Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

A couple of posts ago, I promised to write something about the iPhone and new Airport with 802.11n. And I will. When I feel like it. Recently I haven’t. But I will.

What I do feel like writing about is local history. Damn, how I love local history. I realize it doesn’t appeal to most readers of this blog, but I know someone out there shares my interest. And what I want to write about today is something I recently learned about some of the roads around Bellbrook, Ohio. Stick with the whole narrative, it’s interesting.

About a century ago, Dayton had a street car system named the Interurban, which consisted of tracks and traction cars that went to destinations around Dayton and Xenia. Separately there was… and this is the big surprise, at least to me… another street car system that went from Dayton, to Bellbrook, to Spring Valley! If you’re familiar with the area, you know that’s pretty amazing considering that a century ago, Bellbrook was a remote farm town, and even today, Spring Valley is still remote, although not much of a farm town these days. The idea of a street car system meandering through the country, down the center of dirt roads, past small collections of homes and barns and farm houses, is a pleasing romantic vision, if not reality.

I’m not sure what the name of the Dayton-Bellbrook-Spring Valley (DBSV) street car line was, but it joined with the Interurban where modern-day Wayne Avenue and Wilmington Pike meet, which is now the location of 10 Wilmington Place retirement community, which was, at the time of the Interurban, an insane asylum. From that point, the DBSV line followed Wilmington Pike south to what we now know as State Route 725, or Alex-Bell Road. At the time of the street car, instead of the abbreviated Alex-Bell that we’re familiar with, the road was more properly named Alexandersville-Bellbrook Road, because it went from (duh) Alexandersville to Bellbrook. Indeed, today the road goes from Bellbrook to West Carrollton, which acquired Alexandersville when it was incorporated a few decades ago.

From the 725 (Alex-Bell) and Wilmington intersection, the street car went east through downtown Bellbrook and continued down a section of 725 that is still rural today to the tiny town of Spring Valley, which was the end of the line. My understanding is that in places along 725 east of Bellbrook, you can still see the track bed for the street car. I haven’t been out to confirm that, but it seems likely.

An electric street car system like the DBSV requires, um, electricity. The power plant for this particular line was located at the northeast corner of Patterson Road and Grange Hall Road in modern Beavercreek. For those computer nerds in the Dayton area, you’d know that as a corner roughly across the street form 5 O’Clock computers, and the non-nerds will recognize it as the vacant corner across from the Jet Freeze. I think that site has been declared as some kind of hazardous area, no doubt related to the old power plant.

From there, the feed wire for the power ran south down Grange Hall Road, roughly down Darst Road and Little Sugarcreek Road, through some open areas, until it intersected a road named the Beer Road. Unbeknownst to many of Bellbrook’s modern residents, there used to be (and maybe there still is) a natural spring in the area of the pioneer cemetery and the Jehova’s Witness building along Upper Bellbrook Road. That natural spring gave someone the opportunity to brew beer, which they consequently sold in both Dayton and Xenia because the Beer Road went between Xenia and Wilmington Pike. After the feed wire for the street car power intersected the Beer Road, it went west to Wilmington, where it provided electricity for the street cars. Subsequently, the Beer Road was renamed… wait for it… Feedwire Road! That’s pretty cool. I wonder if the Beer Road name was given up during prohibition. The time frame seems right, but I don’t have any evidence of that, just a supposition.

Now, here’s another cool part: In a book published by the Bellbrook Historical Society, they included a table of times and fares for the street car service. Get a load of this! It’s a table of fares to different destinations from downtown Bellbrook.

White’s Corner is where yours truly currently lives, the intersection of Wilmington and 725. In fact, there’s a little road there named White’s Corner (which used to be part of Wilmington Pike) and you can clearly see “White’s Corner ATM” from the road. Also, there has been a fruit and vegetable stand there in the recent past with the White’s Corner name. Perhaps I’ll write more about White’s Corner at a later date.

I’m not completely sure about the location of County Line. My best educated guess is that County Line is the current day location of Brown Road and Rollandia golf course, where Wilmington Pike takes a jog northwestward, leaving Greene County and entering Montgomery County.

Roslyn… now there’s a name that has been lost to time. Roslyn was a collection of homes at the intersection of Wilmington Pike and Stroop Road, where today you’ll find some fast food restaurants, a Meijer, and the public library. If you look closely at the street names in the older neighborhood there, you’ll see a Roslyn Avenue.

Belmont is still Belmont, where the insane asylum… I mean, retirement home… is located and where the DBSV line met the Interurban.

Spring Valley is, of course, the tiny sleepy town we still know, south of Xenia.

How long did it take to get from one place to another? How practical was the street car as a mode of everyday transportation? The schedule for street car departures from Bellbrook gives us an excellent idea:

In effect Sunday, April 17, 1904

Cars leave Bellbrook for Dayton at 5:45, 8:15, 10:45 a.m. and 1:15, 3:45, 6:15, 8:30 and 11:00 p.m.

Cars leave Bellbrook for Spring Valley at 7:40 and 10:10 a.m. and 12:40, 3:10, 5:40, 8:05, 10:25, and 11:55 p.m.

Saturdays, Sundays and holidays extra cars will leave Bellbrook for Dayton at 9:30 a.m., 12:00, 2:30, 5:00 and 7:30 p.m.

For Spring Valley at 8:55 and 11:25 a.m., 1:55, 4:25 and 6:55 p.m.

Subject to change without notice.

Judging the departure times and the distances to both Spring Valley and Dayton, it seems logical the the trip to Spring Valley took around 20 minutes, and the trip to Dayton close to 45. That’s pretty good for a century ago.