How Worthington, Ohio got its water and its sewers
Worthington was settled in 1803, and before it had a public system its households drew water from their own wells and used outhouses. The village put in public wells of its own in 1912 and 1913, under conditions the Ohio State Board of Health set out in writing, laid its own sewers about 1920, and was buying part of its water from Columbus by 1926. This page follows that sequence through the documents that recorded it: the board's report on the proposed supply, a fire insurance map of 1922, and the census tables that first counted Worthington's plumbing in 1950. Where the record runs out, the page says so.
Last updated September 2026 · Figures are the Census Bureau's, the Ohio State Board of Health's and the city's own, read September 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base
The town the Scioto Company laid out in 1803
Worthington was settled in 1803 by New England families from the Farmington River Valley of Connecticut and Massachusetts, under the leadership of James Kilbourne. Ohio History Connection's marker for the founding says the Scioto Company was organized as a land company in 1802, with 38 original proprietors, and bought 16,000 acres of land along the Olentangy River. The City of Worthington says Kilbourne platted a New England-type village of 164 lots around a central public square set aside for religious and educational uses.
The plan was adopted in Connecticut before the settlers left, and the marker and the city's design guidelines describe it independently in the same terms: one-acre lots around a village green, with hundred-acre farm lots around it. The City of Worthington says the Ohio legislature incorporated Worthington as a village in 1835, with an elected village council and mayor.
The next step is not settled. No document this page could open states the year the village became a city, so none is given. That is the first of three deliberate blanks here.
Wells, outhouses, and what the state found in them
Worthington Libraries says that before the public system, residents supplied their own water with wells and used outhouses. The Ohio State Board of Health's report of 1912 corroborates it: its engineer analyzed samples from wells throughout the village and recorded that the village had no municipal improvements.
That report is the best single document on the town's water before the mains. It described Worthington as a village of about 550 people, about nine miles north of the city of Columbus and half a mile east of the Olentangy River. Samples from wells throughout the village, drawing on the shale formation, all showed what the board called "an objectionably high iron content and total hardness". That is the board's own wording in 1912, about private wells that no longer supply the town. A Worthington tap now runs Columbus water, whose hardness is on the page about Columbus water hardness and your shower.
The village's own health officer had reported to the same board for years before that. In the board's annual report for 1900 the officer gave an estimated village population of 443 and, among the infectious diseases reported that year, eight cases of typhoid fever. Those are historical counts from a named annual report, describing a village on its own wells and privies; this page does not read them forward.
The water works of 1912 and 1913
The paperwork survives in the board's twenty-seventh annual report. On May 3, 1912 Worthington's mayor, G. H. Pagels, asked the Ohio State Board of Health to approve a proposed public water supply for the village. The engineer had already been out: in April 1912 he recorded that the village was not supplied with municipal improvements, and that a bond issue for a municipal water supply had been voted during the past year.
The board approved the supply at its meeting of May 9, 1912, to be drawn from wells on a one-acre site 1,700 feet west of the village corporation line and north of the Dublin and Worthington Pike. The test well logged there was 47 feet deep and 8 inches across, drawing on a water-bearing gravel layer six feet eight inches thick that began 40 feet down.
The approval carried conditions, and one is why this water history belongs in a knowledge base about bathrooms. The village council had to pass an ordinance preventing "the establishment of privy vaults, cesspools, or other sources of contamination" within 1,000 feet of any public supply well, and the board's secretary had to approve it before passage. A further condition was that the approval would be void unless the supply had been installed before January 1, 1914. That is the state, in 1912, telling a village in writing that its new wells and its old privies could not share the same ground.
The City of Worthington's own history says the village acquired a public water system in 1913, inside the state's window exactly. A Worthington Libraries catalog record gives 1908 instead. This page follows 1913, because the state's engineer wrote in April 1912 that the village had no municipal improvements and that the bond issue had only just been voted; a system installed in 1908 could not have been described that way.
What the fire insurance surveyors recorded in 1922
Nine years later the Sanborn Map Company surveyed the village for fire insurance purposes and printed what it found on the key sheet of its map of September 1922.
The sheet records a stand pipe system fed by two deep well pumps, each rated 100 gallons per minute, pumping to a reservoir of 35,000 gallons. It records a gas-engine duplex pump lifting water from that reservoir to a stand pipe of 50,000 gallons, elevated 100 feet above High and State streets, at a domestic and fire pressure of 45 pounds. It draws the Water Works building and its pump on West State Street, west of the high school.
The same sheet records one more thing about Worthington in 1922: "No house number system." A village that had built a water works, a reservoir and a stand pipe still had no numbers on its houses.
