Webinar: The Dayton VA Medical Center – Past, Present, and Future
Wednesday, November 9th – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
On November 9, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will partner with Heritage Ohio on a webinar
focusing on two new initiatives at the historic Dayton VA Medical Center (VAMC). Founded in 1867 as
one of the original branches of the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, the site originally
served Union Civil War Veterans. Today the Dayton VAMC provides world-class medical care on a
National Historic Landmark Campus.
This webinar will include information on the National VA History Center (NVAHC), which will occupy two
historic buildings on the VAMC campus. Once complete, the NVAHC will be the central location for
seminal artifacts and archives of historic significance from across hundreds of VA locations. The site will
provide storage, preservation, and access to these materials, as well as a museum and education center.
The VA will also present plans to look for private-sector partners to redevelop a series of vacant historic
buildings on the Dayton VAMC campus.
Presenters
- Michael Visconage, VA Chief Historian
- Alec Bennett, VA Senior Historic Preservation Specialist
Historic Preservation Tax Credit Workshop
Thursday, November 10th – 9:30 pm – 3:00 pm
Ariel Broadway Hotel, Lorain
Join us for a deep-dive explanation on the Federal and State Historic Tax Credit incentives for historic building rehabilitation. Learn how to qualify, apply, and use the financing tools you need to breathe new life into your historic structures.
The seminar is presented thanks to generous funding by The Nord Family Foundation and the Community Foundation of Lorain County, in partnership with Heritage Ohio.
Agenda
9:30 AM: Registration & Morning Refreshments
10:00 AM: Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credits – Mariangela Pfister, State Historic Preservation Office
11:00 AM : The Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program – Lisa Brownell, Ohio Department of Development
12:00 PM: Lunch (included with registration)
1:00 PM: Using New Market Tax Credits – Amanda Read & Annette Stevenson, Novogradac
2:00 PM: The Developer’s Perspective, Radhika Reddy, Developer & Owner, Ariel Broadway Hotel
REGISTRATION IS NOW FULL & CLOSED. ON-SITE REGISTRATION WILL NOT BE OFFERED.
We hope you can join us at our next historic tax credit workshop in 2023.
Webinar: Small Business Administration Tools and Programs: Orientation for Economic Developers
Wednesday, October 12th – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
- What programs does SBA have to support Main Street Small Businesses?
- What tools does the SBA make available to small businesses to help them succeed?
- How does the SBA Cleveland District Office work with local economic development officials?
Small businesses around the country became much more aware of the SBA during the pandemic due to the highly popular Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, Shuttered Venue and Restaurant Revitalization Grants, and more. However, with those programs now sunset and businesses resuming a “new-normal,” what resources are still available from the SBA. How can local Economic Development operatives leverage those resources to help their core merchants thrive?
Presenter
Raymond Graves is the Lead Lender Relations Specialist for the SBA Cleveland District Office. He was previously the credit officer and loan officer for a Chicago-based Certified Development Company, operating the SBA 504. He started his career at SBA at the Columbus Ohio district office and has spent the last 25 years working in small business finance in various roles. He is an NDC-certified Economic Development Finance Professional and a graduate of The Ohio State University and Tufts University (Medford, MA).
Webinar: Partners for Sacred Places
Wednesday, September 7th – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
The religious landscape across the US is changing rapidly as many congregations are closing, merging, or otherwise changing their relationship with their buildings and properties. Partners for Sacred Places works with congregations, judicatories, and preservationists across the faith spectrum to help congregations make decisions about their property with an eye toward community-minded approaches for transitioning sacred buildings and properties. This webinar will look at the current situation of religious properties as well as some of the resources in Partners’ recent publication Transitioning Older and Historic Sacred Places.
Rochelle (Shelly) Stackhouse, MDiv, PhD will provide an introduction to Transitioning Older and Historic Sacred Places: Community-Minded Approaches for Congregations and Judicatories, a new resource for congregations contemplating changes in the ownership or use of their buildings, and describe the tools and approaches this guide offers to church and community leaders.
