Before 19 N. Center St. was a bustling business center, it was repurposed through many eras – from grocery store to Italian restaurant.
Pickerington Historical Society
The storefront was built in 1929 as a boarding stable, Hanna’s Livery Stable, until Charlie Exline bought it in 1938, making it Patrick & Exline Grocery.
The grocery store began operation in the summer of 1936, when Exline bought a grocery business from Ben Cocanour, located in a building between the train depot and 28 N. Center St., that has since been replaced. In 1938, the business moved across the street to 19 N. Center St., where it operated until 1965 as a community hub for what was, at that time, a small village.
“It was a small community back then. We were a farm community,” says Exline’s granddaughter, Patsy Woodruff. “There wasn’t anyone that you didn’t know. Everybody knew everybody.”
Pickerington Historical Society
Next to the grocery store was Florence Blaine’s Beauty Parlor, and in the center section of the building was a coffee shop which served Islay’s Ice Cream.
Working at the grocery store was a family affair, and Woodruff recalls some of her earliest memories include climbing into the candy case to get candy for customers. As Woodruff grew up, she transformed from candy clerk to babysitter, carrying children on her hip as parents shopped.
Her mother and father handled bills, customers and banking. The mayor at the time, Otto Ebright, who served from 1930 to 1950, also worked part-time at the store.
The store ran on an early store credit system where customers kept a running tab in a physical ledger, making payments periodically to reduce their balance.
While the first floor was dedicated to the grocery store, the second floor was used as a meeting place for community groups such as the Grange, Boy Scouts, the Independent Order of Oddfellows (IOOF) and the Melrose Rebekah Lodge.
Pickerington Historical Society
After Patrick & Exline Grocery closed, the space housed a range of restaurants. These included Maroni’s, an Italian restaurant owned by Steve Maroni, and Park Alley Tavern, owned by Dan Heitmeyer, who used the second floor as an event space and added a balcony, as well as The Village Crepe and Chef T’s.
Although the grocery store only encompassed 19 N. Center St., the restaurants expanded to encompass the full 19-23 N. Center St. block, combining multiple storefronts into a single space.
In 2020, the building was turned into a business incubator called Cultivate. The space was bought by Vanny Loch a few years later and renamed Pickerington Business Center, and in late 2025, the second floor was converted back to an event space.
Megan Brokamp is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mbrokamp@cityscenemediagroup.com.
