ELIZABETHTOWN — Elizabethtown is embarking on an effort to vacate alleys that appear on historical maps of the town, but no longer exist.
Since Jan. 8, the Sand Creek Township community has vacated 18 legal alleys and officials anticipate shutting down about a dozen more later this year.
While alleys are useful in larger communities, there has not been a real alley in Elizabethtown for a very long time, town council President Rick Mullins said. The only place where you’ll find most of these alleys is on legal maps and documents dating back to the 19th century.
To understand what the town is doing in the present, it’s necessary to understand a bit of the past.
Founded in 1845 by railroad contractor George Branham and named after his wife, Elizabethtown became a bustling community with 40-foot wide streets by the time it was incorporated in 1871.
While the Madison branch of the J.M. and I.R.R. Railroad was coming through, Elizabethtown was what Mullins described as “a bustling little town.”
It had a saw mill, flouring mill, general store, pharmacy, blacksmith’s shop, wagon manufacturer, furniture maker, mortuary, and the only natural gas wells in the region outside Columbus. That is according to the History of Bartholomew County, Vol. 1, published by the Bartholomew County Historical Society.
When the town was platted with more than 160 lots less than a decade after the Civil War, it was laid out with several designated alleys and streets, Mullins said. But as the Historical Society’s book phrased it, “the town never aspired to being more than a good trading point for a limited but very prosperous farming community.”
When Elizabethtown was incorporated in 1871, its population was 550 — just about the same as it is now. Eventually, the designated alleys were no longer needed, Mullins said.
Fast forward a century to the end of the 1960s, and most of the former alleys had reverted completely back to grass, the town council president said. Those with adjoining property made the green space part of their lawns, the council president said.
Town officials were more than happy to have this happen because neighbors were funding the maintenance of this public property, rather than taxpayers.
But things started to get complicated a few years ago after a motorist drove his vehicle through what everybody assumed was the backyard of a neighbor’s house, Mullins said.
When officials attempted to persuade the driver to move the vehicle, he refused because official maps showed he was in a public alley, he said.
After the neighbor asked that the green space behind his home be vacated, the town council held a public hearing before granting his request.
After word spread that these former alleys can be vacated from public use, several other landowners made similar requests to the council.
While a public hearing is required for each application, Mullins said most have been conducted during regular council meetings. In fact, there were three hearings conducted during the last meeting, he said.
“There’s several more than need to be closed,’ Mullins said. “But when people come to us (on this issue), we’re not going to deny them.”
