Our Mission
Our Mission
Carillon Historical Park, a privately funded nonprofit, is Montgomery County’s official historical organization. Our mission is to inspire generations by connecting them with the unique people, places, and events that changed Dayton and the world.
About Carillon Historical Park
Carillon Historical Park, home to the Wright Brothers National Museum, is a 65-acre open-air museum. Designed by the Olmsted Brothers, sons of Central Park’s Frederick Law Olmsted, it safeguards the unique stories from Dayton, Ohio — the city that changed everything. From the airplane to the cash register, the pop-top to the automobile starter motor, the Cheez-It to the first NFL game, Dayton — a city that once led the nation in patents per capita — has a history that punches far above its weight.
You can’t go a day without Dayton™.
Home to over 30 historic structures and more than three million artifacts, Carillon Historical Park continues to grow. Still, none of it would be possible without private donors — champions of Dayton’s unparalleled past — who bring bold dreams to life for the good of our community, our region, our nation, and our world. For an organization built on history, the best may be yet to come.
About Dayton History
Dayton History, a privately funded nonprofit, operates Carillon Historical Park and several other historic sites across the region, including:
- Carillon Brewing Company: The only working brewery in an American museum, and the only one faithfully recreating historic brewing traditions. Established 2014.
- Hawthorn Hill: Orville Wright’s success mansion. Join the ranks of Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and Thomas Edison as visitors to the first pilot’s last home. Completed 1914.
- Patterson Homestead: Once home to Col. Robert Patterson — a Revolutionary War soldier, the founder of Lexington, Ky., and a cofounder of Cincinnati, Ohio — this storied structure was also home to his grandson, NCR Founder John H. Patterson. Built 1816.
- The Archive Center: Housing millions of the Dayton region’s artifacts. Once managed by the Montgomery County Historical Society, established in 1896, the Archive Center’s collection is well over 100 years old.
The History of Carillon Park
1939
On a trip to Bruges, Belgium, Edith Walton Deeds, an accomplished Dayton musician, is enchanted by carillon music. Inspired, she dreams of bringing the sound to her hometown.
1940
Edith and her husband, Col. Edward A. Deeds, NCR Chairman, establish Educational & Musical Arts, Inc., to build Deeds Carillon.
1941
Dec. 24 — On Christmas Eve, Daytonians huddle around Deeds Carillon, reeling from the recent attack on Pearl Harbor. While the first Deeds Carillon concert is slated for 1942, the tower makes an impromptu debut. Robert Kline, NCR’s Educational Director, plays the carillon, beginning a 45-year tenure as the Park’s first carillonneur.
1942
Built in just two years under the watchful eye of Col. Edward A. and Mrs. Edith Walton Deeds, the 151-foot Deeds Carillon rises as one of only six free-standing carillon towers in the nation. At its debut, the soaring landmark holds 32 bells—23 pealing, nine silent, each honoring a deceased Deeds family member.
April 5 — The first Easter Sunrise Service, a tradition that still greets the dawn each year, is held.
Aug. 23 — The tower is officially dedicated with its first official concert.
1950
June 3 — Carillon Park opens, designed by the Olmsted Brothers and developed by the Miami Conservancy District with support from NCR, the City of Dayton, the CCC, and the WPA. Visitors can explore Wright Hall, featuring the 1905 Wright Flyer III; the Grist Mill; Smith Covered Bridge; South Station, housing the 1835 John Quincy Adams, the oldest American-built locomotive; the Wagon Shed; the Corliss Engine; Canal Lock #17; and a replica of Deeds Barn.
1962
May 1 — The Fireless Locomotive Building, housing the Rubicon locomotive, is dedicated.
1965
May 1 — Dayton’s oldest standing building, Newcom Tavern, is rededicated at Carillon Park. More than a tavern, the 1796 structure was the heart of community life—serving as the city’s first jail, church, general store, and Montgomery County’s very first courthouse.
1972
May 6 — A replica of the Wright Cycle Co. is dedicated beside Wright Hall. While Orville Wright helped move the original to Michigan’s Greenfield Village in 1936, Dayton leaders construct a replica of the brothers’ fifth and final bike shop. Today, it is part of the Wright Brothers National Museum, within Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.
1976
May 1 — The 1896 Locust Grove Schoolhouse No. 12 is dedicated. It continues to delight visiting students to this day.
1978
April 29 — The B&O Caboose, Bowling Green Railroad Depot, and the Watchtower are dedicated.
1979
April 29 — The Miami and Erie Canal Superintendent’s Office is dedicated.
1985
The property is officially renamed Carillon Historical Park.
1988
April 30 — The Carillon Park Rail & Steam Society, a team of volunteer train enthusiasts, holds a Golden Spike Ceremony to dedicate the Park’s 7.5-gauge rideable miniature railroad.
July 11 — The Print Shop, the nation’s only fully operational 1930s letterpress job shop in a museum, is dedicated. Today, it is called Gem City Letterpress.
Oct. 23 — Deeds Carillon’s new mechanically operated bells are dedicated.
1990
The 1905 Wright Flyer III becomes the first and, so far, only airplane designated a National Historic Landmark.
1992
Oct. 16 — President George H.W. Bush signs the Dayton Aviation Heritage Preservation Act, creating Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. The 1905 Wright Flyer III, housed in Wright Hall, becomes a legislated unit of the new park.
1999
May 19 — Carillon Park receives a Save America’s Treasures grant to conserve the Wright Flyer III.
Aug. 1 — The Kettering Family Education Center opens, housing archives, the Museum Store, and exhibit galleries.
