Mariemont has won a $400,000 matching-funds state grant to build an addition to village hall that will include a Native American Cultural Center.
MARIEMONT – Construction has begun on an $800,000 addition to Mariemont Village Hall that will include a cultural center displaying Native American artifacts unearthed in the town.
The Mariemont Native American Cultural Center initially will exhibit artifacts it has on hand from digs at the Madisonville Site in Dogwood Park and the Wynema Village Site in the South 80 Gardens and Walking Trails Park.
But Mariemont officials later will ask organizations that have artifacts from the village – such as the Cincinnati Museum Center, Harvard University‘s Peabody Museum and the Smithsonian Institution – to return them.
“We will try to get some of the Madisonville Site artifacts back from those other places as soon as the cultural center is completely set up here,” Mariemont Mayor Dan Policastro said.
Mariemont is building a two-floor, 2,200-square-foot addition to the northeast side of its village hall at 6907 Wooster Pike.
The first floor will house Mariemont’s tax office, which currently is in leased space at the Mariemont Executive Building at 3814 West St.
“The second floor will become part of the council chambers and include the cultural center,” Policastro said.
The Madisonville Site was home to Native Americans from about 1400 to 1650. It’s near Mariemont’s community swimming pool at 6000 Mariemont Ave. in Dogwood Park, which is at 3721 Pleasant St.
The site’s name is a nod to Madisonville archaeologist Charles Metz, who worked at The Madisonville Site at the turn of the 20th century.
The Wynema Village Site is south of 6000 Mariemont Ave. in the South 80 Gardens and Walking Trails Park, which adjoins Dogwood Park.
“The new Mariemont Native American Cultural Center will include artifacts from the Madisonville Site, including those obtained from the late Dr. Charles Louis Metz who is responsible for the site’s scientific discovery and excavation as well as the involvement of Harvard University,” said Ken Tankersley, associate professor of anthropology and geology and curator of the Court Archaeological Research Facility – all at the University of Cincinnati.
“The cultural center will also include artifacts excavated by the University of Cincinnati from the recently discovered historic contact period Wynema Village Site located in the (South 80 Gardens and Walking Trails Park),” Tankersley said.
Artifacts will include, pottery, flaked-stone tools and weapons, plant and animal remains and European trade goods. “Additionally, items that were owned and used by Dr. Metz during his excavations in Mariemont will also be on display,” Tankersley said.
The Madisonville Site is the largest and most thoroughly studied village of the late Fort Ancient culture (A.D. 1450 to 1670), according to the website of the Ohio History Connection, a nonprofit organization formerly known as the Ohio Historical Society.
“Artifacts were so abundant here that local residents called this site the ‘pottery field’,” the website says.
Policastro said it has long been a dream of his to open a Native American cultural center in Mariemont without having to ask residents to approve a tax specifically for the center.
‘“I have been working on this project for about 10-plus years, trying to find sources of funding for the building,” Policastro said.
The mayor said the village has won a $400,000 matching-funds state grant to build the addition.
He credited Tankersley, state Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Mount Lookout, and architects Dennis Malone, of Anderson Township, and Bob Rich, of Fairfax, with helping to make that happen.
“For a municipality to be able to fund this type of building addition without having to raise taxes is unheard of, but we did it,” Policastro said.
Tankersley, who has been documenting archaeological sites in Mariemont since the early 1970s, will serve as curator of the Mariemont Native American Cultural Center.
“Unlike other culture centers, which use casts and replicas, the new Mariemont Native American Cultural Center will have on display the actual artifacts from Mariemont’s rich historic past,” Tankersley said.
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