Interesting places to explore in Fairborn

Most people who live in Fairborn have driven past these places dozens of times on the way to somewhere else. Some are free and outdoors, some are indoors and keep shop hours, and a couple sit on the edge of an active Air Force base. All of them reward a second look. Here are eight worth an afternoon, with how to visit each one.

Oakes Quarry Park

The old stone quarry off East Xenia Drive, just east of I-675, is now a city nature park of more than 200 acres, and its walls hold a record of an ocean. The rock formed roughly 440 million years ago, when a warm, shallow tropical sea covered Ohio, and the city says the park holds one of the largest and most varied collections of Silurian marine fossils anywhere. Look for two preserved coral reefs, crinoid fossils from more than 29 documented species, and grooves and polished surfaces left by glaciers. Best of all, spoil piles are set aside where visitors can dig and take their finds home. The park is open dawn to dusk like every city park, with a parking lot and portable restrooms on site.

Huffman Prairie Flying Field and the Interpretive Center

On Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at Fairborn's edge is the pasture where the Wright brothers turned their 1903 experiment into a practical airplane. In 1904 they made the first turns and circles in the air there, and in 1905 Wilbur flew more than 24 miles in 39 minutes. The National Park Service's Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center, on Memorial Road, has a 30-minute film and exhibits on the Wrights' work, their flying school and the base's later history, and it charges no entrance fee. The field itself, with a replica 1905 hangar, is reached by car through Gate 16A; the park service warns that GPS can be unreliable on the base, so follow its posted directions.

The Wright Brothers Memorial

Up the hill from the interpretive center, the Wright Brothers Memorial grounds are open to the public, with a marked crossing from the Wright Hill entrance. Cyclists on the Wright Brothers-Huffman Prairie Trail can reach it too, by a steep climb off the path that Miami Valley Trails notes also passes Native American burial mounds and views over the Mad River Valley.

Mercer-Smith House

On North First Street, the city keeps the Mercer-Smith House, a log home from the 1800s set in historic gardens on a third of an acre, a reminder that the city's history, which it traces back to 1799, began long before anyone flew over the Mad River Valley. The city lists tours as available on request through Parks & Recreation, so call ahead rather than turning up.

Fairborn Memorial Park and the Military Veterans Memorial

Memorial Park itself is older, but its Military Veterans Memorial, on West Hebble Avenue, is the newest landmark on this list: it was dedicated on July 3, 2025, and its ceremonial plaza is paved with bricks naming veterans of every war. A bubbling fountain honors a former city parks director, and a memorial swing remembers the late Greene County sheriff Gene Fischer. A quarter-mile path circles the park, and the city still takes orders for new bricks.

Garland Wetland Reserve and the Amon Biodiversity Reserve

Two small reserves show a quieter side of the city. Garland Wetland Reserve on Commerce Center Boulevard has a nature boardwalk and an observation deck over the marsh. The James P. Amon Biodiversity Reserve, about 56 acres on New Germany Trebein Road, adds a bird blind; the city notes that the way in is from the west end of Deercreek Drive in the Fawn Ridge neighborhood.

Foy's on Main Street

Downtown, Foy's turns a few blocks of Main Street into a year-round Halloween district. The family business opened in 1929 as a variety store, and the Greene County visitors bureau now counts a variety store, adult and kids costume shops, a haunted house supply store, a special effects shop and a haunted museum among its locations. The original variety store still sells candy and toys the old-fashioned way. Shops keep their own hours, which change around October.

The Secret Chamber and Bookery Fantasy

Two doors along West Main Street lead somewhere stranger. The Secret Chamber House of Oddities and Artwork, at 17 West Main, is run by self-described longtime collectors of the weird and fills its shelves with curiosities, rare memorabilia and art; its own site says admission is for visitors 21 and older. Across the street at number 16, Bookery Fantasy is a time capsule of popular culture: vintage comics, pulp magazines, original movie posters and lobby cards, old paperbacks and rare first editions. The shop even publishes its own collector's guide to pulps. Both keep afternoon shop hours, which can vary, so check before making a special trip.

Making a day of it

The free outdoor stops, from the quarry to the memorial and the wetland boardwalks, are best on a dry day, while the interpretive center and the Main Street shops work in any weather. For a ticketed evening to finish, Wright State University's Festival Playhouse and Herbst Theatre, on a campus that sits in what the city's land use plan calls the University District, run plays and musicals through the winter. Between the fossils and the flying field, Fairborn tells a story that runs from an ancient sea to the first practical airplane, and most of it fits in a single afternoon.