Spruance City, an unincorporated neighborhood along the western edge of Smyrna, has long retained a separate identity outside of town limits.

To this day, most of Spruance City remains Kent County land, even though it is almost completely surrounded by land inside the municipal limits of Smyrna.

But portions of the Spruance City area are experiencing a rebirth – as new additions to the Town of Smyrna.

In recent years, a number of properties in Spruance City have been annexed into Smyrna for redevelopment purposes.

About a dozen new single-family homes have been built along Lexington Avenue and Howard and Clements streets. These properties have been annexed into Smyrna, and old septic tanks have been replaced with town sewer services.

And more new dwellings are on the way.

Juanita Court, a 24-unit townhouse development, is currently under construction at Lexington Avenue near Howard Street. This land has been annexed into Smyrna and will use town utilities.

Spearheading these redevelopment efforts have been Rodney Slaughter and former Smyrna mayor Mark Schaeffer, business partners through Juanita LLC and Kentlands Construction.

For Slaughter, the improvement of Spruance City has personal significance.

“I grew up there, and I know it was an area a lot of people didn’t pay much attention to,” he said. “Over the years, I took the interest in improving the area and making it a part of our town.”

The Juanita Court townhouses are named after Slaughter’s grandmother, Juanita Hart, who lived her whole life in Spruance City, Slaugther said.

This development will feature 24 townhouses in clusters of four arranged around a large cul-de-sac, with entry off of Lexington Avenue. The storm water retention pond for the development is located along South Street.

Slaugher envisions new sidewalks eventually connecting these townhouses and the new single-family homes with South Street.

The townhouses will be priced in the $190,000 range, Schaeffer said.

Redeveloping Spruance City

A portion of the property that will become Juanita Court used to be a salvage yard. Schaeffer said this property had become an eyesore.

“It looked like the Grapes of Wrath,” he said. “It was a terrible blight on the community.”

The nearby single-family homes were built on lots that used to be occupied by trailers that had fallen into disrepair, Schaeffer said. He said many of the septic systems that were removed from these properties had failed.

Now these properties are hooked up to Smyrna sewer lines.

Slaughter said he’s had “total support” from the Smyrna town staff while working in the area.

“They’ve been very helpful,” he said.

Slaughter said he’d like to see all of Spruance City annexed eventually, with proper sidewalks and town services.

Schaeffer agrees that the land should eventually come into town.

“It just makes sense,” Schaeffer said. “There’s no good reason that land shouldn’t be in the municipal limits of Smyrna.”

Slaughter said he plans to do more work in Spruance City in the future.

“Kentlands Construction is going to continue here in Spruance City,” Slaughter said. “Mark and I made a decision to invest our money in the town, in Smyrna.”

“Rodney’s very proud of cleaning up Spruance City,” Schaeffer said. “He grew up there, and I’m proud to be a part of it with him. I think it’s a tremendous asset for the Town of Smyrna.”

Smyrna’s comprehensive plan calls for annexation

Smyrna Town Manager Dave Hugg said most of the properties that remain in Spruance City are connected to town water, but not town sewer.

Most of these properties instead rely on individual septic tanks, he said.

Like other out-of-town utility customers, the Spruance City properties that use town water have to pay a surcharge.

Hugg said he would like to see Spruance City come into the town.

“We’ve been encouraging people in that area to go ahead and annex into the town,” he said. “Our comprehensive plan identifies that whole area as a future annexation zone.”

Hugg said the annexation has been happening on a property-by-property basis, and that’s the way he sees it continuing.

“It’ll probably be done piece by piece,” he said. “We’d prefer to let the market and individual property owners make that decision.”

A brief history of Spruance City

Spruance City got its start in 1870, when James W. Spruance divided his property and sold off lots that would become Spruance City.

According to Footprints of the Past, by George L. Caley, James W. Spruance owned the Font Hill estate, which consisted of a house at the corner of Howard Street and Smyrna-Clayton Boulevard and around 200 adjoining acres.

Spruance divided the estate into passageways and lots and put the lots up for sale.

“In December of 1869, James W. Spruance advertised his sale for lots in ‘newly named Spruance City’ for $100 each – including the mansion house, Font Hill. By January 26, 1870, one hundred forty persons had purchased at least one ticket for the lots to be auctioned," according to Caley's book.

When Spruance divided his property into lots, it was rural land located in between Smyrna and Clayton.

But Smyrna and Clayton expanded over the years as they annexed new land, and the municipal boundaries of Smyrna eventually enclosed around Spruance City.

Nevertheless, Spruance City remained unincorporated, for the most part.

But in 1991, the Town of Smyrna proposed annexing the entire area.

That year, about 25 residents in a few blocks of Spruance City petitioned Smyrna Town Council for annexation.

In response, council proposed annexing the whole area all at once, but other residents of Spruance City came out in force to oppose to this proposal.

On June 27, 1991, residents of Spruance City voted 161-43 against annexation.

The Sun-Times article after the vote reported that opponents of the annexation objected to the costs of sewer hookup, property taxes, and possibly sidewalks and streetlights. Those who favored annexation wanted the benefits of being in Smyrna, including town sewer service, police protection, streetlights, and cheaper and more frequent trash collection. They were also prepared to pay the necessary expenses and follow town ordinances.