The USS Cincinnati Cold War Memorial & Peace Pavilion in West Chester Township has a new addition atop its full-scale submarine replica: solar panels engineered to power on-site exhibits and send surplus electricity back into the local grid. Crews installed the array along the top of the 360-foot hull replica at Voice of America MetroPark, giving the $9.5 million memorial another technological upgrade.
According to WKRC, the panels were mounted on the replica submarine and are expected to help power the surrounding community's electrical system. The design behind the installation serves a dual purpose, according to MSP Design, the firm that designed the memorial: the array supplies clean power for on-site educational exhibits and lighting while routing any surplus electricity directly back into the local power grid. Mounting the panels atop the hull was also planned to double as a shaded canopy for visitors touring the site.
Powering STEM Lessons
The solar system does more than keep the lights on. It operates interactive educational kiosks designed to teach students STEM-T concepts tied to submarine operations, per the same MSP Design project description. The memorial's educational programming is part of the site's visitor experience.
The memorial itself is built as a full-scale replica of a nuclear submarine sitting in dry dock, stretching 360 feet long — about the length of a football field — and standing about five stories tall, with a hull diameter of roughly 33 feet, according to MSP Design. Woven into that replica structure is about 100 tons of authentic Navy hardware salvaged from the decommissioned submarine itself, including a conning tower, a 17-foot-tall rear rudder, and a generator nicknamed “The Big Red Machine” by the sub's original crew, a reference to the Cincinnati Reds of the 1970s, as reported by CityLifestyle.
A Two-Decade Effort Funded Without Public Construction Dollars
The Peace Pavilion officially opened to the public on May 16, 2026, capping more than two decades of planning led by Navy veterans, per West Chester Township. Construction of the memorial was funded entirely through private donations and philanthropic grants managed by the Submarine Cincinnati Memorial Association and the Northern Cincinnati Foundation, without tapping public capital funds; private donors also covered an endowment for ongoing maintenance, the township said.
The township's February update also mentions Tylersville Road. The site is situated next to the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting to form a combined historical destination.
The Submarine's Cold War History
The real USS Cincinnati (SSN-693) was a Los Angeles-class nuclear fast-attack submarine commissioned in 1978 and decommissioned in 1996 after 18 years of Cold War service, according to WVXU. More than 1,000 sailors served aboard the vessel over its operational lifetime, and roughly 140 former crew members attended a private preview ahead of the pavilion's May grand opening.
The real submarine's history is incorporated into the memorial's educational programming.
The memorial's designers acquired the submarine's primary Navy artifacts in 2013 as part of the project's long build-out, which stretched back to a mid-2000s concept envisioned by local veterans. With the solar array now in place atop the replica hull, the site's organizers have completed another piece of a landmark meant to blend Cold War history, hands-on STEM education, and renewable energy on the same patch of West Chester Township parkland.
