Compiled by Peggy Leadingham – 4-05
The tour of historic sites along the scenic bike trail through Spring Valley begins at the intersection of Bellbrook Avenue and the Little Miami River Scenic Trail. North of the trailer park is Richland Road. West of the bike trail and the trailer park is the site of the Barrett family’s Spring Valley Flouring Mill.
This flourmill was built by Isaac Barrett. Isaac Barrett was Spring Valley’s
first mayor and served twice in the Ohio Senate. He was the oldest son of
George Barrett, builder of the Concrete House. The mill served the town until
1926, when it was destroyed by fire. Opposite the site of the flourmill is a
two-story home that served as Isaac Barrett’s country home.
On the site of the trailer park was the Okee Mineral Water well head. A scheme to drill for oil in Spring Valley resulted in discovering the mineral spring, out of which Okee Water was bottled for many years. The water was believed to have health giving and healing properties.
East of the Bikeway, opposite the trailer park is Arnold’s, the old Spring Valley cannery where corn and other vegetables were processed for local markets.
If you go East (left turn) on Bellbrook Avenue from the Bikeway, you will pass “Many Springs” on the left, once the home of Victor Darnell, inventor of the adjustable hospital bed. At the end of Bellbrook Avenue, up an avenue of trees is the original site of Spring Valley School, now Nonnie’s Traditional Southern, shipping decoratively packaged specialty gift pound cakes.
South of Bellbrook Avenue, and west of the bike trail, is the floodplain of the Little Miami River, with the river in the distance behind the trees. State Route 725 runs along the levee protecting Spring Valley from flooding. Continuing south toward the village, the green spaces along the bikeway are in the area once called “Ladies’ Green” where women gathered wild greens in the spring.
Continuing on, east of the bikeway is the Spring Valley Mound, the result of geological activity in the glacial age, but believed to have been used as a signal mound by the Native Americans who inhabited this area before it was settled by pioneers.
This photograph taken in winter shows the mound, as it was around 1900. The
Concrete House with its white columns is at the foot of the mound in this
picture. Isaac Barrett devised a gravity powered fuel oil delivery system on the
top of the mound to deliver the fuel to his home just east of the Concrete
House, but it smelled so bad the people of the town insisted he stop using it.
Bisecting the bikeway south of Bellbrook Ave is the intersection of Terrace and Race Streets. To the left of the bikeway set back on a grassy lawn is a building constructed of river stone and cement mortar erected by George Barrett in the 1850s as a wool mill. From this mill he shipped high quality wool blankets via the railroad that ran past his mill
Opposite the mill on Glady, is a red barn, formerly the Spring Valley livery. This photograph shows how it appeared when the railroad still ran through the village.
Right in front of
the livery is the Spring Valley Hotel, now in a state of decline. In
the past, it was the place where travelers stayed while visiting the thriving
town. The photograph below was taken about 1875 and shows travelers with their
trunks waiting for the train outside the hotel, known as the Saunders House.
Across the street
stand the Spring Valley Mercantile and the Spring Valley grain elevator. The
Mercantile was opened by the Walton Family in the Nineteenth Century and has
always been an important establishment.
Turning left from
the bikeway, going east on Main Street is the Spring Valley Historical
District. .
Among the buildings and homes is the Town Hall building (1888). The Spring Valley Historical Society is working to rehabilitate the Town Hall building, which now houses the post office, village council, and town records.
The George Barrett
Concrete House (1854) is listed individually on the National Register of
Historic Places. It was the first poured concrete building in Ohio, and the
subject of a book by the builder, George Barrett, entitled Home for the
Millions. Barrett was a Quaker, a woolen manufacturer who moved to Ohio from
New England during the entrepreneurial wave of the 1840s. The
Spring Valley ACTS owns and is restoring the Concrete House. It is used for
public meetings and occasionally is opened for an historical display. The
renovation and restoration project on the Concrete House is still in progress,
and a permanent exhibit or museum is planned for the future. In June 2003, the
house received a marker from the Ohio Bicentennial Commission acknowledging its
unique place in Ohio history. The house is opened with an exhibit in October
during the Potato Festival.
Other historic buildings on Main Street include the Arch Copsey House, next door to the Concrete House; the Willenberg House, where Isaac Barrett lived; the Gest House, across Main Street from the Concrete House; and O’Devlin’s, originally the Spring Valley Bank. The entire village center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an Historic District.
Returning to the bikeway and continuing South past the Spring Valley grain elevator and feed store, to the left at Walnut Street is the site of the Walton Pork Packing Company, home of Spring Valley Hams, once shipped all over the world. The recipe died with the last of the elder Waltons and was lost. But in its heyday, the pork packing business was one of the most important in the village. The building was torn down in the 1980s.
Traveling south
across Walnut Street, the land rises to a one story red brick farmhouse, a barn,
and other outbuildings. This house is on the site of the Moses Walton house.
Moses Walton was one of the town founders, and the proprietor, with his brother Isaac, of Walton Pork Packing. The
old steps that once led up to the Walton House are visible in the slope at the
end of the house.
Continuing south on the bikeway, the farmhouse and barn were part of the Huff family dairy farm. The Huff family provided the village with milk and dairy products from the 1920s through the 1950s. This photograph was taken in the 1920s and shows the barn with silo. The silo no longer stands but its level round footprint is still visible. The barn is still standing.
At this point along the bikeway, the Little Miami River is visible, and there are many beautiful views of the river to the immediate west of the bikeway.
After crossing Roxanna New Burlington Road, the bikeway enters the Spring Valley Wildlife area, a marsh where many different birds and animals may be observed. In the spring, snapping turtles dig nests in the rocky soil along the bikeway and lay their leathery eggs. Some of the turtles are very large, with a carapace a foot long. You may also see Beaver lodges in the lake and beaver dams across the canal between the bikeway and the lake. Spring Valley Wildlife area is a designated hunting and fishing area.
For more information, and for maps of the area go to Ohio Byways.com.