Growing up in Greenfield Heights

L  IMA — Greenfield Heights was built as a family neighborhood and remains so today.

Earnest Townsend is a former resident of the subdivision. His parents moved into a home on Cedar Street in 1961, the same year he was born. The house was at the edge of the wide field that is now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Center Park.

“We always used the field for all kind of activities,” Townsend said. “We used to have basketball, horseshoes, racing minibikes, whatever you name kids can do, we did it. We didn't ever have to leave our neighborhood to have fun. ... We were very close with all the neighbors out there.”

He went to Perry schools at first and, later, Lima schools.

“We wasn't really considered Perry Township in one way, and it wasn't considered the city,” he said. “We just was Greenfield Heights.”

Townsend is the youngest of nine children. His parents came north from Birmingham, Ala., and they encouraged other family members to join them.

“Mom mom and my dad, they was really good people,” Townsend said.

When family members arrived, they stayed at the little house on Cedar Street. An aunt and her six or seven children came. His father's niece and her seven children came. His parents took everyone in until they were on their feet and could secure housing of their own.

“We stayed in the house together, but we all got along,” Townsend said. “I don't know how they did it.”

Townsend's parents are now dead, but the house is still in the family. His daughter lives there.

“Actually, we were very blessed about it. God was good to us,” he said. “It feels good. I can go back home.”

Lima resident Albert Peterson grew up in Greenfield Heights and still lives there in the family home on Cedar Street. His parents, now dead, were the original owners and it passed to him.

Before the street was developed, the family lived on Bradfield Drive. Peterson was the youngest, moving when he was 4 years old in 1962. He said his mother had marked each box of the children's belongings with their names, so he remembers looking for boxes that bore his name. His parents would stay in that home for the rest of their lives.

“Our neighborhood, it's more family-oriented,” Peterson said. “Everybody kind of knows everybody, and most of the people that've been there over 50 years, they know each other. ... Even the ones that have moved away ... they'll still come back around to the neighborhood to see everybody.”

Peterson remembers the bus stopping at the corner of Fifth and Cedar streets, and the schoolchildren would have to gather at that spot.

“It's always been a bunch of kids in the neighborhood,” Peterson said.

That corner was also the gathering spot in the summertime, with children meeting there to play or visit. When darkness began to fall, that was the signal to head home.

“We had to be home before the streetlights come on,” Peterson said, chuckling at the old parental rules. “And there wasn't any street lights out there.”

Peterson also remembers neighborhood association picnics, with tents for the party set up where the new houses are on Chestnut.

“It's a great feeling, because you see a lot come and go,” Peterson said. “You see changes of the neighborhood, and you are a part of history. ... I would recommend everyone to go back there if they could. Because you can never forget where you come from.

“A lot of our parents, they struggled and sacrificed to purchase these homes, and it's up to us to keep the legacy going and to help keep the neighborhood a decent place and a safe place.”