Columbus, Ohio

More than three hundred years after Christopher Columbus and his crew sailed to the New World, a small settlement far from any ocean took his name for its own. Today, Columbus, Ohio, is a large, prosperous capital city.

Landscape

Columbus was founded along the eastern bank of the Scioto River, just south of the river's junction with the Olentangy. The city grew in spurts until it covered nearly forty square miles by 1950. Columbus now occupies 217.7 square miles and rests on a level plain 780 feet above sea level.

The most populous city in Ohio, Columbus has grown in large part by annexing other towns within its metropolitan range. This policy has contributed to the complexity of the city's landscape—a patchwork of distinct communities of differing styles, streetscapes, and levels of prosperity. Columbus has a temperate climate, with the hot summers and cold winters common in the Midwest.

The two principal streets of Columbus, High Street and Broad Street, intersect in the center of the city at Capitol Square, where the Ohio State Capitol stands. Two blocks west of the Capitol building, along the bend of the Scioto, is Civic Center Drive, where four public buildings were built between 1928 and 1924: City Hall, the McKinley Memorial (honoring President William KcKinley), the Columbus Auditorium, and a state office building. Broad Street, the east-west corridor linking Civic Center Drive to Capitol Square, is also Route 40. Also known as the National Road, this was the first federal interstate highway, constructed in the early nineteenth century. Streets downtown are organized on a grid, and streets running east and west (except for Broad Street) are called avenues, while downtown streets running north and south are called streets.

The Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) provides a convenient shuttle service called the Downtown Link, which runs along High Street south to Germantown or north to the Short North Arts District. To go farther, COTA offers both frequent-stopping and express buses.

In addition to Route 40, a number of interstate highways pass through Columbus. The largest and most heavily traveled is Interstate 70, which passes through downtown with interchanges at major streets and connects Columbus to Baltimore, Wheeling, and Indianapolis. I-71 connects Columbus to Cleveland and to Cincinnati and Louisville. Interstate 270 and Interstate 670 bypass the city.

People

Columbus's population was estimated to be 907,971 people in 2022, according to the US Census Bureau. Approximately 53.1 percent of residents were White, 29.1 percent were African American, 6.7 percent were Hispanic or Latino, and 5.8 were Asian American. The city is noteworthy for its demographic characteristics and has often profited from them. It is generally representative of the larger American population in terms of race and ethnicity, age distribution, education, and employment patterns. For this reason, businesses doing market research frequently choose Columbus as a test market. The city tried out the first twenty-four-hour automatic teller machines (ATMs), and Columbus families have been fitted out with such trial products as interactive cable televisions and innovations in cellular telephone technology.

Students make up an important part of Columbus's population. Ohio State University (OSU), the largest university in the city, reported an enrollment of 65,405 students during the 2023-2024 year, of whom 5,894 were international students. The university population is not unlike that of greater Columbus, which is home to numerous immigrant and minority groups. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, thousands of immgrants from Somalia and Mexico came to Columbus, joining established groups who are sometimes centered in ethnic neighborhoods or who return to these neighborhoods for special events or festivals.

Some of Columbus's most noteworthy annual festivals include the two-day Asian Festival held each May in Franklin Park, and the Festival Latino in Bicentennial Park and along Civic Center Drive. Other annual celebrations include the weekend Columbus Jazz and Rib Fest on the riverfront and the weekend Dublin Irish Festival in Coffman Park, Dublin (one of the neighboring towns that Columbus annexed). The annual Columbus International Festival features ethnic and national performances, foods, and souvenirs. Columbus also supports a thriving gay community and holds an annual Pride Festival.

Economy

The economy of Columbus is not dependent on one industry or means of employment. The city is a seat of government, an educational center, a marketing and manufacturing center, and a center of advanced science and technology. Numerous high-tech companies are headquartered in Columbus. The presence of an educated, technology-savvy university population helps to nurture these companies and has resulted in the successful launching of several start-up businesses. Additionally, venture capital firms such as Drive Capital, which was founded in the city around 2012 by partners who had moved from California based on the potential of Midwestern areas such as Columbus, had further supported the start-up economy by 2019. Likewise, Columbus's popularity as a test market for innovative products has helped to create a city with a technologically sophisticated populace. In December 2023, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Columbus area had an unemployment rate of 3.9 percent, and the largest areas of employment were trade, transportation, and utilities; government; professional and business services; and education and health services.

