land in this locality which four years ago brought $350, are now ready sellers at over $500. Property on Marietta street and adjacent has also steadily advanced ; many improvements have been made; and there is less property for sale in this section than in any other part of the city. With the rise of suburban real estate there has naturally come an appreciation of that in the heart of the town. Main street property has slowly and surely advanced and at present there is little or no property on that street in the market. There is also a great scarcity of purchasable property on the streets crossing Main - particularly west of Sixth street. Among the recent advances may be noticed that in the northern part of the city, it having been affected by the bridge now in course of construction at Underwood street. When completed, this bridge is, of course, also bound to cause an increase in values on the Terrace - especially the upper part. It is to be noted that, despite the advances on property here in the past four years, real estate still sold at more reasonable figures than the prices of similar property in other places of Zanesville's size and importance. The recent increases have been from below the real values to the actual worth of real estate - not from its real value to a point above.

Passage source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio; Embracing an Authentic and Comprehensive Account of the Chief Events in the History of the County and a Record of the Lives of Many of the Most Worthy Families and Individuals, published 1892.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Zanesville City.