Grove City History - Part 3

(The following was written by Harold Windsor and is reprinted from “Reflections II”, a collection of local stories available at the Grove City Welcome Center and Museum. Any opinions made in the article are from the author.)The original plat of Grove City shows that the town consisted of all the area east of what is now Broadway, bounded on the south by what is now Civic Drive at the library; on the north by Franklin Street at the Harley Motors building; on the east by Dudley Avenue and 4th Street; Park Street continued to a line fence just west of the high school buildings. All the land to the west of Broadway, about 300 acres, was owned by Breck also, on which he followed his pursuit of farming, and it was not until many years later that the business houses were built on the west side of Broadway. This land was not included in the original survey of Grove City.The work of building the town began at once and was prosecuted with pioneer energy. A number of more or less comfortable log dwellings were finished and occupied before the winter of 1852 and during the year of 1853 steady progress was made, so by the end of the year the town had a population of 50 people.Breck at once set about to use every means in his power to encourage industrious mechanics who wished to make a residence in the town. Special offers and invitations were sent to them to become purchasers of lots.In its beginning the village was never a boomtown; however, in the next ten years its growth was substantial but slow. Breck built the first store room in the village and here he handled all commodities to be found in a country store of that day. Breck’s first store was built on the corner where Urlin Barbee’s hardware store now stands. Here Breck conducted his general store and operated the first post office in Grove City. Mail was delivered from Columbus by the stagecoach, which ran between Columbus and Mt. Sterling.(The continuation of this story in the next blog entry.)