The Uptown Star Started as a 1935 Shopping Promotion. This December It Shines From the Library Roof.

Last year, high winds snapped one of the cables holding the Uptown Star over State Street. The 86-pound star fell and narrowly missed a passing car. On Dec. 1, 2025, the City of Westerville posted that the star would not go back up that season. City engineers had inspected the damage and decided it no longer met the city's safety standards. That left Uptown without its star for the first holiday season in years.

It comes back this year in a new spot. The star won't hang over an intersection. It will sit on the State Street-facing roof of the Westerville Public Library, in a partnership between the city and the library. The city's holiday schedule lists a "New Lighting and Rededication of the Uptown Star" at the library at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4.

The new location changes what the star is. For 91 years it was a merchants' ornament, hung from the buildings around Uptown's main corner. Starting this December it belongs to a public building, and the library treats it as local history. The job it was built to do now falls to the Uptown holiday calendar around it.

A sign for shoppers, built by a tinsmith

The star started as a retail idea. In 1935, six years into the Great Depression, the Westerville Businessman's Association wanted a big star over Uptown. According to the library's history of the star, members thought it would lift people's spirits and get them to shop locally for Christmas. The City of Westerville's own history says Percy Yantis led the business group's proposal, and City Manager Ross Windom commissioned local tinsmith George Alexander to build it.

The library adds a few details. Newspaper accounts credit George Alexander and his son Nolan, and George's name is etched into the star. The library also notes that a 1973 article credits several local businessmen with helping them. The Alford family has its own tradition that their ancestor Henry "Bisky" Alford, another local tinsmith, also worked on it.

A 1935 newspaper account, reproduced in the city's history, described "a huge star electrically lighted and hanging high over the street at the corner of State and Main Sts." Hanging it at that corner was a choice. It sat over the busiest commercial corner in town, right where shoppers already were.

Three homes in 91 years

The star's history is mostly a list of repairs and moves. Each one says something about what it took to keep the star in the air:

• 1935, State Street and East Main Street. The star first goes up over the Uptown intersection.
• 1988, same corner. The Westerville Electric Division spends two days rewiring 87 light bulb outlets on each side, replacing broken receptacles and repainting the metal frame.
• 2014, same corner. The city rebuilds the aging star, swapping its porcelain sockets for plastic ones and changing the wiring to suit LEDs.
• 2021, State Street and Home Street. The star moves one block north because the buildings its rigging hung from were showing their age.
• 2025, down. A cable snaps in high winds and the star falls. The damage calls for extensive repairs.
• 2026, the library roof. The city and the library team up to display it safely on the roof overlooking State Street.

The 2021 entry explains the 2026 move. For most of its life, the star depended on the walls of old commercial buildings, and those walls aged faster than the star did. Moving one block north bought it a few more seasons. After the 2025 fall, the answer was to stop hanging it from storefronts at all.

Why the library roof was ready for it

The library roof already had a holiday-season tenant of a different kind. In 2023, the library installed a support structure for Agnes the Dragon. Agnes is an art installation created by students and staff at The Point at Otterbein University, and she goes up on the roof each October for the Wizards & Wands Festival.

So the roof has already held one big seasonal piece above State Street. Agnes covers October and the star covers the holidays. The building that hosts Uptown's fall festival mascot will now host its oldest holiday decoration too.

The library is treating the star as an artifact as well as a light. A mini exhibit on star symbolism runs from November 2026 through September 2027. It covers how stars have guided people physically and spiritually, and it includes Westerville examples: toys made by local company Kilgore Manufacturing, cartoons produced by the Anti-Saloon League, t-shirts designed for the Westerville Music & Arts Festival, and a park trail built in the shape of a star. You'll find it in the display cases across from the pickup window and at the entrance to the Westerville History Museum. The library's exhibit announcement has the details.

If you stop by the library before Dec. 4, you can see the star's story in the display cases before you see the star lit on the roof.

Dec. 4, from the library to City Hall

The city's tree lighting page sets the evening for Friday, Dec. 4, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. along State Street in Uptown. The night has two ceremonies, half an hour apart, on the same street.

6:30 p.m., Westerville Public Library, 126 S. State St. New lighting and rededication of the Uptown Star.

7 p.m., Westerville City Hall, 21 S. State St. Santa lights the tree near City Hall.

Both buildings sit on South State Street, so you can walk from the rededication to the tree lighting between the two start times.

Around those two moments, the city lists:

1. A holiday market with local vendors, sponsored by Uptown Westerville Inc.
2. Live performances by Generations Performing Arts Center, depending on the weather
3. City vehicles decked out in lights
4. Music from DJ Matt Ryan
5. Holiday projection displays from OBLSK, Inc.
6. Strolling characters, a mechanical riding reindeer and a jumbo Santa chair for photos

The city also says Uptown restaurants and merchants will stay open late for holiday shopping. The star now belongs to a civic building, but the night it gets rededicated is still built to keep people shopping in Uptown after dark.

The merchant weekends that pick up the star's old job

In 1935, the star alone had to bring shoppers downtown. In 2026, a full calendar of merchant events does that work, starting two days after this post publishes. CityScene's November/December 2026 Westerville calendar lists these:

• Saturday, Nov. 21, noon to 5 p.m. Uptown Merchants Holiday Open House and Snack & Stroll.
• Saturday, Nov. 28, all day. Small Business Saturday in Uptown.
• Friday, Dec. 4. Star rededication and tree lighting.
• Saturday, Dec. 5. The Christmas Parade presented by Good for Westerville, which steps off from St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church at 313 N. State St. Uptown Westerville Inc.'s parade listing puts it at 10:30 a.m. to noon, ending at Walnut Street.
• Sunday, Dec. 13, noon to 4 p.m. Uptown Merchants Ugly Sweater Snack & Stroll.
• Friday, Dec. 18, 6 p.m. Uptown Merchants Ice Sculpture Tour.

If you come for the star on Dec. 4 and stay for the parade the next morning, you'll walk most of State Street in under 24 hours. The parade starts on North State Street and the star ceremony happens on South State Street.

New names on State Street this season

A couple of State Street addresses look different than they did last December.

Fat Arnie's Provecho opened Oct. 1 at 20 S. State St., in the former DiCarlo's Pizza space. The Columbus Dispatch reported that brothers Christopher and Andrew Beardman run the new location, which serves sandwiches and empanadas. It sits on the same block as City Hall at 21 S. State St., so it's a short walk from the tree.

At the north end, West House Matcha + Chocolate is set for 21 N. State St. Columbus Underground reported that owner Talip Kucuker was aiming for the end of the year. Kucuker's website describes the concept as inspired by people who prefer less caffeine.

Those two addresses fit the pattern the star started. Uptown's holiday draw still depends on independent storefronts along State Street, with a lit marker above them pointing people toward the stores.

If you've ever wondered how Uptown's older commercial buildings hold up, the star's move from its old rigging says a lot about what a century of weather does to brick and mortar. Bryce G Smith brings a construction-management background to every walkthrough. If you're thinking about a home near State Street, or you just want to talk about what makes an older Westerville building last, schedule a free consultation. I'll see you under the star on Dec. 4.