OHIO
Written by Gene Williams
Monroe Historical Society
January 2010
1910 Museum Building (part 1)
The following is an article by Pauline Schmidt, who was the curator of the Monroe Historical Society at the time.. This was written in the Monroe Times in February 1995. It tells part of the story of what we call the 1910 Museum, at the corner of Main Street and Elm Street. More will follow in later articles.
In 1950, Monroe was just a “wide place in the road” and the Corner Store was the center of town where SR 63 and U.S.25 intersected. It was a general store, as it had been since it was built—a convenient place to buy needles, paint, socks, school supplies, and medicines. It also sold bus tickets for the Ohio Bus Lines and featured the only soda fountain in the area.
This building, now the Historical Society Museum, was built by Marion Warner, who lived in a house next door. He previously kept a store across the street in a building the Monroe Bank remodeled for its second home. The present bank is its third building. Marion Warner was 18 years older than his brother, Clarence (Boone) Warner, who was blacksmith and builder of the “paragon plow” and other farm implements. Marion’s hobbies were amateur painting and photography.
One of his oil paintings, now in the museum, was done on stretched mattress ticking and was given as a prize in a community contest to the person who guessed the closest number of beans in a jar. His photographic legacy to Monroe, however, is far more valuable because he photographed many Monroe subjects. When an old shed behind his house was torn down, his photographic equipment and several hundred glass negatives were found and given to the Monroe Historical Society.
About 100 photos have been printed from the negatives and make up an album that is an authentic portrayal of Monroe around the turn of the century. One of his photos was used this winter by Mrs Barbara Leib’s art students at Lemon-Monroe High School when they painted the background for the present window display at the museum.
After Warner’s death, the store was run by his wife. Lizzie was a better storekeeper than automobile driver, for she was notoriously known to drive as if the center line of the road was to be straddled! Her daughter, Nell, later operated the store and many older adults remember shopping there Saturday nights around the pot-bellied stove.
In 1946, the store became the property of Earl Marshall, who changed the clientele by adding a soda fountain, the first in the area. Adults in Monroe had always had a choice of places for refreshment and relaxation, but young people now had a place where they were welcome to have a soft drink, ice cream and meet their friends. To cater to them, the name became the “Hornet’s Nest,” recognizing the school mascot. But young people were not the only ones who liked the soda fountain fare.
The Cincinnati radio and early TV celebrity Ruth Lyons discovered the store on one of her drives through Monroe to Dayton. She aired her opinion that Marshall’s had the best chocolate sundae in this area and she made it a point to stop often for the treat. Mrs. Mary Lou Marshall Cobb, who operated the store after her husband’s death, recalled Ruth Lyons’ visits as a boon to business from out of town. After Mrs Cobb sold the business, the store building was used for several purposes and finally housed part of Monroe’s municipal offices.
The 1910 building has been well preserved by James Price, the present owner. The Historical Society uses the rooms for meetings, quilting, and office, as well as for the ever-growing museum display. It has become Monroe’s landmark and a most cherished historical building.