Presenter
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, The Rev. Dr. Rochelle A. (Shelly) Stackhouse was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1982. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, she has served churches of varying sizes as Senior, Solo, Interim and Transitional Pastor in Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. She now serves as Senior Director of Programs for Partners for Sacred Places. She received a PhD from Drew University in Liturgical Studies and has taught at numerous seminaries, most recently Yale and Lexington. She is the author of one book and numerous book chapters and articles. She currently lives in Connecticut.
Webinar: Glass History in the Glass City
Wednesday, August 3rd – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Toledo, Ohio is often referred to as the Glass City due to the rich glass manufacturing history from the early city founding. Glass manufacturing and innovation are indeed synonymous with Toledo, but the inventions and industry creation has spanned multiple glass genres and platforms through several generations and has had a much broader impact than many realize. This session will look in depth into the history of the glass innovations in Toledo and will touch briefly on the major Toledo glass companies founding and technologies. This session will delve into the manufacturing processing improvements from Libbey Owens Ford (LOF) and the impact of those on both the architectural world as well as other industry. We’ll look in depth at how those process improvements impacted workforce conditions, products, markets, and future innovation. We’ll also investigate the current state of glass in the Glass City to show how innovation and ideas still drive the city today. The Glass city moniker is still absolutely relevant, and we’ll share some of the current developments in glass.
Presenter
Kyle Sword is the Business Development Manager for Pilkington North America and heads the company’s interests in historic restoration. Kyle has worked for Pilkington for 15+ years,mostly in glass manufacturing. He has a ceramic engineering degree from The Ohio State University and an MBA from California State University, Sacramento. Kyle is involved with a variety of different technological developments in the glass industry. Kyle spreads glass education and looks for new opportunities to provide value for customers creating products with coated and flat glass products.
Heritage Ohio’s 2022 Preservation Month Photo Contest: and the winner is…
Thank you to everyone who voted this past week for our entries. We’re pleased to announce the winning entry: A Moment Frozen in Time, submitted by Mary Beth Sills.
An intriguing setting combined with great public support for the entry translated into an emphatic contest win. Congratulations to Mary Beth! We’ll be featuring her winning image on a future cover of Revitalize Ohio. Thanks to everyone who voted.
Heritage Ohio’s 2022 Preservation Month Photo Contest: vote for your favorite!
The entries have come in and our finalists have moved on to the online voting round of our Preservation Month Photo Contest. Check out our finalists below and vote for your favorite. Voting closes Monday, May 30, so don’t sleep on casting your vote for your favorite. We’ll announce the winner Tuesday, May 31. Good luck to our finalists, and thanks to everyone who submitted an entry.
Remember, the stakes are high: the winning image will be featured on the cover of an upcoming issue of Revitalize Ohio! Good luck!
Learn more about how each image conveys the spirit of preservation, in the photographer’s own words.
1. For the Love of Liberty: Our Powell Liberty and Delaware County Historical Societies, as well as our Liberty Township Trustees have been instrumental in ensuring the preservation of this, our 1876 farmhouse and home to generations of Bartholomews and Cases. We are so grateful to live in a community that protects its history while embracing its future.
2. Preserving Ohio’s Past for the Future: The white stone exterior of the Ohio Judicial Center captures the pride felt in Ohio’s history. On the front are 14 carved stone panels showing the important industries when the building was completed in 1933. The large art deco statues on either end of the building were proud statement of Ohio’s booming economy. The pride in preserving this historic building is the pride we have in the state of Ohio.
3. Walk Through: Often, I walk through buildings for many reasons including: evaluating conditions, showing property, checking construction progress, etc. When I captured this image, I was really focused on the door frame and how it invited me to walk through. Beyond the door frame, the stairs drew my eyes upward toward a future of possibilities for this space. Then there’s the light. The way in streamed in. It’s like the past was right there and so was the future.
