INVESTIGATION 1: HOME, THE SPACES AND TIMES OF | JOSHUA BAUMAN | LA 5630 | BENNETT | AU 13
I find myself most ‘at home’ where I am most comfortable, which I generally identify with whenever I am with my mom and my family. However, this idea lacks a spatial permanence. While I recognize ‘home’ as a flexible and dynamic state, one physical place that really portrays my idea of comfort and belonging is my house in Granville, Ohio.
In February 2000 my family moved to sleepy Granville, Ohio, an hour east of Columbus. Over the next fourteen years this place would grow to be where I identify as my home turf. Though I often try to distance myself from the homogenous, manicured confines of Granville, upon closer analysis and reluctant understanding, any idea of home is rooted in my experiences as a resident of Granville. Following my initial discovery of the village, my years of adolescence and maturation as a student, my re-evaluation of it as an adult at college in Columbus, and finally my research of its origins have informed my understanding of why I perceive sub-rural Granville as home.
WHAT IS HOME?
Referring to my earliest memories, I recall my first ‘home’ to be Carmel, Indiana, where my family moved within a few years of my birth. My short four years in Indiana were truly the defining moments in my development where many firsts occurred, as well as where I instigated schooling. However, I would not make it past first grade before my family left Indiana.
PHOTOGRAPH BY AUTHOR (2013)
IMAGE RETRIEVED FROM BING MAPS (2013) & MANIPULATED BY AUTHOR
THREE SPACE-TIMES In analyzing how Granville shaped my ever-changing concept of ‘home’, there are three space-times that I identify as formative.
FIRST THIRD SECOND First, there is my initial arrival to Granville and my subsequent years of acclimation to the quaint community. This acclimation quickly leads to my dismay for the village’s culture and an understanding of the homogenous character of the village.
Last, in considering Granville my hometown, I analyze the village’s storied history and discover why everything that went into its creation has continued to define its present existence.
Second, there is my journey away from Granville as an adult moving to college, realizing the cultural connection that metropolitan Columbus and Granville share, as well as a realization that going “away” to college is nothing more than a geographical separation.
Ultimately, ‘home’ for me is where I find the roots of my character, and the unique environment of Granville has informed my understanding of ‘rural’ versus ‘urban’ as a conflict of both geographic location and residential character.
When I first moved to Granville, OH, in the middle of my first grade year, it seemed to be an adventure to a new location that varied greatly in size and atmosphere from my old home. In Indiana, I lived just north of Indianapolis in the modern suburb of Carmel. It was geographically sub-urban, as it was a quick freeway ride into the city, but it was much more suitable for family life than living within the increased density and decreased safety (Mackindler, 1907, pg. 335) of the urban capital.
MOVING ON
Carmel is defined by quintessential, sprawling American subdivisions filled with large, single-family, nineties-style homes with significant yard space. The public schools are large in size but very modern, clean, and full of amenities. Convenient shopping centers filled with brand-names and department stores exist amongst the immense commercial growth that stimulated the community. Additionally, numerous recreation facilities all over town encouraged an active community adding to the town atmosphere centered on convenience and proximity (Mackindler, 1907, pg. 338). It is this defining idea that initially spurred and continues to support the growth of such ‘suburbs’ across the United States and beyond at the present.
