Located just southeast of Columbus, Canal Winchester offers all the amenities of being close to the big city without being a big city. The town has a wonderful historic past that has to a large part been preserved into a mix of old and new. While the canal it was named for has long since disappeared, it is just minutes away from the countries interstate system.
Each summer the streets of Canal Winchester come alive with its farmers market, the Blues and Ribfrest festival, the Labor Day Festival, topped off with the Christmas in the Village themed holiday events.
The downtown area of Canal Winchester has been refurbished and is now a place where the community's history is celebrated. Many of the downtown structures have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Canal Winchester is home to 2 museums: the Mid-Ohio Doll and Toy Museum that displays 1000s of antique and rare dolls and toys. There is also an unusual museum dedicated to preserving the tools, fixtures and implements from more than 150 years of barbering.
Imagine having set up a nice farm on some really fertile ground, your family lives nearby, everything is going good. What could go wrong? How about a crew of ditch diggers coming right through the middle of your beautiful field of wheat digging a big ditch some 45' wide. What to do? You could sue the government that's responsible, but then someone tells you something that will change your outlook on the big ditch.
That's exactly what happened to Henry Dove. He first came to central Ohio around 1811 and set up his farm growing wheat. Then in 1825 the Canal Commissioners decide the best route for their new feeder canal that would connect Columbus with the Ohio Erie Canal going through Lancaster, would be right through his farm he had been working on for the last 14 years. He planned on suing the state, suing the commissioners, maybe even suing the ditch diggers. But, as he was talking with one of the workers digging the big canal he got a different perspective on the situation: build it and they will come. Or words something like that.
Henry's farm was just about halfway between Columbus and Lancaster. There had been plenty of talk about the new canal system, and the general consensus when completed it promised to be the biggest thing to ever happen in Ohio. In his lively discussions about what the diggers were doing to his farm, one workman told him that what a smart man should do instead of suing, was that he should layout a town that could serve users of the canal as well as other farmers from the area.
In 1828, Reuben Dove (one of Henry Dove's sons) recorded the first plat of land for Winchester, the new town he had created. He chose Winchester because that was the name of his father's hometown back in Virginia. The first canal boat passed through Winchester in 1831.
In 1841, the village of Winchester had become large enough to qualify for a post office. However, the USPS had a problem with the name: Winchester. They just had too many Winchester's in Ohio already, and because they didn't have Zip Code's yet, something had to change. So the post office suggested they call the thriving little village Canal Winchester to distinguish it from all the other Winchester's in the state
In 2010, Canal Winchester added the Blues and Ribfest to their August schedule of events. This ever popular music and food street event was originally held in nearby Pickerington.
Canal Winchester puts on a grand Labor Day Weekend Festival that goes Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The event draws an estimated 35,000 visitors and has been voted the best Festival of the Year by the Greater Ohio Showman's Association. The Labor Day Festival began in the 1920's as the "Fall Festival" and has become one of Canal Winchester's favorite traditions. While it has gone through many changes over the years, the festival remains the small town charm that reminds us of the heritage of our community.
The Festival features a parade with floats, rides, an auto cruise-in, pageant, ice cream social, and live-entertainment acts.
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