Ten miles northeast of downtown Columbus is
Westerville outside the I-270 outer belt. Westerville’s downtown is referred to
as “Uptown Westerville”, and is typical of a Midwestern college town of the
1800s. It still retains its picturesque and lively shops, churches and
restaurants in the original buildings of that era. Many pre-civil era through
1920s homes are being lovingly renovated by their owners in this college-town
atmosphere. It is home to Otterbein College, Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital
and Polaris Fashion Place. Westerville is well known for its roll in the
Temperance Movement and became the headquarters of the Anti-Saloon League.
Uptown Westerville lifted the booze ban in late 2004. The Westerville Library
hosts the Anti-Saloon League Museum as well as information regarding
Westerville’s involvement in the Underground Railroad is the 1800s. Some of the
older homes in Westerville were havens of safety for runaway slaves striving to
hide and assimilate into a community of free African Americans. Some of these
homes are on Africa Road (now part of Alum Creek State Park). In 2000,
Westerville was voted the “Best Place to Raise a Family” in central Ohio by Columbus Parent magazine.