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Bexley, Upper Arlington, Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff: only one was sold with its utilities

Four small municipalities sit on the older side of Columbus: Marble Cliff, incorporated in 1901, Grandview Heights in 1906, Bexley in 1908 and Upper Arlington in 1918. Only the last of them was sold with its utilities. The company that platted Upper Arlington printed a page headed NO CONVENIENCE LACKING in a sales brochure the Upper Arlington Public Library's archive dates to about 1914, promising sewers, water, gas and street lights; the Ohio State Board of Health, over those same years, was recording that Marble Cliff's sewage went into gullies and cesspools in 1909, that Grandview Heights had neither a public water supply nor a sewer in 1910, and that Bexley still had no public water supply in 1913. This page follows that record to what the Census Bureau counted in these places' bathrooms in 1940 and 1950, and to what the American Community Survey says about the age of their housing now.

Last updated September 2026 · Figures are the Census Bureau's, the Ohio State Board of Health's and the four municipalities' own, read September 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base

Four municipalities, four different beginnings

These four are separate governments, not neighborhoods of Columbus, and each carries its own founding record. The Village of Marble Cliff says it was incorporated on October 12, 1901, as the Hamlet of Marble Cliff, and took its name from the quarries and landmarks nearby. The Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society agrees on that year and adds a second step: after Grandview Heights separated, the part left behind voted in 1908 to incorporate as a village.

The City of Grandview Heights says it was incorporated in 1906 and became a charter city in 1931. Its historical society gives a reason for the first of those dates: the roughly two hundred residents asked for water and electricity, were refused, and voted in 1906 to incorporate as the Village of Grandview Heights. That is the society's account of its own town.

Bexley was assembled out of two adjoining neighborhoods. The City of Bexley says Bullit Park, as its page spells it, to the north and Pleasant Ridge to the south combined in 1908. The Ohio historical marker standing in Bullitt Park, transcribed with photographs by the Historical Marker Database, records that the Village of Bexley was incorporated June 13, 1908, and that the first council met on August 10. That marker and the Bexley Public Library both date the next step precisely, to a charter form of city government becoming operative on January 1, 1932; the city's own page gives only the year and the Bexley Historical Society's chapter How Bexley Grew says 1931.

That ground had been improved once already, for an army. The Bexley Historical Society says Camp Bushnell stood on about 500 acres of the Bullitt Park Addition in April and May of 1898, and that infrastructure improvements were brought east from Columbus so the camp could function. The Historical Marker Database puts it more specifically, saying the extended sewer and water lines for the soldiers made the area ripe for real estate development.

Upper Arlington is the youngest. The City of Upper Arlington says that on March 20 of 1918 the Village of Upper Arlington was incorporated, after the community had grown to about 200 residents. The land came first: the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Upper Arlington Historic District says the brothers King and Ben Thompson bought it from James T. Miller on December 24, 1913. How much land is a disagreement left open here: the nomination puts "1000 acres" in quotation marks and says the actual acreage was somewhat less, while the city's own history gives 840 acres.

The four then grew very differently. In the Census Bureau's 1950 volume of county figures by minor civil division, the 1930 counts are 7,396 people in Bexley, 6,358 in Grandview Heights, 3,059 in Upper Arlington and 318 in Marble Cliff; by 1950 the same series reads 12,578, 7,659, 9,024 and 437.

Upper Arlington was sold with its utilities, in writing

The strongest document in this story is a sales brochure. The King Thompson Company's brochure for the Country Club District, the tract that became Upper Arlington, is held by the Upper Arlington Public Library's archive, which dates it to about 1914; no year appears in its own forty-eight pages, so that date is the archive's estimate, not the brochure's. One page is headed NO CONVENIENCE LACKING, and under it the brochure promises that sewers, water, gas and street lights will be provided by the company, with electricity, telephones and city car service described as available rather than provided.

The promises are specific. The brochure says a complete system of sanitary sewers with disposal plant will be installed, in separate units built as the district required them, and that the water will be supplied from the City of Columbus Filtration Plant. It promises gas from the Columbus Gas and Fuel Company off a high pressure main, ornamental concrete lighting standards in place of wood poles, and streets paved in a permanent manner with tar-bound macadam, concrete or asphalt.

What makes it more than advertising is that the same company's magazine reported the work being done. The Norwester, published by the Upper Arlington Company and digitized by the same library, looked back in January 1918 at 1916 and said miles of sewer, gas and water lines were put into position; its March 1918 issue announced sixteen blocks of new streets, with curbs, sidewalks, water, sewer, gas and electric light lines to be installed there. The Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society says the Upper Arlington Company was formed in 1917 to manage the streets, sewers and water lines of the Country Club District.

