A nice look back on the wooden structures of the good old
Oaklandon Play Park of days gone by...

I was performing a Yahoo search of the web using the keywords "Oaklandon" and "History" and several pages deep into the results I was rewarded with a link to "American Dirt" a blog maintained by Eric McAfee and purporting to offer "Observations of Contemporary Landscapes - An Amature Lens and a Semi-Professional Eye."

The particular article of interest is titled "MONTAGE: Small town in the big city." In this piece Eric M. turns his lens toward several of the more obscure "historic rural enclaves in Marion County" wherein he explores Mars Hill, Maywood, Mickleyville, Lynhurst, Bridgeport, Flackville, Snacks, University Heights, Oaklandon and Julietta. Posted to the internet on December 31, 2009 many of the Oaklandon photos presented are already of historical significance and the pertanant section of the story is readily embraced by this website and is reproduced below with the very  gracious permission of the author.

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Oaklandon

As far northeast as you can get and still be in Marion County, the community of Oaklandon retains a considerable number of old commercial buildings, at the intersection of Pendleton Pike and Oaklandon Road. Most of the heart of the community focuses on its intersection of Oaklandon Road with an old Conrail line. It is one of the less obscure rural enclaves, and it’s surrounded by suburbia to the north, east, and west.

 

The majority of this community appears very well-maintained and preserved—particularly remarkable considering it sacrificed any political autonomy it might have had, after 1970’s Unigov.

Bad weather and the encroaching dusk prevented me from taking more lingering photos.

The community organized itself enough to dedicate and build a pocket park at the foot of the old water tower.

This blurry Unitarian Universalist church is one of several in the area that reference Oaklandon in its name.

The small-town character dissolves rapidly into suburbia on the north side of the railroad tracks, though the heavily-skylighted structure in the background clearly dates from Oaklandon’s origins as an old rail stop.