Bexley, Ohio
Population: 13,000+.

The History of Bexley, Ohio

As the Roman Empire was reaching its zenith in the 2nd century BC, an advanced Native American culture was leaving its mark on the land that would eventually become Bexley in the form of an Adena burial mound along Alum Creek.

Two millennia later, this historic Adena community was propelled into the modern era with the 1833 opening of the National Road, now Main Street, which connected Zanesville with Columbus. Some 19 years after that, the Turnpike Plank Road, now Broad Street, opened. Farmlands dominated the area. There was a small, one-room schoolhouse built in 1864 at the corner of College and Livingston, and then in 1875 a second schoolhouse was built on Pleasant Ridge.

Urbanization began in 1876 when Capital University moved from the Goodale Park area to its present location in Bexley. Professors and their families soon began to move east, build homes, and enroll their children in the Pleasant Ridge School.

For the next twenty years, this small community remained relatively unchanged. Then, in 1898, with the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, the region became a part of military history. The area around Broad and Drexel was chosen by Governor Asa Bushnell as the assembly site for three weeks for the eight thousand Ohio volunteers headed for Cuba. The extended sewer and water lines for the soldiers at Camp Bushnell made the area ripe for real estate development. Improved turn-of-the-century trolley and car travel increased the number of those interested in living east of Alum Creek in what would become the Village of Bexley.

Before 1905, the area north of Town Street, now Bryden Road, was virtually undeveloped. In that year, however, a small group of prominent Columbus families began a movement to develop this area as an exclusive residential community. Led by Robert H. Jeffrey, who had been mayor of Columbus, E.N. Huggins, and Colonel Lincoln Kilbourne, several of these families erected stately mansions.

Meanwhile, the community around Capital University continued to flourish, and on January 3, 1907, the Pleasant Ridge Improvement Association was formed. It promoted public improvements to attract new families to buy land and build. They installed sidewalks, roads and lights; beautified the area through the encouragement of tree planting and yard maintenance; and excluded unsightly signs. These early residents and their civic association are credited with instituting the rigid building restrictions which prompted improved, beautiful and well-kept properties in the area.

In 1908, the Association decided to incorporate the community as a village, including all land and residents between Livingston and Town Street, but excluding the much smaller Jeffrey community farther north. Not wishing to remain isolated, but too small to incorporate itself, the Jeffrey community initiated talks with the Association. In the Summer of that year, the two groups met on the terrace of the Jeffrey Mansion and agreed to join forces. It was at this meeting, at the suggestion of Col. Kilbourne, that the name "Bexley" was chosen for the soon-to-be village. The name came from the parish housing the Kilbourne family estate in Kent, England.

The Village of Bexley officially came into being at a special election in the summer of 1908. The first council meeting was held in August at Capital University. Population of the village numbered about 1,000. Frank P. Holtzman was elected the village's first mayor, and the first ordinances passed reflected the times, prohibiting residents from allowing cattle to graze on village property, outlawing intoxication and assault, and banning the discharging of firearms.

Shortly after incorporation, Columbus sued the village, contending that Bexley was annexed territory and subject to Columbus taxes. The village fought the suit and the case was finally settled by the Ohio Supreme Court which ruled that Bexley was a separate and legally incorporated village and beyond the reach of Columbus taxes.

By 1915, council meetings were being held in the basement of the new Main Street School (located across the street from Capital's Seminary, west of College). The village's only telephone was located in a barber shop across from the university; the town marshal was given a bicycle to replace his horse; and a vacant lot had been acquired for the construction of a municipal building. The total assets of the village were the lot, the bike, one road scraper, and a wheelbarrow.

By 1921, Bexley's population had grown to 2,000; the growth promised to continue; and five streets had been paved. Mayor Stephen Ludwig undertook to control future expansion by appointing the first zoning commission and revising the building code. In 1922, Montrose School was finished as the high school and Cassingham Elementary School followed in 1927. Underground electric lighting was installed in 1923, and the first municipal building was constructed two years later. During the decade of the 1920's, Bexley's population more than tripled.

Bexley reached the required 5,000 residents necessary to become a city in 1928, but could not be certified until after the 1930 national census was official. The village adopted a city charter in 1931 and formally became the City of Bexley on January 1, 1932.