4. Kaleidoscope Carnivore Cafe: The Toledo Zoo’s Carnivore Cafe is one of the most creative adaptive uses in NW Ohio, having been converted from the Carnivora House to the Carnivore Cafe. Now the Toledo Zoo’s most popular eatery, during the famous “Lights Before Christmas” display the cafe literally glows.
5. A Moment Frozen In Time: Taken in Cambridge’s Underground store front this image showcases a prop used during the few tours given to the community to help preserve this rare space.
Heritage Ohio’s 2022 Preservation Month Photo Contest | The Spirit of Historic Preservation
May will be here before we know it, and that brings Preservation Month. And we’re planning to celebrate in style. Already a momentous month for the organization (we’ll be saying good bye to Joyce Barrett, and welcoming Matt Wiederhold as our new executive director) we’re also working on a Preservation Month Webinar Series. Plus, our Preservation Month Photo Contest will launch in late April.
This year’s theme is “The Spirit of Historic Preservation” and we want to know what that means to you, and how you convey that spirit in your photo entry. It could be an artistic image of your favorite historic Ohio building, a vibrant Main Street in action, or a beautiful home awaiting its rehab hero.
Once you get that perfect image, submit your entry using our online submission form below (available beginning April 25). Our Preservation Committee will choose finalists from all of our entries, and we’ll open the contest to online voting. As in years past, your online votes will determine the winner!
Remember: the winner’s prize includes their winning image featured on the cover of Revitalize Ohio! Good luck!
Dates to remember
Entries accepted: Monday, April 25-Monday, May 16 at noon
Online voting of finalists: Monday, May 23-Monday, May 30
Winner announced: Tuesday, May 31
Downtown Development, Tradition, and Change!

Matt Long and Chad Boreman, owners of the Quinby Building (1897), new home to Ace Hardware in downtown Wooster.
Downtown Wooster has been reinvesting and revitalizing its downtown for 34 years. A true public/private partnership, more than $215 million of reinvestment and revitalization has occurred since the inception of the Main Street program, beginning in 1987.
In 2015, two former Main Street Wooster board members and subsequent chairs, Matt Long, a local attorney, and Chad Boreman, a local financial planner, formed CBML, Ltd., to acquire and add other community properties.
2018 brought a change for the Quinby Building (1897), a four-story, 26,000 sq. ft. building located on Wooster’s Public Square. Originally occupied as the William Annat Co. Department Store until the 1990’s, the building was most recently the company outlet store for the Newell/Everything Rubbermaid Store.
When the property was listed for sale in 2018, Boreman and Long, generational members of the community (Chad, five and four generations, Matt, three and seven) decided to purchase the building to preserve the “status quo” of the building, keeping the Everything Rubbermaid Store in place, and maintaining Wooster ownership. Long stated, “it was too important of a building to leave to chance”.
Due to the pandemic and revitalization of the 1993 streetscape construction on the Public Square, Newell/Rubbermaid decided to close the large facility in August, 2021 leaving a potential and significant vacancy for downtown Wooster. Long and Boreman made plans to lease “pop-up” stores in the firstfloor retail space (7,500 sq. ft.) while seeking to recruit a long-term tenet; however, early in the planning process, they were approached by Wooster-based E&H Hardware Group, LLC regarding a long-term lease of the entire Quinby Building (1897).
Enter Christopher Buehler and Rich Fishburn, fourth generation, great-grandsons, of Ed and Helen Buehler, who began the Buehler’s grocery chain in 1929 in New Philadelphia, then moving to Wooster where they opened a store in downtown Wooster. Adding stores throughout Ohio, the business is now 92 years young! A hardware company was added, not as a separate company, in 1959, as part of the Orrville, Ohio store.
