In 1868, five miles northwest of Cincinnati in a sparsely populated part of southeast Green Township, farmers, local merchants, and landed gentry formed the Village of Westwood to better control their quality of life and their children’s education. A plat for the two and one-half square mile village was filed with the State of Ohio on September 6, 1868, sixty-seven residents petitioned Hamilton County’s commissioners on September 14, and the Hamilton County Recorder certified the village on September 17. The village contained about 100 families, and more than half of its residents were first- or second-generation German immigrants. John Gaines was elected the first mayor on April 5, 1869, and Robert and William Armstrong, F.W. Schwartz, F.H. Ochlmann, Jr., F. Mueller, William F. Davis, and John M. Miller were elected as the first Village Council. Less than a year after Westwood’s founding, its first Board of Education commissioned a school, and in 1870 a brick two-story schoolhouse was completed in the center of the village on the current site of Westwood School. The Cincinnati and Hamilton turnpike, Cincinnati’s major westerly trade and commerce route, ran through the center of Westwood. The village built roads, erected Town Hall, and created a fire department, while the Village Council worked to protect and promote its scenic qualities. Country estates of various sizes rose among sprawling farms. By 1880, Westwood had 852 residents, and by 1890 the population had grown to 1,052 as businessmen and professionals with ties to Cincinnati moved there to escape the overcrowded, hot, smoke-filled city and enjoy fresh air and a picturesque natural landscape. Westwood’s prosperity made it attractive to Cincinnati, and after Ohio legislators passed the Lillard Law in 1893, the city easily annexed Westwood with four other outlying villages. Westwood officially became part of Cincinnati on May 8, 1896.