HISTORIC DISTRICT Advisory board recommends Mill Creek Park for register

The board tabled a decision on an abolitionist meeting hall in Salem.
COLUMBUS -- Mill Creek Park officials should know by year's end whether the park will be placed on the National Register of Historic Places as an historic district.
The Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board unanimously recommended Friday that the park, which was founded in 1891 by Volney Rogers, be placed on the register. Board members are appointed by the governor.
The recommendation now goes to Rachel Tooker, state historic preservation officer and chief operating officer of the Ohio Historical Society. Later this month, it would go to Carol Shull, keeper of the National Register, at the National Park Service in Washington, D.C., who then will have 90 days to make the final decision.
Tooker generally approves what the advisory board recommends, and it's rare for federal officials to reject the recommendations of the state advisory board and preservation officer, according to Steve Gordon, National Register manager at the Ohio Historical Society.
The historic district designation would apply to all parts of the park north of U.S. Route 224, except Fellows Riverside Gardens, which isn't old enough to qualify. Anything to be included on the register must be at least 50 years old.
Among the park's historic structures are the early 19th-century Old Log Cabin, the 1821-vintage Pioneer Pavilion, the 1830-vintage Mill Creek blast furnace ruins, and the restored 1845-vintage Lanterman's Mill.
Liberty Hall
Also at its Friday meeting, the advisory board tabled the nomination of Liberty Hall, an 1840-vintage Underground Railroad site at 274 N. Ellsworth Road, Salem, because it wanted more information on the building's interior.
Liberty Hall, which now contains four apartments, was a meeting place for the Western Anti-Slavery Society, a platform for well-known anti-slavery lecturers, and a shelter for fugitive slaves. It was nominated for the register by Donna DeBlasio, director of the Center for Historic Preservation at Youngstown State University.
The nomination is likely to come back before the state advisory board at 10 a.m. Dec. 3 at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus.