Main Street Historic District

Main Street in Spring Valley, Greene County, Ohio, is a village streetscape of modest frame houses, shops, a warehouse and a township hall. The village was platted in 1844 along the Cincinnati-Xenia Pike, and the Little Miami Railroad arrived at about the same time. A small commercial district formed at the railroad crossing on West Main, while larger houses rose along East Main. Many early buildings are I-houses built in the 1840s and 1850s by the Walton family, Quakers from Virginia. Later brick commercial buildings include the 1874 Pork House and the three-story Township Hall of 1888. Farming, milling and pork packing supported the village, and the Barrett family later became prominent. Rerouting of Route 42 in 1954 left the street largely bypassed, which helped preserve its appearance. The district contains 66 contributing resources and shows a continuous record of growth from the 1840s to the 1920s.