TRANSPORTATION
Probably the changes of the town of College Grove can best be symbolized by the changes in transportation.
The town really began in 1841 when the turnpike was built from
Nashville through Nolensville to College Grove, then south to Lewisburg and on to Huntsville, Alabama. This was
a toll road owned by private individuals who were responsible for the upkeep of their sections and who collected toll at their toll gate houses.
Early public transportation was by stagecoaches. One regular run was from Chapel Hill to Nashville – one trip each way daily. The toll gate in College Grove was where Mrs. Jack Hood’s house is now, and a family named Tignor ran this for over thirty years.
Later, in 1914, the building of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and the first train through College Grove caused much excitement. During construction there was a camp of Italian laborers on the hill past where the J. W. Hood family now lives, and the workers boarded in local homes. Families would often bring picnic lunches and spend the day watching the grading of the road bed and the laying of the rails.
Both passenger and freight trains, pulled by steam engines, made regular daily stops. The mail, freight, and farm products were shipped by train. Railroad workers lived near the railroad in the “section houses.” The train depot was a busy place for many years until the middle 1940s. Many diesel-powered freight trains continue to go through College Grove, but few trains stop now, and the old depot is gone.
The Pan American As automobiles became popular, more people traveled privately, but there was a Gitney Bus serving passengers traveling between College Grove and Nashville. More automobiles called for better roads, and in the early 1930s, the turnpike became State Highway 31 and was named the Henry Horton Highway for Governor Horton, who lived in Chapel Hill.
As the highway system improved, trucks and buses took over the transporting of freight and people.
The Trailway Company ran buses for many years, but when everyone had his own automobile, public bus service was discontinued, and the building of interstate highways reduced the long distance truck traffic through College Grove.
Tennessee Trailways Automobiles on the highway today may be carrying more people away from College Grove that into it. Trains are rumbling past; and many planes are flying overhead – all symbols of our life today.
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