Pay the Toll

Broadway was once a dusty, dirt stage coach road that connected Columbus and Harrisburg. Earl Nicholson believed that road was a corduroy or wood plank road and originally a turnpike where a 10-cent fee was charged to recover the $35,602 construction cost. The fee was unpopular and the toll gates were removed before the road expense was recovered. Uriah Lathrop, surveyor and engineer for the project, never mentioned the type of road he built. In 1928, Broadway got a major upgrade when concrete was poured as a base with bricks placed over the concrete and a coat of asphalt layered over the bricks, according to Paul Grossman, who’s father Herman Grossman Sr., was Grove City mayor at the time. In 1931, the bricks were exposed when the road surface was again upgraded to a concrete surface, according to Roy Grossman. The bricks were never seen again until 1989 when Broadway was improved and the old brick road surface was exposed.