The Ohio State University's surrounding neighborhoods predate the establishment of the nation's largest university. What emerged after the university's founding from NECKO to Glen Echo was a diverse community of people, professions, housing styles, educational experiments, and activism. Despite intense development pressures after World War II and inevitable change to a densely populated area, 80 percent of the historic housing stock remains. The university area neighborhoods have more districts on the National Register of Historic Places and city-protected historic districts than any other area in Columbus. In addition to longtime residents, the University District has been the collegiate incubator of more famous people than any other neighborhood in Ohio—humorist James Thurber, bicycle daredevil Conn Baker, writer Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Dr. Charles Pavey, vaudevillian Elsie Janis, and athlete Jesse Owens, to name a few.
