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A rare photo of Blivin Street looking south from the train tracks shows Spring Grove around 1910, a time when traveling from one town to another took a lot longer…a time before 1933 when a new “durable, hard surfaced road” from Fox Lake to Richmond called Route 60 (today's Route 12) was built. The new modern route would be built in-between the two houses on the right, with one house being south of the new route and one being north of it.
The new route would make it much faster to get to Richmond instead of zigzagging your way there on dirt roads and included plans for a new bridge over Nippersink Lake to get to Fox Lake.
There was considerable controversy about the location of the new Route 60, however, and delegations of Spring Grovers and other citizens asked the county to reroute the new highway, so it went through Spring Grove and Solon Mills along the Main Street Route. They felt that the proposed location of ½ mile south of town would isolate and be the end of Spring Grove. Hennie Adams even built a small store and gas pumps at the southeast corner of Winn Road and Main Street in anticipation of the route being changed.
Thankfully, the original Route 60 stayed south of Spring Grove (the main reason being the railroad crossing in Solon Mills). It did go through Solon Mills however, dividing the small town in half with faster moving traffic. The above overlayed photo shows North Solon and South Solon Roads used to connect in a straight line with a small bridge on Virginia Street. Each road was diverted to connect to Route 60 instead and a new modern bridge was built.
Were they glad about the outcome? It’s doubtful, because in the end, Solon Mills did not thrive. But, as we know, Spring Grove did survive. We are all lucky to call it home and continue to look forward to a bright future for our town.
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