Vandalia

Vandalia is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and a suburb of Dayton.

On August 17, 1838, Benjamin Wilhelm, a settler from Pennsylvania, settled near what is now the intersection of U.S. Route 40 and US Route 25-A.

He built his home and a small general store as a stop and resting place for travelers heading west.

The small town began to attract travelers and businessmen, and on February 7, 1848, the town was incorporated as "The Village of Vandalia" with Benjamin Wilhelm as its first mayor.

The village was laid out in 38 lots including a church, hotels, blacksmiths shops, a steam sawmill, meat markets, and a carriage shop.

It was named after Vandalia, Illinois.

The Delphi Automotive manufacturing plant in Vandalia, which opened in the 1930s, cut back operations in 2003.

By 1959, Vandalia was outgrowing its "village" status, and its citizens voted to make it a council-manager form of government, effectively making the village into a municipal corporation.

On January 2, 1960, Vandalia became a Charter City of the State of Ohio.

As of the census of 2000, there were 14,603 people, 6,235 households, and 4,090 families residing in the city.

It continued to operate "through Delphi’s time in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, from October 2005 to October 2009," and was purchased by Mahle Behr in 2015.

Until 2005, Vandalia was home to the Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA), which moved to Sparta, Illinois after an expansion of the Dayton International Airport.

Some records indicate that Benjamin Wilhelm, the town's founder, settled in Vandalia on his way to Vandalia, Illinois.

Instead, he stopped here and named his new town after his original destination.

Others claim that the town was named Vandalia because the National Road was intended to extend to Vandalia, Illinois, but, for a time, it looked as though it would not do so.

This doubt resulted in the name being used for a town along the Road in Ohio.

Vandalia is about 10 mi north of Dayton on Dixie Drive (former U.S. Highway 25).

It is between the Great Miami River and the Stillwater River.

The city has been called the "Crossroads of America" due to its location on the National Road and the Dixie Highway.

These correspond to U.S. Route 40 and former U.S. Route 25, which in turn, have been supplanted by two major expressways: east-west Interstate 70 and north–south Interstate 75.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.41 sqmi, of which, 12.34 sqmi is land and 0.07 sqmi is water.

Vandalia is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area.

As of 2009 there were 27,298 citizens.

The population density was 1,236.5 PD/sqmi.

There were 6,489 housing units at an average density of 549.5 /sqmi.

The racial makeup of the city was 96.08% White, 1.28% African American, 0.13% Native American, 1.23% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.35% from other races, and 0.90% from two or more races.

Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.89% of the population.

As of the census of 2010, there were 15,246 people, 6,571 households, and 4,166 families residing in the city.

The population density was 1235.5 PD/sqmi.

There were 7,055 housing units at an average density of 571.7 /sqmi.

The racial makeup of the city was 91.5% White, 4.1% African American, 0.1% Native American, 1.4% Asian, 0.6% from other races, and 2.1% from two or more races.

Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.6% of the population.

There were 6,571 households, of which 30.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.5% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 36.6% were non-families.

31.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.88.

The median age in the city was 40.6 years.

23.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.3% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 24.2% were from 25 to 44; 28.7% were from 45 to 64, and 15.7% were 65 years of age or older.

The gender makeup of the city was 48.4% male and 51.6% female.

Its population was 15,209 during the 2020 census.

In addition to being the city closest to Dayton International Airport, Vandalia lies at the crossroads of I-75 and I-70.