News Release

NPS Seeks Comments on Visitor Experience Plan

Date: July 7, 2021
Contact: Barbara Rowles, 419-285-2184 extension 1225

Put-in-Bay, Ohio – The National Park Service (NPS) at Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial (Park) seeks public comments on a draft Visitor Experience Plan (PEPC 77366). This plan considers existing conditions and recommendations in other guiding documents and seeks to better define appropriate visitor experiences in the Peace Garden and around the Visitor Center. The Visitor Experience Plan defines the design for the empty lot west of the Visitor Center and the streetscape in front of the Visitor Center, extending along the east side of Toledo Avenue from its intersection with Bayview and Delaware Avenues.  

This project will enhance visitor experience and wayfinding by designing a more formalized Peace Garden to link the town of Put-in-Bay to the park Visitor Center. The Peace Garden will serve as the park’s First Amendment space and create a setting for programs that are more appropriately held off the Memorial grounds. The main elements of the design consist of a central talking circle surrounded by a stone seat wall and native prairie plantings. To welcome visitors is an entrance plaza with park identification sign and a formal walk with rows of street trees along Bayview Avenue that lead directly to the Memorial column. Seat walls provide ample space for people to rest and enjoy the views. Art sculptures will be incorporated into the Peace Garden and engravings in the pavement will include quotes that communicate stories related to peace. Plantings and interpretive signage will be kept low to not obscure views to the Memorial column. Improvements along Toledo Avenue include additional wayfinding, plantings that frame views to the Visitor Center and access improvements for pedestrians.   

Public comment to support this planning effort is currently open and will be accepted through August 7, 2021. The public can submit comments and find more information about the project at the Park's website at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/pevi. The NPS will also be accepting written comments by mail at: 

Superintendent Barbara Rowles 

Attn: PEVI Visitor Experience Plan
P.O. Box 549
Put-in-Bay, Ohio 43456 

The Park is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. For more information, visit www.nps.gov/pevi or call [phone].