The 20 South Main Street office building's history is rich and deeply tied to Springboro's past, present, and future. The land that the building sits on was originally granted to Jonathan Wright and his heirs by President James Madison and the United States Congress on November 15th, 1816. All told, 320 acres between the Miami River and the Virginia reservation were granted to the Wright family.
In 1818, plans were submitted to Warren County for the town of "Springborough", which then consisted of nine streets: North, Market, Factory, State, Main, East, Franklin, South, and Mill Streets. The original town plans included 146 lots laid out on 792 acres, with lots 141 and 142 comprising of the current office location's land.
Jonathan Wright, owner of the east half of land planned for Springborough, and James Bateman, owner of the west half, acknowledged that "the said town had been laid out on their land" and that "they relinquished to the use of the public forever the streets and alleys therein laid down."
Approximately ten years later, in the late 1820's, the existing building was erected as a farmhouse, and the Warren County auditor assessed $351 for the lot and structure. Jonathan Wright gave the property and many others in the area to his brother-in-law, Isaac Mullin. The token payment was recorded on December 27, 1830, and it is likely that the transaction took place some time in the late 1820's.
In the 1830's, the property changed hands from Grace Mullin, Isaac's wife, to first Moss Edwards then later to John Schenck. After a lengthy court battle, the lots were finally sold for $367 in a Sherriff's auction. In 1842, the property was acquired by William B. Lynch, who brought his family from Virginia. Lynch paid $1200 for the lot and the two-story farmhouse, and in 1844 he willed the property to his two cousins, Sary and Mary Lynch and their survivors.
The property remained in the Lynch family for twelve years, after which it passed to Hannah Hicks for $800 in March of 1854. She then sold the property for a profit to John Talmage, obtaining a 25% return on her investment in less than a year. This was quite a shrewd business maneuver for a woman in the mid-1800's.
The property remained in the Talmage family for almost twenty years until September 1874, when it was sold for $1,340. It was sub-divided and passed through the hands of various owners, and was left to deteriorate before eventually being used as a stagecoach stop and tavern near the turn of the century.
The property eventually fell out of use all together and remained largely abandoned and near condemnation, until Coldwell Banker/Heritage Realtors purchased the property in 1979. At that point, it still had no inside plumbing or electricity. Heritage Realtors occupied the building through 2006, when they moved to a new location in the new Settler's Walk area of Springboro. During that time, they extensively rejuvenated the building, keeping with the Williamsburg theme. During this time, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places and received the Springboro Beautification Award on several occasions.
Today, the building is owned by local attorney Kevin Hughes, the founder of this firm, who purchased the building in February 2007. A Springboro-based attorney with a over 10 years of experience in the area, he is excited to be located in the heart of Historic Springboro, revering the rich history of the sleepy town of Springborough while embracing and helping to lead the revitalization and rapid growth of this modern business and residential city.
Settled as early as 1796, Springboro was "founded" in 1815 by Jonathan Wright. Springboro was predominantly Quaker during its earlier years.
Springboro is known largely for its historical significance during the hiding of slaves through the system of the Underground Railroad due to a large portion of its residents holding an Anti-Slavery opinion. Achilles Pugh, in fact, published a local paper during this time called "the Philanthropist" to enrich the belief of abolishing slavery.The City of Springboro was the first city to erect an Ohio Underground Railroad Historic Marker on October 17, 1999. The dedication was part of the 4th Annual Ohio Underground Railroad Summit. The wayfarers were sent or brought to the Springboro neighborhood from Shaker Village, nine miles directly south and five miles west of Lebanon. Waynesville, ten miles east of Springboro, was also an Underground center. Achilles Pugh was an operator there.
Probably it received its early passengers also from Shaker Village. The crossing of the Ohio River was made thirty miles to the south, from which the trail led up to the west central part of Warren County. R. G. Corwin, long a resident of Lebanon, first aided runaways at his father's about 1829, but was sure that the secret work had been going on long before. He said it had gradually increased until 1840, continuing at a maximum thereafter.
By 1816 slaves were escaping across the Ohio River near North Bend, fourteen miles west of Cincinnati. Their course of travel followed streams northward where practicable, across five counties and northeast through Auglaize County near the Shawnee village where Wapakoneta now stands. They continued on up to Oque-no-sie's town on the Blanchard River, in Putnam County, where the village of Ottawa is, thence somewhat east of north to the grand rapids of the Maumee, where that river could be forded most of the year, and through the Ottawa village of Chief Kin- je-i-no, where the red men were friendly to the fugitives.
Today Springboro is a bustling subarban area that embraces its history and rural roots while offering tremendous opportunity and growth in Southwest Ohio. As of 2000, the population of Springboro was 12,380, and since 2000 the population has exploded, with new residential and commercial developments appearing around the historic center.