Beulah Park began in 1889 when local businessman A. G. Grant petitioned Grove City to create the Beulah Addition housing development on farmland once owned by town founder William Foster Breck. Grant named the addition, west of Harrisburg Pike, for his daughter Beulah and added a recreational park to attract buyers. The wooded park drew visitors for picnics, concerts, speeches, and baseball games, and it was soon expanded with a small racetrack. The track attracted Franklin County Fair officials, who held the fair there intermittently until 1918, when it moved to Hilliard. Shortly afterward, Colonel James M. Westwater bought the grounds and made improvements. In 1922 he sold his interest to the Capital City Racing Association, and in 1923 the association established Beulah Park, Ohio's first Thoroughbred racetrack. The park's main entrance stood on Grant Avenue, a street named in honor of Jackson Township's first settlers. In 1931 pari-mutuel wagering began under the Ohio Racing Commission, and in 1983 Beulah Park became the first track in Ohio to offer simulcast wagering on the Kentucky Derby.