Out-of-town visitors now make up about 20 percent of Cuyahoga Valley National Park users, and more Northeast Ohioans are discovering the national park in their own backyard.
In response to that growing interest, Cuyahoga Valley National Park will open a new Visitor Center in the village of Boston. The $5.9 million facility will help orient newcomers to the park, and connect locals to its wide array of landscapes and programs.
“People are so excited to spend time in the park that our existing Boston Store Visitor Center doesn’t meet the needs of our visitors,” said Deb Yandala, the Conservancy’s CEO. “We knew it was time to open a bigger space to accommodate demand.”
The historic property on the southeast corner of Riverview and Boston Mill roads in the Village of Boston will be renovated to serve as a central, one-stop resource where visitors can plan their journeys in the national park and Ohio & Erie Canalway.
The Conservancy, which is the nonprofit friends group for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, will manage fundraising, planning, design and construction, and the center will be operated by the National Park Service.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Conservancy staff and volunteers will move ahead with planning and design in 2017. Construction will start in 2018, with a planned opening in the summer of 2019.
