I lived in Columbus as an undergraduate in college: first in campus dorms, then in a house near campus in Old North Columbus. It was my first experience in a less prominent major city--the sprawl and residential nature outside of downtown was very surprising to me, having grown up around the third-largest city in the United States. Nonetheless, Columbus first made it known to me that many cities can still have important architecture, whether it is on a college campus or off of it.
Columbus is a city in central Ohio, and it is the capital of Ohio, its most populous city, and the county seat of Franklin County. Columbus is known as the "Discovery City," "Arch City," and "Cap City," and it is nicknamed "Cbus" and "Cowtown." As of 2020, it has a population of 905,748 people.
The Columbus area was first settled by Native Americans (the "Mound Builders" at first, later the Mingo, Shawnee, Wyandot, and Delaware), who lived along the Scioto River. As European colonists moved westward for the fur trade, they often fought with the local tribes. After the Battle of Fallen Timbers in Maumee, the 1795 Treaty of Greenville forced the displacement of Ohio's Native Americans.
In 1797, Franklinton was established by Lucas Sullivant by the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers. This location was desirable due to the rivers being navigable, but Sullivant soon discovered the peninsula's propensity to flood, as a large flood in 1798 destroyed the entire settlement. Franklinton has since been annexed into Columbus as a neighborhood.
The newly founded state of Ohio was struggling to decide on a capital in 1803. After fluctuating between Zanesville and Chillicothe, the state legislature considered Franklinton, Dublin, Worthington, and Delaware before deciding to establish a new city. As a result, the city of Columbus was founded on February 14, 1812. It has been the capital of Ohio since 1816.
Columbus grew slowly at first, since it was not connected to other cities at the time via road or water. However, by 1831, both the National Road and Ohio & Erie Canal had reached Columbus. In 1834, Columbus had reached a population of 3,500 people, and it was chartered as a city that year. Franklinton was annexed into Columbus in 1837.
The city grew steadily in the 19th century, though it remained smaller in population than Cleveland and Cincinnati. The first railroad to arrive was the Columbus & Xenia Railroad in 1850, joined by the Cleveland, Columbus, & Cincinnati Railroad a year later. These two railroads built the first "union station" in the world, and by 1875, there were eight different railroads connected to Columbus. In 1857, the Ohio Statehouse opened after 18 years of construction. The Underground Railroad was very active in Columbus, as notable Black community leader James Poindexter (who Poindexter Village is named after) helped coordinate the escape of enslaved people further north. Columbus was also a base for Union Army troops during the Civil War. Sites related to the Civil War in Columbus include Fort Hayes, Goodale Park, and Camp Chase (now part of the Hilltop neighborhood). The well-known streetlight arches downtown were first installed in 1888.
After the Morrill Act was passed in 1862, which allowed the construction of "land-grant" universities across the United States, the Ohio Agricultural & Mechanical College was established in 1870 on what was then rural farmland owned by the Neil family. We now know it as The Ohio State University.
Columbus had an economic presence in Ohio through factories in the Arena District and Italian Village (many now demolished), the German breweries in the Brewery District, and the growing Ohio State University, among others. It was known for manufacturing buggies for a time, even having the nickname the "Buggy Capital of the World." It reached 100,000 people before the 1900 census, which showed 125,560 residents.
Several notable events in Columbus history took place in the 1910s. A strike planned by workers at the Columbus Railway, Power, & Light Company in 1910 to protest poor working conditions led to riots after strikebreakers were hired. Unfortunately, the union ultimately lost its battle with the company. In 1913, a major flood hit Franklinton, known as the Great Flood of 1913. This caused widespread damage, 90 deaths, and made thousands of residents homeless. The Scioto River was widened afterwards, with new bridges and a retaining wall. Through the next decade, downtown had many of its notable buildings constructed, such as LeVeque Tower and the Civic Center, the latter being inspired by the City Beautiful movement.
Columbus grew rapidly beginning in the 1950s, as the city and its suburbs sprawled outward from the historic center. Many incoming residents were not from Europe but Appalachia. Columbus took a unique approach to maintain its tax base during suburbanization, as any linkage to the municipal water and sewer lines meant annexation by the city. However, the typical effects to the larger American city still occurred at this time, such as the widespread demolition of historic downtown buildings and suburban sprawl. By the 1990s, with the decline of Cleveland and Cincinnati's population, Columbus had become the largest and most populated city in Ohio.
Beginning in 2000, Columbus began many of the revitalization schemes that it is known for, in neighborhoods such as the Brewery District, Arena District, and Short North. The riverfront was redeveloped with green space through the Scioto Mile project, and Franklinton received a new flood wall.
Columbus has continued its growth even today, unusual for a large city. (Since the 1950s and white flight/suburbanization, many large cities have lost a lot of their historic population and are still experiencing small declines.) It has been described as the fastest-growing city in America, also unusual for a Midwestern city. It received its first major sports franchise outside of Ohio State football in 2000, with the establishment of the NHL expansion team the Columbus Blue Jackets. Minor league and smaller teams include the Columbus Crew (soccer), Columbus Clippers (minor league baseball), and Columbus Aviators (UFL). Historically, Columbus had an NFL team (the Columbus Panhandles/Tigers) and headquartered the NFL, but the team went defunct in 1926.
A ★ denotes a building with its own article.