Mill Creek Park - History

History

The park was founded in 1891 due to the "untiring efforts of Youngstown attorney Volney Rogers". Rogers secured options on much of the land and was able to purchase large tracts of it. This was no small task given that he was compelled to deal with more than 90 landowners. Once the land was secured, Rogers framed and promoted what he called the "Township Park Improvement Law." Upon the law's passage, Rogers turned over all of the land he had secured for park purposes. Rogers had the area declared a park by the state legislature. It officially opened in 1893.

Rogers later enlisted the help of his brother Bruce, who had studied landscape architecture, and Bruce Rogers became the first Mill Creek Park superintendent. Earlier, the project benefited from the contributions of well-known landscape architect Charles Eliot, and Mill Creek Park is regarded as one of his notable works.

The same year that the park opened, the Mahoning County commissioners issued bonds to pay for the parkland, and Rogers purchased $25,000 of them, with the understanding that they would be the last ones paid. Ironically, the financial panic of 1893 facilitated the park's development. As a later newspaper account observed: "Unemployed men found work there. A second bond issue paid for their wages. The men cut trails, established drives, restored Pioneer Pavilion (a renovated factory building that was the oldest structure in the park) and built Lake Cohasset Dam".