IMAGE RETRIEVED FROM BING MAPS (2013) & MANIPULATED BY AUTHOR
SPACE-TIME ONE: Arriving & Acclimating to Granville [2000-]
INVESTIGATION 1: HOME, THE SPACES AND TIMES OF | JOSHUA BAUMAN | LA 5630 | BENNETT | AU 13 From my first impressions onward, Granville did not hold many similarities to Carmel. Granville was an hour-long drive from Columbus, and the route from the Columbus outer belt was defined by a highway that thinned into a two-lane road, slowly enveloped with trees and the sporadic view of agricultural fields. The traffic was pretty heavy, which made the trip to/from Columbus additionally lengthy. However, right before arriving in Granville, the two-lane road splits again and becomes a separated, four-lane highway, nudging at a return to civilization.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
If Carmel is the quintessential sub-urban town, Granville is the quintessential sub-rural village. With a population of only a few thousand, it is a quaint, small town that is constantly coming to terms with retaining its unique identity. The only shopping to be found is downtown is a local drug store, a local grocery market, and only local restaurants and expensive, one-of-a-kind specialty shops. The only fast food is found next to the highway, as far away from the historic center of town as possible. It is even Columbus-native Wendy’s. If one desires more brand-names, higher selection, and cheaper prices, neighboring Newark and Heath house [relatively] modern shopping centers and mall. But, because of its small-scale, sub-rural identity, Granville lacks a number of consumer amenities that only metropolitan Columbus offers, as the density that defines urbanity is the rationale for developers to provide all necessary amenities within close proximity, as I experienced in Carmel, IN (Cox, 2012, pg. 24).
MAINTAINING HISTORICAL IDENTITIES
In terms of housing, downtown Granville is full of historic homes that have been well preserved, with a high regard for upkeep, and organized densely in close-quarters. However, Granville’s radiating growth has sprung the subdivision communities of the nineties. These neighborhoods differ from those in Carmel: they are on a much smaller scale with fewer homes, more acreage per house, and with an emphasis on unique home styles. The village has also been a tree city for the past twenty years, as well as maintaining excellent water quality in transecting Raccoon Creek, and protecting its booming white-tailed deer population by restricting hunting to special times of year (Barno, 2013, pg. 3). All of these initiatives represent Granville’s concern for and dedication to environmental health and sustainability. In further delineating the culture of Granville, there is an emphasis on education, as the school district is among the best in the state of Ohio (Barno, 2013, pg. 3). Denison University, a selective private liberal arts college, occupies the top of a hill, existing almost independently of the town. Politically, there is an active village council that strictly regulates Granville’s physical and metaphysical appearances. The village Granville is a haven of safety, family values, education, religious observation, and community wellness. Altogether, between its rural setting amongst forested and agricultural landscapes, mixed with the educational resources that are more common in larger cities of even greater affluence, represents of a much larger city, Granville represents itself to be the ideal hometown.
MAP: VILLAGE LIMITS SUPERIMPOSED ON THE GRANVILLE TOWNSHIP LIMITS “Regional Census Results” (2010). Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. Retrieved September 13, 2013, from http://arcgiswebadp1.morpc.org/ webmaps/census/index.html. Image manipulated by author.
INVESTIGATION 1: HOME, THE SPACES AND TIMES OF | JOSHUA BAUMAN | LA 5630 | BENNETT | AU 13
GETTING ACCLIMATED
When my father accepted a job at the Owens Corning Technology Center that lives just south of town, he brought my family to Granville with the ideal “hometown” in mind. My family built traditions there, as anyone would. We played tennis on the courts behind the Denison University recreation facility; we attended the 4th of July downtown carnival and watching the fireworks show at Wildwood Park; we went on extended bike rides throughout the bike path system (part of the “rails to trails” movement) that went through the woodland areas and to neighboring towns. Growing up was very simple, comfortable, and, most importantly to my parents, safe in Granville, an attribute that could definitely be tied to the rural setting, observant neighbors, and overall low crime that comes with smaller populations (Mackindler, 1907, pg. 335).
