The first railroad planned to operate through Grove City was the Ohio Southern Railroad in 1881. The company constructed a bed for track to the area just north of Rt. 665 on the east side of Hoover Road. The company went bankrupt and the project was never completed. The Columbus and Cincinnati Midland Railroad laid the current track west of Broadway three years later in 1884.

In the early 1950s, the land where Windsor Park is today was slated to become an industrial park. Charles MacKay, Harold Windsor, Joseph White, Ernest Plank and Melvin Girbert argued against the plan encouraging the land to become parkland. By 1953, the first Little League team, pictured, played at Windsor Park after relocating from Wade’s Park that was once north of Columbus Street at Richard Avenue.

Are you looking for a stocking stuffer or gift for family, friends, and/or neighbors? The Southwest Franklin County Historical Society has the perfect thing! We are offering a 2026 calendar that celebrates the semiquincentennial (America’s 250th birthday) and all that is Grove City.

In 1950 after North Korea invaded the South, an effort was made to organize a Civil Defense Ground Observer Program in Grove City out of fear of an aerial enemy attack. Howard Sigman agreed to allow the roof of his store to become an aerial observation post. There’s no evidence it was ever built. Sigman’s Red & White super market was the first with a self-serve refrigerated meat counter, later known as Sig’s Market.

After the high school opened in 1910, a basketball team was organized. The first floor had a hallway with iron posts so the boys created a basketball court between these posts stretching chicken wire at each end. There were frequent injuries, according to Grover Davis, a member of that first team. The earliest known team picture wasn’t taken until 1916.