Rome and Alton

In 1836, James Bryden and Adam Brotherlin created 64 lots on land they owned naming the community Rome; Alton, located just west of Rome, was created the same year by Thomas Graham and quickly Alton prospered and became Prairie Township’s largest settlement. Rome and Alton were communities located on the National Road (US Rt. 40) just west of Columbus and were among the early settlements in Franklin County. Long before either town was created, several taverns operated on the National Road as stage coach stops; the oldest tavern built in Rome before 1812. Several religious congregations formed at Alton as early as 1843 but it wasn’t until 1883 that the first house of worship (pictured) was built as a Methodist Episcopal Church where circuit riding preachers from Columbus conducted services. After Billy Sunday held a series of revival services at Alton in the late 1880s, neighboring Rome residents decided to organize their own place of worship instead of traveling to Alton. Billy Sunday, the nation's most famous evangelist at the time, had influenced Rome residents to organize what became known as the Community House eventually a Methodist Episcopal Church.