Hello, Upper Arlington.
Stay curious.

Welcome to Upper Arlington Local, a free community guide from Smart Ride Central Ohio. Explore local history, find places to visit, and check upcoming events with links to their organizers. This is an independent guide, not an official city service. Choose any story, or listen to the collection in order. You can replay it whenever you like, with no account, payment or time limit. If you are driving, set up before moving and leave the controls to a passenger. Let your next outing begin with a little curiosity.

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Upper Arlington’s development began when brothers King and Ben Thompson purchased the Miller farm in 1913. The community incorporated as a village in 1918 and became a city in 1941. These dates help explain why its older neighborhoods have a different story from towns that grew around a canal or railroad depot. The Upper Arlington Historical Society documents the people and decisions behind that development. Walking through a neighborhood can reveal the physical setting, while historical records help explain whose plans shaped it.

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Fancyburg Park is a setting for Upper Arlington’s annual Fall Fest. The city describes a seasonal gathering with activities such as hayrides, pumpkin decorating and family entertainment. Outside a special event, a park visit has a different rhythm, so check the parks department’s current information for facilities and access. The event listing in this guide gives the verified date and time when available. A recurring tradition is part of a community’s identity, but its schedule should always be confirmed for the year you intend to attend.

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Upper Arlington’s story reaches back well before the city had its name. Pleasant Litchford was a master blacksmith who came to this area after purchasing his freedom from slavery in Virginia. During the eighteen thirties and forties, he acquired land in what was then Perry Township. His holdings included places now familiar as the high school grounds, Northam Park, and Tremont Elementary School. He supported education for Black children and was a founding member of Columbus’s Second Baptist Church. His family cemetery also became part of this landscape. In the nineteen fifties, the school district acquired the cemetery site for a high school, and burials were moved. Archaeological work in twenty twenty revealed that the earlier removals had been incomplete. The district and Litchford descendants have since worked together to honor the family and those buried there. Learning this history adds people and responsibilities to familiar place names. Consult the school district’s historical resources and respect school access rules and memorial spaces.

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A small patch of paving can hold a surprisingly large transportation story. At the Miller Carriage Step, the city’s History Trail describes bricks that once formed the bed of the trolley line along Arlington Avenue. Manufactured in Nelsonville, Ohio, these blocks became part of a route that carried passengers between this developing community and downtown Columbus. In the nineteen twenties, the line ran up Arlington Avenue from Fifth Avenue. Electric streetcars offered a relatively convenient and inexpensive connection, helping make suburban life practical before household car ownership became commonplace. Service ended in nineteen thirty-six, but the bricks remained beneath the avenue for decades before being salvaged for reuse in Upper Arlington parks. Next time you encounter an old paving block, consider its working life before it became a landscape detail. Here, the material connects today’s neighborhood walks with an earlier daily commute. Use the History Trail’s interpretation to explore the site from public areas, and leave historic features undisturbed.

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Upper Arlington’s Labor Day Arts Festival began with a much smaller gathering than the event many residents know today. The Historical Society traces its start to nineteen sixty-six at Miller Park, with just a dozen artists. As interest grew, the show moved to the Mallway and then to the Municipal Building grounds on Tremont Road. In nineteen eighty-six, it found a home in the Northam Park area. That journey across community spaces tells a story about local enthusiasm becoming an enduring tradition. The city describes a festival combining fine art, hands-on activities, and live music, supported by staff and volunteers. For a visitor, the experience can be more than browsing booths: ask an artist about a material, a technique, or what inspired a piece. For residents, it can be a chance to see familiar surroundings transformed by creativity. Check the current official festival page when planning a future visit; schedules, participating artists, and arrival arrangements change from year to year.

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A park walk changes when the trees stop being an anonymous green background. Upper Arlington’s Tree Treks offer a simple way to make that happen. The city provides self-guided routes in Thompson, Fancyburg, Northam, and Miller parks, with brochures that match numbered signs to individual trees. Instead of trying to identify everything at once, choose a few stops and look closely. Notice a leaf’s shape, the texture of bark, or the way branches spread. Those observations give a familiar path a new purpose, and they can make a repeat visit in another season more interesting. The city also describes wooded areas and ravines in several parks, along with a seasonal forested wetland at Thompson Park. These landscapes are part of the community alongside its buildings and streets. Download the current Tree Trek map before your outing, follow marked routes, and let the numbered stops set an unhurried pace. You do not need to be a tree expert to begin noticing more.

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You do not always need a walking tour to discover another side of Upper Arlington. Sometimes the starting point is an old photograph or a familiar name in a yearbook. The Upper Arlington Public Library’s local history resources include newspapers, maps, family collections, and high school yearbooks reaching back to nineteen twenty-three. Its digital UA Archives brings together material from local organizations and individuals, including the Miller and Thompson families and Pleasant Litchford collections. Try beginning with one question: what did your street look like before the houses you recognize, or what did students do for fun in another decade? Compare a photograph with a dated map, and remember that one document rarely tells the whole story. The library’s research staff can help identify resources and explain how to use them. For longtime residents, an archive may unlock memories. For newcomers and visitors, it can turn an unfamiliar neighborhood into a place with recognizable people, choices, and changes.

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