In 2024, Fox wanted to have an Ohio Historical Marker installed to honor Weiler Taylor, and that’s when she discovered the sundial was in need of restoration, including replacing the missing gnomon (the vertical piece that casts the shadow to tell the viewer the time of day). It also needed to be rotated to the north to tell the right time.
The state rejected her application for the historical marker — the Ohio-shaped plaques that usually depicts a milestone anniversary or historically significant event — so Fox focused her energy on the sundial.
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
“I felt a great responsibility had been placed on my shoulders, and that I needed to find a way to restore the sundial to its original beauty and usefulness,” she said.
The effort by Fox to restore the sundial was in large part to her connection with Stella Weiler Taylor. Not only, has Fox has been a Weiler Taylor historian, but her family had personal connections to the writer. Former Journal-News publisher and editor Homer Gard hired, who is Fox’s great uncle, Weiler Taylor in 1931. She wrote for the paper until her stroke in 1948.
The columnist and author was also friends with Fox’s mother, and heard many stories as she grew up in Butler County.
Fundraising efforts included a Sundial Social Hour event at Tano Bistro last May and selling 140 bricks to pay for the restoration work by J.K. Hawkins in Deer Park. The sundial was polished and a patina applied, as well as attaching the new gnomon. It will sit on a platform and will be “perfectly aligned to the north.”
The dedication will be at 1 p.m. on May 31 at Monument Park, 15 S. Monument Ave., with a reception following.
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
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