Millikin Woods, a Hamilton city park, was previously known as Stahlheber Woods. The park's history is linked to Hamilton's "outer belt," Washington Boulevard. Henry Stahlheber , a native of Bavaria in Germany, moved to Hanover Township in 1874. Eight years later he was reported as operating two dairy farms, totaling 363 acres, northwest of Hamilton. In 1938, Carl Schulze owned one of Stahlheber farms. In May 1938, he sold 40 of his 160 acres to the city. Hamilton paid $10,000 for the property it needed for the right-of-way for a planned section of Washington Boulevard. It was still known as Stahlheber Woods when city leaders renamed it to memorialize the civic contributions of Dr. Mark Millikin, who died Feb. 19, 1945, at the age of 76.
Millikin started practicing medicine in Hamilton in June 1893, and was chief of staff at Mercy Hospital from 1920 until 1944. He was honored for completing 50 years of practice in 1942. His interests and service extended beyond medicine. He studied taxation and the operation of local government before becoming involved in civic activities. Starting in 1916, he was a leader in efforts to create a charter form of government in the city. After previous failures, the change was approved in 1925, and in the same election Millikin was chosen one of 15 members of the commission to draft a proposed charter. The document won approval in 1926, despite strong opposition from most city officeholders. The 159-vote victory ended the highly-politicized ward system -- dominated by patronage, nepotism and graft -- and provided for the non-partisan election of seven council members at large. It also placed direction of the city's day-to-day affairs in the hands of a city manager and mandated a civil service system to govern personnel matters.
Under the new system, Dr. Millikin was one of the seven people chosen from a field of 30 council candidates in November 1927. He was reelected six times, serving from January 1928 through December 1941. He lost in November 1941, but was seated in May 1942 to complete the term of a councilman who resigned to enter military service. He served a total of 15 and a half years on city council, ending in December 1943 after he had failed to win reelection the previous month. In 2000, Hamilton City Council decided to extend Washington Boulevard to the northwest through Millikin Woods, as previously planned. The decision created some controversy and revived several misconceptions about the city park and the road.
An objective of the 1920 city master plan was to ease traffic movement through and around Hamilton. The 1920 plan proposed a boulevard system. "The outer loop" wasn't called Washington Boulevard then. For awhile, it was known as Potter Drive. Maps show it as a parkway extending northwest from South B Street (Hamilton-Cleves Road) across New London Road and Millville Avenue and then northeast and east over Main Street and Eaton Avenue to West Elkton Road and North B Street (Seven Mile Pike). Most of that right-of-way in 1920 was outside the city. It wasn't until 1930 that city council authorized the first section of the 100-foot wide boulevard between New London Road and Millville Avenue. Before work started, to improve alignment, the city traded land with representatives of the Ellis Potter estate. It was called Potter Drive in recognition of the Hamilton native and Cincinnati and New York businessman whose 1925 land donation made possible the municipal golf course which bears his name. Some land for the New London-Millville portion had been given to the city by Potter and trustees of the Harrison Leib estate, which owned a tract at the Millville Avenue end of the road. The Leib subdivision was annexed in January 1931, allowing boulevard construction to start later that year. The 1.25-mile New London-Millville section, costing $48,000, was dedicated Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, 1932. That year was the bicentennial of George Washington's birth (Feb. 22, 1732, in Virginia). The road name -- the George Washington Boulevard -- had been proposed by Mrs. Harry (Mae) Diefenbach, a member of the Woman's City Club, an organization that supported the suggestion and urged that trees be planted along the parkway. In June 1931, the city said the second section would be built between Millville Avenue and Eaton Avenue. But the Depression of the 1930s and the World War II delayed the project. In 1929, in anticipation of the extension, the city required the developer of the Verlynn subdivision to allow for the 100-foot wide boulevard from Millville Avenue to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's tracks. A year later, the same dimension was required in the plans to develop the woods and farm land on the other side of the tracks. After World War II, the updated city plan included additions to Washington Boulevard. From the late 1940s through the 1990s, other sections were built. Among the missing links in 2000 was the part that would cross the railroad tracks and cut through Millikin Woods. Work on that section was completed in 2003.