1550 Clifton Avenue
May Elizabeth Cook Studio

Lot 7 Smith's Woodland Park Addition

The Smiths sold this property to Josie Fuller on October 13, 1904 for $800. Fuller sold the property to Leopold and Lillie B. Mohr. Josie M. Fuller (born October 1886) was Leopold Mohr's stepdaughter.

Leopold Mohr also bought lot 43, 1567 Granville Street, in 1905 from the Smiths, and lot 6, 1544 Clifton Avenue, in 1907. 

Gertrude D. Ritter purchased the property for $925 from Lillie B. Mohr on April 18, 1910. 

Gertrude Adelaide Divine Ritter was a patron of the arts and perhaps the primary patron of May Elizabeth Cook. Mrs. Ritter was President of the Columbus Art Association, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts from 1911 to 1921.

The Ritters lived at 1453 East Broad Street in 1910. William Ritter was a lumber dealer, owner of the W.M. Ritter Lumber Co. In 1910 the Ritters first agreed to divorce and Mr. Ritter had given Mrs. Ritter $600,000 in cash before departing to Switzerland to get a divorce. They reconciled, but Mrs. Ritter seems to have retained the $600,000. 

William McClellan "Uncle Mac" Ritter (February 19, 1864 - May 21, 1952) was born in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, was one of West Virginia’s most prominent lumbermen. Having learned the lumber business on his father’s Pennsylvania farm, he began a logging operation in Mercer County, West Virginia in 1890. He was successful and, in addition to harvesting timber for others, soon set up his own mills. His operations included Mercer, McDowell, and Mingo counties, as well as Buchanan County, Virginia, and Pike County, Kentucky.

Ritter incorporated as the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company in 1901 and expanded his operations into Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. He first used circular-saw mills but changed to much larger band-saw mills, including a double band mill operation at Maben, Wyoming County. During World War I, Ritter moved his primary residence from Welch to Washington, where he served on the War Industries Board as an advisor to Chairman Bernard Baruch. In addition to his lumber interests, Ritter owned and operated coal companies and railroads in Virginia and West Virginia, including the Red Jacket Coal Company near Matewan in Mingo County. In 1907, the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of peonage ( involuntary servitude of laborers having little control over their employment conditions). Ritter, on behalf of his company, entered a guilty plea and paid a fine on the charges.

Ritter’s later life was spent in Washington, from where he directed his many business interests. In 1924, he made national headlines by sharing $3 million in Ritter company stock with his employees. Ritter was married twice. When he died as the result of complications from a stroke, he was survived by his wife, Anita Bell Ritter, and a foster son, Paul D. Ritter. He was buried in a family cemetery in Hughesville, Pennsylvania.

Gertrude Adelaide Divine was born in 1872 in DeKalb County, Illinois, daughter of Richard L. and Susan S. Smith Divine. She died March 30, 1947 in Phoenix, Arizona and is buried at Elmwood Cemetery in DeKalb County, Illinois.  

On August 9, 1922 the property was transferred to May E. Cook from the Ritters. 

There was a "Agreement of Indenture" noted to in the deed in March 1910 to allow for the construction of May's art studio. (The original deed specified that a house costing no less than $3,000 be built on the lot, and no business establishments.) After May bought the studio in 1922, she added living quarters. The home and former studio was torn down about 1958, though you can still see the outlines of the foundations of the large kiln and studio on the lot.

Mary Elizabeth "May" Cook was born December 31, 1863 in Chillicothe, Ohio, daughter of William Alexander and Anna Sappington Cook.

A sculptor, lithographer and designer for Roseville Pottery in Zanesville, Ohio, May Cook studied in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academy Colarossi. She was a member of the National Sculpture Society, the American Ceramic Society and the National Art Club.

May first lived at 1298 Bryden Road in 1910. Once she had her studio established she moved in with her brother William S. Cook at 1546 Richmond Avenue.

In December 1915, she had an exhibition of sculpture in the sculpture court at the Toledo Museum of Art. A list of the items exhibited reveals May's relationship to the Ritters as well as some other Columbus residents who had been immortalized in sculpture. 

The exhibition included a portrait sketch of Mrs. William McClellan Ritter, portrait of Emilius O. Randall of 257 Woodland Avenue, portrait of George W. Stevens, "Lucette" loaned by Mrs. Ritter, a replica of "Diana" owned by Professor and Mrs. Edward Orton, Jr., "Le Chanteur " a portrait of Mr. Cecil Fanning of 944 Franklin Avenue, Marie Andrews - daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frame Brown,  Louise - daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Karl Burr of 35 South Champion Avenue, portrait study of Mrs. Robert Duncan wife of the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney, a replica of "Hermes" owned by Mrs. William Fields, a replica of "Pan" owned by the Ritters, and Karl - son of Mr. and Mrs. Elias M. Poston of 240 Woodland Avenue. 

A contemporary article noted that May studied under Paul Bartlett in Paris and that she had also been represented in the Exhibition Internationale, Paris, Panama Exhibition of Women Sculptors, New York Federation of Arts and the National Museum, Washington, D.C.

In 1918, she enlisted in the Army's Women Volunteers and became involved with the rehabilitation of soldiers with facial injuries from World War I. She developed a method of creating a ceramic mask of the injured face and then developed models for the surgeons to work by to do the reconstructive surgery.