John Glenn Columbus International Airport, ten minutes from downtown Columbus, welcomes planes from many major passenger airlines. The Greater Columbus Convention Center is close to downtown and easily accessible from the airport. Each year hundreds of events are held there, including conventions, trade shows, volleyball tournaments, and concerts.

Horse racing is a popular and profitable sport in Columbus. The year's most important pacer event, the Little Brown Jug, is held at Delaware County Fairgrounds each year. Quarter horse and thoroughbred racing takes place September through May at Beulah Park, and harness racing succeeds it, continuing May through September at Scioto Downs. Every October, the American Quarter Horse Congress convenes in Columbus, bringing with it a great quarter-horse show. Those who prefer auto racing can attend stock car races every Saturday night during the summer at Columbus Motor Speedway, or they can find drag racing at National Trail Raceway, in Hebron, from May to October.

Golf courses abound in greater Columbus. One is Muirfield Village in Dublin, a course designed by Columbus native Jack Nicklaus. The four-day professional Memorial Tournament is held here each year at the end of May.

The Columbus Blue Jackets, a professional hockey team, play at the Nationwide Arena. The Columbus Crew plays major-league soccer at Crew Stadium in the Ohio Expo Center.

At Huntington Park, the minor-league Columbus Clippers, a Cleveland Indians affiliate, play before crowds of enthusiastic fans. College football at Ohio Stadium draws thousands of fans on autumn weekends, and Ohio State's basketball and ice hockey teams also attract devoted followings. Columbus maintains numerous recreational facilities, including tennis courts and extensive bicycling and jogging trails. The city hosts several long-distance running events, including the Columbus Marathon.

Shopping is as popular as sports in Columbus. The city is home to several suburban malls as well as communities of specialty shops such as German Village, a restored nineteenth-century German enclave; the Marketplace at Grandview Avenue; and the Shops on Lane Avenue.

Columbus is rich in musical events and cultural opportunities. The Columbus Symphony Orchestra plays in its beautiful hall, the Ohio Theatre, on Capitol Square. The Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra performs its concert series in the Southern Theatre. The Columbus Jazz Orchestra offers a subscription series of concerts in Battelle Auditorium at OSU, and OSU hosts a Jazz Festival every spring. Opera Columbus stages several operas each year, and Ballet Met offers performances of both classical and contemporary ballet.

The Ohio State Fair, one of the largest state fairs in the United States, takes place at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus each summer.

Landmarks

Tourists exploring Columbus may well begin in the center with the Ohio State Capitol in the center of the downtown grid. Built in 1861 of gleaming limestone, this Doric-columned building is regarded by art historians as one of the finest American buildings designed in the Greek Revival style. The building houses exhibits of historic documents, along with portraits and artifacts of Ohio governors and of the Ohioans who became US presidents. In Battelle Park, beside the Scioto River, sits a full-sized replica of the Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus's flagship when he set out for India in 1492. Costumed guides lead tours of the ship.

East of the Capitol is the Columbus Museum of Art, which is surrounded by a sculpture garden and contains collections of European Old Masters; Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Expressionist paintings; and modern American works. Nearby, at 77 Jefferson Street, is the Thurber House, childhood home of writer and cartoonist James Thurber.

South of the Museum of Art and the Thurber House but still downtown in Old Deaf School Park is an amazing topiary garden recreating in plant sculpture the painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. The garden was created by the sculptor James T. Mason, who first designed metal frames, then trained green plants to grow over them. The scene contains fifty-four people, eight boats, three dogs, a monkey, and a cat.

The Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, built in 1895 in the style of Prince Albert's Crystal Palace, allows visitors to walk through the different climates of the world, including a tropical rain forest, a desert, a mountaintop, and an island. Outside the conservatory, other gardens and exhibits include a Japanese garden and a collection of bonsai trees.

