Mechanicsburg’s Goshen Memorial Park celebrates 150 years

Goshen Memorial Park, 4150 S. Parkview Road in Mechanicsburg, is celebrating its 150th anniversary on Saturday.

The park will be rededicated to all veterans with the American Legion, Mechanicsburg High School Band, and other local dignitaries. The celebration is from noon to 6 p.m. It will include food and craft vendors, antique cars and tractors, local history displays, and several performances. Admission is free.

Tom Wopat, an actor from the TV show “The Dukes of Hazzard,” will sing at 4 p.m. There will be a meet and greet opportunity before his performance. Attendees wanting autographs and photos with Wopat will be charged a fee.

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“We just wanted to celebrate, that long ago people thought to have a public park and also all the different things it has been used for,” Todd Boeck, president of the Goshen Memorial Park board said.

The Central Ohio Fair, a forerunner of the Ohio State Fair offering livestock exhibits, and the Chautauqua speaker circuits used Goshen Memorial Park as their venue. In between those two events, the park was unused.

After World War II, the Mechanicsburg community decided to make the grounds a park again and dedicated the park to all veterans of all wars in Mechanicsburg and Goshen Twp.

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Goshen Memorial Park is one of the oldest parks in Ohio offering four shelter houses, a tennis court, horse shoe pits, picnic tables and grills, displays of retired military artillery, basketball courts, softball fields, a stage on a natural amphitheater hill, a multi-purpose building, playgrounds, a concession stand, a track, and a dog park.

“It’s just a little gem we are quite proud of,” Boeck said. “Whatever the public wants to use it for, we try to be obliging. Most things there is no charge for it. It is supported by taxes in the township.”

For more information about Goshen Memorial Park, call 740-506-9268.

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