Northam
Built around Northam Park's tennis courts, pool and the main library — the most walkable, most sociable corner of the city.
Tennis courts and shaded lawns at Northam Park beside the Upper Arlington library
Why people stay in Northam
Northam is the small central district wrapped around Northam Park at 2070 Northam Road, and it is the closest thing Upper Arlington has to a town green. The park holds the city's biggest tennis complex, Tremont Pool, ball diamonds, shelters and a great deal of shade; the main branch of the Upper Arlington Public Library sits on its Tremont Road edge at 2800 Tremont Road; Tremont Center's shops are a five-minute walk north. For a place with no bars and no hotels, an extraordinary amount of daily life happens within these four blocks.
It also has the city's two big set-piece days. The Fourth of July parade comes down Tremont Road and the park fills for the rest of the day, and the Labor Day Arts Festival takes over Northam Park on the first Monday of September with a few hundred artists' booths, food stalls and live music — free entry, tens of thousands of people, and the only time all year you will struggle to park within half a mile. If your dates fall on either, book the room three months out and walk.
Evenings here are better than anywhere else in Upper Arlington, which still means modest. The tennis courts run under lights into the evening in summer, there are usually people on the diamonds until dusk, and the pool keeps the place noisy until it closes. By 10pm it is over and the streets are empty. From-prices start around $98 in January, rise to $160-$200 across late May and June, and go higher still on Ohio State football Saturdays, when everyone in the metro puts a two-night minimum on.
This is the area to pick if you want to walk somewhere from your front door — the library, the park, the shops at Tremont Center and the pool are all inside fifteen minutes on foot. Skip it if you want restaurants and drinks in walking distance, because you will be driving to Lane Avenue or Grandview like everyone else, and skip it on Labor Day weekend unless the festival is exactly why you came. Families, tennis players and slow-travel types will get more out of Northam than out of any other address in this guide.
Aim for the streets immediately east and north of the park — quiet, shaded, and inside a ten-minute walk of both the library at 2800 Tremont Road and the shops at Tremont Center. Expect $98 to $155 a night on ordinary dates, $160 to $220 across graduation season in late May and June, and $260-plus on autumn football Saturdays with a two-night minimum attached. There is no hotel inside Northam itself; the nearest front desks are two miles east on Olentangy River Road at $85-$130, or the Bethel Road cluster for the cheapest reliable rooms in the area. Avoid lets on Tremont Road itself, which carries the school run and the parade route, and think twice about the streets bordering the park during pool season if you sleep lightly — summer evenings are loud in a cheerful way until closing.
Things to do in Northam
The courts at 2070 Northam Road are the city's tennis hub, floodlit into the evening in summer and busy from early morning. Public play is generally first-come outside programmed sessions; bring your own racket because nothing is hired on site. Best time is a weekday evening around 7pm when the light goes gold through the oaks.
Inside Northam Park, one of the city's three municipal pools, open roughly Memorial Day to mid-August with shortened hours once school returns. Non-resident day passes are inexpensive but check the current rate and the daily schedule on the city parks page — swim lessons and team practice block out chunks of the morning.
The first Monday in September, Northam Park fills with several hundred artists' booths, food vendors and stages. Free to walk in, running most of the day, and by a distance the biggest event in Upper Arlington's calendar. Park at least half a mile out on the residential streets or, better, leave the car at Kingsdale and walk up Tremont Road.
Upper Arlington Public Library's Tremont Road building at 2800 is bright, quiet and generous with tables and free wifi, and the local-history collection explains the 1913 Thompson plat that became Old Arlington. Open seven days in term time with shorter Sunday hours. It is the best wet-afternoon plan in the city and it costs nothing.
Five minutes north on foot at Tremont Road and Zollinger Road. The Tremont Goodie Shop at 2116 sells the doughnuts, Huffman's Market at 2140 does the sandwiches and the picnic supplies. Carry both back to a bench in Northam Park. Go early — the bakery sells out and the whole strip is closed by late afternoon.
The parade runs down Tremont Road on the morning of 4 July, ending near the park, and the city turns out en masse with folding chairs staked out from dawn. Free. Roads close, so walk in and accept that your car is going nowhere before noon. Fireworks follow in the evening at the school fields.
What to see
Hotels near Northam
No hotels are listed in Northam yet. The nearest ones are on the region page.
Every hotel we cover in Northam
- TownePlace Suites by Marriott Columbus North OSU 3★ · 4.6/5
- Homewood Suites by Hilton Columbus OSU OH 3★ · 4.4/5
Getting around Northam
From John Glenn Columbus International, take I-670 west to SR-315 north and exit at Lane Avenue or Fifth Avenue, 20-25 minutes and $35-$45 by rideshare. There is no train into Columbus; coaches use the downtown terminal at 111 East Town Street. For buses, COTA Line 3 runs Northwest Boulevard and Kingsdale, a ten-to-fifteen-minute walk south down Tremont Road, and reaches downtown in about 25 minutes; fares are $2.00 single and $4.50 for a day pass, with thin evening and Sunday service. Inside Northam you genuinely can walk — park, pool, library and shops are all inside fifteen minutes — and every car park here is free.
Questions about Northam
It runs on the first Monday of September in Northam Park, all day, free to enter, with several hundred artists' booths, food stalls and music. It is the busiest day of the Upper Arlington year and genuinely good — but rooms in the area tighten up over that weekend and parking within half a mile is impossible by mid-morning. Book by June if you want to be within walking distance.
The Northam Park courts are public and generally available on a first-come basis outside organised programmes; bring your own equipment. Tremont Pool sells day passes to non-residents at a modest rate during its season, roughly Memorial Day to mid-August, with hours shortening once schools return. Check the Upper Arlington Parks and Recreation page for current rates and daily schedules before you turn up.
For a day, yes — park, pool, library and the Tremont Center shops are all within fifteen minutes on foot, which is unusual here. For a week, no. There is no restaurant strip, the supermarket is a fifteen-minute walk at Kingsdale, and the nearest evening out is a drive to Lane Avenue or Grandview Avenue. Most visitors keep a car and simply use it less.
The library at 2800 Tremont Road is the honest answer — comfortable, free, open seven days in term time. Beyond that you are driving: the Market District at Kingsdale for a long lunch, the Jack Nicklaus Museum on Olentangy River Road ten minutes east, or the museums downtown fifteen to twenty minutes away. Upper Arlington is not built for wet days indoors.