2000
Sept. 30 — The James F. Dicke Family Transportation Center debuts, sheltering the 1851 B&O #1, John Quincy Adams locomotive, and rare wooden railroad cars.
2001
May 5 — Culp’s Café opens. Named for the legendary Dayton Arcade hotspot, it is the Park’s first on-site restaurant.
2002
June 22 — The John W. Berry, Sr., Wright Brothers Aviation Center is dedicated, uniting four buildings into one complex displaying the world’s largest Wright artifact collection.
2003
Feb. 20 — The 1905 Wright Flyer III is designated a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
July 4 to 20 — During Dayton’s centennial of flight celebration, Carillon Park presents Time Flies: Catch it in the Act, a living history experience spanning all Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park sites.
2004
April 7 — The 1934 Sugar Camp/WAVES Cabin is relocated from NCR’s Sugar Camp, where NCR salesmen were trained and WWII Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service — WAVES — worked on the top-secret Enigma Codebreaking Project.
June 6 — The Sugar Camp/WAVES Cabin is dedicated on the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
2009
July 12 — Four historic buildings are relocated from the former Kettering-Moraine Museum to Carillon Park: the original Deeds Barn, the Hetzel Summer Kitchen, the Newcom House, and the Watervliet Shaker building.
2010
The Heritage Center of Dayton Manufacturing & Entrepreneurship opens, telling the region’s industrial story with a 4-D animatronic theater, NCR cash registers, the original Deeds Barn, the Carousel of Dayton Innovation, and more.
2011
March — The Patterson Adirondack Cabin is moved to the top of the moraine. The cabin — a prototype for those that once dotted the landscape of Hills & Dales, a sprawling Olmsted-designed recreational area near Carillon Park — is the last of its kind.
April 17 — The Newcom House, a small Greek Revival-style home built ca. 1841, and Hetzel Summer Kitchen, built in 1817, are dedicated.
Aug. 19 — The Heritage Center of Dayton Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship is officially dedicated.
2013
March 23 — The Great 1913 Flood Exhibit opens on the centennial of the Great Dayton Flood, Ohio’s worst natural disaster.
June 27 — Hawthorn Hill, the Wright family mansion, is gifted to Dayton History by the Wright Family Foundation. Today, visitors can board a shuttle from Carillon Park on Wednesdays and Saturdays to tour the legendary mansion.
2014
Aug. 22 — Carillon Brewing Co. — the nation’s only working production brewery in a museum, and the only one replicating the historic brewing process — is dedicated.
2015
The city of Dayton transferred ownership of Patterson Homestead — the former home of Revolutionary War soldier and Lexington, Kentucky, founder, Col. Robert Patterson, and NCR Founder John H. Patterson — to Dayton History.
2018
Aug. 31 — The John W. Berry, Sr., Wright Brothers Aviation Center is expanded, redesigned, and renamed the John W. Berry, Sr., Wright Brothers National Museum. The museum displays more Wright family artifacts than any other place in the world, including the original 1905 Wright Flyer III, a National Historic Landmark.
Oct. 24 — The 100-foot Brethen Tower, capped by the historic Callahan Clock, is dedicated.
2019
Sept. 26 — The 32,000-square-foot WinSupply Center of Leadership is dedicated, featuring an expanded museum store, new restrooms, exhibit galleries, classrooms, meeting rooms, and the Eichelberger Pavilion — a 700-seat event space. The Center also includes a reimagined Culp’s Café. Inspired by Dayton’s historic soda fountains, the new Culp’s offers a lunch counter, phosphate sodas, and dining inside a restored 1903 Barney & Smith rail car.
The Canal Superintendent’s Office is moved beside the Canal Lock.
2021
June 24 — The 1901 Montgomery County Fairgrounds Horse No. Barn 17 — the 17th of the Fairgrounds’ 27 buildings, which once accommodated some 75 horses — is dedicated at Carillon Park.
2022
April 28 — The Industrial Block is dedicated. A complex of historical exhibits, the Block includes Gem City Letterpress, the nation’s only fully operational letterpress job shop in a museum; Rubicon Foundry, a demonstration foundry; and Air City Soap, an exhibit about the Dayton region’s soap-making history. And it’s all tucked amongst the recreated sights, sounds, and facades of a 1920s–1930s Middle American street scene.
2023
May 2 — A Golden Spike Ceremony signaled the dedication of the Carillon Park Railroad, a large-scale replica of the 1851 “Cincinnati,” the first passenger train to run through Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton. Winding nearly one mile, the Railroad hauls up to 120 passengers in open-air coaches through the nooks and crannies of Carillon Park.
July 7 — A new interactive exhibit on the Berry Company, a pioneer in developing the Yellow Pages, is opened in the Heritage Center.
Nov. 8 — Newcom Tavern, Dayton’s oldest-standing building, is rededicated at Carillon Park. Guests can explore the second floor of the 1796 tavern and a new exhibit, A Legal Footing in the Wilderness, which further explores the city’s founding.
2024
March 31 — Alan Bowman, The Park’s new carillonneur, plays his inaugural concert at the Easter Sunrise Service. Only the third permanent carillonneur since the first Deeds Carillon concert was played 84 years ago, Bowman is preceded by Larry Weinstein, who played from 1988 to 2023, and Robert Kline, the Park’s original carillonneur, who played from 1941 to 1986.
2025
June 13 — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine ceremonially signs Senate Bill 24, officially designating the 1905 Wright Flyer III as Ohio’s state airplane.
June 19 — Mad River Pulp & Paper, an early 19th-century paper mill exhibit, and the redesigned Marie Aull Tribute Garden, which honors Dayton educator, conservationist, and philanthropist Marie Aull, are dedicated.