As I grew older in Granville, my initial naïveté gave way to a growing disdain. In maturation, I realized the overwhelming homogeneity of the town. There was little ethnic diversity, and even less racial diversity; the economic ceiling in Granville was too high for many to reach (Siff, 2012); and religious superiority had a negative effect on many town attributes. What once seemed to be a comforting drive for integrity within the town became outright pretention. People were not simply prideful, they were selfish, exclusive, and without regard for the world around them, which was a product of the geographical separation that removed the rural village from the influence of urban tolerance (Cox, 2012, pg. 21). As soon as I graduated in 2011, I could not have been happier to leave the village that was too strongly influenced by its most conceited residents. PHOTOGRAPH BY AUTHOR (2013)
But, as the years went on, Granville experienced immense growing pains. Houses filled empty lots in every neighborhood in town, adding more families and more kids crowding into the already low-capacity schools. There was the problem of not wanting to hinder growth, but also not wanting to lose the small, sub-rural town integrity that it relied so heavily upon for its identity and external marketing as one of Ohio’s “Best Hometowns.” Schools were expanded, a new Intermediate School was constructed, and levies drove the already high village taxes even higher (Barno, 2013, pg. 3). PHOTOGRAPH BY AUTHOR (2013)
SPACE-TIME TWO: Going “Away” to University [2011-] While I was growing up in Granville, it was always special to drive into Columbus. While it was geographically nearby, the various routes of travel were not built to have any higher capacity than local traffic, a common theme in rural transportation. Regardless, as Granville grew, a once docile desire became a materialistic drive for exclusive consumer products, only found within the Columbus outerbelt. So, during my time in high school, the pseudo-highway that connected Granville to Columbus was significantly expanded to answer the explosive demand. The once winding, two-lane, rural road was widened to four lanes, straightening the path (though agricultural fields, forests, and rural residential properties) and installing over- and underpasses for a drive that was completely without intersections.
The result took the hour-long, congested country drive down to a measly thirty minutes down a straight, uncongested, unremarkable highway. Like never before, Columbus became a frequently-visited destination. It was perfect for Granville citizens, because they could leave the heterogeneous, crowded, economically diverse, urban landscape of Columbus as soon as their purchases were made and make the quick trip home to comfortably homogenous, sub-rural Granville (Marx, 2000, pg. 30). But, as many came to witness, this new ease-of-connection to the biggest metropolitan population in Ohio started to transform Granville from sub-rural to sub-urban (Mackindler, 1907, pg. 338).
NEW CONNECTIONS
From my own experiences, this ease of access came at the perfect time. As I went “away” to school north of downtown Columbus, I was never far away from home. Traveling between Columbus and Granville has become totally second-nature to me, and it seems as if they two are intrinsically connected.
INVESTIGATION 1: HOME, THE SPACES AND TIMES OF | JOSHUA BAUMAN | LA 5630 | BENNETT | AU 13
TRANSFORMATION
Though distance and the time of traveling a road at 65mph separates Columbus from Granville, there is an unspoken sharing of culture that defines Granville residents. Some people live in Columbus and commute to Granville (most of the teachers in the school district). Others live in Granville (for raising their family) and commute to Columbus. Regardless, it is an unspoken truth that Granville would not exist in its pristine, independent condition without Columbus (Cox. 2012, pg. 24). Columbus provides the economic sustenance, the workforce, or simply the metropolitan resources and amenities for Granville.
While Granville once seemed like a prison to me (or, rather, a reformatory for wealthy, social miscreants), it now acts as a sort of escape. My college life is not simple. It is not easy. It is busy, stressful, demanding, and often overwhelming. My basic human needs become victims of my educational conquest. So, in returning home, to Granville, where my house is, within which my parents reside, is a sort of vacation. It is a return to simpler times. It is an escape from the stresses of university life. It is a contrast to the busy, traffic-filled, crowded, often unkempt, loud, unforgiving urban university that I attend.
GOING HOME
Columbus-Granville GRANVILLE
OHIO STATE
IMAGE RETRIEVED FROM BING MAPS (2013) & MANIPULATED BY AUTHOR
AN URBAN AWAKENING
Ohio State is truly an urban university. While it is not located in “downtown” Columbus, its location to the north amongst the sprawling residential neighborhoods (of Columbus past, present and future) places OSU in the truest “urban” atmosphere. It is surrounded by activity, be that traffic congestion, pedestrian traffic, crime, emergencies or just community and cultural events that occur within the diverse, Midwestern metropolitan that is Columbus.
