The 8 names behind Dayton's best known attractions

• Hara Arena

  
  Constructed in 1964, the arena at the Hara Complex has hosted artists ranging from the Rolling Stones to Lil Wayne.(Source: Hara Arena/ Facebook)

  The Hara Arena Complex gets its name from the first names of founding brothers Harold and Ralph Wampler.
  The Wampler Ballarena dance hall was built in 1956 and is part of what is now Hara's six-building complex.
  
  A variety of festivals, sporting events, dances, shows and conventions like Hamvention are held at the complex.
  
  

• The Fraze

  
  A concert at the Fraze. (Source: Fraze Pavilion)

  Opened in 1991,  Fraze Pavilion is named after pop-top aluminum can inventor Ermal Fraze.
  
  Marvin Hamlisch was the first to perform at the 4300-seat, City of Kettering-owned amphitheater. Hundreds have performed since.
  
  
  
  

• Cox Arboretum

  
  Kate Evans spends time with her family, including her 6-month old son Drew, at Cox Arboretum MetroPark. (Staff photo: Lisa Powell)

  James M. Cox, Jr. ( aka "Jim Jr."), the son of  Cox Enterprises founder James M. Cox, began buying the land that would eventually be Cox Arboretum in  1952.
  
  He and his then-wife Helen named it "Spring Running."
  
  When his father died in 1957,  Cox, Jr. took control of Cox Enterprises, which included Dayton Daily News, WHIO and more recently, Dayton.com. The title of Spring Running was transferred to the James M. Cox, Jr. Arboretum Foundation in 1962.
  
  It was cared for by a list of volunteers that included Jean Mahoney, Jean Woodhull, Marie Aull and Ruth Burke. The foundation gave the Arboretum to Five Rivers MetroParks in 1972.

• Glen Helen

  
  Trudy Elder takes a sip of water from Yellow Spring while on a hike at Glen Helen. (Archive staff photo: Bill Reinke)

  Hugh Taylor Birch had an affinity for what is now Glen Helen.
  
  He grew up playing in the glen and attended Antioch College in the 1900s, according to the Yellow Springs News.
  
  In 1929, at at the urging of Antioch graduate Lucy Morgan, the Chicago lawyer donated the  wooded glen to Antioch College in memory of his daughter  Helen Birch Bartlett, who had died in 1925.
  
  Glen Helen Ecology Institute at Antioch College manages the 1,000 acre nature preserve and outdoor education center located in Yellow Springs.
  
  READ:  Deal places Glen Helen under permanent protection plan

  
  
  
  
  
  

   

• The Boonshoft

  
  Then 11-year-old Matthew Blasik of Oakwood was among the 100 students who participated in a Harry Potter camp at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in June. The ten day long camp mixed the fun of wizardry with the world of science. (Staff photo: Lisa Powell)

  Boonshoft Museum of Discovery draws its name from Oscar Boonshoft, one of the Miami Valley’s major philanthropists.
  
  What is now the Boonshoft started in 1893 as a part of the Dayton Public Library and Museum. It transformed into the Dayton Museum of Natural History in 1952 and merged with the  Children's Museum of Dayton in 1996, becoming the Dayton Museum of Discovery, according to the museum's website. 
  
  The museum's name was changed to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in 1999 to honor Boonshoft, a friend of it and many other nonprofits. The New York native donated more than $60 million to the local causes  before his death in 2010.
  
  He was a project engineer  at Wright Patterson Air Force base for more than 30 years and  later engaged in speculative trading of commodity futures contracts.
  
  Other Dayton area institution named in Boonshoft's honor include the  Marjorie and Oscar Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education, the Boonshoft Center for Medical Sciences at Kettering College of Medical Arts and the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• The Nutter Center

  
  The Horwang School team from Thailand performs at the Ervin J. Nutter Center in April during the semi finals of the Color Guard World Championships. (Staff photo: Lisa Powell)

  Wright State University's basketball stadium, concert venue and convention center is named for a local businessman, engineer, inventor and philanthropist Ervin J. Nutter, who donated $1.5 million for the construction of the facility in 1986.  
  
  Incidentally enough, Nutter earned money for his studies at the University of Kentucky working as a electrician. UK Basketball Coach Adolph Rupp paid him $2 a game to make sure lights at Alumni Gymnasium stayed on.
  
  Nutter opened the an aerospace industry company -- Elano Corporation -- in Xenia in 1950. The company was sold to General Electric in 1985.
  
  The Nutter Center held its first event on December 1, 1990.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Aullwood

  
  A statue of Marie Aull commissioned for Carillon HIstorical Park. (Staff photo by Lisa Powell)

  Animal and plant lover Marie Aull donated 70 acres of land  in 1957  for  the creation of  the National Audubon Society's first nature center in the Midwest.
  Considered the "godmother of the environmental movement in southwestern Ohio," Aull helped found Garden Club of Dayton in 1922, according to her Five Rivers MetroPark's profile.
  
  Aullwood Audubon Center and Farms' six miles of hiking trail includes forest, prairie, marsh and pond. More than 80,000 visit it annually.

• The Schuster

  
  Archive photo: Dayton Ballet dancers Case Bodamer and Annalise Woller perform for a crowd at the Mead Theatre inside the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in Dayton during the inaugural Dayton Performing Arts Alliance Gala Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013. NICK DAGGY / STAFF

  The region's premiere theaters draws its name from a pioneer in Dayton cardiology and his wife.
  
  Benjamin and Marian Schuster Center for the Performing Arts is on the site of the former Rike’s department at Second and Main streets in downtown Dayton. The Schusters were major donors to the center, which opened in 2003.
  
  The Benjamin & Marian Schuster Heart Hospital at Kettering Medical Center and the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Hall in Wright State University’s Creative Arts Center also bear the now-deceased couple's names.