Glen Este, Ohio

Glen Este is an unincorporated area of Union Township, in Clermont County, Ohio.

History

Glen Este, Ohio is named for early resident David K. Este, who owned a farm near the intersection of Glen Este-Withamsville Road and the railroad tracks, State Route 32. He was an officer of the Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth Railroad and had a combination station and post office established on his land. The main road in town ran through the area of Donnell's Trace or old State Route 74, passing through a glen, hence the name.

The Glen Este post office was established in July 1878 with an insignificant sign on the door that read: "The Eastgate to Cincinnati". One hundred years later, the nickname "Eastgate" came to be a regional name for the area around Glen Este. The once thriving downtown district on the Cincinnati Batavia Pike, Old State Route 74 has since shifted somewhat to the Eastgate Shopping district near Interstate 275.

Glen Este is split by address and ZIP code; the west side still uses Cincinnati addresses and has ZIP code 45245, while to the east of Clermont Lane the addresses change to use Batavia addresses and the ZIP code 45103.

The community is also home to Glen Este High School.

Some of the businesses that were big from the 1940's through the 1970's were, Micky McQuire's General Store, Charlie McQuire's gas station and garage, Reeses Grocery Store, Pearl's Beauty Shop, which was owned by Willard and Pearl Pitman, and Tom Clepper Construction, who built most of the ranch-style slab homes in the area. This small community actually had three barber shops, of which one is still in existence. Len 'Red' Dickerson, who came from a large family in the area, still operates his barbershop across from old Jackson's Lake. Next to the lake is a log cabin that has been operating as a tavern under many different names for many different owners for over a hundred years. Native American arrow heads have been found embedded in the construction.

Geography/geology

Most if not all the rural farmland and vacant property owned by the Williams, the Culberstons, The Shepherds, The Aicholtzs, The Shalemans, the Seebohms and the McQuire brothers are currently zoned business and were replaced by francised restaurants and other businesses. All the homes in the original subdivision of Clepper Lane and Fayard Drive have been re zoned for business which will allow the already sprawling shopping area to spread even farther.On the north side of Old 74 the homes on Clermont Lane, Glen Este Lane, Tealtown Road and Glendale Road are still unscathed by the sprawl.

Glen Willow Lake, which straddles Glen Este and Willowville, has survived and can be seen from the back lot of Jeff Wyler Chevrolet. The much smaller Kennedy's Lake, an old pay lake, next to it was drained and an old airplane runway running to it was dozed away as new apartments and town homes were built at the old Kennedy estate. The private runway belonged to former resident in the 40's and 50's a Doctor Kennedy who kept a small plane at his home. Another private lake owned by the Williams was also drained to build the areas first Bigg's store in the mid 80s'. Wuebold Lake was the original name of the lake that Glen Este Junior and Senior High Schools surround however the name is long forgotten by most. The Wuebolds, another large farm family in the area, sold most of their property to make way for the construction of the high school in 1963.

Donnell's Trace

Donnell's Trace was a road already pathed out by a natural glen often used by the native-American Indians, and travelers including the Underground Railroad. John Donnells laid out the road in 1797 which started in Mercersburg (now Newtown) to Lytlestown (now Williamsburg)and later continued to Ohio's first capital, Chillicothe.

Notable residents

Baseball player Claude Owens attended Glen Este High School.

Claude Jayhawk Owens (born February 10, 1969 in Cincinnati, Ohio) was a Major League Baseball catcher who played a total of four seasons, spanning from 1993-1996. He was taken by the Colorado Rockies in the 1992 MLB Expansion Draft. Owens played his final game on September 28, 1996, as a member of the Rockies. He is currently the manager of the Minor League Chattanooga Lookouts.

Owens was a member of the inaugural Colorado Rockies team that began play in Major League Baseball in 1993.