Kirkwood is a rural
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
located at the intersection of Kirkwood and River Roads in southwestern
Orange Township,
Shelby County,
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
Originally named Pontiac before the name change, Kirkwood is located halfway between
Sidney to the north and
Piqua to the south in neighboring
Miami County. The original Dayton and Michigan Railroad, later
B&O,
Chessie System
Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated u ...
, and now
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...
runs through Kirkwood.
The rural community is visible from Interstate 75 as an overpass over Kirkwood Road, although no exit for Kirkwood exits.
Kirkwood was originally called Pontiac, and under the latter name was
plat
In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...
ted in 1868. A post office called Kirkwood was established in 1866, and remained in operation until 1913. The present name honors D. Kirkwood Gillespie, the proprietor of a local grain elevator.
References
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Unincorporated communities in Shelby County, Ohio
Unincorporated communities in Ohio