A small town in the Rustbelt of Southwest Ohio. The Seat of Clark County.
Population: 150,000. Founded in the early 1800’s, Plainview sits on the
North end of a lowland valley that is criss-crossed by meandering rivers
and groves of Buckeye and Hawthorne.
It’s an old city, saturated by brick and stone structures and Gothic
churches. It was once a thriving community of the industrialization
period which sucked up 1000s of immigrants, mostly Polish, to work
the heavy manufacturing plants on the Southside. Most of those
buildings now idle and rusted, devastated by the work flow south,
foreign competition and modernization.
Plainview was established on the Cumberland trail, now known as
The National Road, the first Federally funded Interstate Highway in
America.The highway turns into Grosvenor Blvd as it enters Plainview.
Heritage Square features a Madonna of the Trail, one of the 12 statues
built by The Daughters of the American Revolution to recognize the
contributions of pioneer women. Dedicated by Harry S. Truman in 1927.
In Plainview, the BLUE LAWS, are still popular. Sundays are for worship.
Businesses (at least in downtown City Center) are mostly closed.
Alcohol is not permitted before 1pm.
In summer, the weather is hot and notoriously humid,
sudden showers are not uncommon and crickets rise into a cacophony of
chirping deep into the night. In 1983, Newsweek called Plainview
“The American Dream”.
There always was and still is only one high school.
The only new thing in Plainview is the Interstate Hwy.
That development devastated the commercial activity in downtown City Center.
The main intersection is Grosvenor Blvd and 5th, a focal point of the storyline
in this TV series.