By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
History geek Tedd Long wants to take you on a walk and tell you a story.
Long, the “chief storyteller” with Holy Toledo History who has written smartphone tours for several communities, said he was particularly intrigued by the stories Bowling Green has to tell.
A 1983 graduate of Bowling Green State University, Long developed a love of the community – especially the downtown. Working with the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, he has created two self-guided walking tours of the community.
“I think Bowling Green stands out for a couple reasons,” Long said. “First is the level of preservation of the downtown buildings.” And most of the spaces are still in business, he added. “The number of people you see walking around the town is amazing.”
Long was also fascinated by the city’s ability to recover from disasters in the downtown many years ago. “There were two major fires, and they rebuilt right after them. I found that amazing.”
The two self-guided tours released this summer are designed to help people explore Bowling Green’s remarkable downtown architecture and rich history.
One tour begins at the Wood County Courthouse, travels down South Main Street to Wooster Street, then circles back to the courthouse. The other starts in front of grand homes on West Wooster Street, then travels down South Main Street.
“I’m hoping people get a sense of Bowling Green history,” Long said, noting the arc of the Boomtown era, to a sleeping community, then to a university city.
“And I’m hoping it creates an appreciation for the architecture,” he said.
Some locations along the tour lend themselves to voice actors – such as the site of the shootout between Pretty Boy Floyd and police.
“If you make it more like a moving podcast, it makes it more interesting,” Long said.
Both tours take less than an hour to complete and can be done virtually. Long recently did a “test drive” on the tour.
“You have to write it to fit walking steps,” he said. “It requires some testing. They are up and ready.”
Participants of the tours can start and stop as they wish. “Like if you want to duck into a restaurant and grab a meal, then start up again.”
The two walking tours cover about 50 stops inside the downtown area. The smartphone tours are $5.99 each and can be purchased online at www.holytoledohistory.com/tours.
The tour’s immersive audio narration plays automatically at precisely the right time and place using the user’s smartphone GPS and the VoiceMap mobile app, which also works offline. VoiceMap, a publishing platform and mobile app for location-aware audio tours, uses GPS to play audio automatically and includes turn-by-turn directions. Those not in Bowling Green can listen to the tour at home with photographs of locations along the route by visiting VoiceMap online or downloading the app from holytoledohistory.com.
Some of Long’s other tours in the region include the Unholy Toledo Tour, which looks at gangster hangouts of the past; a historical tour along the Maumee River to include Toledo, Grand Rapids and Perrysburg; a tour of the National Museum of the Great Lakes; and a tour of Fort Meigs, complete with voice actors and battle sounds.
“I’ve developed several of these location-aware smartphone tours for sites throughout Northwest Ohio, but I’m thrilled to host these two to share the BG story and help preserve and promote the city’s historic architecture. It’s a great opportunity to enjoy the magic of GPS playback and immerse yourself in the legends and landmarks of Bowling Green,” Long said.
