THE HISTORY

On April 3, 1974 a F5 tornado struck Xenia, Ohio devastating the downtown. The Xenia Towne Square Shopping Center was developed in association with a federally-funded urban renewal project that followed the 1974 tornado. Prior to the Xenia Towne Square, this neighborhood was radically different. The area was an organic extension of downtown Xenia, with commercial and mixed uses gradually transitioning toward residential neighborhoods. The pattern of short blocks, sidewalks and buildings close to the street made the area highly walkable.

The Xenia Towne Square project eliminated this urban fabric and replaced it with a much more suburban, utilitarian and single-use pattern focused on the automobile. Xenia Towne Square itself was a purely retail center with a large surface parking lot. The shopping center bore little resemblance to the stately architecture and walkable scale of the blocks it replaced or of the remainder of downtown Xenia.