The City of Athens will host a tour of its historic buildings in the uptown Heritage Square as part of the Ohio Open Doors program Sept 7.
The tour includes the Mount Zion Black Cultural Center, the Armory, the site of Hotel Berry with Invisible Ground, City Hall and the Southeast Ohio History Center.
The Ohio Open Doors program is run by Ohio History Connections, or OHC, a non-profit organization partnering with state departments like the Historic Preservation Office. According to the Manager of Media and Public Relations Neil Thompson, the OHC is a statewide effort with over 50 sites across Ohio.
“Ohio open doors is one of many things that we do to share Ohio's stories,” Thompson said. “Some are very recognizable, such as the Ohio Historical Marker Program–the brown Ohio shaped…signs you see all over Ohio. There's more than 1700 of those.”
The Ohio Open Doors program is held every two years and ranges from official OHC sites to volunteers like Athens. According to Thompson, independent participants are equally important in preserving Ohio’s stories as the museums they manage.
“In the grand scheme of history, (when) we talk about eight years, (that’s) not a long time,” Thompson said. “So we are very, very happy to get the word out and to tell more people about this so that they can take advantage of seeing some of Ohio's most treasured sites.”
Athens’ independent tour will take place this Saturday, beginning at the Mount Zion Black Cultural Center. According to City Planner and Event Organizer Meghan Jennings, the tour will offer a comprehensive narrative and hands-on experience of Black and Appalachian history.
“I really value getting the public engaged and (having) more hands-on experience with these structures, so that it's a community buy-in to,” Jennings said. “Really appreciating and celebrating the structures that are a part of our history. That's why this particular event was so important to me this year.”
Due to the public interest in the event thus far, Jennings said the city had to expand its number of tours from two to three.
“The two tours that we initially opened up both sold out,” Jennings said. “We just released a third tour today … that allows our capacity to bring almost 100 people on this tour and really expose it to a lot of people in the community.”
Ohio University linguistics student Kenzie Seyfang said she plans to attend the tour and is excited to visit some of the sites she has intended to visit for a while now.
“I am really interested in historical places anyway, and I am really interested in the history of Athens specifically,” Seyfang said.
Seyfang also emphasized the importance of preserving local history to stay connected to the community.
“All historical things are important, and so if we can preserve things, I think we should,” Seyfang said. “If you look at something like the Ridges, and the history of the Ridges, that's not a pretty history, but it's important.”
Seyfang noted how parts of Appalachian history have failed to be preserved and therefore believes it is important to prioritize preservation efforts.