The nomination also explains what stood in for planning law. It says no zoning laws existed in Ohio in 1915, so the controls on building types, land use, lot sizes and setbacks were written into deed restrictions instead. The district those restrictions shaped was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, and the nomination describes approximately 1,121 mostly residential buildings on 536 acres, of which 137 were counted as non-contributing. The city's own guide to demolition there gives the same year and calls the area south of Lane Avenue Old Arlington.

The other three, in the state health board's own reports

The Ohio State Board of Health reviewed sewer and water plans across the state and printed its engineers' reports in annual volumes. Three of these four places appear in them repeatedly, and what they appear for is having no mains at all.

Grandview came first. In 1907 the board's engineer reported on a private sewage plant proposed for a realty company's property there and wrote that there were no sewers in this district at present, and that the owners were finding it difficult to sell their property as a result. The board refused those plans on July 23, 1907, because the treated sewage would have entered the Scioto River about a mile and a half above the intake for the Columbus water supply, and said a main sewer into the Columbus system would be the better answer for the territory around Grandview, Arlington and Marble Cliff. The Arlington the board named in 1907 is not Upper Arlington, whose land the Thompsons did not buy until 1913.

Marble Cliff was next. In April 1909 the board reported that the village had no system of sewers at all and that the sewage from its various residences was discharged into gullies and cesspools, which it said tended to pollute the Scioto River near the Columbus water intake. It described Marble Cliff as a small residential village having a population of about 150, covering about 120 acres, and on April 21, 1909 approved plans for sanitary sewers and a purification plant sized for an ultimate tributary population of 300. Two years later the board's inspector found that the attendant at that plant did not sufficiently understand how to run it, and recorded that the village council appointed a new man.

Grandview Heights, four years incorporated by then, still had nothing in November 1910. The board wrote that the village had neither a public water supply nor sewerage system, with many of its houses discharging into an open ditch and storm water sewer. The plans it approved on December 14, 1910 made the village an extension of Columbus rather than a system of its own: water drawn from the City of Columbus through a twelve-inch cast iron main, and sewage sent to the Columbus intercepting sewer under the Olentangy River through a siphon of two eight-inch pipes. The board's own engineer wrote that from an engineering standpoint the work was no more than an extension of the Columbus improvements into a new district.

Bexley took longest. In 1912 the board called the attention of Bexley's health officer to the condition of Alum Creek caused by the discharge of sewage and other wastes within the village, noting in the same passage that most of the creek's pollution came from Columbus sewers. At a hearing on January 22, 1913 the village solicitor told the board that Bexley had tried to get permission to connect its sewers to the Columbus sewer system and that the city would not enter into such agreement. Later that year the board approved a site for treatment works on condition that plans be filed before September 1, 1913 and the works be installed before October 1, 1914.

Then comes the condition that fixes the date. Approving Bexley's sewer plans at its May meeting in 1913, the board required that provision for sewer flushing shall have been made by the installation of a public water supply before any house could be connected. A village five years old was being told it could not use its new sewers because it had no public water to flush them with. No source read for this page gives the year that supply arrived; the condition places it after 1913, and the board's annual reports available online stop there.

What the 1940 census counted in them

By 1940 the argument about mains was over and the census could measure the result. The 1940 Census of Housing published these places by name in its Ohio chapter's tables of incorporated places, so no census tract is needed to read them. Of the Bexley dwelling units reporting, 8 had no private bath; in Grandview Heights 9 did; in Upper Arlington 3 did. The Census Bureau's definitions matter here: a bathtub or shower counted if the equipment had running water, not necessarily hot, and private means for the exclusive use of the unit's occupants. What the same census found across the state is on the page about how and when Ohio homes got indoor plumbing. It also found these suburbs' electric lighting already close to universal, a set of figures on the page about what wiring a house has by era.

Place, 1940 censusDwelling units reportingNo private bathNeeding major repairs
Bexley2,281833
Grandview Heights1,9059217
Upper Arlington1,441317
Marble CliffNot publishedNot publishedNot published
City of Columbus77,57412,359Not read here
Franklin County98,98921,274Not read here

Plumbing and repair are not the same measure. In 1940 the Census Bureau recorded 217 Grandview Heights dwelling units as needing major repairs, against 33 in Bexley and 17 in Upper Arlington. The combined column, needing major repairs or no private bath, also reads 17 for Upper Arlington, so its three units without a bath sit inside that seventeen.

