Hooked on History: Storybook Lane remains beloved local Christmas tradition

From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, one of the highlights of the Christmas holiday season was a trip down East High Avenue in New Philadelphia to see Storybook Lane.

Storybook Lane was a collection of life-sized displays that told beloved Mother Goose nursery rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty, the Three Little Pigs and Little Miss Muffet. In later years, it was moved to Tuscora Park, where it continues as an important holiday tradition to this day.

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Storybook Lane originated in 1955 when Victor E. Marsh, a New Philadelphia businessman, came up with the idea of a Christmas display to delight children in the city, according to a history provided by the New Philadelphia Rotary Club, which now maintains Storybook Lane. Marsh was inspired by animated displays in the windows of department stores.

He convinced his neighbors on East High Avenue to be a part of the project.

The nursery rhyme characters were cut from quarter-inch Masonite material produced in the local plant founded by Marsh's family. The original artist for the project was William "Goose" Kniesner, formerly associated with Walt Disney Studios. The work was done in the evening in Herb Bischel's barn behind his East High Avenue home.

Just before Christmas in 1956, the 21 original characters were illuminated with floodlights in the front yards of houses in the 400 to 800 blocks of East High Avenue. About a dozen of the displays were animated. That first season, an estimated 200,000 people viewed Storybook Lane.

Each homeowner was responsible for maintaining, repairing, storing and erecting his or her display each year. Storybook Lane eventually grew to 27 displays.

Why did Storybook Lane move to Tuscora Park?

The display continued through the early 1970s until the state highway department asked residents not to put it up anymore because of the traffic congestion that it caused. So Storybook Lane was moved to Tuscora Park.

City employees assumed responsibility to display and store the characters. It continued to attract thousands of cars in the following years.

In 2001, Eleanor Kirk, daughter of Victor Marsh, asked the New Philadelphia Rotary to consider adopting Storybook Lane to restore the display to its original appearance.

Rotarian Kent Watson and Dick Stewart co-chaired the project. An assessment of the nearly 50-year-old characters found that many were in poor condition. Some were broken or had missing pieces. The original paint had faded, the wood was scratched, filled with holes or poorly repaired over the years.

Overall, 22 of the 27 original nursery rhyme characters still existed. They all needed work ranging from cosmetic touchup to complete restoration. All new lighting was required.

Kirk also suggested that the text of each nursery rhyme be added to the display to help children learn the stories to go along with the scenes.

Rotary members realized that the project was going to require a great deal of funding to purchase new materials, paint, wiring and fixtures. Businesses, organizations and individuals stepped up to help defray the costs. The Marlite Co. donated needed wood materials and Sherwin-Williams donated the paint. Several other local businesses agreed to help with materials and supplies at cost.

Rotary Club restores Storybook Lane characters

The figures were moved to Dick Stewart's garage where the restoration work would take place. Each of the figures was dismantled for cleaning. Holes were filled with epoxy and sanded.

Some nursery rhyme characters were missing entirely and had to be recreated from old black-and-white photographs taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s by Wayne Jackson of New Philadelphia. New motors and moving parts were added to the animated figures.

Celuch Creative Imaging in New Philadelphia assisted by developing the large storyboards for each display presenting the words to the nursery rhymes.

Mark Watson, brother of Kent Watson, was recruited as the project's artist to paint the repaired and rebuilt sections of the nursery rhyme characters.

Restoration work continued through the summer and fall months of 2002.

All of the pieces of Storybook Lane were moved to Tuscora Park on Dec. 16, 2002. There were a total of 23 displays ‒ including Little Red Riding Hood, which was started at a later time than the other displays but apparently was never finished.

Rotarians worked for the rest of the day putting the 23 displays in place along Lake Street in the park. Dick Stewart had worked out a diagram of where each figure was to be placed along the Storybook Lane route in the same order they appeared along East High Avenue.

Late that afternoon, the switch was flipped and all of the characters came to life.

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The Rotary Club invested about $7,000 in materials to rebuild and restore the 63 pieces of the displays, replace the lighting and produce the 23 storyboards. Since then, the displays have required the occasional replacement of damaged pieces, lighting fixtures and electrical motors. The ongoing investment by the Rotary Club has surpassed $50,000.

Thousands of vehicles filled with children and their parents continue to visit Tuscora Park to this day to enjoy a tradition that has gone on for more than 60 years.

Jon Baker is a reporter for The Times-Reporter and can be reached at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Storybook Lane in New Philadelphia is local holiday tradition