Carillon Historical Park is a 65-acre (26.3 ha) park and museum in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

, which contains historic buildings and exhibits concerning the history of technology and the history of Dayton and its residents from 1796 to the present. As a part of the

University of Dayton The University of Dayton (UD) is a private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the nation and the second-largest private university in Ohio. The univ ...

, the historical elements of the park were the brainchild of Colonel Edward Deeds. The major sections include settlement, transportation, invention, and industry. The park also contains the Carillon Park Railroad, a gauge

miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by diesel or petro ...

. In 2005, Carillon Historical Park merged with the Montgomery County Historical Society to form

Dayton History Dayton History is an organization located in Dayton, Ohio, USA, formed in 2005 by the merger of the Montgomery County Historical Society (originally the Dayton Historical Society) and Dayton's Carillon Historical Park Carillon Historical Park is ...

Kettering Family Education Center

The Kettering Family Education Center anchors the park and features changing exhibits in the National City Exhibit Gallery, a video about the park, and gift and snack shops. There are also rooms for education presentations.

Wright Brothers Aviation Center

The John W. Berry Sr. Wright Brothers Aviation Center houses the 1905

Wright Flyer III The Wright Flyer III was the third powered aircraft by the Wright Brothers, built during the winter of 1904–05. Orville Wright made the first flight with it on June 23, 1905. The Flyer III had an airframe of spruce construction with a wing ...

, the world's first practical airplane. The airplane, a unit of

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio that commemorates three important historical figures— Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar—and the ...

, was restored from 1948 to 1950 with the initial consultation of Orville Wright before his 1948 death.

Settlement exhibits

Newcom Tavern Newcom Tavern, also known as the "Old Cabin", is an historic structure in Dayton, Ohio and is the city's oldest existing building. It was built in 1796 for Colonel George Newcom and his wife Mary, who ran it as a tavern and hostel. The building pa ...

- 1796 home of Col. George Newcom and family, oldest building in Dayton :* William Morris House - 1815 stone cottage :* Locust Grove School - 1896 one-room schoolhouse used for over 30 years

Transportation exhibits

An original lock of the Miami and Erie Canal is located on the grounds, as is a canal toll office. The transportation center vehicles include the ''John Quincy Adams'' steam locomotive (built in 1835 by the

B&O Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

and is the oldest US-built locomotive that still exists), a Barney and Smith passenger car built in Dayton, a Conestoga wagon, a 1908

Stoddard-Dayton Stoddard-Dayton was a high quality car manufactured by Dayton Motor Car Company in Dayton, Ohio, US, between 1905 and 1913. John W. Stoddard and his son Charles G. Stoddard were the principals in the company. History In 1904, John Stodda ...

automobile, a 1915 Xenia

cyclecar A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the car. A key ...

, an

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...

railcar, and other vehicles associated with Dayton. Among the latter, added to the collection in 1988, is a 1949-built

Marmon-Herrington The Marmon-Herrington Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer of axles and transfer cases for trucks and other vehicles. Earlier, the company built military vehicles and some tanks during World War II, and until the late 1950s or early 1960s wa ...

trolley bus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

, which was number 515 in the fleet of the City Transit Company''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 164 (May–June 1989), p. 45. National Trolleybus Association (UK). ISSN 0266-7452. and provided service on the Dayton trolley bus system from 1949 until about 1982. It arrived at the museum in August 1988 and replaced a similar Marmon-Herrington trolley bus, ex-Dayton 501, that had been on display there since April 1988Bland, Jim (April 29, 1988). "Carillon adds old buggy, '48 trolley exhibits". ''

Dayton Daily News The ''Dayton Daily News'' (''DDN'') is a daily newspaper published in Dayton, Ohio, United States. It is owned by Cox Enterprises, Inc., a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately ...

'', p. 3-A. but was then donated to the Cincinnati Transit Historical Association under an agreement in which Carillon Park received No. 515 from the Miami Valley Regional Transit Authority in exchange.Kline, Benjamin; and Owen Kubik (August 23, 1988). "Driver dies while towing historic trolley". ''

'', p. 3-A. The center also displays the final

SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definiti ...

made at the former

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

Moraine Assembly Moraine Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Moraine, Ohio, United States, a suburb of Dayton. A Frigidaire appliance plant had originally operated on the site from 1951 to 1979. Starting in 1981, the Chevrolet S-10 small pickup w ...

, next to the first

windshield The windshield (North American English) or windscreen (Commonwealth English) of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike, truck, train, boat or streetcar is the front window, which provides visibility while protecting occupants from the elements. Mo ...

made by Fuyao Glass America, which redeveloped the factory.

Invention and industry

* Deeds Barn - features such inventions as a Liberty aircraft engine, early

Frigidaire Frigidaire Appliance Company is the American consumer and commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of multinational company Electrolux. Frigidaire was founded as the Guardian Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first s ...

refrigerator, 1912

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

with the Delco automobile electric system. * Print Shop - working 1930s print shop * Corliss Engine Building - houses the

Corliss Engine A Corliss steam engine (or Corliss engine) is a steam engine, fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849, invented by and named after the American engineer George Henry Corliss of Providence, Rhode Island. Engines f ...

that provided both electrical power and steam heat for the National Cash Register Company from 1902 to 1948.

Deeds Carillon

The park is named for the Deeds

Carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

. Colonel Edward Deeds, in whose name the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

was built, was a Dayton industrialist and innovator. The art moderne-style tower was built in 1942 and designed by New York architects Reinhard & Hofmeister. It was funded by Edward Deeds' wife Edith Walton Deeds and was designed to commemorate the Deeds family. When the tower was built, each of 23 bells was inscribed with the name of a family member, with the “silent” bells bearing the names of deceased family members and ringing bells cast with the names of family members then living. Today, with 57 bells, the carillon is Ohio's largest. The

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

listed the Deeds Carillon on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2005. Carillon Park refurbished the carillon in 1988, converting it from an electric keyboard controlled instrument to a traditional, baton-keyboard mechanical carillon. The Park's

carillonneur A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmonio ...

, Larry Weinstein, performs live carillon concerts every Sunday at 3:00 pm from May to October.

References

External links

Carillon Historical ParkDayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park
{{authority control 1942 establishments in Ohio 7½ in gauge railways in the United States Aerospace museums in Ohio Bell towers in the United States Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Carillons Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park Historic house museums in Ohio History museums in Ohio History of Dayton, Ohio Houses in Montgomery County, Ohio Museums in Dayton, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Ohio Parks in Ohio Protected areas of Montgomery County, Ohio Technology museums in Ohio Towers completed in 1942 Transportation museums in Ohio Wright brothers