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BELLEVUE'S WEST AND MAIN STREETS Excerpt from article by Rebecca Stevens, AIA Bellevue's Main Street has great historical significance… many individual buildings qualify for National Register listing; and the entire downtown area qualifies too. It is the totality of the town; the age and architecture of its buildings, with decorative features intact and their setting (wide sidewalks for public use and gathering, for example). Even the location, pattern, and size of the roads make the town eligible for listing on the National Register. The history of the US and Ohio settlement can be read in Bellevue's roads! This is pretty rare for a town. Route 20 along West Main Street is the result of an 1808 Indian Treaty with the federal government for a road right-of-way, 120 feet wide, going from the Western Reserve to the Maumee River. That wider part of Bellevue's Main Street (meaning the 120' wide right-of-way) stops right at the boundary line of the Western Reserve. We call the boundary line Northwest/Southwest Street. This is early 19th Century American settlement and Indian history made tangible. North West/South West Street is the line of a geopolitical boundary going back to King Charles II in 1662. The King granted a Charter to the Connecticut colony, to complete their claim to the land. Known as the Western Reserve, the land went 120 miles west of the Pennsylvania border (now Northwest/Southwest Street) and from Lake Erie south to the 41 degree north latitude (now Huron county's southern edge). The road on this line then can be traced literally and directly to events from the Revolutionary War. North West/South West Street is the edge of the 500,000 acres given as reimbursement to those Connecticut citizens whose lands were destroyed by fire by the British in 1781 (thus named the Firelands). The streets also marks the change between "Old World" surveying and the more regulated "scientific" surveying that was used to measure and plat the rest of the country. (If you look at the tax maps of the business area or USGS maps, this is easily seen in the differences in the lot layouts on the Huron County side's business district, vs. the Sandusky Co. side.) It can be said with truth that North West/South West Street is one of those places where the West began. The 100-foot width of East Main Street's right-of-way in the commercial district physically shows that this is the Firelands side of town. East Main Street was given by those developing the town to be used as a public thoroughfare. It was not originally meant to be the road through town. It was meant to be the road in the local downtown business area. The "developers" did not have to make the road 120 feet wide to accommodate all kinds of traffic and weather conditions, and they didn't. The primary National Road (Route 20) turned; and East Main Street was secondary to it. The width difference between East Main and West Main is the cause of much of the problem today isn't it? We still have to deal with those Indian treaties, the Revolution, and founding developers. One further example of how the streets contribute to the town's history and National Register's importance. That example is the leftover land created by the intersection of Main, North West/South West and Monroe Streets. This space created a Public Square. Not a pretty, grass and tree-filled square like those in Milan, Sandusky, or New England; but an irregularly-shaped town gathering place more like those in English towns or European towns. People naturally came together where roads converge. By tradition our place of convergence was the location to hold major public events -- from Presidential speeches to town fairs and children's gatherings. At this moment, the Town Square's historic form and character-of-place are intact. The town's buildings relate to the roads. The roads reflect the town's and the country's history. And the history continues to influence the town, roads, and buildings! |
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