A Look Back at Thursdays at the Rex
Thursdays at the Rex have become a beloved point of pride for our community. They are a night where our downtown feels alive and where our community feels connected. They are the type of evenings that make you say, “This is why we live here.” I know, because I have said that myself. Looking out at the kids chasing each other, at grandparents sitting with their kids and grandkids, at the group of friends home from college and catching up – how many other places can you get all of that in one place with good food, sunshine and good music? We appreciate what it is today, but do we know how we got here?
In August of 2017, the Village of Ottawa hosted a community workshop where they invited anyone that was interested in talking about what the Village could do with all of their open spaces they acquired with FEMA money. Two of the attendees at this meeting were Phyllis Macke and Gillian Stechschulte, whom I was able to interview for this blog. One of the things that was very clear from this first meeting was that there was a lot of interest with what was going to be done with the former Paul’s lot. Paul’s had been demolished in 2015 and the participants felt the vacant lot was a prime location in our downtown for community gatherings. Some of the ideas mentioned were a stage, a farmer’s market, a dog park and a music park.
From this meeting, the Community Development Open Space Sub-committee was formed to start to tackle the goals from this workshop. The original members of this committee were: Dr. Ron Black, Don Croy, Teresa Croy, Barb Hermiller, Phyllis Macke, Tim Macke, Mayor Dean Meyer, Gillian Stechschulte and Jack Williams. This group would eventually evolve into the Greenspace Development Committee that we have today.
The idea of a stage for downtown quickly gathered momentum. At this point, the OG Rotary Club’s Little Nashville was already a recurring event in downtown and a stage would only further develop this event. Gillian had brought some sketches to that initial meeting and described that initial design process as “kind of like that moment when you put an idea out and everyone just sees it. Everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.’” The inspiration for it actually comes from a small park in the center of Oxford, Ohio that was being used for concerts and dance competitions.
While the overall design concept might have come quickly for the group, that didn’t mean it was an easy task. With it being a FEMA lot, there were a lot of restrictions around what materials could be used. One fun fact you may not know is that the bricks are actually permeable pavers. Permeable pavers allow rainwater to seep through and naturally absorb back into the ground water below. This helps prevent water from flowing off the surface and into the storm drain where it can be a flood hazard.
By this point in time, the committee was growing and a few of our civic organizations (OG Rotary, Ottawa Jaycees, and Ottawa Kiwanis) were helping to drive this from idea to reality. In the summer of 2018, the first event at the Rex Pavillion, Little Nashville, was held. So in just one year, this went from an idea at a community workshop to a fully constructed, functioning downtown park with a stage. Not enough can be said about how incredible that is.
By the following summer, Ottawa was ready for its first Thursdays at the Rex, which was a monthly event from June to September, with a focus on food trucks and kids’ activities. By January of 2020, a new group was created to oversee programming of this new space: the Cultural Committee of Ottawa. Original members of this committee were: Stan Beckman, Audrey Beining, David and Mary Burgei, Corry and Megan Clinton, Kay Heringhaus, Angie and Nate Huber, Jeremy Kuhlman, Phyllis Macke, Julie Niese, Tom Rosenbauer, Jenna Schroeder, Bruce Stowe, Kelly Theisen, and Mayor Dean Meyer. The concepts and programming continued to develop, until the summer of 2021 where it became what we have today: Thursdays at the Rex - weekly events with food trucks, music and the farmers market.
To all of those that helped to make the Rex become what it is today, whether mentioned in this quick blog or not, we appreciate what you have done for our community. To have a space in the heart of our downtown for all generations to come together is something truly special. Whether it is for Thursdays at the Rex, Little Nashville, downtown Trick or Treat or any of the other wonderful events that happen on that stage, memories are being made down there that people cherish - because a group of people had an idea to make our downtown better and made it happen.
