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In 1892, Spring Grove hadn't incorporated yet and was mainly a farming community with a few stores, homes, churches and schools, which all supported the farmers. Unfortunately homes were not marked on the map.
On the left you can see the Richmond/Burton Township dividing line, running north & south, and going right through the Spring Grove Elementary School, built around1862-1877. No known photos remain of that school, which was replaced in 1901. A new two-room school was built that was designed by an architect from Chicago and built on the same spot with the townspeople digging out the basement. The old school was sold for $96 but we don't know who bought it, or what they did with it. Was it moved? Or maybe the wood was used to build something else?
The church on Anna Bower’s property on Richardson Road was the Methodist Church that burned down and was rebuilt.
The church on lots 6 & 7 on Main Street was St. Mary’s Mission, an Episcopalian church built in 1872. It was torn down in 1912, but the doors were saved and are in the collection of the McHenry County History Museum. The cemetery next door, Spring Grove Cemetery, is a public cemetery and wasn’t tied to the church. (Interestingly, the creek bed behind the church and cemetery is much farther south now.)
On the four corners downtown, there were two just two stores, with perhaps, residences on the other two corners. Robert and Fannie Tweed’s general store was on the southwest corner, built in 1863, and the Palace Store, with proprietors Haldeman & Neish, at the northeast corner. Built in 1884, it still stands today. (It probably replaced a log cabin store from the late 1840s or was remodeled.)
The only other man-made structure on the map besides the Blivin Street Bridge, is the old creamery building located south of the school.
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