“Memory Lane” might not be a memory for all that much longer.

Clintonville Historical Society president Mary Rodgers announced last week that a grant application had met with success.

The $1,800 from the Scotts Miracle-Gro Community Gardens Fund at the Columbus Foundation represents only a small portion of what Rodgers estimates will be a $10,000 project to restore what was once a stirring memorial to local soldiers fallen in World War II, but it’s a step in the right direction, she said.

“I am so excited,” Rodgers said. “I can’t wait to get started on that because I think it will be a fabulous restoration.”

The original Memory Lane actually predates World War II, according to a presentation Rodgers gave to historical society members in April. When a new bridge was built across the Olentangy River at West North Broadway in 1939, Clintonville Woman’s Club members joined other local groups in the dedication ceremony.

“The bridge was a traffic solution to congestion on Indianola (Avenue) and High Street.” Rodgers told ThisWeek in advance of her April program on Memory Lane.

Later, officers with the Woman’s Club decided to embark upon a civic beautification project on the extended West North Broadway; the street had previously ended 400 feet short of the river.

Initially, according to Rodgers, this took the form of planting flowering crabapple trees and installing bronze plaques honoring prominent local citizens.

With the attack on Pearl Harbor causing the United States to enter the war, the purpose of Memory Lane was shifted to honor Clintonville residents who perished in the conflict.

By 1946, 110 plaques bearing the names of the fallen were in place beneath crabapple trees that extended from the seven-year-old bridge all the way across North High Street to East North Broadway.

When planning for construction of state Route 315 began in the 1970s, Rodgers said the memorials, particularly those just east of the bridge, were in the way.

An Eagle Scout and members of the Kiwanis Club of Northern Columbus collected all of the plaques, which were placed in Union Cemetery. They’re still there, under a flagpole and maintained by current Kiwanians.

“It’s probably good that they have a home at Union Cemetery where no traffic can ever move them,” Rodgers said back in April. “In some cases, this is the only marker for these gentlemen.”

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. established the fund at the Columbus Foundation in 2002 “to support a wide range of ‘brown to green’ projects in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods,” according to a press release on the foundation’s website.

“Since 2002, the outreach initiative has helped create and sustain gardens in many central Ohio communities,” the press release states. “Working in partnership with Franklin Park Conservatory, Scotts Miracle-Gro also provides gardening education support to area gardeners.”

“Now that we’ve received word about the grant we’ll have to do more local fundraising,” Rodgers said.

She added that she hopes to use donated materials from personal gardens in Clintonville. As part of the award, Scotts Miracle-Gro will be donating “a significant amount of mulch” for the project, Rodgers said.