Exhibition venues included the Paris Salon where she was recognized for the 600 life masks she did during World War II for facial reconstruction of injured soldiers.

Her involvement went far beyond the mere technical aspects of the work. For example, she devised ways to get the patients involved in making pottery and other ceramics to assist them in their rehabilitation. Much of the work was done at her own expense and she was never repaid by the U.S. Government.

In the 1924 City Directory, Sadie E. Stimmel is listed as residing at 1550 Clifton Avenue. Sadie is probably Sarah E. Stimmel, born June 19, 1869, daughter of John and Nancy E. Stimmel. Sadie was a school teacher. She died August 10, 1948 and is buried at Greenlawn Cemetery.

The 1930 Census has a note that Miss Cook "maintains a home in New York City and (was) enumerated there."

May is probably most known in Columbus for her creation of the "Peter Pan" figure, part of the George Peabody Munson Memorial Fountain located in front of the Main Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. She also created bronze bas-relief sculptures and designed the bronze portraits of Presidents Hayes, Garfield and Harding; and Supreme Court Justices Swayne, White and Woods in the Grand Concourse of the Ohio Judicial Center.

May created a drinking fountain and a figure of a young girl kneeling that were at Mack Hall at the Ohio State University in 1958.

She also created a marble sculpture of a boy at a fountain that was at Columbus Children's Hospital in 1958.

In 1943, she was injured in a fall from a scaffold and spent much of the remaining years hospitalized until her death.

The studio of May Cook was cleared out during the winter of 1943 as the artist lay in St. Anthony's Hospital with a broken hip. Mrs. D.S. Cook (May's sister-in-law) attempted this most insurmountable task. Her daughter noted that humor saved her sanity, seeing the funny side of many serious circumstances and occurrences.

In 1951, May lived at 1450 Hawthorne Avenue.

May died in Columbus on April 4, 1951. 

On April 12, 1944 the studio went to Sheriff's Sale. $2,122 was owed by May E. Cook, et al to Home Owners Loan Corporation of Washington DC.

On November 2, 1944 Jessie L. Tifft bought the studio from Home Owners Loan Corporation.

George Edmond Tifft, Jr. was born June 5, 1889 in Morehead, Kansas

In 1917, he was proprietor of a music store at 581 East High Street. His WWI Draft Registration card said that he had been a Private in the Kansas National Guard, which he had been dismissed from for poor eyesight.

In 1930, the Tiffts lived in Mount Sterling, Ohio. George was a mausoleum salesman. In 1949, the Tiffts lived in Upper Arlington and George was a reltor.

On October 27, 1954, Blanche Bivens bought the property. She lived at 1567 East Long Street. 

The studio was torn down about 1955.

Blanche was the mother of Orris Mays. On June 5, 1957 she transferred the property to Orris' wife, Wyrelene S. Mays.

Blanche West was born in Georgia in 1894, daughter of John B. and Ida Nelson West. She married J.B. Mays about 1913. They had three children, Doris (December 24, 1914 - March 3, 1969), Inez V. (July 29, 1915 - September 26, 2003) and Orris A.

Blanche married James Bivens in Franklin County on July 2, 1927. James was born April 14, 1896 in Georgia, son of Lawson and Smithy Dawson Bevins. They had a daughter, Viven (Vivien) (1928) and a son (miscarriage) on March 25, 1929. James died between 1942 and 1953. 

From 1951 to 1953, Blanche was matron at the Spring Street YMCA.

Orris Alvin Mays was born September 18, 1918 in Griffin, Georgia, son of J.B. and Blanche West Mays. He married Wyrelene Maurine Strozier in Franklin County on November 24, 1944. Wyrelene was born October 22, 1922 in Newnan, Georgia, daughter of Robert and Maurine Couch Strozier.

In 1957, the Mays lived at 451 Mt. Vernon Avenue. Orris was a real estate broker with his own company and offices at 451 Mt. Vernon Avenue. Wyrelene ran Mays Nursing Home. They lived at 1567 East Long Street.

Blanche died in 1976. Orris died August 25, 2000 in Columbus. Wyrelene died October 2, 2011. They are buried at Union Cemetery.

On December 22, 1959 the Alice Realty Co, Inc. bought the property. They sold it on March 5, 1980 to Carmen E. Cooper Walker.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1922, 1550 Clifton Avenue.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1950, 1550 Clifton Avenue. An addition has been made to the front of the building as well as a second story.

1550 Clifton Avenue, May 2013, showing remaining foundation of kiln and studio.

"Peter Pan" in front of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, created in 1927, unveiled in 1928.

Girl with Butterfly. Inscribed 'M E Cook Sc. 1927' and 'Roman Bronze Works N-Y-' (on the base) bronze with weathered patina 37¾ in. high. Sold at auction in 2000 for $4,935.

Molly Brown, plaster bust, circa 1914.
Molly Brown Caren Fisher (1913-2005)

Bronze Turtle fountain signed "M E COOK 1927", 53½in. high, brown extensively rubbed patina, traces of verdigris. Sold at auction in 1995 for $8,625.

Gertrude Ritter, Paul Ritter, and Susan Divine, mother of Mrs. Ritter. taken in 1913 at 1453 East Broad Street.

William McClellan Ritter, December 1924

Lancaster Eagle Gazette, October 22, 1958