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Cuyahoga Valley National Park Is Getting A New Visitor Center

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Published Date

January 2, 2017

Blue Hen Falls won't be far from the new visitor center that will open in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in 2019/NPS

A historic property will be turned into a new visitor center for Cuyahoga Valley National Park thanks to the Ohio park’s friends group, which has already raised nearly $5 million for the project.

“People are so excited to spend time in the park that our existing Boston Store Visitor Center doesn't meet the needs of our visitors,” Deb Yandala, CEO of the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, said in a release. “We knew it was time to open a bigger space to accommodate demand.”

Park and Conservancy staff and volunteers will move ahead with planning and design in 2017. Construction will start in 2018, with a planned opening in summer 2019.

The new $5.9 million facility will sit on the southeast corner of Riverview and Boston Mill roads in the village of Boston, across the Cuyahoga River from the current visitor center. The Conservancy’s board voted December 19 to authorize the purchase of the land and buildings. The historic property will be renovated to serve as a central, one-stop resource where visitors can plan their journeys in the national park and Ohio & Erie Canalway.

The Conservancy, which is the nonprofit friends group for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, will manage fundraising, planning, design, and construction, and the visitor center will be operated by the National Park Service. The board’s action comes as fundraising for the project nears completion. Full funding is expected by June 30, 2017.

“This project is a great example of a strong public-private partnership in that local donors have been instrumental in making it happen,” Conservancy Board Chairman Jim Nash said. “The $4.87 million already raised shows that Northeast Ohioans value the park as a regional asset.”

Cuyahoga Superintendent Craig Kenkel welcomed the project as a fitting end to the National Park Service centennial.

“This new visitor center will help us better serve the next century of park visitors,” he said.

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Comments

Submitted by jmc1999 on January 2, 2017 - 11:12am.

Looking forward to the new VC, but it makes me wonder why they closed the larger Happy Days VC on SR303 years ago and then closed the Canal VC on the north end of the park a while back. They did redo the Canal location as more of an attraction about canal life, but it is not open with the same frequency as a VC. Not the best of planning IMO.


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