On the Ainsworth Stone Road

We know it as Grand Boulevard or State Road 51, but to the 1920 census enumerator it was the "South Hobart Road to Ainsworth," and to editor of the Hobart News, writing in 1921, it was the "Ainsworth stone road." Edwin and Carry Humes had been living in a rented house along that road, with their four children, when the 1920 Census recorded them. In June 1921 they bought that house — the "Hettie Ryan residence," which was in Hobart Township, but since the plat maps don't show parcels of three acres, I don't know exactly where.

Further south on the same road, in Ross Township, the Grabowskis continued their improvements to the old Carlson place. My current theory is that the red brick house on the west side of S.R. 51, on the north bank of the Deep River, is the old Carlson place, but that's just my current theory.

Also, the Yellowstone Trail got re-routed through the heart of Hobart …


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"Local and Personal," Hobart News 16 June 1921.

… and a Buick report.

Lights on the Ainsworth Road

One of the matters up for discussion at Hobart's town board meeting on March 10, 1919, was a petition from residents along the Ainsworth road, i.e., State Road 51 between Hobart and Ainsworth. The petition was signed, according to the News, by "S.R. Collver, Chas. Sapper, Dave Vinegar, Harvey Auton, David Cox, M.H. Smith, H.W. Bracken, W.G. Bracken, J.C. Kellen, Jos. Hudson, H.L. Ryan, Robert Reichert, V. Miscevich, Mike Drakulich, and George Hayward." They were asking for four electric lights to be installed on the part of the Ainsworth road described as lying "between the Sapper corner and the Peddicord farm." I suppose the Sapper corner is about where S.R. 51 turns south from 10th Street. The 1926 Plat Book doesn't show enough detail in that area to be helpful, so let us turn to the 1939 Plat Book, in which some holdings may have grown, shrunk or changed hands, but we can see some names that correspond to the 1919 report.


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This excerpt from the 1939 Plat Book shows, at the top, 10th Street intersecting with Lake Park Avenue, aka S.R. 51, formerly known as the Ainsworth road.

The town board accepted the petition and instructed the superintendent of Hobart's power plant, Robert Wheaton, to draw up an estimate of the project's cost.

He did so within two weeks, and at the March 24 meeting, the town board faced the question whether they ought to spend $76.32 on lights for the Ainsworth road. After due consideration, they ordered that the lights be installed.


Sources:
♦ "Town Board Doings." Hobart Gazette 14 Mar. 1919; 28 Mar. 1919.
♦ "Town Board Doings." Hobart News 13 Mar. 1919.