In 1836, surveyors working for the U.S. General Land Office measured the six by six mile grid of the future Town of Greenfield, and arterial roads and streets were later built at half-mile intervals following that pattern. Before road maps, streets were usually known by locally used names or by the names of streets extending out of Milwaukee to meet them. In 1930, a county-wide system of names and addresses was applied and many streets received new designations, but Cold Spring Road was an exception. Early settlers gave it its name because of the prized natural springs along its western portion, reflecting the importance of available supplies of pure water to past residents and still today. The local school district was named Cold Spring in 1843, and Cold Spring Road has its earliest mention in the 1849 will of pioneer John Finan. Of the twenty-six roads laid out along the 1836 surveyor’s grid, it alone still bears its original name.