Soldiers and McKinley Memorial Parkways

The Soldiers and McKinley Memorial Parkways are a pair of historic brick streets in Fremont, Ohio, United States. Designed as small parkways, they were constructed in honor of Sandusky County's eighty-five soldiers who were killed in action during World War I. Unlike many similar streets in other cities, they were not built as centerpieces for grand city plans; instead, they were constructed to provide access to a subdivision that had recently been started.[2]

Soldiers Memorial Parkway and McKinley Memorial Parkway
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Looking eastward along McKinley Memorial Parkway
Location	Soldiers Memorial Parkway and McKinley Memorial Parkway, Fremont, Ohio
Coordinates	41°20′24″N 83°7′59″W
Area	3.6 acres (1.5 ha)
Built	1918
Architectural style	City Beautiful movement
NRHP reference No.	90002212[1]
Added to NRHP	January 25, 1991

Laid out in the form of a cross, the parkways run for four blocks with vegetation between the lanes for the two directions; they were completed in 1920 after a year of construction. Historic research has identified both streets as fine examples of the implementation of City Beautiful ideas in an extant city. Today, the parkways continue to provide access to a residential neighborhood; most of the houses that line the parkways are newer than the streets themselves, having been built primarily between 1930 and 1959.[2]

In 1991, the two parkways were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places,[1] qualifying both because of their importance in community planning and in landscape architecture.[3]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. Owen, Lorrie K., ed. Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places. Vol. 2. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 1233.
3. Soldiers Memorial Parkway and McKinley Memorial Parkway, Ohio Historical Society, 2007. Accessed 2012-01-23.