Development of Glendale Excerpted From 

"Glendale, Ohio, Architecture Survey Report," March 2007

By Beth Sullebarger 

In the 1850s, the land where Glendale now lies was a "series of fine cultivated farms, belonging to Edmund R. Glenn, John M. Cochran, John Riddle, Robert Watson and others". Wealthy Cincinnatians also owned summer homes nearby. The land was "beautiful rolling country" with two creeks and excellent drainage.

The village owes its founding to the completion in 1851 of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton (CH&D) Railroad, the first line to be built through northern Hamilton County.

In 1851 a group of 30 men, among them Hons. S. S. L'Hommedieu and John C. Wright, Messers. Jacob Strader, Richard W. Keys, James K. Wilson, and R. B. Bowler, formed a joint stock company called the Glendale Association. They purchased about six hundred acres of land, primarily from Glenn, Riddle, Watson and others, "which was subdivided into lots and laid out into streets and parks by Robert C. Phillips, surveyor and civil engineer of Cincinnati. The subdivision was called Crawford's and Clark's Subdivision of Glendale, so called because the trustees of the association were Crawford and Clark".  At the time there were only four residences on the property, including those of E. R. and James Glenn.