Our History

Each Columbus Early Learning Center has a unique place in the history of our community. Among the oldest, if not the oldest centers for care of young children in Franklin County, the Centers have always been devoted to nurturing and educating very young children of low-income families.

National Connections – Local Dedication

In the late 1800s the Industrial Revolution took the U.S. and the world by storm. Every major city had electricity, factories were running 24 hours a day, railroads connected the big cities to the small towns and people moved from the country to the city in droves.

This new urban lifestyle brought many women out of the home and into the factories. Most were poor women – widowed, divorced or with unemployed or underemployed husbands. Most had children.

There was too much too fast. Slums in the cities were worse than ever and conditions on farms were not much better. People began to think there needed to be solutions to these problems.

There needed to be a way to regulate the conditions in tenements, to make sure milk and meat were safe and that children were taken care of, especially poor children. The Day Nursery Movement was a response to this need.

Columbus Early Learning Centers – Westside, Northside, Eastside and Broad Street Infant and Toddler Center were all created by members of our community dedicated to the care and education of very young children -

• 1887 – West Side Day Nursery Established at 65 South Fourth Street
• 1904 – Ohio Avenue Day Nursery is established on its current site 162 N. Ohio Ave.
• 1910 – North Side Day Nursery founded
• 1913 – North Side Day Nursery is incorporated
• 1917 – Present day Ohio Avenue Day Nursery Building erected at 162 N. Ohio Avenue through the Tuttle Fund, a legacy from Miss Catherine Tuttle
• 1923 – Mrs. William A. Miller donates land and cost for North Side Day Nursery Building on the current site at 94 E. Third Ave.
• 1927 – Mrs. Miller donates 3 lots and $75,000 for the West Side Day Nursery Building at 40 N. Grubb Street.
• 1934 – West Side and Ohio Avenue Day Nursery incorporate to form the West Side and Ohio Avenue Day Nurseries
• 1935 – Maude Wolfe (Mrs. Harry P. Wolfe) leads a capital campaign to erect a building “that will adequately take care of desired expansion owing to crowded conditions in the West Side Day Nursery.” The Mary Miller Lodge was completed in 1937 at a cost of $15,190
• 1954 – Three-level addition added to Ohio Avenue Day Nursery
• 1962 – Broad Street Infant and Toddler Center opened in Broad Street Presbyterian Church
• 2006 – Broad Street merges with Westside-Eastside Child Care Centers Association
• 2007 – Northside Child Development Center and Westside-Eastside Child Care Centers Association merge and form Columbus Early Learning Centers

A Tradition of Excellence

Interview with Betty Garbuglio and her mother, Geneva “Jean” (Barrett) Morrow

Born to Hungarian parents in Piedmont, West Virginia and raised in Corning, Ohio, Jean Barrett moved to Columbus and worked for Timken Roller Bearing until they discovered she was only 15 years old. Then she moved on to Federal Glass Company on the Southside, where she worked for several years. At 17, Jean married John Morrow. They raised three daughters, Betty, Ruth & Lee on Stanley Avenue on the City’s South side.

Both John and Jean needed to work to support their family. John was a contractor and often worked out of town. For a number of years, John’s mother cared for the children while Jean and John worked. In the late 1940s, early 50s Jean was working full-time for the Leighton Heel Company when a co-worker told her about the Westside Day Nursery.

Jean took Betty and Ruth to Westside, completed the paperwork and enrolled the girls in the full day program - $6.00 a week for both children. Every morning, rain or shine, Jean would get the girls dressed, fix breakfast and the three of them would take the bus from the South side to Franklinton. Jean would drop the girls off at Westside and walk the few blocks to her factory job.

Betty remembers that the Westside nurse was always on duty in the office just as you came in the front door. Children would check in everyday with the nurse before going to their classroom. She would check their throats and their heads to make sure they were well and able to attend school. After check-ups Jake, the Nursery’s handyman, would walk Ruth and the other school age children to Franklinton Elementary. He would meet them at the school at lunch time, walk them to Westside for lunch and then back to Franklinton and repeat the process at the end of the day.

Mrs. Hartley, the matron lived on the second floor of the center and classrooms were on the 1st floor. Children were not allowed on the 2nd floor. Betty said, at first she and her sister didn’t want to go to the Nursery, didn’t want to leave the comfort of their grandmother’s home, but then they began to make friends, learn new games, hear new stories and join in the birthday celebrations held for each child. Betty recalls that the center was like a basic kindergarten and that this is where she began to learn to read.

For more than 100 years, first as Westside Day Nursery and now as the Columbus Early Learning Centers at Westside, creating a nurturing learning environment where children can grow and develop the skills they need for success in school has been the center’s hallmark.

Betty Garbuglio has been with AEP for 30 years. She is the Senior Administrative Assistant to the Director of Corporate Communications, Teresa McWain. Betty volunteers as a mentor to a Starling Middle School student – sharing her love of learning and her warmth and caring with a child who needs someone to listen and to care.

Geneva “Jean” Morrow is a beautiful 96 years old. She has lived in a lovely apartment in Grandview since her husband’s death 28 years ago.

After her husband died, Jean wanted to learn to drive. Betty and her family gave Jean Driver’s Training from Lazarus as a Christmas gift. A first time driver at 65, Jean wasted no time. The family almost had to make an appointment just to see her.

Jean spent a lifetime working, raising a family and being involved with her many church activities. She worked 27 years at the Columbus Paper Box Company and retired 3 times at the age of 80 years old. Every time she’d retire the owners would ask her to come back.