Big Four Depot

The original town plat of Middletown, laid out in 1802 by Stephen Vail and James Sutton, reads as follows: "The above town is laid out in the fractional section No. 28, in township and fourth range, between the Miami Rivers. ach lot is six poles one way, agreeably to the plan, except the lots Nos. 43, 46, 47, and 50, which are six poles square. The streets are each four poles wide. The course of those running from the river is south, sixty degrees east. Water and Main Streets cross the other at right angles. North Alley and South Alley are each two poles wide. East Alley and West Alley are each one pole wide. The alleys are parallel with the streets. The streets and alleys to be perpetually kept open for public use. The lots Nos. 10 and 11, which are colored green, are set aside for the public, to be appropriated to county purposes. First, Second, and Third Streets are always to be kept open to the river."

Passage source: A History and Biographical Cyclopædia of Butler County, Ohio : with Illustrations and Sketches of Its Representative Men and Pioneers, published 1882.

In 1816 the first addition was laid out, as follows: 'Tn addition to Middletown, in the county of Butler, the subscribers have laid off fifty-seven lots, of the same dimensions of the whole lots in the old plat, excepting Lot 65, containing one hundred and fifty-six poles and fourfifths. Broad Street is five poles wide. What was called South Alley is made three poles wide and called Fourth Street, and the one south of it three poles wide and called Fifth Street. What is called East Alley, in the old part of the town, between the lots on Broadway Street and Main Street, is continued at one pole wide and called Middle Alley; and the one east of the lots, on the east side of Broadway, is one pole wide and called East Alley. The streets and alleys are parallel with those of the old town plat, as recorded, and are to be opened at any time a majority of the subscribers may think necessary, as witness our hands this the twentyseventh day of March, 1816. Broad Street is to be continued at each end thereof the same course until it intersects the county road to Franklin and the one south to Middletown, leading to Reading and thence to Cincinnati." This is signed by Hugh Vail, Shobal Vail, John Cummings, Daniel Doty, and Abner Enoch.

Passage source: A History and Biographical Cyclopædia of Butler County, Ohio : with Illustrations and Sketches of Its Representative Men and Pioneers, published 1882.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Middletown City - 55,072 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.