8-12 Old Enon Road Stone Arch Culvert

8-12 Old Enon Road Stone Arch Culvert 00

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, the span is the oldest in Clark County a traveler can cross. It is also one of the oldest stone bridges in use in Ohio. Stone mason Samuel S. Taylor (1837-1930) built the culvert from locally quarried limestone in 1871, his first public works project. […]

7-12 Robert C. Henry

7-12 Robert C Henry 00

Robert C. Henry, the first African-American mayor of an Ohio city, was born in Springfield, Ohio, on July 16, 1921. He attended Springfield High School and graduated in 1939. After high school, he attended Wittenberg University and the Cleveland College of Mortuary Science. He also received an honorary Doctorate of Law degree from Central State […]

6-12 Ridgewood in the Country Club District

6-12 Ridgewood in the Country Club District 00

The Ridgewood neighborhood, platted in 1914, was one of the first fully planned and restricted suburbs in the United States. Its innovative developer, Springfield native Harry S. Kissell, was among a small group of nationally-acclaimed real estate developers who, in the early twentieth century, created the modern suburb as we know it today. Their developments […]

5-12 Springfield, Troy, & Piqua Electric Railway

5-12 Springfield Troy  Piqua Electric Railway 00

Asa Bushnell, former Governor of Ohio, encouraged by the light grade of the land, decided to establish the Springfield, Troy, and Piqua Railway (ST&P) in July 1904. The interurban traction line utilized sixty-pound rail and traveled over only one bridge. With direct current electricity generated in Springfield, the ST&P used four double-ended fifty-foot cars, each […]

4-12 Pennsylvania House / The National Road

4-12 Pennsylvania House  The National Road 00

David Snively built the Federal-style Pennsylvania House in 1839 along the newly constructed National Road. This tavern and inn was an important stopover for livestock drovers and pioneers traveling by foot, on horseback, or in Conestoga wagons during the westward expansion of the United States in the nineteenth century. Dr. Isaac K. Funk, of Funk […]

3-12 The Birthplace of 4-H

3-12 The Birthplace of 4-H 00

A. B. Graham, superintendent of Springfield Township Rural schools in Clark County, established the Boys and Girls Agricultural Experiment Club, which revolutionized agricultural education and non-formal youth development methods. The first meeting of the club, said to be the nation’s first farm club for young people, was held at this site on January 15, 1902 […]

2-12 City Building

2-12 City Building 02

The Old City Building and Market, also known as the Municipal Building or Marketplace, was designed by local architect Charles A. Cregar. It was completed in 1890 at a cost of $250,000. Vendors, who sold meats, fish, provisions, vegetables, and other products, used the first floor of the building as a city market. The second […]

1-12 Davey Moore Park

1-12 Davey Moore Park 00

Davey Moore was the Featherweight Champion of the World from 1959 to 1963, punching his way to a 56-6-1 record while always admitting that “Only 10 seconds separate me from being champion or nothing.” A tough little boxer with a powerful punch, he died at the age of 29, a victim of the sport he […]

35-11 President Lincoln’s Funeral Train in Urbana

35-11 President Lincolns Funeral Train in Urbana 00

The nine-car funeral train for President Abraham Lincoln departed Washington, D.C. on April 21, 1865. It arrived in Urbana on April 29 at 10:40 p.m. Urbana’s citizens erected an arch of evergreens and flowers near the station west of Main Street. A large crowd of mourners received the train. The arch was hastily removed, too […]

34-11 Old Grave Yard / War Council of 1812

34-11 Old Grave Yard  War Council of 1812 00

In 1805, a burial ground was dedicated to Champaign County at the intersection of Ward and Kenton Streets, which was then at Urbana’s town limits. It remained open until 1856. Among those interred there was Elizabeth Kenton, eight-year-old daughter of Simon Kenton. When she died in 1810, Kenton, the county jailer, was forbidden from crossing […]