HISTORIC REFLECTION … This vintage image of the 100 block of Bryan’s West Butler Street (south side of the Williams County courthouse square) was taken looking west from Main Street between 1885 and 1895. Butler Street was not yet paved, and in the lower right is a swale ditch that provided street drainage. One of Bryan’s first streetlights can be seen in front of the fence at the alley. These streetlights were kerosene lanterns mounted on oak posts. The streetlights were lit at night by the village lamplighter. All of the brick buildings from the alley west to Lynn Street (the Centennial Block) were built in 1876 and still stand today. The brick building across Lynn Street is now Jackie Blu’s restaurant. Barely visible at the end of the block (southwest corner of Beech and Butler streets) is the wooden frame Methodist Episcopal church, constructed circa 1854 and relocated in 1895 to make room for the existing church building that today houses Father John’s microbrewery. The belfry and roof of the Butler Street school (Bryan’s first brick schoolhouse) which stood on the northwest corner of Beech and Butler streets, can be seen above the buildings on the right. This historic photograph is from the Williams County Public Library Huffman Photographic Archives.