Marble Cliff appears in none of it. The 1940 housing volume's place table covers incorporated places of 1,000 inhabitants or more, and the smallest-place table in the 1950 volume covers places of 1,000 to 2,500, while the village had 331 people in 1940 and 437 in 1950. No census housing figure for the village exists for either year, and none is invented here.

What the 1950 census counted, down to single units

Ten years later the counts are small enough to print whole. In the 1950 Census of Housing, Grandview Heights had 2,277 dwelling units, of which 1 had no bathtub or shower and 1 had a toilet that was not a flush toilet inside the structure. Upper Arlington had 2,818 dwelling units, of which 2 had no bathtub or shower and 3 fell into the census category of other toilet facilities, which includes a privy. Bexley, by then large enough for the Census Bureau's table of urban places of ten thousand or more, had 3,653 dwelling units, of which 3,551 were recorded as not dilapidated with a private toilet and bath and hot running water.

The same census asked when the houses were built, and in all three the answer was one decade. In Bexley 1,480 of the 3,420 dwelling units reporting were built between 1920 and 1929; in Grandview Heights 1,100 of 2,110; in Upper Arlington 635 of 2,665. Upper Arlington is the exception on the oldest line, with only 70 of its 2,665 units reporting built in 1919 or earlier, a measure of the whole city in 1950 rather than of any one part of it. Year built was a twenty-percent sample item, which is why the number reporting is smaller than the dwelling-unit count. The same census recorded electric lights in 3,620 of the 3,620 Bexley units reporting, 2,250 of 2,250 in Grandview Heights and 2,775 of 2,775 in Upper Arlington. How the Franklin County Auditor classifies the style of the houses from that same building boom is on the page about telling a Central Ohio house's era and style.

How old that housing is today, and the trap in comparing it

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey publishes the age of housing by place. Its 2019 to 2023 five-year estimates put 91.2 percent of Bexley's housing units, 86.2 percent of Marble Cliff's, 85.0 percent of Upper Arlington's and 68.9 percent of Grandview Heights' as built in 1979 or earlier. Those are estimates rather than a count of every house, and the shares are arithmetic on the five oldest categories of table B25034, which carries no boundary at 1978. Three of the four already sit on the page about lead paint and asbestos in a pre-1978 Ohio bathroom; Marble Cliff is added here.

Read one line further down the same table and the order changes. On the oldest category the survey publishes, built 1939 or earlier, Grandview Heights is highest at 44.9 percent, against 42.4 percent in Bexley, 37.5 percent in Marble Cliff and 11.9 percent in Upper Arlington. Both readings come from table B25034, so neither settles on its own which place has the older housing, and anyone quoting one of them should say which line of the table it is.

All four buy from Columbus now, and one of them did not plan to

Today's arrangement belongs to the page on who supplies water and sewer in Central Ohio towns, which carries the whole table. The City of Bexley says its water and sewer services are purchased from the City of Columbus, with billing to residents through its own city hall. The City of Grandview Heights says the City of Columbus maintains all the potable water provided to the city. The City of Upper Arlington says its potable water comes from the Columbus Dublin Road and Morse Road plants, and its sanitary sewer carries wastewater to the Jackson Pike plant before discharge into the Scioto River. Marble Cliff's own pages name no provider.

That last arrangement is not the one the brochure sold. The company promised sanitary sewers with a disposal plant of their own; the city today sends its wastewater to a Columbus plant. No source read for this page gives the year that changed, so no year is given here. The Columbus systems all four now buy from are described on the pages about where Columbus water comes from and the Columbus sewers, then and now.

What a bathroom in one of these houses meets today

Nothing here changes what a remodel there has to satisfy now, and those rules live on their own pages: the bathroom remodel permit page, the lead paint and asbestos page, the page on supply pipes in Central Ohio houses, the page on bathroom floors and subfloors by era, and the Upper Arlington tub-to-shower page.

The short version. Only Upper Arlington was sold with its utilities. The King Thompson Company's brochure, dated by the Upper Arlington Public Library's archive to about 1914, promised sewers, water, gas and street lights from the company before the houses went up. The Ohio State Board of Health's reports show the other three going without: Marble Cliff with no sewers and its sewage in gullies and cesspools in 1909, Grandview Heights with neither a public water supply nor a sewer in November 1910, and Bexley told in May 1913 that no house could join its new sewers until a public water supply was installed to flush them.

