WAPAKONETA — The 1894 Auglaize County Courthouse and 1885 Wapakoneta Fire Station will be open for tours this Sunday, Sept. 11, from 1 to 3 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
Organized by the Auglaize County Historical Society, the event is being hosted in conjunction with Ohio Open Doors, an effort of the Ohio History Connection in honor of the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act.
“We are so grateful that Fire Chief Stinebaugh and the Auglaize County Commissioners agreed to participate in this wonderful event,” said Rachel Barber, administrator of the Auglaize County Historical Society. “We hope that locals and visitors alike will take advantage of this rare opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at two of Auglaize County’s most important buildings.”
Visitors are reminded that access to the Courthouse is from the east side of the building.
“Auglaize County: In Motion”
The Auglaize County Historical Society will host the presentation “Auglaize County: In Motion” with Donna Grube on Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 6 p.m., in the Community Room of Otterbein-Cridersville, 100 Red Oak Drive, Cridersville. The event is free and open to the public, and is presented as part of the Historical Society’s current heritage tourism initiative.
Grube is executive director of the Greater Grand Lake Visitors Region (also known as the Auglaize & Mercer Counties Convention and Visitors Bureau). She will provide a highly illustrated program about the many heritage tourism sites in Auglaize County that reflect the newly adopted “Auglaize County: In Motion” theme.
“In the past several years Ohio Humanities has generously funded two grants for heritage tourism. We first identified a strong overarching theme for the county, since In Motion reflects the many transportation- and motion-related sites in the county,” said Rachel Barber, administrator of the Auglaize County Historical Society. “Now we’re implementing the In Motion theme with programming, publications, and new collaborative efforts. Donna’s program promises to be a fascinating overview of sites Auglaize County big and small that residents and guests would love to visit.”
Donna Grube grew up on a dairy farm near the village of Fort Recovery, where she developed her love of history. After marriage and children, as a non-traditional student, she majored in history at Wright State University. She worked for nearly 20 years in local radio news both at WKKI-FM in Celina and WERT AM & FM in Van Wert. Grube was hired as the Executive Director at the Auglaize & Mercer Counties Convention & Visitors Bureau in 2003. She has since served on the board of the Ohio Travel Association, is president of the statewide organization Ohio’s Byway Links and is also currently President of the Ohio Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus. She and her husband Mark moved to Auglaize County nearly 10 years ago to live on Grand Lake St. Marys. She says working at the Visitors Bureau is a great job because she loves bragging about this incredible place are we call home and inviting others to visit. Over the years one of her favorite activities has been to travel, only now she calls it research.
For more information about this or other Auglaize County Historical Society programming, please email [email protected] or call 419-738-9328. The Auglaize County Historical Society is also on Facebook.
