The story
History
The land on which present-day Upper Arlington sits was first known to be inhabited by the Adena people. Centuries later the Wyandot lived there, eventually being expelled after the U.S. Government gave land grants to Revolutionary War soldiers in lieu of pay. Property originally bestowed in this area to Elijah Backus, Jonathan Dayton and Andrew Marker was sold as farm property to a number of different families in the 1800s.
Brothers and real estate developers King and Ben Thompson founded Upper Arlington. They purchased the original 840 acres of land, south of present-day Lane Avenue, from James T. Miller in 1913. It was directly adjacent to the Marble Cliff Quarry Co. The development proceeded according to the Garden City–inspired plan by landscape architect William Pitkin Jr. They first referred to the area as the "Country Club District" modeled after the Country Club development in Kansas City, but by 1917 the community had become known as "Upper Arlington" in reference to its southern neighbor of Arlington (now known as Marble Cliff).
In 1916 development was interrupted when the National Guard used the area as a temporary training camp called Camp Willis so named after Ohio's governor at the time, Frank B. Willis. Thousands of servicemen were trained at Camp Willis and then dispatched against Pancho Villa on the Mexican border. The camp was dismantled by September 1916.
The Upper Arlington Company was incorporated in 1917 and by 1920 operated out of a field office built in Miller Park; that building also served as a streetcar shelter house and is presently the Miller Park branch of the Upper Arlington Library.
On March 20, 1918, Upper Arlington incorporated as a village with a population of 200. Miller served as the first mayor. The Mallway business district, constructed in the 1920s, became the first commercial district in Upper Arlington.
From 1920 to 1945, the city enforced racially restrictive covenants in property deeds. Other restrictions Upper Arlington included green spaces, maintenance of parks, generous setbacks ensuring large front and corner lawns, and carefully controlled development of separate areas for businesses and multi-family housing.
Upper Arlington became a city on February 8, 1941, and annexed surrounding land as its population grew. In the 1940s, Upper Arlington withdrew from Perry Township by forming a paper township called Upper Arlington Township. Most annexation occurred in the late 1940s through 1960. The two largest annexations occurred in 1954 and 1955, by which the city nearly doubled its surface area. Henderson Road has been Upper Arlington's northern border since 1969.
The annexed property was part of Perry Township, which had been home to numerous farm residents and their families in the 1800s. One such resident was Pleasant Litchford, a former slave who migrated north after buying his freedom, and who became a notable citizen in the African-American community. The current high school sits on property owned by Pleasant Litchford until his death in 1879. The property was annexed into Upper Arlington in the 1950s.
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Other Perry Township farming family names from the 1800s include Kennedy, Kenny, Legg, and Trapp. The McCoy, Richards, Lakin, Matthews, Delashmutt, Phenegar, Slyh, Zollinger, Bickett, Wills and Walcutt families were connected in some way by marriage and have descendants living in Upper Arlington. Richards and McCoy family reunions were held for decades; their first was in 1895, with 109 in attendance.
The post–World War II housing boom led to the development of many new housing tracts north of Lane Avenue. The newer developments took on a much different character from the older core of the city, being mostly organized along normal street grids and with classic ranch-style houses like those found in the area called River Ridge. By the 1960s, as the city grew north, the houses were larger and the neighborhoods more consistent with the intent, if not style, of the original section south of Lane Avenue. The southern half of the city, designated as the "Upper Arlington Historic District" (or colloquially "Old Arlington" or "South of Lane"), was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Upper Arlington had a population of 36,800, a median age of 40.4 years, and 26.0% of residents under the age of 18 while 18.1% of residents were 65 years of age or older; for every 100 females there were 94.2 males and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.8 males age 18 and over.
As of the 2020 census, 100.0% of residents lived in urban areas while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
As of the 2020 census, there were 14,106 households in Upper Arlington, of which 36.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them; 61.2% were married-couple households, 12.0% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 22.8% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present, and 23.9% of all households were made up of individuals with 11.8% having someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
As of the 2020 census, there were 14,831 housing units, of which 4.9% were vacant; the homeowner vacancy rate was 1.2% and the rental vacancy rate was 7.7%.
2010 census
As of the 2010 census, the population was 33,771 persons, 16,157 male (47.84%) and 17,614 female (52.16%). The following table summarizes census findings for age with the median being 42.8 years.
2000 census
As of the census of 2000, there were 33,686 people, 13,985 households, and 9,509 families households in the city. The population density was 3,450.2 inhabitants per square mile (1,332.1/km2). There were 14,432 housing units at an average density of 1,478.2 per square mile (570.7/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 94.7% White, 3.5% Asian, 1% Hispanic or Latino, 0.6% African American, 0.10% Native American, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.3% from other races, and 0.8% from two or more races.
There were 13,985 households, out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.1% were married couples living together, 6.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.0% were non-families. 28.2% of householders were living alone, 12.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.95.
In the city the population was spread out, with 75% over the age of 18 years, 2.6% 20 to 24 years, 15.5% 25–44 years, 16.9% were 45–54 years, and 21.1% were 62 years and older. The median age was 43 years.
From Wikipedia’s article on Upper Arlington, Ohio, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4