Circleville, Ohio

Circleville, Ohio
City
Circleville's Main Street
Seal
Location of Circleville, Ohio
Country	United States
State	Ohio
County	Pickaway
Government
• Mayor	Chuck Taylor
Area
• Total	6.7 sq mi (17.4 km2)
• Land	6.6 sq mi (17.1 km2)
• Water	0.1 sq mi (0.3 km2)
Elevation Template:GR	696 ft (212 m)
Population  (2000)
• Total	13,485
• Density	2,037.2/sq mi (786.6/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code	43113
Area code	740 - 420
FIPS code	39-15070Template:GR
GNIS feature ID	1056803Template:GR
Website	http://ci.circleville.oh.us/

Circleville Pumpkin Water Tower

Circleville is a city in and the county seat of Pickaway County, Ohio, United States,Template:GR along the Scioto River. The population was 13,485 at the 2000 census.

History

Noted frontier explorer Christopher Gist was the first recorded European visitor to the Circleville area. Gist reached "Maguck," a small Delaware town of about 10 families on the east bank of the Scioto River and the south side of Circleville, on January 20, 1751, and remained in the town until January 24.

Circleville was founded in 1810. It derived its name from the circular portion of a large Hopewell culture earthwork upon which it was built. The original town plan integrated Circleville into the preexisting land with a street layout of concentric circles. An octagonal courthouse stood directly in the center.

Dissatisfaction rose with Circleville's layout, however, and in 1837, the Ohio General Assembly authorized the "Circleville Squaring Company" to convert it into a conventional grid. By 1856, this had been completed in several phases. No remaining traces of the original earthworks remain, though a few old buildings retain curved walls that were part of the original circular layout.

On October 13, 1999, an F-3 tornado hit the city. A squall line moving through the region spawned several tornadoes in the county, including the F-3 that hit town. The tornado touched down on the north side of town doing substantial damage to a barber shop and a masonry building. A furniture store was also damaged with a hole in its roof where it was reported that items from inside the store were sucked out . Damage to nearby buildings also occurred as the tornado moved east across the north-central part of town.

The tornado then moved into a residential area in the Northwood Park neighborhood where several homes along Fairlawn Drive were destroyed. Heavy damage to trees and vehicles also occurred in this area. The tornado would lift as it crossed Edgewood Drive, but snapped the tops of some nearby trees as it lifted and moved on.

Geography

Circleville is located at 39°36′11″N 82°56′21″W (39.602990, -82.939272)Template:GR.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.7 square miles (17.5 km²), of which, 6.6 square miles (17.1 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km²) of it (1.78%) is water.

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1850	3,411		—
1860	4,383		28.5%
1870	5,407		23.4%
1880	6,046		11.8%
1890	6,556		8.4%
1900	6,991		6.6%
1910	6,744		−3.5%
1920	7,049		4.5%
1930	7,369		4.5%
1940	7,989		8.4%
1950	8,723		9.2%
1960	11,059		26.8%
1970	11,687		5.7%
1980	11,682		0.0%
1990	11,666		−0.1%
2000	13,485		15.6%
2008 (est.)	13,681

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 13,485 people, 5,378 households, and 3,581 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,037.2 people per square mile (786.5/km²). There were 5,706 housing units at an average density of 862.0/sq mi (332.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 95.36% White, 2.54% African American, 0.20% Native American, 0.49% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.27% from other races, and 1.08% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.82% of the population.

There were 5,378 households out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.8% were married couples living together, 12.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.4% were non-families. 29.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.93.

In the city the population was spread out with 26.7% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 94.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $34,572, and the median income for a family was $41,943. Males had a median income of $32,342 versus $26,115 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,220. About 11.1% of families and 13.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.4% of those under age 18 and 6.5% of those age 65 or over. Median home prices in the Circleville area as of 2009 were $120,147 .

Events

Circleville hosts the Circleville Pumpkin Show every October.

Notable residents

• Caleb Atwater - known as the “Father of Ohio’s Public School System”
• Tony Laubach - Storm Chaser and Meteorologist who has been featured on the National Geographic Channel and as one of the featured Meteorologists with the TWISTEX team on Discovery Channel's "Storm Chasers"; his severe weather videos have been featured regularly on national television networks such as The Weather Channel, CNN, and ABC as well as local news stations across the country.
• Ted Lewis - Vaudeville performer and one of the preeminent bandleaders during the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. There is a Ted Lewis Museum in the city, as well as a local park that bears his name
• Pat Colangeli - ABC News person of the week.
• Danny Bailey - Danny Bailey, a closet math genius who ignored his gift in favor of nightly ruckus making and fighting with South buddies (Ben Affleck among them). While working as a university janitor, he solved an impossible calculus problem scribbled on a hallway blackboard and reluctantly became the prodigy of an arrogant MIT professor. Danny only avoided prison by agreeing to see psychiatrists, all of whom he mocks or psychologically destroys until he meets his match in the professor's former childhood friend, Robin Williams.
• TJ Wilkinson - Appeared in Frontier: Decisive Battles - The Battle of Fallen Timbers which aired on the History Channel.
• Conchata Ferrell Emmy nominated Actress, most well known for the role of Berta on the popular CBS sitcom Two And A Half Men.
• The Circleville Writer - an unidentified letter writer that terrorized the town of Circleville with letters threatening people's lives and making fake allegations. He/she is wanted for attempted murder and a person named Paul Freshour was arrested and convicted of the crimes. However, he was eventually released, but the identity of the writer is still unknown. The story was shown on Unsolved Mysteries.

In popular Culture

In "Storm Chasers" on the Discovery Channel, Storm Chaser & Meteorologist Tony Laubach, formally a Circleville resident, wore the colors of his former high school, Circleville High School. He is heavily featured in season 4 wearing Circleville Tigers apparel.

The city of Circleville, and most notably Green's Heritage Museum in Circleville were featured on a episode of the History Channel's American Pickers.

The hotel that is across Ohio Street from Everts Middle School and next to the softball field was featured as the hotel where children from the A&E Network show "Psychic Children" stayed during their visit to the Ugly Tuna in Columbus, Ohio.

External links

• City of Circleville official site