WESTERVILLE, Ohio — City leaders in Westerville want to resurrect a piece of history that takes us back 60 years.
“Just that opportunity that we can tell our story,” said Christa Dickey, community affairs director of Westerville. “We can honor our history through what the shrine meant back in the 60s to what it means today to a new generation.”
In April, the city council was presented with a proposal that would build a replica of a Japanese Shinto Shrine, much like the one that once existed at the corner of West Plum and South State streets.
“I remember the bamboo,” said Westerville’s forestry Manager Adam Williams. “It just seemed like an old relic.”
That relic was the dream of George and Opal Henderson who had the shrine built in Okinawa, Japan and shipped to Westerville in 1964. The Hendersons lived in Japan during and after World War II when George was stationed there as a U.S. Army Intelligence officer.
“It's a love story of a family who loved their [Japanese] and brought it and introduced it to Westerville,” Dickey adds.
Prior to the shrine, the Hendersons built a Kyoto Tea House in 1958. Together, the buildings served as a bridge between two cultures, allowing kids and adults to tour and learn about a land they knew very little about.
“It was like a little museum,” said Karen Jiobu, a Japanese American who was part of a small group that tried to save the original shrine from demolition in 2002 when the Henderson land was sold.
“They had a lot of things that were brought,” Jiobu recalls. “They had a mannequin with a Kimono, they had paintings.”
The shrine was moved into storage for the past two decades. The plan is to incorporate some of the preserved pieces into the new shrine, wherever it is built.
Williams is hoping his forestry team can grow cherry trees cut from the Japanese Yoshino cherry trees that line the Tidal Basin in Washington DC. Those trees were a gift in 1912 from the Japanese emperor to then President Howard Taft and First Lady Nellie Taft, who were originally from Ohio.
“We’re trying to duplicate that, and have at least the same genetic line that originated from Japan,” Williams explained. “In order to preserve the history, I think it’s a must-have.”
The city of Westerville is looking at three possible locations: Astronaut Grove on West Main Street, Otterbein Lake on the Otterbein University Campus and the corner of Sunbury and County Line Roads.
Jiobu, who spent her early childhood years in a Japanese internment camp, says wherever the shrine ends up, she hopes it will break down the prejudices of the past, present and future.
“To start the tours again... I think that's what I would want,” Jiobu said.
Dickey agrees.
“It’s going to be about bringing people together to understand, educate and celebrate the culture,” she said.
Westerville is hoping to engage the public so they can provide their input and feedback on how they would like to see the shrine utilized.
There are two public sessions, June 13 and June 17 at the Westerville Community Center at 6 p.m. Between now and the end of the year, city leaders hope to secure funding for the shrine project.