Guides ·Day trips

The drive and the lay of the land

From Upper Arlington, take I-270 north to SR-161 east, then follow it toward New Albany and Johnstown before dropping onto SR-37 south into Granville. It runs about 35 miles and 45 to 50 minutes. The last 10 minutes shift from suburban arterial to genuine farmland and then to a hill town, which is the appeal. Granville was settled in 1805 by a colony from Granville, Massachusetts, and the New England street grid, white clapboard, brick Federal storefronts and central green were deliberately transplanted. It looks nothing like the rest of central Ohio.

Park free on Broadway, the wide main street, or in the municipal lots a block behind it. The village is compact enough that you will not move the car again until you leave for the earthworks. Denison University sits on the hill above town, founded in 1831, and its campus is open to walk with views back over the valley. Give the village core two to three hours, the earthworks another two, and you have a full day that ends back in Upper Arlington in time for dinner.

Broadway, the inns and the shops

Granville's main street runs four or five blocks and holds two historic hotels that are the anchors of any visit. The Buxton Inn at 313 East Broadway dates to 1812 and claims to be the oldest continuously operating inn in Ohio, with a warren of dining rooms, a garden and rooms typically $150 to $200. The Granville Inn at 314 East Broadway is a 1924 Jacobean sandstone pile built by a coal magnate, now owned by Denison, with a tavern, a terrace and rooms around $170 to $220. Both serve lunch and dinner to non-guests.

In between are independent bookshops, a hardware store that has been there for generations, gift shops, a coffee house and Whit's Frozen Custard, where a small runs about $4.50. Lunch on Broadway lands between $12 and $20. The Granville Historical Society museum on Broadway is free or donation-based and gives useful context on the New England migration. Everything closes early by big-city standards, with most shops shutting by 5 or 6 pm, so front-load the browsing and save the earthworks for later if you must.

The Newark Earthworks and Dawes Arboretum

Eight to ten minutes east of Granville sit the Newark Earthworks, monumental geometric enclosures built by the Hopewell culture roughly 2,000 years ago and inscribed as part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023. The Great Circle Earthworks in Heath is 1,200 feet across with walls up to eight feet high and a small interpretive center, and it is free. The Octagon Earthworks in Newark, aligned to the 18.6-year lunar cycle, is the most astronomically sophisticated of the group; check current public access arrangements before you go.

South of Newark on SR-13, the Dawes Arboretum covers about 2,000 acres with an azalea collection, a Japanese garden, a cypress swamp and an observation tower, and admission runs around $10 for adults with children often free. It is an easy, low-effort second stop with plenty of parking. If you would rather stay outdoors and free, the T.J. Evans Trail runs 14 paved miles from Granville to Newark on a former rail bed and is flat, shaded and popular with cyclists and runners.

Eating and drinking in the village

Granville punches above its size on food for a village of about 6,000. The Buxton Inn tavern does sensible American cooking in rooms that have been serving travellers since the Madison administration, with mains around $20 to $34. The Granville Inn's tavern is the more polished room, similar pricing, with a terrace that is the best warm-weather seat in town. On Broadway, casual options cover pizza, sandwiches, Mexican and a good coffee house, most of them under $18 a head. Reservations matter on Denison parents weekends and at graduation in May.

For a detour with a payoff, drive 20 minutes north to Utica and Velvet Ice Cream at Ye Olde Mill, where the company has made ice cream since 1914 on a mill site with a pond, picnic grounds and a small museum. Scoops run about $4 and the grounds are free to wander. It is the sort of stop that turns a good day into a memorable one for families, and it puts you back on SR-37 heading home to Upper Arlington in under an hour.

Denison, Bryn Du and the hill

Denison University's campus rises steeply above the village, and the walk up College Street is worth the effort for the view and the architecture, a mix of 19th-century brick and mid-century additions on a genuine hilltop. The campus is open to visitors, the Swasey Chapel tower is the landmark, and the Denison Museum shows rotating exhibitions free of charge during term. Parking on campus is restricted during the week, so walk up from Broadway rather than driving. Allow 45 minutes for the loop and wear shoes you can climb in.

On the eastern edge of the village, the Bryn Du Mansion is a 1905 country estate now owned by the township and used for events, with grounds you can usually walk. Granville also runs a decent calendar: a summer farmers market on Saturday mornings, the Fourth of July celebration, and an autumn street festival. Check dates before you drive out, because a festival weekend both improves the day and complicates parking, and the village lots fill by mid-morning when something is on.

Cost, timing and how it compares

A day in Granville is cheap. Gas for the 70-mile round trip runs $12 to $18, parking is free, the Great Circle Earthworks and the T.J. Evans Trail cost nothing, Dawes Arboretum is about $10, and lunch on Broadway is $15 to $20 a head. Two people can do the whole day comfortably for $80 to $110 including a sit-down meal. Compared with Hocking Hills, this trip trades scenery for architecture, history and easier walking, and it works far better in bad weather.

Best months are late April through June for gardens and campus greenery, and late September through mid-October for color on the hills. Winter is quiet but the inns are cosy and the earthworks are legible with the vegetation down. Avoid Denison move-in and commencement weekends unless you enjoy queues. Leave Upper Arlington by 9:30 am, do the village first, the earthworks after lunch, and you will be back across the Scioto before rush hour builds on SR-161.

Frequently asked questions

What people ask before they set off on this one.

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