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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.
Scott Elliott is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He writes about education, city and suburban issues, politics, business, workforce and consumer issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > September > 29 > Entry
Guest column: Restored caboose, hotel help bring the past to life
This commentary was written by Kenneth J. Kuntz, professor emeritus at the University of Dayton and a member of the Dayton History Preservation Advisory Council.
Dayton History presented its annual Heritage Awards this year to two organizations from neighboring counties. These organizations share the belief that our heritage does not have an expiration date. Rather, it has a destiny to serve contemporary purposes and to tell important stories to generations to come.
Railway Display Committee, Greene Co. Historical Society
In 1990, the Railway Display Committee of the Greene County Historical Society was formed to tell the story of railroads in Greene County. Among its projects is a HO-gauge model railway display that depicts Xenia between 1920 and 1950. Visitors can experience a ride through Xenia via a TV camera in the train engine as it moves along the tracks of the city.
In 1998, Carillon Historical Park offered a Chesapeake and Ohio caboose to the group. The Railway Display Committee accepted the gift and its concomitant challenges — raising money, securing a location for the caboose at the site of the old rail yards in Xenia and mustering hours of volunteer labor necessary for the car’s restoration.
The caboose’s iron exterior has been painted red and lettered for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that once passed through the town just 50 yards from the site. The interior was restored with authentic furnishings.
The Railway Display Committee has educational outreach programs, including “Meet Me at the Station,” an on-site historic railroad educational program for third-graders. The program uses both the B&O caboose and the nearby reconstructed Pennsylvania Railroad depot.
At a time when young people look at a typewriter and ask where the spell check is, or look at a library card catalogue and wonder how big books ever fit into those little drawers, they also read the word “caboose” and have to look it up on the Internet. Not in Xenia, though.
Rather, they can walk through one in real time and actually touch the three dimensions of transportation history.
Fort Piqua Hotel, Miami County
When the Fort Piqua Hotel was constructed in 1891, it was the first building in Piqua with indoor restrooms, and it boasted 900 electric lights — a couple hundred more than were in all of the rest of the city.
Its Romanesque-style façade has been basically unaltered. The restoration of the hotel began in 2006 and was completed in 2008. The architectural details that characterize the facade were skillfully preserved to revive the magnificent edifice it was more than a century ago.
Years of water pouring through the roof had saturated the five stories of building, damaging ornate plaster moldings and leaving rooms almost beyond recognition.
The Piqua Public Library now occupies a major part of the building. But the landmark also is more than that. It’s a museum that tells local stories with a collection of art and artifacts as well as the printed word. It is a vision in progress.
In one room, a 19th-century parlor stove stands next to a 21st-century computer, symbolizing a vision of historic buildings, museums and libraries in harmony doing what they can do best: linking the past with the future so that today’s generations can better understand the present.
The successful restoration of the Fort Piqua Hotel demonstrates that if our historic buildings are to be saved, there must be a contemporary use found for those buildings. No community, however affluent, can turn every historic building into a museum.
The Hotel-Library Alliance and the Citizens of Piqua did just that.
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By Max
September 29, 2010 6:45 PM | Link to this
Now, I ask you, who doesn’t smile at the thought of a red caboose? Just saying ‘caboose’ makes me feel happy all inside. Don’t we all need a little more caboose? What is the plural of caboose? Cabeese? Cabooses? Caboosier?….Where’s Karon to help me out here? Karon, get your caboose in here and lay some tracks for this discussion…..
By karon
September 29, 2010 9:13 PM | Link to this
Passenger trains will help bring economic development and put ohio large and smaller cities back on the map!
By Max
September 29, 2010 10:59 PM | Link to this
Karon, it never occurred to me to ask you this; have you ever been on a passenger train? If so, do they have a caboose? The Amtrak’s I’ve been on have such horrible rails, having a drink is like a scene from Das Boot when they were being depth charged…..I’ve never had olives leap from my martini before. Anyway, ‘hope you’re having a pleasant evening.
By harry white
September 30, 2010 6:31 AM | Link to this
By HRH This is great and we need more effort from everyone to help us preserve the past. I wish that some group would help with the relocation of the orginal Deeds barn and house to a larger area so that more people could enjoy this great historal site. I think that their was a famous world leader that stated the more you look back the better you can see ahead!
By Max
September 30, 2010 11:44 AM | Link to this
“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.” - Oscar Wilde…..”Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which never happened and those which do not matter.” - W.R. Ing…..”I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” - Thomas Jefferson…..
By Max
September 30, 2010 4:30 PM | Link to this
“I like other people’s history more than mine. So do the banks.” - Max