Licking County CVB -- 2010 Visitor's Guide

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Downtown Newark – Connected By More Than Streets

In 1801, a young man of 28 named William Schenck came to the forks of the Licking River from out of the Cincinnati area.

Recently married, he had been hired by his uncle, John Cumming to survey over 4000 acres that he and some partners had purchased, sight unseen, the year before. With years of surveying between the Great & Little Miami Rivers already under his belt, Schenck quickly sized up the confluence of three healthy streams, merging to flow east into the Muskingum River, and pegged out the start of his survey and the plat of a new town on a terrace, in the center of the property in question.

The angle of this terrace, embraced by the North Fork of the Licking River and a southerly bend in Raccoon Creek that drops down to join the South Fork, meant that the original town was laid out in 1802 not on a north-south, east-west grid, but with a slant of northwest to southeast along the lay of the land.

To this day, downtown Newark, named for Schenck and Cumming’s hometown in New Jersey, chooses its own direction. Main Street runs into Courthouse Square running northeast and southwest, wrapping around what is the fourth courthouse building on the same site since 1817.

Angled streets, legend says following old Indian trails, cut across the now traditional north-south grid from downtown, but they converge in the historic heart of the city. Here everyday business, legal affairs, retail opportunities, and recreational activities are still as vital as they were in 1808 – when Newark already had a grocer, a hat shop, two taverns, two general stores, and a number of attorneys -- some things never change!

Downtown Newark still goes against the grain, where many Midwestern downtown areas are empty of shops and restaurants. Contrary to that trend, you can pick from at least half a dozen different menus, two coffee shops, a winery and a grocery store within two blocks of the Square, not to mention two fast food options.

You can find a different angle on things in downtown Newark, whether in a comic monologue at the Midland Theatre by Garrison Keillor, or a reflective moment looking at the statue of Johnny Clem, the “Drummer Boy of Shiloh,” in Veterans’ Park on Sixth Street. The Works, a Smithsonian Affiliate museum just two blocks south of the Square, gives you a look at science and technology from the inventor’s point of view, but also that of the laborer and craftsman.

The Downtown Newark Association brings together business leaders, artists, civic organizations, and church officials to keep a vision of the central core of the city that holds onto heritage and beauty, but is responsive to the changes not only of the last two hundred years, but looks well into the next century. Their activities range from Christmas season walking tours of decorated historic church buildings, to architectural walks around the Square, and narrated tours of art and sculpture found downtown, from large public murals to little gargoyles tucked into the eaves of an old jail.

One of their latest ventures is the Final Fridays program, where galleries, eating establishments, and other participating businesses stay open into the evening and offer additional attractions to shoppers and visitors. The DNA is also working to help find a route, perhaps following the route of the old canal path just south of downtown, to connect the eastern and western portions of the countywide rails-to-trails path.

Whatever the future brings, downtown Newark is likely to stay just a bit off the usual angles, and follow its own path into the future.