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Bath Township Park Walking Tour
The historians at Bath Township Museum have created information signboards which tell the history of each park. You are invited to experience this free Park Walking Tour which will feature 7 park properties with the historical information signs. In addition, the Bath Township Museum will present an exhibit on the history of Bath parks and schools.
Pre-registration for the tour will take place during the month of June through the township website at Bathtownship.org. The tour will run from mid-June to mid-August. That will allow for one visit a week. You will need to take a selfie with your smartphone with the information signboard in the background as proof of your visits. If you visit all seven parks and then the museum you will receive a lanyard at the museum with “Bath Township Parks” printed on it. The parks are open from 7am until dusk.
Park signs can be found at the following locations:
Bath Nature Preserve (4160 Ira Rd.), located at the intersection of the multi-purpose North Fork Trail and the Bridle Trail, features the lives of Theodore Hammond, William Davis, Joseph Hostetler and Raymond Firestone.
North Fork Preserve of Bath (4400 Everett Rd.), located along the new Triple Loop Trail, relates the history of Emmet Collins, Sam and Asma Nemer’s Lebanese Cultural Festival and James and Betty Lemmon and the Greenberry Riding Centre.
Bath Community Park (1615 Cleveland-Massillon Rd.), located on the Figure Eight Trail at the rear of the property, recounts how the property passed from Joseph Fulton to John Duryee, to Gilson and Nettie Shaw, then to Sid and Martha Lawson. A portion of the farm became Bath’s first park, Bath Community Activity Center, in 1971.
Bath Baseball Park (4600 Everett Rd.), located at the intersection of the four baseball/softball fields, tells about the Wyckoff farm, followed by the Aberth family who used the property to grow wheat for the City Bakery in Akron, followed by the Baumgardner family who had a dairy farm. Subsequently, Raymond Firestone owned it as part of the Firestone estate. When Firestone Trace was developed it was dedicated as green space.
Bath Hill Park (763 N. Revere Rd.), located on the Revere Woods Trail, describes the acquisition of the property by the Gibsons and Grahams who came here from West Virginia to work in the rubber factory.
Bath Memorial Park (1221 N. Cleveland-Massillon Rd.), located near the memorial monuments, chronicles the history of Bath’s schools because the “Temple on the Hill” which was located on this site, was the first elementary and high school in Bath Township. It was razed in 1923 when consolidation of the nine corner schools took place and Bath Township School was built.
The Heritage Corridors of Bath Wayside Exhibit (1000 N. Cleveland-Massillon Rd.), located near the shelter, reports how Bath Township’s county roads have been designated as an Ohio Scenic Byway since 2000.