Grandview Heights Moment in Time

Wayne Carlson
·2 min read
The Gloria Club is shown with the restaurant on the left and the club section on the right. This inset photo shows Sam Delewese at the door leading from the restaurant to the night club with his signature cigar and six Gloria staffers. Delewese owned the business with his brother, Rocco, and brother-in-law Guy DeVictor, husband of their sister Donata. The photos above the door are Gloria employees and the sons of Delewese and DeVictor, who were in the service. Many of the waitresses also were family members.

The Gloria Club, or Gloria Night Club, was on Riverside Drive, near the corner of Trabue Road.

Originally called the Gloria Barbecue, it was started in 1924 by brothers Sam and Rocco Delewese and brother-in-law Guy DeVictor, who was married to sister Donata. The building was expanded in 1926 to hold about 100 people and the name was changed to the Gloria Night Club. A year later, a dance hall was added, and the building continued to expand and be remodeled until the late 1950s.

Sam Delewese died in 1955, and Rocco’s sons, Frank and Aldo Delewese, took over the club, and it remained a family effort for many more years.

Frank’s daughter, Lucia, described the club in a CityScene magazine article. She reported that the building sat on the northwest corner of Trabue and Riverside Drive, and extended to where El Vaquero and the Bob Evans restaurant new are located. Parking was both in front of and behind the building.

The left half of the building had a large horseshoe-shaped bar with booths and tables for casual drinking and dining. A more formal dining area was to the right and behind the booths. Doors in this area led into a large back room. It was set up with a huge floor, part of which came out of the ground for floor shows. Behind the floor was a tiered red velvet bandstand, and to the sides of the floor were tiered areas with tables. The back room could accommodate about 500 and was used for dances, entertainment, banquets and weddings.

For many years, the night club was a destination for famous acts, such as The Four Freshmen, Dean Martin and many big bands and jazz bands. In the 1960s, the Gloria became known for hosting teen dances and college night concerts with local bands, such as the Dantes, the Electras, the Ravens and the Majestics.

Fire destroyed the Gloria about 1969, and the property on which it was located was divided into three lots. The restaurant part of the club was rebuilt on one of the three lots as an Italian restaurant, and a Mobil Oil gas station was constructed on the corner. The Gloria remained in business until 1993. The gas station was later converted to a diner, the Skyward Grille, that was operated by Lucia's goddaughter, Jennifer, and her husband, Mike Ratliffe. The building also was used to house Skyward’s mobile cart and catering operations. They leased the building to Domino’s Pizza in 2016 while maintaining the catering and grill cart business.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Grandview Heights Moment in Time