The sewers the village laid about 1920
The sewers were the village's own work, and they came after the water. Worthington Libraries records that a sewer system was first proposed in council in 1903, accompanied by a plan for a waterworks, and that plans for it were presented to the public in 1919.
The library holds a photograph of the work: a Columbus contractor laying the village sewer system about 1920, looking north on High Street from the Dublin Granville Road intersection. The trade magazine Trenchless Technology reported in 2017, quoting the city's own sewer maintenance supervisor, that Worthington's oldest sewer pipes were installed in 1920 and that most of the city's sewer pipe is vitrified clay.
The same 2017 article gives the shape of the system as it stood then: 80 miles of sewer in eight districts, of which 14 percent had been built more than 76 years earlier and 52 percent between 51 and 75 years earlier. Those ages count back from 2017, not from today.
Two things the city says about that system now matter before a floor comes up. The storm and the sanitary sewers are two different systems: in the city's words, "The two systems are not connected and operate independently of one another." That is the opposite of the combined sewers under parts of Columbus, on the page about the Columbus sewers, then and now. And sewer laterals, including the wye at the main, are the property owner's responsibility, with work in the right of way needing its own permit and an installer holding a City of Columbus sewer installer license. That is the city's rule for Worthington only; the lateral in general is on the sewer lateral page.
The city says its sanitary sewer system carries waste water, wash water and flushable solids to a Columbus sewage treatment plant, and names no plant. It also says it contracts with Columbus Health to regulate home sewage treatment systems, and that only 90 properties within Worthington use one; what those ask of a bathroom is on the page about wells and septic systems.
Buying Columbus water
Worthington did not stay on its own wells for long. Worthington Libraries says that by 1926 Worthington got part of its water from Columbus, about thirteen years after the village put in a system of its own.
It went on building all the same. A second municipal water plant belongs to the middle 1930s, and no single year is given for it here, because the records that date it disagree: a Worthington Libraries catalog record gives 1936, while the library's index of the Worthington News shows council taking its first steps in December 1933, work progressing in October 1934 and residents praising the new plant in March 1935. The plant drew on wells sunk near the Olentangy River, and the library says more were drilled in 1951.
When the arrangement became permanent is the second blank. No document read here gives the year Worthington's sanitary sewage first went to Columbus. The nearest dated item found is an entry in Worthington Libraries' index of the Worthington News headed "Water plant may be dismantled", published June 16, 1960, and it concerns the water plant rather than the sewers.
Today the City of Worthington says its water supply is provided by the City of Columbus, which also maintains the main water lines, while service lines from the curb to the home are the maintenance responsibility of the homeowner. Where that water comes from is on the page about where Columbus water comes from, and who serves whom across the region, in each utility's own words, is on the providers page.
What the census counted in Worthington
Worthington was too small for the tables that would have recorded its plumbing before 1950. The 1940 Census of Housing published Ohio place tables only for places of 2,500 or more, and the Census Bureau counted Worthington's 1940 population as 1,569, so the 1940 Census of Housing published no housing figures for Worthington at all. That is the third blank, and it is not filled with an estimate here.
By 1950 the village was in. The Census Bureau counted 2,141 people in Worthington in 1950 and 1,569 in 1940, and marked it with an asterisk its own headnote defines as "an incorporated place under 2,500 in an urbanized area", listing it among the places making up the Columbus Urbanized Area. The city's history page gives 2,128 for 1950; this page uses the Census Bureau's figure, as the publisher of the count.
The 1950 Census of Housing counted 608 dwelling units in Worthington. Of the 586 that reported condition and plumbing facilities, 29 had no private bath or were dilapidated, and 9 had no running water or were dilapidated. Those are the table's own column headings, and they matter: each count includes a unit if either of its conditions was true, so neither is a count of homes without a bathroom. The Census Bureau published no percentage here and none is worked out.
The 1950 tract tables reach Worthington too, in a particular shape. In the Census Bureau's Columbus tract bulletin, Worthington village and Riverlea village together form tract SH-67 and nothing else is in it, so no figure from that tract is a Worthington-only figure. The tract held 713 dwelling units, of which 583 were detached single-unit houses.
| Year built, tract SH-67 in 1950 | Dwelling units |
|---|---|
| 1919 or earlier | 235 |
| 1920 to 1929 | 95 |
| 1930 to 1939 | 110 |
| 1940 or later | 205 |
| Number reporting a year built | 645 |
More than a third of the units in the two villages that reported a year built predated 1920 at the 1950 count. Two cautions travel with it: the Census Bureau marks those rows as a 20 percent sample, and the tract covers Riverlea as well. The statewide arc these figures sit inside is on the Ohio indoor plumbing page, and the last government count of bathrooms per house is on the bathrooms by decade page.