E&H Hardware group was formed in 2011 as a separate entity from the Buehler’s Fresh Foods grocery chain, opening 25 Ace Hardware stores throughout Ohio. Both Buehler and Fishburn wanted to have a store in their Wooster hometown for years but could not find a space that filled their needs. With Newell announcing the closing of the Everything Rubbermaid Store, Rich went to Christopher and said, “This is it! A perfect building for what we want to do!” The partners envisioned the building as their “flagship store”, a destination for local, regional and tourism customers.

Christopher Buehler & Rich Fishburn looking at uncovered column in the Quinby Building
The E&H partners contacted Long and Boreman and, within a month, executed a lease and created a new partnership to bring a large, new business to the existing downtown retail businesses. (The current hardware store, Tignor’s Hometown Hardware, was purchased by the E&H group: the employees will be a part of the Ace Hardware store when it opens in March, 2022.)
Long and Boreman will have the exterior of the building painted and the Ace Hardware interior will house three floors of hardware, with additional lifestyle- living merchandise including outdoor living, home goods, a dedicated contractor area, The Nook, “a store within a store”, and a plumbing and handyman business. The fourth floor will be the corporate offices of the E&H Hardware Group.
“We want this store to be an anchor for downtown Wooster, we want it to evolve all the time, we want it to complement the downtown and participate in activities with all of the downtown businesses. We will be a “test store” for new and upscale branding of products, introducing new hardware and living products to the customer, yet continuing to offer the products that are “tried and true”, stated Buehler and Fishburn. Boreman and Long said, “This is a “perfect storm”; a traditional business in a traditional downtown, with community development supporting the “sense of place” that is downtown Wooster, Ohio!”
By Sandra C. Hull
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2021 issue of Revitalize Ohio. All rights reserved.
A Warm Handshake and Plate from NAICCO
Life moves fast, and we often forget to ask ourselves, “What am I doing for future generations?” Well, the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio (NAICCO) is sustaining their community by centering around the universal love and need of food.
Preserving and revitalizing does not solely rely on physical efforts, while they are important, there is a cultural component of preservation that leads to physical revitalization projects.
In 2011, Ty and Masami Smith took management roles NAICCO, an urban Indian center based in Columbus. Since that time, they have focused on building up the local Native American community and preserving and restoring their peoples’ cultures, heritages, and traditions. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are a husband-and-wife duo who value family and are focused on giving back to their fellow Native American people, who they now serve as Project Director and Executive Director respectively. Their goal has been to engage the community and to create a sustainability program for the people who personify their mission work at NAICCO.
The Project
The result is NAICCO Cuisine, a food trailer that serves Native American street food. This project has been eight years in the making and came to fruition on Indigenous Peoples Day in 2020. NAICCO Cuisine has come together through the dedication of NAICCO leadership in connecting with their community’s wants and needs. After the NAICCO team collaborated with community elders, NAICCO Board of Trustees, the families and the youth involved in NAICCO they wrote a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Native Americans grant proposal and received funding for NAICCO Cuisine.
Native American street food was an instant hit and soon NAICCO Cuisine was invited to take their food trailer to other places around Central Ohio. They never thought this would be possible so soon, or at all for that matter during the pandemic. Originally, they had only planned to operate out of the NAICCO parking lot.
By the end of November, Ohio’s weather had turned cold and there was a spike in COVID-19 cases. NAICCO had to put the trailer away.
After the success from the food trailer, they knew NAICCO Cuisine could not come to an end so soon. Mrs. Smith, Executive Director, pitched the idea for curbside pickup– a way to spread culture and food while be socially distant. The food platters had different themes: Intertribal, Southwest, Oklahoma, Northern Plains and Northwest. Highlighting different areas of food is important for NAICCO to do since the community is intertribal. These platters could be picked up right in NAICCO’s parking lot.
The Effect
“NAICCO is focused on writing a new chapter in Native American history,” Ty Smith, Project Director, notes.
