“This expansion is another exciting step toward the implementation of our master plan for the entire Carillon Historical Park campus. As a private, non-profit organization, all of our expansion and improvement projects are funded through the generosity of private individuals, families, foundations and corporations,” Dayton History President/CEO Brady Kress said during a groundbreaking event.
The new initiative will create a new thematic zone within the Park focused on a portion of our region’s industrial history, according to a Dayton History release.
A Dayton couple who requested to remain anonymous funded the project.
“The philanthropic couple whose gift made this particular project possible is committed to our organization’s educational mission, and to the preservation of Dayton’s significant role in the history of letterpress printing," Kress said. "We are delighted that work is now underway on what will be one of our nation’s premier, working exhibits on the history of America’s early 20th-century printing industry.”
Once the expansion is complete, Carillon will be able to more fully share the stories of Dayton’s printing heritage, as well as demonstrate aspects of the letterpress trade in a new exhibit.
The expansion will create a “themed-zone," Kress described at the ground-breaking ceremony. It will draw visitors in from the main walkway through the park, where guests were previously farther away from The Print Shop entrance.
Originally conceived in 1985 as a way to preserve Dayton’s rich history of letterpress printing, the shop opened in 1988 as the first exhibit building funded independently of the trust fund established by Colonel Edward A. and Edith Walton Deeds, according to the release.
The projected is expected to be complete and ready for visitors in Spring 2021.
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