Mural Book Now Available
Come Home and Remember
This book presents 50 of my murals of East Liverpool, OH and the surrounding area, along with accompanying text. Painted over a twenty-five year period, the book contains beautiful full-color reproductions of notable sights and places from a by-gone era: schools, potteries, restaurants, businesses, scenery, parks, and many more.
by Mary L. Tambellini and Craig Wetzel
77pp, 9 x 12,” alk paper, full color with fold-outs
Signed by the artist. $25.00
Now available for purchase through my Etsy store. E. Liverpool area residents may wish to contact me directly, unless you enjoy paying shipping costs.
Our Covered Bridge
There is no better introduction to a town than through a covered bridge. The car rises, you enter the shade, the bridge rattles and shakes as only a wooden bridge can do, and then you pop into the sunlight and the town is suddenly in view, Sammy Blue’s Bait Shack immediately to the left. with Doc Ghesslet’s office straight ahead, partially visible through the Sycamore trees. Built in 1883 (more…)
Inspiration: Robert McCloskey
I was at Sotty’s the other evening having 
dinner with Happy & Abigail, when the subject turned to favorite books from our childhood. Happy is a voracious reader who must have some manner of print before him at all times, whether he’s reading Don Quixote or the tail end of a ketchup bottle, so he’s an enthusiastic participant in any discussion of books and reading. As we talked about some of the books that thrilled us as children, Happy contended that those particular books have more influence than any others we may happen to read afterwards, though he conceded that the influence may sometimes be subtle, so that we’re unaware
Keen’s Gas Station
From the Imaginactory Archives
This gas station, the first and only one in town, was owned by Ebenezer Keen (Nippy Keen’s grandfather) and located on Sycpen Rd., just before the Pennsylvania line. It has been in continuous operation since 1920 and is currently owned by Ed Hotchkiss, though it’s still known as Keen’s. Ebenezer Keen supposedly operated a still in the rear during prohibition. The Keen farm is on the same side of the road, just to the left of the photo.
Announcing Our New Podcast
We are pleased to announce the upcoming “This Week in Sycamore Shadows History,” a weekly podcast beginning in October. Each Sunday evening at 8 pm we will present a short audio program highlighting some of the wonderful history, news, and folklore of our unusual town.
To learn more about the town where no one needs an address, the fish always bite, and buildings are never demolished, listen each week. All episodes will be available on the podcast page of this web site, or you may download / subscribe by clicking the Podbean logo. You will also be able to find us on iTunes. Thank you for your continued support.
View From Laughlin’s Bridge
This photo was taken in the 1920s from “Laughlin’s Bridge,” looking downstream on Little Beaver Creek, about a mile from the Ohio River. On the flat to the right was located the town of Little Beaver Bridge and just upstream was the original covered bridge built in 1806, reportedly the first in Ohio, for what it’s worth. Because dams have raised the level of the river, and by extension this part of the creek, the rocks in this photo are no longer visible.
Sycamore Shadows Historical Marker
I carry a camera with me wherever I go and though I am no photographer, I do snap an interesting photo on occasion. This sign is located at “the bend” just before the covered bridge and the town come into view. Outsiders will often stop and read the sign, then invariably look around and scratch their chins, wondering where the place is, eventually concluding it no longer exists. Two minutes later they round the bend and the town pops up, sort of like driving through the tunnel into Pittsburgh, except it’s prettier. I’m supposed to paint the sign, which isn’t as old as it looks, but don’t know when I’ll get to it. I keep telling people that sign painters might be artists, but not all artists are sign painters.
The Ohio Mermaid
I enjoy looking through old newspapers, books, and periodicals, especially when they relate to the area in which I live, so I was delighted to find this article in an old Lisbon, Ohio newspaper. I was already familiar with John Bever,
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Sycamore Shadows, Ohio
My best friend Ssnuff bought me three Moleskine sketchbooks for Christmas one year. He didn’t buy them to be nice, though; he said he was just sick of me doodling and drawing on his stuff, and on his wife’s stuff, and I concede he was right that time. I should’ve turned it over before I started drawing the pig. (more…)
Cramer’s Navigator
Cramer’s Navigator was the GPS of the early 19th Century; the essential guide to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for travelers before the age of steam and continues to be a valuable source of information about the natural appearance of the Mississippi River & Ohio River drainage before the encroachment of civilization. (more…)
William Sanderling and the Lowly Sheep
My triple-great grandfather William Sanderling was a sheep farmer in the mid-19th century. His stock was directly descended from Thomas Jefferson’s sheep, which he bought from George Washington, who had received them as a gift from the Marquis De Lafayette. So they were French sheep. William Sanderling gave up farming after becoming a successful songwriter, made a wagon load of money at it, and eventually built a whopping big music store where Hibb’s Dept. Store is now located. Known as Sanderling’s Wonderful Music Emporium, at one time it was one of the largest music stores in the country and sold instruments from violins to banjos as well as sheet music of his spirituals, which were shipped to all corners of the earth except for Islamic countries. Many of the church tunes you’ve had stuck in your head, if you go to church enough for them to stick, were written by William Sanderling. Find yourself singing a hymn one Sunday morning with a sheep metaphor in the lyrics? It‘s likely one if his, for he may have left the sheep but the sheep never left him. (more…)
