Upper Arlington was originally founded in 1913 by two real estate developers named Ben and King Thompson, who purchased the original 840 acres of farmland that eventually became Upper Arlington. The land was located adjacent to the Marble Cliff Quarry Co., so they originally wanted to call the area the “Country Club District” after the Country Club development in Kansas City. However, by 1917, the community became known as “Upper Arlington,” referencing Arlington to the south, which is now known as Marble Cliff.

The area was developed according to the designs of landscape architect William Pitkin, Jr., which included contouring streets that follow the contours of the land rather than in a squared grid. This created a distinctive park-like feel in Upper Arlington neighborhoods, which still exists today. The post-World War II housing boom led to the development of several new housing tracts north of Lane Avenue with ranch-style homes constructed in grid patterns, which created a different feel from the older areas in the city.