Harrisburg, OH (CDP)

Harrisburg is a village split between Franklin and Pickaway counties, sitting on the north side of Big Darby Creek southwest of Columbus. Before the village was laid out, the crossroads was known as Darby Cross Roads, and the Big Darby Post Office was already operating by 1834. Joseph Chenowith founded Harrisburg in 1836, with Frederick Cole surveying and platting the settlement; the name honored Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The creek, old roads, and county line give the village its particular map, with one small place touching two county systems.

Harrisburg grew as a lively crossroads with a grist mill on Darby Creek and an early road running from the Columbus area toward Chillicothe. Today the village remains part of the Big Darby watershed, a landscape of creek bottom, farmland, and rolling country. Its local story is also tied to the changes that have reached smaller Ohio communities: the elementary school closed after a levy failed, and students now connect to schools beyond the village. Harrisburg is a Darby Creek settlement with a double-county address, a nineteenth-century mill and post-office history, and a rural setting within reach of central Ohio.