DaytonDailyNews.com

WASHINGTON — Amanda Wright Lane spent two years arguing that the national park devoted to her great-grand uncles, Wilbur and Orville, needed two more sites to tell their story fully.

On Monday, March 30, her arguments bore fruit: President Barack Obama signed into law a massive parks bill that included a provision adding Hawthorn Hill and the Wright factory buildings to the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

Wright Lane and U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, the key proponent of the measure in Congress, sat in the audience in the White House's East Room for the bill-signing ceremony.

"I'm really happy for our community," Wright Lane said, adding that visitors to the park can now learn about the famous brothers' family life and the story of how they manufactured commercial airplanes in Dayton.

Hawthorn Hill in Oakwood, which was designed by Wilbur and Orville Wright, was the family's home until 1948. The Wright Company factory buildings, on Home Avenue off West Third Street, are the first U.S. buildings designed and built for the manufacture of airplanes.

The park currently includes Huffman Prairie, the Wright Cycle Company, Carillon Park, the Wright Memorial and the Paul Laurence Dunbar House.

The bill also allows community organizations including Dayton History, which operates Carillon Historical Park, Aviation Trail and other partners that operate the park's sites, to receive grants from the National Park Service to help operate the park. Turner said such partnerships may become a model for other parks as government funds become tighter, because it'll help national and local governments team up to fund similar preservations.