One must leave downtown to visit the Columbus Zoo, but it is worth the trip. The most popular animals on exhibit are the critically endangered gorillas, which had a gorilla born in captivity in 2023. Other noteworthy exhibits include a koala habitat and a manatee tank. The zoo's reptile collection is among the largest in the United States.

History

The prosperous citizens of Franklinton essentially manipulated themselves off the map of Ohio and almost out of the history books. Ohio had achieved statehood in 1803, but by 1812 it had not yet selected a permanent capital. Franklinton, the seat of Franklin County in the central part of the state, saw an opportunity to reach for power and preeminence. The Ohio General Assembly accepted the town's offer of 1,200 acres of land, as well as $50,000 for the construction of a capitol building and state prison, and decided to erect Ohio's capital city there.

Although Franklinton was a fine, patriotic name, the General Assembly thought Columbus was even better. So in 1816, when the Ohio capital was officially transferred to its permanent site, it received a separate name and became a separate borough. In addition, Columbus, east of the Scioto, grew quickly and dramatically. Soon even Franklintonians on the west bank were moving across the river. Twelve years after Franklinton negotiated the capital's placement, Columbus replaced Franklinton as county seat. A few years later, the existence of Franklinton had been all but forgotten.

State government was the chief business of the city of Columbus before the Civil War, which brought other forms of business. First, an arsenal was built in Columbus; then, in 1863, the Union Army established a military post there. The barracks became permanent, and in 1922 the name was changed from the Columbus Barracks to Fort Hayes. The presence of the army contributed to another growth spurt for Columbus—during the war the city's population expanded to five times its previous size. Many of the newcomers introduced manufacturing to the city.

During the decade following the Civil War, federal legislation establishing land grant colleges brought higher education to Columbus, beginning in 1873 with the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College (OAMC). In 1878, the college was reorganized and renamed Ohio State University, but it retained the technological edge associated with its origins, as it does to this day.

With the arrival of OAMC and then OSU, Columbus expanded in new directions. A seat of government and a manufacturing center, it had now become an educational center as well. This triple heritage continues to shape the city today. Because of the university and the graduates who settle nearby, Columbus has become a technological hub in its own right.

Since the 1950s, Columbus has undergone its greatest growth spurt yet, in population as well as in land area. It has annexed its neighboring towns, which, while they may retain their community names and loyalties, are now part of metropolitan Columbus, governed by the city's mayor and council, and part of the Columbus school system. While Franklinton was the first town swallowed up by Columbus, it was by no means the last.

As the debate over legalizing marijuana continued around the country, in 2016 Ohio became one of several states to legalize medical marijuana. In 2019, the first medical marijuana dispensary in Columbus opened. In 2024, the state was considering allowing medical dispensaries to sell recreational marijuana in addition to filling prescriptions.

Bibliography

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"The City of Columbus." Columbus.gov, 2024, https://new.columbus.gov/Home Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.

"Columbus (City), Ohio." QuickFacts, United States Census Bureau,www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/columbuscityohio/RHI725221. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.

"Columbus, OH, Area Economic Summary." Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dept. of Labor, 6 Feb. 2024, www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/summary/blssummary‗columbus‗oh.pdf. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.

Dee, Christine, editor. Ohio's War: The Civil War in Documents. Ohio UP, 2006.

Fuerborn, Mark. "Ohio Recreational Marijuana Sales Could Begin at Medical Dispensaries Under Proposal." NBC4 Today, 18 Feb. 2024, ww.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/central-ohio-news/ohio-recreational-marijuana-sales-could-begin-at-medical-dispensaries-under-proposal/ Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.

Lentz, Ed. Columbus: The Story of a City. Arcadia, 2003.

Osborne, Amanda. "A Gorilla Brings Two Surprises for the Columbus Zoo." Columbus Zoo, 19 July 2023, https://www.columbuszoo.org/blog/gorilla-birth-brings-two-surprises-columbus-zoo. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.