In 2013, an Ohio conservancy bought a 75-acre former glass-factory site; two years later, it reopened as part of a 250-acre park with quarry lakes and a 286-foot smokestack observation tower
What was once an industrial site dominated by a glass factory and a towering smokestack has been transformed into a sprawling public park in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Ariel-Foundation Park, now covering 250 acres, combines remnants of the city’s industrial past with lakes, trails, gardens and an unusual observation tower built around a historic smokestack. The…