MILL CREEK PARK Speaker: Design reflects 1890s style

Part of the park is on the National Register of Historic Places.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The design of Mill Creek Park incorporates many trends indicative of the period in which it was founded.
Rebecca Rogers, a landscape and architectural historian who wrote the park's nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, presented a program on the park's landscape history Monday at the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County's main branch.
In March 2005, the National Park Service placed 1,700 acres, from Boardman-Canfield Road north to the Mahoning River, on the National Register of Historic Places. The designation includes all of the park that is at least 50 years old.
Volney Rogers, the park's founder, wrote the legislation passed by the Ohio Legislature allowing creation of the park district in 1891.
"He wanted Youngstown to be competitive with other cities in the country," Rogers said.
He felt that part of the competitiveness included recreational land, she said.
The park originally covered 400 acres. Today it comprises about 2,600 acres as a result of additional land acquisitions.
In his design and planning for the park, its founder enlisted the help of Charles Eliot, H.W.S. Cleveland and Warren H. Manning, who were renowned landscape architects of their day.
Arts and crafts style
Rogers said the park was designed using an arts and crafts style. That style, evident in many of its bridges, was to be in contrast to the city's industrialization.
"The elements were supposed to look handmade," she said. "It was a reaction against the industrialization of downtown Youngstown."
Another component of the park's unique design is Pioneer Pavilion. Built in 1821, the building was later renovated to include a staircase, Rogers said.
Slippery Rock Pavilion also incorporates the arts and crafts design with its construction of large stones.
"It really is one of the gems of architecture in Ohio," Rogers said.
Orchard Meadow, also known as Cricket Field, incorporated active and passive parts, providing a place for meetings and for picnics.
A statue of the park's founder, who died in 1919, erected at the park entrance off of Glenwood Avenue, has been restored and will be rededicated in a ceremony this spring.
"One of the things I love to be able to say about the park is how much we all care for it," Rogers said.
No graffiti and little trash litter the park's landscape, she said.
"That's because all of us care for the park and it's never gone out of fashion to really love and care for the park," Rogers said.