Brady Kress – Dayton Historical Society and Carillon Park

Special Announcement

There will be no Zoom meeting on 9/29/2020 at noon. Instead, join us that evening on Zoom for the annual Officer Installation and Awards Ceremony. All members and spouses are invited to see the installation of Debe Dockins as president and of the new board members.

Announcements

Mike Brubaker announced that there will be 2889 flags delivered for Labor Day delivery.

Community Events

9/15/2020, 12 PM, a special version of our weekly Zoom meeting will be held. It will be a NOW (New Optimists Welcome) event. Please invite friends, family and other contacts to attend the meeting. There will be presentations about our fundraisers and community events.

Brady Kress – Dayton History Organization – Carillon Park

Greg Griffin introduced Brady Kress, the President and CEO of Dayton History, which owns the 65 acre Carillon Park and several other buildings and historical attractions in the Dayton area.

From the Dayton History website: In 2005, Carillon Historical Park merged with the Montgomery County Historical Society to create a new umbrella organization known as Dayton History. The private non-profit (501c3) organization was established to preserve, share, and celebrate our region’s history. Carillon Historical Park is home to over 30 historic structures and cares for over three million artifacts.

Dayton History is funded by gifts and money generated from the properties they own.

In addition to the Carillon Historical Park, the following sites rest under Dayton History’s care:

• Carillon Brewing Company
• Hawthorn Hill
• The Paul Laurence Dunbar House Historic Site
• Patterson Homestead
• The Old Court House
• Memorial Hall
• The Archive Center
• The Mound Cold War Discovery Center

This page on the Dayton History website contains descriptions of the above locations and has links to specific pages for the sites.

Kress showed us several pictures of their properties.

You can view the slides he presented here.

Dayton has a rich history of industry. NCR started in Dayton. In the 1970’s Huffy produced more bicycle’s than any other brand.

Colonel Deeds

The Deeds Carillon is named for Colonel Edward Deeds and it is the largest carillon in Ohio. It has 57 bells and is 151 feet tall.

Colonel Deeds oversaw all aircraft acquisitions for the U.S. during World War I. Along with Charles Kettering, Deeds is the co-founder of Delco.

Deeds built Old River Park, which was the largest pool east of the Mississippi and could accommodate 5000 swimmers. It was originally built for the recreational use of NCR employees.

Carillon Park

Colonel Deeds was inspired to build Carillon Park after Henry Ford built Greenfield Village in Michigan. Ford had obtained the Wright Brother’s bicycle shop and their original home. Henry worked with Orville Wright to move the two buildings to Michigan. At that time, no one was interested in keeping the buildings in Dayton.

Carillon Park is the home of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park which includes the Wright Brothers section and it is part of the National Park Service. There you can see the restored 1905 Wright Flyer III, which is the plane that the Wright’s used to really learn how to fly.

The WinSupply Center of Leadership at Carillon park opened in 2019. Part of it is the Eichelberger Pavilion which is a 32,000-square-foot multi-level banquet hall that can accommodate 700 people.

During 2019, a new Dayton Leaders’ exhibit opened in the free area of Carillon Park. It includes exhibits featuring entrepreneurs and famous entertainers that are from the Dayton, Ohio region.

The new and larger Culp’s Cafe is now at the front of the park and is open year-round for breakfast and lunch. The Café and the Brewery restaurant are open for business after the temporary shutdown from the COVID crisis. You do not need to pay admission fees to visit restaurants at the park.

Callahan Clock

A few years ago, Dayton History recovered and refurbished the Callahan Clock, which is known by several other names including the Gem City Bank clock. They built a tower for it and it is visible from I-75. Visitors to the tower and clock are welcome to climb the stairs to see great views of Dayton.

Current Plans of the Dayton History Organization

• After the University of Dayton and Miami Valley hospital bought the Montgomery Fairgrounds, Dayton history worked with them to relocate the famous stables from the fairgrounds to Carillon Park
• A new complex is being planned and funding is being obtained for an exhibit of regional sports. It will include an exhibit of the 1920 Triangle Football Team.
• Ohio’s largest tree of light will be created again on the Deeds Carillon for the holiday season by running long strings of light from the carillon to the ground.

Thank you, Brady Kress, for joining us to educate CNO on Carillon Park and the other buildings Dayton History makes possible.

Who can Attend Zoom Meetings?

Any member of any type of Centerville Noon Optimist can attend Zoom meetings. CNO 2.0, St Leonard’s and CNO full members or CNO monthly members can ALL attend.

Guests are also welcome. Please invite guests and introduce them if you like. Just share the Zoom link with them for that week.