SR 611 at Detroit Rd in Avon – Then & Now

Last month, I posted a 1967 Journal article consisting of reminisces about Avon by a longtime resident, A. A. Bungart. One of his memories of the early days of Avon included the town water pump. He noted, ""The town water pump was located in front of what today is the library. People came from miles around to get water.” Bungart also mentioned that “City hall was located in the present library building on SR 611 at Detroit Road."

The mention of a water pump caught the attention of blog contributor and researcher extraordinaire, Rick Kurish. In an email, he alerted me that a vintage postcard of an Avon streetscape featuring a water pump was currently on Ebay.

Here’s the postcard.

Although we were pretty sure that it was the pump mentioned in the article (you can see part of the town hall at the right side of the photo), the research had already been done removing all doubt.

It turned out that the Arcadia Publishing book about Avon included this photo, with a detailed caption. It reads, “CORNER OF DETROIT AND COLORADO. This 1910 picture shows the corner of Detroit Road and Colorado Avenue/Stoney Ridge, looking east on Detroit Road. In front of the Old Town Hall is the water pump and well that local people used for their water supply. The stone porch of Alten House is to the left.”

Anyway, Rick observed that the scene was “the ultimate candidate for a “before” and "now” treatment — if you could get a shot from that intersection without being killed by the traffic!”

Rick was right on both counts, especially about the difficulty in getting the photo. But I got it (despite a few close calls involving cars turning right on red).