The town is a different size now. The Census Bureau's population estimate for the City of Worthington on July 1, 2024 was 14,649, against a 2020 estimates base of 14,783.
The historic district and the house the historical society keeps
The National Park Service records the Worthington Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places under reference number 10000190, with a date published of April 13, 2010, roughly bounded by North, South, Morning and Evening streets. The Park Service's field is Date Published, the date of publication in the Federal Register rather than the date the nomination was signed.
The city's own instrument is older and separate. The City of Worthington says council established its Architectural Review Board in 1967 under Chapter 1177 of its codified ordinances. Its design guidelines say the board's review applies to the entire Architectural Review District, and that a property's place in the National Register district, or its identification as contributing or non-contributing, "shall be of no effect". By the city's own statement the federal listing does not decide what the board reviews.
The guidelines also say what an addition should do. One "should be located as far as possible to the rear" of the original building, and should be subordinate in appearance to it.
One house here is documented by the historical society, which keeps it as its museum. The Worthington Historical Society says the oldest portion of the Orange Johnson House was built in 1811 by Arora Buttles, a six-room house on thirty-five acres beside the village, and that Orange Johnson, a hornsmith who specialized in comb-making, bought the property in 1816 and later added a Federal-style addition with a fanlight entry and a fireplace in each of its four principal rooms.
Those dates are unusually well tested and do not perfectly agree. The society reports a tree-ring study by the College of Wooster in 2011 that found the main house's trees were felled in 1810 and 1811, and beams from the back portion dating to 1818; a Worthington Libraries catalog record instead says the house was built in 1811 and expanded in 1819. No single date for the addition is given here. The society says the kitchen has its original open fireplace with a large iron crane and bread oven, and calls the house "one of the oldest residences standing in its original location in central Ohio". It describes no well, cistern or privy there, and nothing here supplies one.
What a remodel in Worthington meets today
Nothing on this page is a rule for a project now. The pages that carry those rules are already on this site: the permit page, the providers page, the sewer lateral page, the supply pipes page, the floors and subfloors page and the lead paint and asbestos page for a house built before 1978.
The short version. Worthington was settled in 1803, and Worthington Libraries says its residents used their own wells and outhouses before the public system. The Ohio State Board of Health approved a public supply on May 9, 1912, on condition the council ban privy vaults and cesspools within 1,000 feet of the wells, and on condition the works were installed before January 1, 1914; the city says it acquired a public water system in 1913. The village laid its own sewers about 1920 and was buying part of its water from Columbus by 1926.
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.
- City of Worthington, Ohio, History, undated; read September 2026.
- Ohio History Connection (Remarkable Ohio), 39-25 The Founding of Worthington / Worthington, A Planned Community, undated; read September 2026.
- City of Worthington, Ohio, Worthington Design Guidelines, undated; read September 2026.
- Worthington Libraries (Worthington Memory), Water Tower, catalog record whs0048, undated; read September 2026.
- Ohio State Board of Health, Report on Proposed Water Supply for Worthington, Twenty-seventh Annual Report, pages 417 to 420, 1912; read September 2026.
- Ohio State Board of Health, Annual report for 1900, village report for Worthington, Franklin County, pages 319 to 320, 1901; read September 2026.
- Worthington Libraries (Worthington Memory), Outlay System Photograph, catalog record wpl0023, undated; read September 2026.
- Sanborn Map Company, held by the Library of Congress, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Worthington, Franklin County, Ohio, September 1922, sheet 1 of 5, September 1922; read September 2026.
- Trenchless Technology, Root Control in Ohio - The City of Worthington Stays on Top of Its Sewer Maintenance, August 21, 2017; read September 2026.
- City of Worthington, Ohio, Sewer Utilities, undated; read September 2026.
- Worthington Libraries (Worthington Memory), indexing the Worthington News, Index records for Worthington News items on water and sewers, 1925 to 1960, undated; read September 2026.
- City of Worthington, Ohio, Water, undated; read September 2026.
- US Bureau of the Census, 1940 Census of Housing, Volume II General Characteristics, Part 4, Ohio, key to the place tables, 1943; read September 2026.
- US Bureau of the Census, 1950 Census of Population, Volume I Number of Inhabitants, Ohio, Table 7, pages 35-24 and 35-27, 1952; read September 2026.
- US Bureau of the Census, 1950 Census of Housing, Volume I General Characteristics, Part 5, Ohio, Table 25, page 35-81, 1953; read September 2026.
