Our town: Rathbone
Neighborhood close to essentials for daily living
JANELLE PATTERSON The Marietta Times Muskingum Barbershop owner Paula Bigley cuts the hair of Caiden Henderson, 8, of Lowell, Friday, in the Rathbone neighborhood of Marietta.
ANELLE PATTERSON The Marietta Times The sun sets behind the historic Edgewater house owned by Bernita Freimann Friday.
JANELLE PATTERSON The Marietta Times Muskingum Barbershop owner Paula Bigley cuts the hair of Caiden Henderson, 8, of Lowell, Friday, in the Rathbone neighborhood of Marietta.
ANELLE PATTERSON The Marietta Times The sun sets behind the historic Edgewater house owned by Bernita Freimann Friday.
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Editor's note:
This is the seventh in a series about Marietta's neighborhoods.
Next: Harmar Hill
In the northernmost point of Marietta there sits the neighborhood of Rathbone.
Seen as the entrance from the county on the eastern side of the Muskingum River the area is known for its large post-World War II houses, easy walk to Marietta High School and proximity to both a local grocer and the hospital.
"It's an area where you still get a good yard size while still being in the city," said Bernita Freimann, who owns the Edgewater house at the top of Waldo Street. The house historically owned by Ralph H. Dick, owner of the Marietta Safe Company, and Dr. Robert Rudolph, a prominent physician in Marietta.
"Conveniences of the IGA up the road, close proximity to the interstate and to work were all draws and the walkability to the high school too," said Freimann.
Other businesses located in the area include a nail spa, massage parlor and barbershop on Muskingum Drive and a car wash, Wendy's, car repair shop, two gas stations and a branch of Chase Bank.
"I've been here for 19 years," said Muskingum Barbershop owner Paula Bigley. "When I was looking for a spot this was open and because it was on a busy street it's been good to us."
Bigley said she gets much of her business from the residents of the neighborhood but also draws from high school students and from the traffic of the state route.
"Almost everybody that lives nearby comes here, then a lot of people from Devola, Lowell, Beverly and Whipple do too because it's on the way home," she said. "We've seen a lot of businesses come in and out (of the strip mall) even a church and an appliance repair shop. But the Wendy's across the street has been a lifesaver for us when we're busy but hungry."
For Touchless Shine Car Wash owner Frank Lang, traffic from both the residential community and the state route has made the neighborhood a prime location in just over 20 years.
"The self-serve is more used by the residents and the automatic by that state route traffic," he explained. "We just put in all new vacuum islands and we're getting ready to repave in the spring. We upgrade every couple of years to keep up with technology and I've put in credit card swipes at the self-serve bays… I think that the Rathbone area has fit the bill well for the car wash since we built it in 1995."
And though both Lang and Bigley noted the two times the road has been widened and the challenge of crossing traffic on the busy Muskingum Drive they both said the street has been good for business while keeping the small-community feel.
But there's also the challenge of drainage, particularly with many homes on Rathbone Lane, Rathbone Terrace and the surrounding residential roads at bottoms of hills.
"That's been an issue for over 40 years but each time we apply for grants we've not qualified," said Councilman Steve Thomas, who represents the neighborhood as part of the city's third ward. "We've had run off when the rains have been heavy and the drains get plugged up. That has even flooded some basements but some curb work and even crack sealing this year has helped that."
He said other proposals have been floated for the placement of rain gardens to help with drainage in the area, but thus far the challenge has been funding with a tight city budget and the neighborhood not qualifying for income-based federal aid.
The corner of the city is also home to several county and state offices including the Ohio State University Extension Office, Ohio Department of Transportation District 10 office, the Washington County Board of Elections, Washington County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Washington County Children Services, and WASCO Inc., which all sit below the Marietta High School hill.
Peggy Byers, deputy director of the board of elections, recalled the reasoning behind moving the county office out to Davis Avenue three years ago.
"It gave us more handicapped accessibility as absentee voting has increased," she said. "Plus more parking for that increased early voting as well. This space in the basement of children services was really empty at the time and so it allowed us to move not only our office here but also all of our Election Day equipment into one location. I think it's worked out nicely."
At a glance
Rathbone Neighborhood
¯ Median Real Estate Value: $130,710.
¯ Average Rental Cost per month: $799.
¯ Vacancy: 18.3 percent.
¯ Employment/economics:
¯ Median Household Income: between $34,000 and $40,227.
¯ Residents employed: 33.5 percent.
¯ 34.2 percent work in sales and service jobs.
¯ Children living below federal poverty line: 26.2 percent.
¯ Ancestry:
– 24.8 percent German.
– 4.2 percent Scot-Irish.
– 2.3 percent Welsh.
– 68.7 percent mix/other.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.