Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
3 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 63 buildings. Below: old-book passages.
The Spring Valley post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Transylvania (1829), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Spring Valley’s history is told.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Spring Valley.
Spring Valley had its start in the early 1840s by the building of the Little Miami Railroad through that territory. The town was platted in 1844.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Spring Valley, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Lewis C. Peterson grew up on the home farm in Spring Valley township and was educated in the local schools. After his marriage in 1875, he then being twenty-two years of age, he began farming on his own account, renting a farm in Beavercreek township and there made his home until in 1883, when he bought the John Hepford farm of fifty acres in Spring Valley township, moved onto the same and has ever since resided tliere. Since taking possession of that farm Mr. Peterson has made considerable improvements on the same. In addition to his general farming he
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
after his marriage in 1867. After his father's death he inherited the homestead place of something more than two hundred acres and continued to reside there until in 1889, in the fall of which year he bought "Oakhill," the highest point of land in Spring Valley township, and there resided until his retirement and removal to the village of Spring Valley, where he built a house and spent his last days and where his widow continues to make her home. In addition to his farm "Oakhill," a little more than a mile east of Spring Valley, Mr. Compton retained possession of the old home place in
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nobody well known was born in Spring Valley itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Spring Valley’s post office has been open since 1846. Another post office, Transylvania, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Spring Valley post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Three places: the Barrett, George, Concrete House (listed 1986), the Old Hotel, The (1988) and the Main Street Historic District (1989).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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