Drive On Left Side Of Western Springs Road

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – There's a Western Springs Road, and it's in honor of the village.

But motorists drive on the left side of the road.

Western Springs Road is in Rugeley, England, about 30 miles north of Birmingham.

If you know your streets in Western Springs, you'll recognize the English town's name. Rugeley Road is in the southeastern part of the village.

In the late 1950s, Western Springs and Rugeley became sister cities as part of President Dwight Eisenhower's People to People program.

In 1957, Western Springs' village president attended the dedication of Rugeley's Western Springs Road, a major thoroughfare in the town.

The next year, representatives of Rugeley visited Western Springs, welcomed by a parade and greeted by the governor of Illinois.

In 1959, Western Springs' Rugeley Road, a residential street, was dedicated. A boulder noting the designation sits at Rugeley and Caroline Place.

Interestingly, Western Springs has no street named after itself, though Rugeley also has a Rugeley Road.

On Monday, the Western Springs Village Board adopted a resolution setting May 23 as Rugeley Day.

"We have been working for the last year on rekindling the relationship and doing the research," said Leslie Walters of the Western Springs Historical Society. "It is fascinating to see how much our village, our founders did. It really does give us goosebumps."

Rugeley Road in Western Springs is named after the village's sister city, Rugeley, England. (Google Maps)