As a part of the University of Dayton, the historical elements of the park were the brainchild of Colonel Edward Deeds.

The airplane, a unit of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, was restored from 1948 to 1950 with the initial consultation of Orville Wright before his 1948 death.

The transportation center vehicles include the John Quincy Adams steam locomotive (built in 1835 by the B&O Railroad and is the oldest US-built locomotive that still exists),[5] a Barney and Smith passenger car built in Dayton, a Conestoga wagon, a 1908 Stoddard-Dayton automobile, a 1915 Xenia cyclecar, an interurban railcar, and other vehicles associated with Dayton.

It arrived at the museum in August 1988 and replaced a similar Marmon-Herrington trolley bus, ex-Dayton 501, that had been on display there since April 1988[7] but was then donated to the Cincinnati Transit Historical Association under an agreement in which Carillon Park received No.

The Park's carillonneur, Larry Weinstein, performs live carillon concerts every Sunday at 3:00 pm from May to October.