Wonderland was an upper-class resort community,just outside of the Columbus

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

 suburb of Gahanna, near a bend in Big Walnut Creek

Big Walnut Creek

Big Walnut Creek starts near Mount Gilead, Ohio in Morrow County. It flows south to eastern Delaware County and parallels Alum Creek. It passes to the east of Sunbury and into Hoover Reservoir. The reservoir crosses into Franklin County and flows through Gahanna and Whitehall...

. It was be slowly abandoned over a period of years after the late 1920s. As recently as the mid-1990s there were still decaying roads and abandoned residential buildings; however, this land was been bought by the Port Columbus International Airport

Port Columbus International Airport

Port Columbus International Airport , commonly shortened to Port Columbus, is a Class C international airport located east of downtown Columbus, Ohio, USA. It is managed by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, which also oversees operations at Rickenbacker International Airport and Bolton Field...

 for future expansion, which finally razed the remaining structures and fenced off the land. The only remaining reminder of this town is the Wonderland Church, on Friendship Drive, next to the interchange of Interstate 270

Interstate 270 (Ohio)

Interstate 270 is the beltway loop freeway in the Columbus metropolitan area, commonly known locally as "The Outerbelt," or the "Jack Nicklaus Freeway." The "western" terminus of I-270, at least in terms of the zero-milepost, is at the junction with I-71 east of Grove City, Ohio...

 and Hamilton Road

Ohio State Route 317

State Route 317 is a north–south state highway in the central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. Its southern terminus is at U.S. Route 23 approximately south of Downtown Columbus and just outside of the city limits; its northern terminus is at U.S. Route 62 in Gahanna...

.

History

Local folktales and rumours in Gahanna and on the east side of Columbus up until the early 1980s said that Wonderland was developed after World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

as a "utopia" of sorts, although this has never been proved. The Columbus Citizen, April 23, 1927, page 7 Wonderland Opens Sunday

Up until the early 1980s there were still some people living in the community, most of whose children attended Gahanna schools. By this time Wonderland had gone from the resort it had once been in the 1920s and 1930s to nothing much more than a slum. Many of the homes built during its creation were now well below flood level and when the Big Walnut river rose it would flood houses in the community.