We love visiting college campuses for sports and cultural activities, public art, historic buildings and green spaces.
Here are a few favorite college towns we've visited in Ohio that provided rich, memorable experiences:
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Ohio Northern University (Ada, Ohio)
Enjoy staying on campus in a spacious room with a comfortable bed and turn-down service with a sweet chocolate each evening at The Inn at Ohio Northern University. Sounds like quite a switch from crashing on a lumpy bed in a cramped and noisy dorm, doesn't it?
University teams play 20 varsity sports at this NCAA Division III school with some games taking place in ONU's Dial-Robertson stadium under the watchful eye of Klondike, the school's Polar Bear mascot.
The Wilson Football Factory in Ada produces footballs for every major gridiron contest in the country. The factory occasionally hosts tours or displays of their vintage footballs during special public events, but there are plans to eventually establish a Wilson Football Museum in town.
The 2.5-mile paved trail that circles campus and ONU's 18-hole disc golf course are great ways to get a little exercise. Stroll past a dozen Western-themed cast-bronze replicas of work by Frederic Remington and others on campus or enjoy an art show or performance at one of ONU's arts and cultural venues.
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Ohio University (Athens, Ohio)
Ohio University in Athens near the Appalachian foothills is one of the oldest and prettiest campuses in the Midwest.
We love photographing the scenic Hocking Hills area in southern Ohio. We also found the picturesque campus, with its beautifully maintained nineteenth-century architecture and brick walkways crisscrossing campus, well worth the half-hour drive from Hocking Hills State Park.
Cutler Hall, dating from 1816, is a National Historical Landmark. Check out this virtual campus tour for more on the university's landmarks.
The red-brick campus buildings and walkways reflect southeastern Ohio history as a brick manufacturing center during the late 1800s. The old brick-making kilns in nearby Nelsonville have rapidly disintegrated or collapsed in recent years, but check out Brick Kiln Park or Hocking College (a local technical college and site of the annual Brick Festival) to find traces of the historic brick makers.
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Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, Ohio)
Sports fans can see 18 NCAA Division I intercollegiate men's and women's athletic teams compete on this campus 30 miles south of Toledo in northwest Ohio. We stopped by the university's hockey arena, as well as the new Stroh Center (home to the men's and women's basketball and volleyball teams) during our visit.
BGSU has a number of fine arts galleries and performance spaces. Classic film fans will want to visit The Gish Film Theater and Gallery, named for legendary silent film actresses, and Ohio natives, Dorothy and Lillian Gish. The theater film series shows a mix of classic, international and cult films that are free and open to the public.
We stopped at Campus Pollyeyes downtown for a lunch of stuffed breadsticks at the suggestion of the hockey arena pro shop manager. Our server suggested sharing a full order of the house-cooked roast beef stuffed breadsticks with house-made Ranch dipping sauce. Six of them are more than enough to make a meal for two.
We walked around town after lunch where we checked out Ben Franklin, the quintessential five-and-dime store, and the Wood County courthouse, an 1890s Romanesque-style building.
With so much history, art, and fun to be had around Ohio's college campuses - you don't have to have a college-bound kid to get out and enjoy them!
If you haven't been to Kent, Ohio, lately, you haven't seen the wonderful renaissance of this classic college town.
After a visit, you'll want to add Kent State to this list.
Not only has the downtown been revitalized with a ton of new construction, the old standards are still there, too, with improvements.
The campus is being transformed with the construction of three new buildings. The new student green has created a new venue for concerts and other performances while the esplanade extension has connected campus to downtown with a wide, tree-lined walkway.
The Kent State Museum houses fascinating exhibitions and the newly opened May 4 Visitor Center provides an outstanding and moving educational experience that provokes thought and discussion.
There are numerous art galleries on campus and in town. Downtown Kent is home to more venues for live music than you can shake a drumstick at, as well as several well-known music festival events each year.
Check it out and see what people are calling "Northeast Ohio's rising college town!"
Posted by: Phil B. Soencksen | 03/26/2014 at 11:37 AM