- US Bureau of the Census, US Census of Population 1950, Volume III Census Tract Statistics, Chapter 13, Columbus, Ohio and Adjacent Area, 1952; read September 2026.
- US Census Bureau, Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places, vintage 2024 (SUB-EST2024), 2025; read September 2026.
- National Park Service, NPGallery, Worthington Historic District, National Register reference 10000190, April 13, 2010; read September 2026.
- Worthington Historical Society, Orange Johnson House, undated; read September 2026.
- Worthington Libraries (Worthington Memory), Orange Johnson House, catalog record for a 1905 photograph, undated; read September 2026.
Common questions
When did Worthington, Ohio get its first public water system?
The Ohio State Board of Health approved a proposed public water supply for the Village of Worthington at its meeting of May 9, 1912, after the village mayor asked for approval on May 3 of that year. The approval was conditional, and one condition was that it would be void unless the supply had been installed before January 1, 1914. The City of Worthington's own history says the village acquired a public water system in 1913, which falls inside that window. Before it, Worthington Libraries says residents supplied their own water with wells and used outhouses.
What did the Ohio State Board of Health find in Worthington's well water in 1912?
The board's engineer reported in 1912 that samples taken from wells throughout the village, drawing on the shale formation, all showed what the report called an objectionably high iron content and total hardness. That is the board's own wording, recorded while it was considering the village's request to put in public wells, and it describes private wells that no longer supply the town. The same report described Worthington as a village of about 550 people, about nine miles north of the city of Columbus and half a mile east of the Olentangy River.
When were the first sewers laid in Worthington, Ohio?
Worthington Libraries records that a sewer system for the village was first proposed in council in 1903, accompanied by a plan for a waterworks, and that plans for the sewer system were presented to the public in 1919. The library holds a photograph of a Columbus contractor laying the system about 1920, looking north on High Street from the Dublin Granville Road intersection. The trade magazine Trenchless Technology reported in 2017, quoting the city's own sewer maintenance supervisor, that Worthington's oldest sewer pipes were installed in 1920 and that most of the city's sewer pipe is vitrified clay.
How old is the sewer pipe under Worthington, Ohio?
The trade magazine Trenchless Technology reported in 2017 that Worthington's sanitary sewer system ran to 80 miles of sewer in eight districts, that 14 percent of it had been built more than 76 years earlier, and that the bulk of it, 52 percent, was constructed between 51 and 75 years earlier. Those ages are counted back from 2017 rather than from today, so anyone using them now has to add the years since. The same article said the oldest pipes were installed in 1920 and that most of the system is vitrified clay.
When did Worthington start getting its water from Columbus?
Worthington Libraries says that by 1926 Worthington got part of its water from Columbus, about thirteen years after the village put in a public water system of its own. The town kept building all the same: a second municipal water plant belongs to the middle 1930s, and the library's own records disagree over the year it was finished, so no single year is given here. Today the City of Worthington says its water supply is provided by the City of Columbus, which also maintains the main water lines, while service lines from the curb to the home are the maintenance responsibility of the homeowner.
How old are the houses in Worthington, Ohio?
The nearest measured answer is the 1950 census, and it covers two villages rather than one. In the Census Bureau's Columbus tract bulletin, Worthington village and Riverlea village together formed tract SH-67, which held 713 dwelling units, 583 of them detached single-unit houses. Of the 645 units there that reported the year they were built, 235 dated from 1919 or earlier, 95 from 1920 to 1929, 110 from 1930 to 1939 and 205 from 1940 or later. The Census Bureau marks those year-built rows as based on a 20 percent sample.
What did the 1950 census record about plumbing in Worthington homes?
The 1950 Census of Housing counted 608 dwelling units in Worthington. Of the 586 that reported condition and plumbing facilities, 29 had no private bath or were dilapidated and 9 had no running water or were dilapidated. Those column headings matter, because each of the two counts a dwelling unit if either of its conditions was true, so neither figure is a count of homes without a bathroom. The Census Bureau published no percentage for Worthington and none is worked out here. The 1940 Census of Housing published Ohio place tables only for places of 2,500 or more, so it carried no Worthington figures at all.
Does the City of Worthington review changes to the outside of a house?
The city says Worthington City Council established its Architectural Review Board in 1967 under Chapter 1177 of the city's codified ordinances. Its design guidelines say the board's review applies to the entire Architectural Review District, and that a property's place in the National Register district, or its identification as contributing or non-contributing, shall be of no effect on that. The guidelines also say an addition should be located as far as possible to the rear of the original building and should be subordinate in appearance to it. Those are the City of Worthington's own rules and cover Worthington only.
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