Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park

	Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park
	U.S. National Historical Park
	Wright Brothers Fourth Bicycle Shop, Dayton, Ohio
Location	Montgomery and Greene counties, Ohio, U.S.
Nearest city	Dayton, Ohio
Coordinates	39°47′41″N 84°05′20″W / 39.79472°N 84.08889°W
Area	86 acres (35 ha)
Visitation	73,588 (2015)
Website	www.nps.gov/daav
NRHP reference No.	01000227
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	September 8, 1988
Designated NHP	October 16, 1992

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park is a United States

Orville Wright, and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar—and their work in the Miami Valley

.

Park history

The idea for the present-day Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park was first conceived by

Greenfield Village, Michigan, for display.^[3]

Sharkey's quest to preserve the Wright brothers' legacy began when he purchased their last surviving bicycle shop in Dayton for just $10,000, which saved the building from demolition.

U.S. Rep. Dave Hobson, Dayton Daily News publisher Brad Tillson, and Michael Gessel, an aide to former U.S. Rep. Tony P. Hall.^[3]^[4] The group lobbied federal officials and the National Park Service to incorporate the landmarks related to the Wright brothers, which are scattered throughout the city, into a new historic trail.^[3]

The

African-American poet and friend of the Wright brothers.^[4] Jerry Sharkey donated the Wright brothers' bicycle shop, which he had saved from demolition, to the National Park Service as part of the agreement to create the park.^[3]

A new visitor center was constructed in 2003 in time for the centennial of the Wright brothers' first flight.^[4] Jerry Sharkey, who had first conceived of the future historic park, died in April 2014.^[3]

Biographical backgrounds

The Wright Brothers

Through the invention of powered flight, Wilbur and Orville Wright made significant contributions to human history. In their Dayton, Ohio, bicycle shops, the Wright brothers, who self-trained in the science and art of aviation, researched and built the world's first power-driven, heavier-than-air machine capable of free, controlled, and sustained flight. The Wrights also perfected their invention during 1904 and 1905 at the Huffman Prairie Flying Field near their hometown of Dayton.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar achieved national and international acclaim in a literary world that was almost exclusively reserved for whites, producing a body of work that included novels, plays, short stories, lyrics, and over 400 published poems. His work, which reflected much of the

Civil Rights Movement

. He was a neighbor and lifelong friend of Wilbur and Orville Wright.

Landmarks

Sign for the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center at the Wright Memorial

The park is a cooperative effort between the National Park Service and several partners. The sites are:

The Wright Cycle Company Complex in Dayton, which includes the Wright Cycle Company building, the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center and the Aviation Trail Visitor Center and Museum
Huffman Prairie Flying Field and the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center, both located within Wright-Patterson Air Force Base just northeast of Dayton in Fairborn, Ohio, but operated by the National Park Service
and open to the public.

Wright Company factory, opened in 1910 as the first airplane factory and school
The Wright Brothers Aviation Center at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, operated by Dayton History
The Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial in Dayton, operated by Dayton History on behalf of Ohio History Connection
Hawthorn Hill, the 1914-1948 residence of Orville Wright, located just south of Dayton in Oakwood, Ohio.

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park is located within the

World Heritage Tentative List as part of the Dayton Aviation Sites listing.^[5] The park is a central component of the National Aviation Heritage Area.^[6]

Hoover Block, where the Wright Brothers had their printing shop.
Entry frieze to Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park visitor center.
Hawthorn Hill, Orville Wright's home in Oakwood, Ohio
Wright Memorial, on a hill overlooking Huffman Prairie, by the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center
Recreated workshop from the Wright Bicycle Shop where the brothers conducted research into aviation.
The Wright Flyer III, now in Carillon Historical Park, shown being flown by Orville Wright on October 4, 1905, over Huffman Prairie near Dayton
Dunbar on 1975 U.S. postage stamp