Physically, Ohio State’s Columbus campus is surrounded by densely packed, low-income housing, with many properties in dismal condition, as well as commercial businesses that cling to the north-south Columbus artery of High Street. Nature is a residual aspect in an urban location. Parks are secondary spaces, carved out of the built environment as an escape that desperately need a quiet, healthy escape from the strains of urban life (Engels, 1998). As my understanding of the urban landscape that I reside in semi-permanently increases, so does my comprehension of the sub-rural landscape that defines Granville. Columbus epitomizes the urban landscape, while Granville is what every rural town aims to be. One is defined by what the other is not, and vice versa. As I analyze and learn about the rich and expansive history of Columbus, it makes me curious to learn more about the history of Granville. I am well aware of Granville’s historic value, but I had never really dug into the details of its formation and how its history has informed its present identity.
INVESTIGATION 1: HOME, THE SPACES AND TIMES OF | JOSHUA BAUMAN | LA 5630 | BENNETT | AU 13
SPACE-TIME THREE: The Founding of Granville [1805-]
DIGGING DEEPER
I had long known that Granville was settled by a group of New Englanders, as was apparent by the style of the main core of downtown. But if one simply pays closer attention when traversing the village, one can find a variety of Ohio Historical Markers scattered across the town. The Granville Historical Society is also an active advocate for the education of Granville’s roots (Granville Historical Society). Granville Historical Society. n.d. Driving Around Granville [Map], Retrieved September 8, 2013, from Granville Historical Society Museum.
A NEW VILLAGE Granville Historical Society. n.d. Ohio Survey [Map], Retrieved September 8, 2013, from Granville Historical Society Museum.
The history of the village begins with an expedition of men from Granville, Massachusetts and Granby, Connecticut venturing west in search of fertile land and new beginnings (as inspired by the successful settlement of Worthington, Ohio). Their expedition culminated in the creation of the Licking Company who purchased twenty-nine thousand acres of land within the central Ohio United States Military District. The site was chosen for its hills to the north and terrace above the Raccoon Creek, a branch of the Licking River. The village was officially settled in 1805, with the organization of the village around a public square with church lots, a school and library, and a quarry and burying ground on the periphery. A mill and grain fields defined the village’s first industry, and the town grew further from the formation of distilleries and later tanneries, sawmills, flour mills, salt works, and an iron furnace that were driven by the War of 1812. At this time, heavy industry seemed to be the future of Granville (Granville Historical Society).
INVESTIGATION 1: HOME, THE SPACES AND TIMES OF | JOSHUA BAUMAN | LA 5630 | BENNETT | AU 13 PHOTOGRAPH BY AUTHOR (2013)
PHOTOGRAPH BY AUTHOR (2013)
FOCUS ON EDUCATION
However, come 1825, the Ohio and Erie Canal bypassed Granville, as did the National Road, and manufacturing moved to these new transportation corridors, as Kevin Cox (2012) historically supports. This dashed the hopes of Granville becoming a leading manufacturing and commercial community, instead diverting their focus to educational excellence, founding The Granville Literary and Theological Institution in 1831 (later becoming known as Denison University in 1856) (Granville Historical Society). Another significant term of the founding is the development of the public square, which continues to be dominated on each of the four corners by four Christian churches, a defining organization prompting the continuing homogeneity, exclusivity and ignorance that defines Granville in present times.
Granville Historical Society. n.d. The Most Eligible Part [Map], Retrieved September 8, 2013, from Granville Historical Society Museum.
PHOTOGRAPH BY AUTHOR (2013)
The shift that occurred from manufacturing to education is one that tremendously accounts for its existence as a sub-rural village instead of an urban industrial powerhouse. In terms of the collapse of Midwestern manufacturing, Granville could have very likely been another city with vacated industrial districts, a depressed economy, and people moving away for improved prospects (Engels, 1998). However, the decision to pursue education has really defined the sustainability of Granville’s economic condition, allowing for a great consistency, something that many recognize as a major positive aspect for any hometown. This also prevented any immense expansion, something that allowed the retention of a small, sub-rural village identity (Marx, 2000, pg. 23).
