What to See in Norwalk - Top Sights and Attractions

Sports facility in Huron County, Ohio. Summit Motorsports Park, formerly Norwalk Raceway Park and Norwalk Dragway, is a drag racing facility located at 1300 State Route 18 near Norwalk, Ohio. It has been a National Hot Rod Association sanctioned facility since 2007 and annually hosts the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, an NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Event and the Cavalcade of Stars, an NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Regional Event. As well as the national events, the facility holds regular local competition throughout the season.

Norwalk Dragway opened to the public in 1963 but lay dormant for much of the first ten years of its existence. Goodyear briefly used the track for tire testing up to 1973 when the track was sold to a joint venture between Wayne Sergeant and Bill Bader. Sergeant pulled out of the deal the following year and Bader continued as the sole owner. The track was reopened on April 28, 1974.

In 1981, Norwalk hosted the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) World Nationals for the first time. It continued to host this event up to the 2006 season and had become the IHRA's flagship drag racing facility by this time.

In 2007, Ohio-based automotive parts company Summit Racing Equipment purchased the naming rights to the facility. The Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals, held at National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio between 1972 and 2006, found its new home at Summit Motorsports Park in 2007. In preparation for the facility's NHRA debut, millions of dollars were spent in upgrades and renovations.

In 2020, track owner Bill Bader temporarily shut down the track as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with plans to reopen in 2021.^[1]

The Norwalk Theatre is a historic theatre building located at 57 East Main Street in Norwalk, Ohio. It is owned by the Norwalk Arts Center, LLC, and is a textbook example of the pre World War II Art Deco style of architecture. Designed by the noted theatre architect John Eberson, the theatre was completed in 1941. It features a porcelain enamel and brick facade and the largest marquee in the state of Ohio.

Built for Schine Chain Theatres, Inc. the theatre was air conditioned using the latest available equipment, and it offered customers with hearing loss special headphones to better enjoy the films. It was originally outfitted with 1,111 seats (901 on the main floor, 210 in the balcony). The theatre currently features 924 seats due to the later addition of an expanded stage, orchestra pit, and theatre organ. A special elevator assembly allows the theatre organ to be lifted to stage height for pre-show music performances. Outside, the marquee features both neon and incandescent illumination, with a portion of the incandescent bulbs (surrounding the vertical panels) operated by a mechanical chaser motor. Interior and exterior art deco fixtures and décor all remain as when built, with the exception of the front office/candy shop area, which was revised to accommodate the addition of restrooms with increased accessibility.

In the auditorium, large art deco murals depicting a goddess (possibly Diana) with wildlife were painted by Edoardo G. Battisti of Battisti Studios in New York, a firm responsible for the interior decoration within many theatres of this era.

The theatre opened to the public on August 13, 1941 with the showing of “The Bride Came C.O.D.” and various other shorts, including Bugs Bunny in “The Heckling Hare”.

The theatre has been undergoing renovation since 2012, and a project completion date is uncertain at this time.^[2]

Courthouse. The Huron County Courthouse and Jail is located by a busy downtown intersection in Norwalk, Ohio, United States. The ground floor is composed of rusticated blocks and recessed arched windows. The entrance is reached by a flight of stairs and a protruding portico. Two small windows frame either side of the entrance.

The county's first courthouse and jail were completed in 1819, occupying the site of the present buildings; two later courthouses and one later jail were constructed on the same site before giving way to its present occupants. Both buildings are masonry, the courthouse being a stone Neo-Renaissance structure, and the sheriff's-residence-and-jail being a brick Queen Anne building. A central tower distinguishes the courthouse from the surrounding commercial district, while smaller architectural features include columns in the form known as distyle in antis. Typical of its style, the jail lacks a uniform shape, its roof reflecting the asymmetrical floor plan. Pilasters divide the facade of the courthouse into five bays, and the side into ten, while a prominent belt course divides the first and second stories. A large clock is set into the tower, with a pillared cupola set above. Behind the courthouse, the jail is distinguished by the steep conical roof covering its two-story tower; while the base of the roof sits at the same level as the middle of the courthouse's second-story windows, the conical roof rises well above the courthouse roof.

In 1974, the courthouse and jail were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district, one of six National Register-listed locations in the city of Norwalk and one of seventeen countywide.^[3]