威彻斯特镇

Planted in fertile soil and cultivated from humble beginnings, West Chester took root in southeast Butler County, Ohio in 1823. The community was first named Union Township . Like many emerging communities on the frontier of the Northwest Territory at the turn of the 19th century, West Chester sprang up and was spurred on by access to transportation. Key in those early days were two major north-south thoroughfares still with us today: US Route 42 (Cincinnati-Columbus Road) and Cincinnati-Dayton Road. Primitive versions of these modern routes existed well before colonial America and its westward expansions. Paths were stamped out by herds of American bison and indigenous species that roamed the wild land from one watering place to the next. Native American tribes adopted the buffalo trails for hunting and foraging in the 17th and 18th centuries. European missionaries, explorers, hunters, traders, surveyors, scouts and marching military units traversed the very same trails as early as the mid-1600s. The first settlers in West Chester were largely German, Irish and English. They were attracted here in the late 1700s by the quality and beauty of the land. Pioneers hiked the time-tested trails either by foot or on horseback, as weather allowed, until the dirt paths could be widened to accommodate wagons. They cleared land for homes and gardens and did what they could to survive. Over time the dirt roads were transformed into paved turnpikes, tracing what would ultimately become many of today’s familiar concrete expressways, highways, streets and roads. As the networks and modes of transportation continued to improve, villages sprouted up inside all sections of West Chester Township’s 35-square mile border. So too did commerce. In the 1820s, at a time when a portion of the Miami and Erie Canal carved its way through the western region of the township, mule-drawn canal boats were used to move travelers and commercial goods to and from major Ohio cities including Cincinnati, Middletown, Dayton and later Toledo. The burgeoning steam powered railroad companies of the 1850s pinned tracks along lines similar to those original paths, allowing for even greater transport throughout the Midwest. Finally, starting with the era of mass-produced automobiles of the early 1900s, and through construction and improvement of the federal highway systems beginning in the 1950s, the ability for movement within the community and across the interconnected United States improved exponentially. Interstate 75 is built through the heart of West Chester Township, which today encompasses three interchanges: Union Centre Boulevard, Cincinnati-Dayton Road, and Tylersville Road. Access to transportation, in its many forms over decades, allowed the people who came here to flourish. They built homes and churches and schools and businesses on prime real estate along essential avenues. Growth and success was intrinsic, nurtured by a community at-large – people like neighbors who started schoolhouses from their log cabin homes, farmers who tended crops and livestock, enterprising movers and shakers who platted villages, tradespeople who opened stores and shops, and so forth. Agriculture, logging, tanning, milling, blacksmithing and mercantile pursuits formed the backbone of the initial business community. Travel, hospitality, and entertainment followed closely behind in the way of taverns, inns and stagecoach stops, and these industries have remained steady pillars of the local economy – granted in new and constantly evolving forms – ever since. Today nearly 3,700 businesses operate in West Chester with the industries of life sciences, information technology, advanced manufacturing, corporate headquarters and Class A office, healthcare, and consumer marketing leading the way. Advancements in technology and transportation helped bring huge waves of population growth to West Chester starting around the 1960s and peaking in the 1990s. The Fire (1963) and Police (1