By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Steve Grueninger, a Glendale historian, holds a bronze plaque marking the site of Tuckers Station, an 18th-century fort. (Gary Landers/The Cincinnati Enquirer)

GLENDALE - A large bronze plaque commemorating the site of an 18th-century fort called Tucker's Station, near the border of Woodlawn and Glendale, disappeared five years ago during road construction.

The missing plaque, which had been posted at the intersection of Glendale-Milford Road and Glendale Avenue, had baffled Woodlawn and Glendale officials. Periodic searches turned up nothing.

Now Stan Grueninger, a Glendale resident and a local history buff, has tracked it down.

Unknown to current Woodlawn and Glendale officials, some Woodlawn employees had taken the plaque to the village's warehouse for storage during the intersection expansion.

At some point, Woodlawn gave the plaque to the Landmark Baptist Temple on Glendale-Milford Road for safekeeping. The church's historical committee originally placed the plaque at the site in 1966.

Landmark Baptist officials looked for the plaque, but couldn't find it. Then a church official recently called Grueninger to tell him he had found the plaque in an outbuilding on the church property.

"This was quite a mystery," Grueninger said. "But it was right in this area all the time."

"I about fell over when I heard the plaque had been found," Glendale Mayor Thomas Todd said.

The plaque is being housed temporarily at the Glendale Heritage Preservation Museum. It will be given back to Woodlawn when village officials decide where to place it.

Henry and Mary Tucker, among Ohio's first pioneers, founded Tucker's Station in 1792, south of Glendale-Milford Road and east of Wayne Avenue in what is now Woodlawn. Completed in 1794, the fort was built for protection against Indian attacks. The settlers also held religious services there. The same settlers built the Springfield Baptist Church in 1798 a short distance away. That church evolved into the Landmark Baptist Temple.

The plaque's former site is in the middle of industrial development.

"We're seeking a spot that is going to be convenient to get to, but close enough to the original site that it has meaning," said Woodlawn Mayor Raymond Terrell.

"I'm just glad we got it," said Glendale Village Manager Walter Cordes. "History is too easily lost."

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com