Sources

Every figure, date and quotation on this page comes from one of these documents, read on the date given. Where two of them disagree, the page says so.

Common questions

Were the houses in Bexley, Grandview Heights and Upper Arlington built with bathrooms in them?

The census says almost all of them had one by 1940. In the 1940 Census of Housing, of the dwelling units reporting in Bexley only 8 had no private bath, in Grandview Heights 9 and in Upper Arlington 3, against 12,359 in the city of Columbus out of 77,574 reporting. The 1950 census counted 1 Grandview Heights dwelling unit with no bathtub or shower and 2 in Upper Arlington. Those are the Census Bureau's counts of whole municipalities rather than a statement about any particular house, and the Bureau counted a tub or shower if it had running water, not necessarily hot.

When were Bexley, Upper Arlington, Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff incorporated?

Marble Cliff first, then Grandview Heights, then Bexley, then Upper Arlington. The Village of Marble Cliff says it was incorporated on October 12, 1901 as a hamlet, and its historical society adds that the part left after Grandview Heights separated voted in 1908 to incorporate as a village. The City of Grandview Heights says 1906, and that it became a charter city in 1931. The Ohio historical marker in Bullitt Park records the Village of Bexley as incorporated June 13, 1908, with the first council meeting on August 10. The City of Upper Arlington says its village was incorporated on March 20, 1918.

Did Upper Arlington, Ohio start with its own sewage treatment plant?

That is what its developers promised. The King Thompson Company's sales brochure for the Country Club District, which the Upper Arlington Public Library's archive dates to about 1914, says a complete system of sanitary sewers with disposal plant will be installed, with separate units of the plant built as the district required them. The same brochure promised water supplied from the City of Columbus Filtration Plant. Today the City of Upper Arlington says its sanitary sewer carries wastewater to the Columbus Jackson Pike plant. No source read for this page gives the year that changed, so no year is stated.

Why did Grandview Heights, Ohio incorporate in 1906?

The Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society says the roughly two hundred residents asked for water and electricity, were refused, and voted in 1906 to incorporate as the Village of Grandview Heights. That is the society's account of its own town. Incorporating did not produce either service quickly. In November 1910 the Ohio State Board of Health reported that the village had neither a public water supply nor sewerage system, with many houses discharging into an open ditch and storm water sewer, and that December it approved plans drawing water from the City of Columbus through a twelve-inch cast iron main.

When did Bexley, Ohio get sewers and a public water supply?

The sewers are dated; the water supply is not. The Ohio State Board of Health approved Bexley's sewer plans in May 1913, and approved a treatment works site the same year on condition that plans be filed before September 1, 1913 and the works installed before October 1, 1914. The board attached a further condition showing the village then had no public water supply: no house could be connected to the new sewers until a public water supply had been installed to flush them. No source read for this page gives the year that supply arrived, so none is stated here.

Which has the older housing, Bexley or Grandview Heights, Ohio?

It depends on which line of the table is read, and both lines come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, table B25034, in its 2019 to 2023 five-year estimates. On housing units built in 1979 or earlier, Bexley is higher at 91.2 percent against 68.9 percent in Grandview Heights. On the oldest category the survey publishes, built 1939 or earlier, the order reverses: Grandview Heights 44.9 percent, Bexley 42.4 percent, Marble Cliff 37.5 percent and Upper Arlington 11.9 percent. Anyone quoting one of those figures should say which line it came from.

Why does the census have no housing figures for Marble Cliff, Ohio?

Because the village was too small for the tables. The 1940 Census of Housing published Ohio places of 1,000 inhabitants or more, and the smallest-place table in the 1950 housing volume covered places of 1,000 to 2,500. The Census Bureau counted 318 people in Marble Cliff in 1930, 331 in 1940 and 437 in 1950, so the village fell below both floors and appears in no census housing table of that period. Its first published housing figure of this kind is modern: the American Community Survey estimates 472 housing units, 86.2 percent of them built in 1979 or earlier.

In which decade were the most houses in Bexley, Grandview Heights and Upper Arlington built?

The 1920s, in all three, on the 1950 census question about the year a structure was built. In Bexley 1,480 of the 3,420 dwelling units reporting were built between 1920 and 1929, in Grandview Heights 1,100 of 2,110, and in Upper Arlington 635 of 2,665. Year built was a twenty-percent sample item in that census, which is why the number reporting is smaller than the dwelling-unit count. Upper Arlington is the exception at the other end of the table, with only 70 of its units reporting built in 1919 or earlier.

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