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6  GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS  |  2020 – 2021 comes out weekly,” she said. “Tom’s Market, Unfinished Creation, the Emporium, they become interim com- munication centers.” Evolution of downtown All histories of Yellow Springs begin with the town’s namesake, the Yellow Spring. It’s what drew the first white settler, Lewis Davis, in 1803, and soon after spurred an early resort and hotel industry, which flourished here for much of the 19th century. Davis first learned of the spring from the Indigenous people who lived in the area, on whose stolen land downtown Yellow Springs was built. According to some accounts, the oldest building downtown that still survives was built in 1829 by Elisha Mills as a home and tavern. It’s now the rear part of Ye Olde Trail Tavern, discern- able by its hand hewn wood siding. Mills went on to give much of the land that is now Yellow Springs to his son, William. Called “the Yellow Springs Man,” the younger Mills played a central role in the village — and down- town’s — future. He invested in streets, secured the village as the site for a new college, Antioch, and got a half- million-dollar loan to get the railroad line routed through town. The ingredients for the development of downtown Yellow Springs were coming together. There was Antioch College, founded in 1853, the relatively early acquisi - tion of a railroad, in 1846, a real estate boom from the local abundance of lime- stone, originally exported for fertilizer and concrete pro - duction, and a bustling resort industry due to the avowed medicinal healing waters of the Yellow Spring. These elements echo over the centuries. Generations of Antiochians, drawn to the radical college as professors and students, settled here, some starting businesses, contributing to the town’s countercultural vein. The railroad, once conveying visi- tors from the coasts, is now a scenic bike path bringing streams of cyclists from around the region. The lime- stone quarries are now part of the Glen Helen Nature Preserve, itself a place of recreation and respite. While the resorts are gone, down- town now has a new hotel, modeled after William Mills’ historic home, along with a perennial cast of healers, herbalists, yoga teachers, and health food proprietors and the like. Then, as now, visitors are drawn here. In addition to catering to visitors to its resorts, which were located in what is now the Glen, downtown in the 19th century was oriented to serving the needs of its residents and serving the area’s growing industries of agriculture, construction and limestone mining. In many ways, it was similar to other small farm towns in the area. William’s Xenia City and Greene County directory, published in 1871, intro- duces Yellow Springs as a “beautiful village,” that is “noted for its healthy loca- tion, and as a summer resort that has few equals in the country.” It goes on to list 42 downtown businessmen. On Dayton Street, then the commercial center of down- town (until the 1895 fire), there was a grocer, physician, saloonkeeper, wagon maker, lime burner and dealer in stone, blacksmith, beehive manufacturer, harness manufacturer, nurseryman and undertaker. On Xenia Avenue, there were multiple grocers and druggists, a baker, a meat store, a boot and shoe maker, a dry goods store, an insurance agent and a barber. Seventy-six years later, downtown was still mostly focused on meeting the needs of citizens, both Black and white. At the same time, an Antioch College revital - ized by Arthur Morgan in the 1920s started to change the culture of the rural village. A 1947 Yellow Springs News business directory lists 55 firms, only two of which are gift shops. There were nine garages and gas stations, six food stores, five appliance shops, five res - taurants, three barbershops, two hardware stores, two drug stores, two dry clean- ers, two places to play pool, two theaters, plus a shoe repair shop, florist, men’s store, department store, nov- elty store, lumber company, bank and transportation services. Numerous prominent Black-owned businesses were listed in 1947, includ- ing Com’s restaurant, on Davis Street, which was founded because no down- town restaurants would serve Black people, M.I. PHOTO: YELLOW SPRINGS HISTORICAL SOCIETY In this photo, circa 1905, an unknown man stands in front of the H.H. Hurd Drug Store, later Furay’s and Rexall Drugs and now Glen Garden Gifts, a flower shop. Downtown transportation has included horse-drawn carriages, trains, streetcars, automobiles and bicycles, and it has always been walkable. (From the Howard Kahoe Glass Plate Collection)