Past Community Programs

Students' Showcase

With funding from the Terrace Park Historical Society, fourth-grade students at Terrace Park Elementary School have completed two projects that tell the story of the people, places and events that have shaped their hometown.

Inspired by a field trip to the Freedom Center, where the students saw Aminah Robinson's quilt depicting her hometown, they began research for their own multi-media creation. Art teachers Melissa Rupe and Shelley Komrska helped each student create a "piece of the past" for the quilted mural that uses natural materials such as twigs for the log cabin and pebbles for St. Thomas Church. Language arts teacher Mary Kay Kroeger helped the students turn their research into a directory that features a picture of each "square" and an article about its historical significance.

The quilt was unveiled and, along with the book, presented to the community during a recent open house at the school. It will hang in the school's front entrance. Among attendees were Verneida Brittton from the Freedom Center, who praised the children and teachers for their creative and engaging work; and TPHS board members Susan Abernethy Frank and Steve Early, who coordinated the project.

Treasures of Terrace Park featured Terrace Park Elementary Students and TPHS Members:

RAILROAD TUNNEL & TRAIN - Scott Overbey, Nathaniel Arington and Susan Abernethy Frank
ROBINSON CIRCUS & TILLIE THE ELEPHANT - Emma Worple, Whynter Crawford-Mack and Lynn Nelson
COMMUNITY BUILDING - Riley Hayes and Laurie Baird

Students from Northern Kentucky University have been involved in researching the history of Stepping Stones, formerly known as the Fresh Air Farm. They joined us to discuss their research and to discuss residents' memories of the special place many women and children called home for a short while in summers past.

It's been 145 years since John Hunt Morgan and his Confederate Cavalry camped within sight of the Union Army's Camp Dennison and terrorized local residents by burning bridges, ripping up railroad tracks, looting retail stores and demanding food at private homes.

Prof. Ramage described the raid with emphasis on the civilian reaction and attention to how nearby Camp Dennison was involved. He also autographed copies of his book "Rebel Raider: The Life of General John Hunt Morgan," which has won the Douglas Southall Freeman Award and the Kentucky Governor's Award.

A near-capacity crowd attended the Terrace Park Historical Society's fall public meeting Nov. 16 on the community's 1960s debate on whether to construct a blast and fallout shelter.

Flach Douglas, a longtime Terrace Park resident who argued the case before the Ohio Supreme Court, was the keynote speaker for the presentation, "Run for Cover - Or Not." Archival materials about the proposed shelter were available for viewing from the TPHS collection.

The shelter was conceived in response to the Cold War fear that Cincinnati, home to manufacturing operations such as General Electric and Cincinnati Milacron, could be a target for destruction. It was designed to accommodate 2,000 residents but never came to be in Terrace Park. Douglas said that though Wyoming and Madeira officials also considered shelters, plans for those communities also failed to materialize.