Editing Bexley, Ohio (section)

==History==
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Bexley was named at the suggestion of an early resident, Col. Lincoln Kilbourne, in honor of his family's roots in [[Bexley]], in [[London, England|London]], [[England]]. The village of Bexley was incorporated in 1908 when prominent citizens of Bullitt Park to the north along [[Alum Creek (Ohio)|Alum Creek]], including industrialist and [[List of mayors of Columbus, Ohio|35th mayor]] of Columbus [[Robert H. Jeffrey]], agreed to merge with the Lutheran community of Pleasant Ridge to the south near the [[Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio]] college, [[Capital University]] (established 1850) and the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary (now [[Trinity Lutheran Seminary]]) founded 1830. Both educational institutions today are affiliated with the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]].

Bullitt Park had been founded in 1889, when Logan M. Bullitt of [[Philadelphia]] submitted his first plat for the area. Wealthy citizens of Columbus continued to build urban townhouses and country homes to the east along Broad Street and Town Road (now Bryden Road), extending to Franklin Park. By the 1890s, several large homes were erected across Alum Creek in the Bullitt Park area, one of which became the original campus of the [[Columbus School for Girls]], still an exclusive girls' private school in Bexley.

The onset of the [[Spanish–American War]] was also instrumental in Bexley's history. In 1898, Ohio Governor [[Asa Bushnell]] chose a cluster of unsold lots around Broad and Drexel in Bullitt Park as an assembly site for state volunteers for the war. Camp Bushnell, as it was known, was home for three weeks to 8,000 Ohio recruits headed for [[Cuba]]. This led to the development of water and sewer lines for the soldiers, thus preparing the area for later real estate development in subsequent decades.

By 1908, the residents of Bullitt Park, north of Main Street, and Pleasant Ridge, south of Main Street, decided to merge their neighborhoods and incorporated as the Village of Bexley. The village reached the 5,000 population mark required by the state of Ohio to become a city in 1928 and, on January 1, 1932, officially became a city. William A. Schneider was elected the first mayor in 1935. Schneider oversaw construction of the first city hall and led Bexley through a long and profitable growth period. He remained in office for 32 years before retiring.

In March 2013, the city of Bexley was accredited as an arboretum by the Morton Register of Arboreta, making it the first city in the United States to successfully obtain arboretum accreditation.