Westerville Railroad History and the Trail That Followed
Discover how Westerville’s railroad helped shape the city and how its former corridor became a walking and cycling trail near Uptown.
There is a stretch of Westerville where a walk or bike ride comes with a story hiding beneath the pavement. The Westerville Bike & Walk Way follows a former railroad right-of-way just east of Uptown. What looks like a convenient place to get outside was once part of the infrastructure that helped a small town connect with a much larger world.
For anyone exploring Westerville, Ohio, that is a useful detail to know. The city’s history is visible in more than its older storefronts and houses. It also lives in the routes people still use to move through town. Following this one offers a different way to understand the relationship between transportation, local business, and everyday life.
The day the train arrived
According to the Westerville Public Library’s transportation history, the first train from Columbus arrived on September 1, 1873. Schools let out, businesses closed, and residents gathered to see it. A station stood on East College Avenue. The library describes new homes near the tracks, factories positioned for shipping, and mail arriving by train instead of stagecoach.
Those details give the arrival more meaning than a date on a timeline. Transportation affected where people could live and how businesses operated. A location near the railroad offered a practical connection beyond the village. Read the library’s account with that in mind, and the excitement makes sense: the town was watching a new set of possibilities arrive.
On your next visit to East College Avenue, consider using that station location as a reference point. You do not need to reconstruct an entire nineteenth-century street scene to appreciate what changed. Simply knowing where the connection was helps turn a familiar street into a place with a longer story.
How transportation helped shape the town
The Westerville Historical Society places the railroad’s arrival at the beginning of a period of significant business growth. Its account names the Everal Tile Company, Weyant Block, Bennett Manufacturing, Bank of Westerville, and Holmes Hotel among the additions of the 1880s. It then identifies the interurban trolley, Vine Street School, and Westerville Creamery among developments by 1900.
That is a helpful reminder to look beyond one famous event when learning local history. A town’s identity also takes shape through workplaces, commercial buildings, schools, and the services people use. Transportation is one way to connect those separate stories.
The city’s Uptown design guidelines describe substantial brick commercial buildings on State Street following the railroad’s arrival, along with new streets and homes. Taken together, these accounts show a community growing through both commerce and construction.
For someone looking at older homes in Westerville today, this is useful context rather than a shortcut to dating a property. A house’s age, alterations, and individual history still need their own records. The broader town story gives you better questions to ask: When was this street developed? What stood nearby? How did people travel from here?
A former rail corridor finds another purpose
The library records the abandonment of the railroad line through Westerville in March 1982 and describes its later use for walking and cycling. Visit Westerville identifies the Westerville Bike & Walk Way as a 2.2-mile trail built on a former railroad right-of-way, roughly parallel to State Street and a couple of blocks east of Uptown.
There is something satisfying about that continuity. The corridor still connects places, even though the way people use it has changed. Learning the history can make an ordinary outing more interesting without turning it into a formal tour.
It also helps explain why a trail can feel different from a path drawn through a park. A reused transportation corridor follows an earlier purpose. As you walk, notice its alignment and its relationship to nearby streets. Treat those observations as starting points for curiosity, rather than proof that every nearby building had a railroad connection.
For deeper research, the library’s transportation history is a good place to begin. Pair the written account with its historical photographs, then compare what you learn with a current map. Keep the two separate: an archival image documents its own moment, while today’s trail map shows the route available now.
Follow the connection beyond Uptown
Westerville’s portion of the Ohio to Erie Trail links this local story with a statewide route between Cincinnati and Cleveland. Visit Westerville explains that the route through the city uses several trails and connectors, including the Alum Creek Trail, Westerville Bike & Walk Way, and Schrock Road bike lanes. Plan from a current map instead of assuming the entire trip is on one uninterrupted off-street path.
To the north, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy describes the Genoa Trail as another former railroad corridor, running between Westerville and the area south of Galena. That creates an opportunity to explore how neighboring Central Ohio communities have adapted transportation routes for present-day use.
For a shorter outing, Visit Westerville identifies the Bike Depot in Hanby Park at 115 East Park Street as a place with bike amenities and seating. Its transportation guide also explains how visitors can continue toward Uptown on foot or by bicycle.
Start with the distance you actually want to cover. Review crossings, check current route notices, and choose a turnaround point before leaving. You can appreciate the history on a brief walk just as easily as on a longer ride. Leave time to pause, look around, and connect the map with what you see.
What this story adds to living in Westerville
If you are considering a move to Westerville, a trail visit can help answer a question that photographs of a home cannot: how would you use the surrounding area? Walk the connection from a neighborhood you are considering, look at the street crossings, and decide whether that route fits your own routine.
For sellers, nearby trail access can be a useful feature to describe accurately. Identify the actual public access point and the route to it rather than making a broad claim about walkability or promising a particular effect on value.
At Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Platinum Realty Group, we believe getting to know a place includes understanding how it came to be. This railroad story offers one small, specific way to see Westerville more clearly, from its older streets to an amenity people can enjoy today.
Planning to buy or sell a home or land, or relocate to Central Ohio? Contact Platinum Realty Group to talk through your next move and explore the local details that matter to you.
Sources
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