Are you looking for a stocking stuffer or gift for family, friends, and/or neighbors? The Southwest Franklin County Historical Society has the perfect thing! We are offering a 2026 calendar that celebrates the semiquincentennial (America’s 250th birthday) and all that is Grove City.

In 1950 after North Korea invaded the South, an effort was made to organize a Civil Defense Ground Observer Program in Grove City out of fear of an aerial enemy attack. Howard Sigman agreed to allow the roof of his store to become an aerial observation post. There’s no evidence it was ever built. Sigman’s Red & White super market was the first with a self-serve refrigerated meat counter, later known as Sig’s Market.

After the high school opened in 1910, a basketball team was organized. The first floor had a hallway with iron posts so the boys created a basketball court between these posts stretching chicken wire at each end. There were frequent injuries, according to Grover Davis, a member of that first team. The earliest known team picture wasn’t taken until 1916.

If a student in grades 3-12 lives in your household, please go to www.swfchs.org and click on the Young Historians of Southwest Franklin County link.  This effort is intended to encourage interest and involvement in local history.  Students attending public, private or church schools or those homeschooled are encouraged to participate.

Before the arrival of cable television, rooftop antennas towered above homes throughout Grove City. The Haines Electric Company on Grove City Pike was first to install an antenna connected to a television set that towered 63 feet skyward in 1949. It received a signal from WLW-C (today WCMH) in Columbus. The station celebrated 75 years of service to the community in 2024.