NAICCO Cuisine is about much more than food. It is about teaching, learning, family, visibility, pride and so much more. Ohio does not have any federally recognized tribes which leads to a lack of resources for the indigenous peoples residing here. NAICCO Cuisine provides sustainability to pave the way for future Native American programs to take place at NAICCO and highlight the possibilities for all Native Americans going forward.
From the outside, NAICCO Cuisine looks like a food trailer, or a warm platter of food, but it provides more than sustenance. It provides social and economic development for the people NAICCO represents while preserving Native American culture here in Ohio.
The Possibilities
The food trailer was able to be brought back out in May of this year and was in such high demand that they were booked throughout 2021. NAICCO Cuisine intends to travel throughout Central Ohio and beyond in 2022 and can be tracked on NAICCO’s website and Street Food Finder. Now that the weather has gone cold, the trailer is being stored for winter again and the platters will pick back up again like last winter. They have received stellar reviews and high praise and won the Whitehall Food Truck & Fun Fest Runner-Up Foodie Food Truck Award this summer. Such a successful first year is unprecedented and NAICCO is ready to not only continue but expand this program for the future generations of Native Americans in Ohio and across the United States.
Ty Smith says it best, “NAICCO Cuisine is a warm handshake unto the rest of society.”
There is more to Indigenous culture than what is visible on the surface. It goes deeper. It is a belief system. It is a way of life. It is thinking of future generations. It is self-assurance. It is so much more than words can possess. NAICCO Cuisine gives the Indigenous Peoples of central Ohio the opportunity to connect with one another and find confidence in their identity, while introducing this way of life to the rest of the population.
By Kenzie Hahn
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2021 issue of Revitalize Ohio. All rights reserved.
Revitalization Series Workshop: More Money for Main Streets: The Formula for Raising Unrestricted Capital
Wednesday, June 16 – 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
More money for Main Streets: The Formula for Raising Unrestricted Capital
More than 80% of all annual donations come from individuals*. Research shows this is the greatest growth opportunity for the nonprofit sector. It is also the most sustainable source of income over time. Moreover, building authentic, meaningful relationships with your donors reaps a multitude of rewards for the donor and your organization. Through donor cultivation you may find loyal volunteers, passionate board leaders, new opportunities and more. * Giving USA
In this session, participants will be taken through the donor journey from the first gift to an estate gift. We will give you advice on how to implement simple and effective strategies utilizing the resources and activities you are already doing. Plus, we will also reveal some secrets to attaining corporate support and finding new donors.
We will cover:
• How to increase your annual unrestricted donations from individuals
• Building your membership and converting members to annual donors
• Simple ways to retain and upgrade existing annual donors
• How to find the best major donor prospects in your current donor list using wealth screenings, donor profiles and other planning tools; how and when to make “the ask”
• Engaging your Board and other volunteers in fundraising
• Finding and engaging New Donors
• Producing effective and profitable events
• The difference between corporate sponsorship, program partnership, grants, financial and in-kind donations – and how to get funding from some or all of these.
• Easy ways to start talking with your donors about leaving your organization in their will
Speaker
Danielle Locke
Hey! I’m Danielle Locke. I founded Locke Step Partners because I was frustrated by the endless cycle of grants and events. I knew I could help nonprofit directors raise more unrestricted funds, especially from individual donors already in their list! I serve as a fundraising coach, connector, knowledge resource, and sometimes just a safe space to vent. My specialties include nonprofit management, donor cultivation, fundraising/campaign strategy, and board engagement.
I am an expert in nonprofit fundraising because I have had considerable success in organizations just like these – 20 years actually. I have a few credentials too. These include a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP®) from the American College of Financial Services, a Master of Public Administration with a certificate in Nonprofit Management, from Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in psychology, both from Cleveland State University. (The Pysch degree comes in handy these days.)
I believe every nonprofit leader has the potential to create a sustainable future for their organization by through meaningful donor partnerships. I am focused on giving nonprofits the step-by-step instruction, tools and support to actually implement the permanent changes that lead to their thriving future.