The idea of RiverScape grew out of a strong yearning to reunite downtown Dayton and the Great Miami River. Since the levees were built through downtown to corral the river after the horrific flood of 1913, Dayton has struggled with its relationship to the Great Miami River. This beautiful waterway, flourishing with wildflowers and birds in the shelter of the levee, wound through downtown Dayton while most of us barely noticed it was there. The river corridor bikeway was begun in 1976 and eventually linked to cities throughout the region, yet there was still no solid link between the river and downtown. By the 1990s, people were clamoring to get down to the river.

Reclaiming the River
Downtown Dayton needed not only to reclaim the Great Miami River, but also to reclaim downtown. Suburban sprawl had left empty storefronts and abandoned warehouses throughout downtown. The newly formed Downtown Dayton Partnership (DDP) was charged with taking on that task. At the same time, Five Rivers MetroParks had taken over Van Cleve Park from the City of Dayton and was exploring what potential lay there at the top of the levee. Through surveys and meetings, the DDP quickly learned that the public thought the best way to bring people downtown was to enhance the river’s edge. MetroParks, which had hired Belgian landscape designer Francois Goffinet, learned that Van Cleve Park had the potential to provide a beautiful and exciting downtown park. With these two goals in mind, MetroParks and the DDP partnered with The Miami Conservancy District in 1997 to develop a master plan to reconnect downtown to the river and begin downtown revitalization.

RiverScape Partnership
These three organizations were soon joined by Montgomery County, the City of Dayton and the Miami Valley Regional Transit Authority (RTA) to establish the RiverScape partnership. Over $30 million was raised to fund the construction —over a third from private individuals and companies in a campaign led by David Holmes of Reynolds & Reynolds. Over the next four years, ten consultants and well over a dozen contractors worked to turn the vision into bricks and mortar, flowers and fountains. On May 19, 2001, the park opened to a crowd of 50,000, the largest crowd ever to gather in downtown Dayton. Crowds continued to grow at special events throughout the summer, but even on a Tuesday afternoon or a Sunday evening, the park bustled with hundreds of people from throughout the Miami Valley. Dayton had returned to the river.