AFTER EFFECTS
INVESTIGATION 1: HOME, THE SPACES AND TIMES OF | JOSHUA BAUMAN | LA 5630 | BENNETT | AU 13
WHAT IS “HOME”? HOME ? Synthesis and Final Analysis Throughout my investigation, I have come to several realizations regarding my understanding of the idea of home (arriving in Granville, my first space-time), my perception of the village of Granville (historically, my third space-time), and where I truly consider to be my home (my present connection between Columbus and Granville, by second space-time). The natural idea of home is wherever you are “from.” For me, I had long identified with Carmel, Indiana as home. However, it has been a long time since I identified with Carmel as home. Home for me is Granville, OH. It is where I completed most of my schooling. I grew from a little boy, though my adolescent and teenage years, and into an adult there. Most of my memories growing up have occurred within the geographic constraints of Granville. When I envision “home” I see a neighborhood with large houses and large lawns. It is a quiet, safe place where I feel comfortable. It is not completely ‘rural,’ as my home has basic utilities, paved roads, nearby schools, and consumer goods nearby. However, Granville is certainly not ‘urban,’ as it is very low density overall, with a population of less than five thousand (“Regional Census Results”, 2010), and large tracts of wilderness are more or less in-tact throughout the town (Marx, 2000, p. 14). Granville is not even necessarily sub-urban, as it lacks many of the modern amenities that come with urban life: there is a great distance between Granville and various entertainment venues, medical centers, transportation hubs, and any significant volume or variety of consumer goods. Granville truly is a sub-rural community, hosting the best of both ‘rural’ and more ‘urban’ worlds, accompanied greatly by the shrinking temporal boundary between it and Columbus via transportation advancement. Granville was founded on the idea of planning a community around its citizens and their needs. Granville’s industrial development was hindered by a lack of proximity to national infrastructure, and then edited to an education focus to maintain economic interests. The town grew with religious identity, education, and community development at its core. As history went on, education was maintained at the forefront of Granville’s interests, and the town that grew around it had to fit the demographic that could financially and culturally support education: the wealthier class, educated themselves, religious, and with strong cultural beliefs and community expectations. This is what formed Granville’s present environment, which is unfortunately hindered by homogeneity and materialistic residents. This city had the ability to close its reigns (much like the aristocracy of ancient Rome or Greece) to maintain its inner strength, preserve history, and influence a village consistency (Siff, 2012), and it took full advantage of this opportunity long ago in its history.
While I do not employ many of the pretentious and often ignorant ideologies of other residents of Granville, I accept the town as my geographical home. Granville is a beautifully preserved, historical central Ohio village whose sub-rural atmosphere, defined by low density, pristine environmental condition and overall safety, is what I accept as the defining attributes of my ‘home.’
“Regional Census Results” (2010). Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. Retrieved September 13, 2013, from http://arcgiswebadp1.morpc.org/ webmaps/census/index.html. Image manipulated by author. IMAGE RETRIEVED FROM BING MAPS (2013) & MANIPULATED BY AUTHOR Granville Historical Society. n.d. The Most Eligible Part [Map], Retrieved September 8, 2013, from Granville Historical Society Museum.
Barno, Maggie (2013). Welcome to Granville. Granville Magazine, 2013, 3. Cox, Kevin (2012) “Human Geography.” n.p. (draft manuscript) Engels, Frederick (1998) “The Great Towns”, The Condition of the Working Class in England, transcribed by Tim Delaney. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx /works/1845/condition-working-class/ch04.htm Granville Historical Society [Pamphet]. (n.d.). Mackindler, Sit Halford John (1907) “Economic Geography”, Britain and the British Seas, 329-340. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. Marx, Leo (2000). “Sleepy Hollow”, The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America, 3-33. New York: Oxford University Press. “Regional Census Results” (2010). Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. Retrieved September 13, 2013, from http://arcgiswebadp1.morpc.org/webmaps/census/ index.html Siff, Sarah Brady (2012) “From Karl Marx to Karl Rove: ‘Class Warfare’ in American Politics,” Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective 5 (12).