Westerville Visitors and Convention Bureau

Our Community

Westerville is full of wonderful neighborhoods, community-minded businesses, an attentive city government, which provides a wide array of opportunities, programs and services for its citizens and one of Ohio's top school districts. meeting 18 out of 23 standards set forth by the State of Ohio. Westerville is a wonderful community in which to live and work and a charming, change-of-pace destination to visit.

Click Here to find out more about Uptown Westerville's beautiful hanging baskets.

Westerville History
Source: Images of America, Westerville, by Beth Bering Weinhardt, Published by Arcadia Publishing. Copyright 2004

The first settlers arrived in Blendon Township in 1806 from Windsor Connecticut and settlement grew in the area between the banks of Alum Creek and Big Walnut Creek. By 1856 the village had been platted and a college founded through the efforts of the Westervelts, early settlers from Dutchess County, New York. The citizens rewarded the philanthropy of the family by naming the first post office Westerville and thus naming the village.

In the 1850s, while the country was struggling with the slavery issue, many Westerville residents were rishing their freedom and family finances to aid runaway slaves. Several family homes, including the Hanby House, were stops on the Underground Railroad. Westerville's favority son, Benjamin Hanby was a well-known composer of the day.

Westerville gained notoriety in the 1870s with a series of saloon bombings that became known as the "Whiskey Wars." The strong "dry" reputation of the community was one of the factors that persuaded the Anti-Saloon League to locate their national printing center and headquarters in the town. Founded in 1895, the Anti-Saloon League was a non-partisan, temperance organization whose sole mission was to eradicate the saloon and liquor traffic. With their arrival and the printing of tons of anti-alcohol information, the small town of 2,000 became known as the "Dry Capital of the World." Westerville became a city in 1961. The community spreads through northeast Franklin County and into Delaware County and today has 37,000 residents.

For more information go to the History Resource Center page: http://www.westervillelibrary.org/AntiSaloon

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