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Lost Dayton, Ohio
Many of the places that helped make Dayton a center of innovation were lost to history, while others survived and adapted, representing the city's spirit of revitalization.
Some of the city's distinctive and significant structures, such as Steele High School and the Callahan Building, were demolished, while others, including the Arcade and Centre City Building, saw hard times but now await redevelopment. Entire neighborhoods, such as the Haymarket, and commercial districts, such as West Fifth Street, vanished and show no traces of their past. Others, including the popular Oregon District, narrowly escaped the wrecking ball. From the Wright Brothers Factory to the park that hosted the first NFL game, Andrew Walsh explores the diverse selection of retail, industrial, entertainment and residential sites from Dayton's disappearing legacy.
Some of the city's distinctive and significant structures, such as Steele High School and the Callahan Building, were demolished, while others, including the Arcade and Centre City Building, saw hard times but now await redevelopment. Entire neighborhoods, such as the Haymarket, and commercial districts, such as West Fifth Street, vanished and show no traces of their past. Others, including the popular Oregon District, narrowly escaped the wrecking ball. From the Wright Brothers Factory to the park that hosted the first NFL game, Andrew Walsh explores the diverse selection of retail, industrial, entertainment and residential sites from Dayton's disappearing legacy.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
192 pages, Paperback
Published June 11, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 9, 2024
Loved learning about the history of this great city! Would recommend to all Daytonians!!!
October 16, 2023
So…you read a book on Dayton, Ohio? Why one might ask? I honestly have no idea, other than after a road trip in Ohio I picked up a bit of an interest in the state. I also enjoyed reading not too long a history book dedicated to a single state (Michigan) and wondered if reading a history book dedicated to a single city (in this case the Gem City, Dayton), might be interesting.
To my mild surprise, it was! I knew really nothing about Dayton other than the Wright brothers connection and it wasn’t exactly a city a lot was known about to the average person outside Ohio. Much like my reading experience with the work of history dedicated to Michigan, it both informed me of things I knew nothing about whatsoever, and provided new, interesting, regional wrinkles on national events and trends.
The book was nicely written. It didn’t blow me away with riveting prose or engrossing narratives but it never bored me either, nor did it bury me in local esoterica to the point I put it down. Even the chapters I thought I might skip, such as detailing the histories of individual retail department stores or high schools, were interesting, revealing more about the overall history and culture of Dayton, of Ohio, and in many cases national trends as well.
There were many photographs – all black and white – and every chapter had multiple photographs depicting the subject of an individual chapter. There is a thorough index, a very admirable bibliography that goes on for pages and pages, but unfortunately, I didn’t see a map, though given the wide range of history covered in the book might have been a bit daunting a task to complete.
The “lost” part of the title was often true, as many of the buildings, neighborhoods, and industries discussed in individual chapters were gone, in some cases replaced by newer buildings, in other cases razed and left as an empty field, in still other cases replaced by highways or parking lots, but this wasn’t always the case, as some buildings were repurposed but still exist and some weren’t lost at all but still exist, perhaps as museum pieces, though this was not usually the case. A recurring theme or event throughout the book was how the Great Flood of 1913, first mentioned in the book’s introduction, Ruined Everything, as again and again the “lost” part of the title came from this flood, which either destroyed something or forever altered something so much that it was put in a permanent downward spiral.
The book was divided into six sections and within each section there were multiple chapters. The first section was titled “Neighborhoods” and had four chapters detailing four historic sections of Dayton. The reader learns about Bomberger Park (the first public community center in the state of Ohio), the Classic Theater (built in 1926, the first theater in the United States built and operated solely by African Americans, sadly demolished in 1993, the event marked with a public funeral that included a eulogy), the business district formerly centered on West Fifth Street (called the “Nickel,” and strolling down the street, “hopping between the many jazz clubs and cocktail bars, was affectionally referred to as “walking the Nickel”), and the Kossuth Colony (a primarily Hungarian neighborhood that was walled in, sometimes called “the walled ghetto of Dayton,” which had a fascinating history).
The second section was “Industry” and was also interesting, a series of five chapters where I learned about National Cash Register (“the company most closely associated with Dayton and a dominant force in the community for 125 years after its founding in 1884,” a very interesting chapter), Delco (also closely linked with the history of Dayton, an important player in the industrial history of the United States, but though its buildings – albeit repurposed – still survive, lack any historical markers, as the author talked about how often important industrial buildings “either get demolished with little pushback or become adapted to new uses, often with little understanding from the general public of their original functions”). The reader learns that thanks to Delco and various General Motors plants, for a time Dayton was the third-biggest GM town after Detroit and Flint, “employing at least thirty-thousand local workers during its height.” My favorite chapters in this section though dealt with the Wright brothers (covering Huffman Prairie Flying Field, which one can still visit, and various buildings associated with the Wright brothers bicycle and airplane manufacturing) and the Dayton Motor Car Company Historic District (fun fact, a “Stoddard-Dayton car…won the very first race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which had just opened in 1909 as the first proper speedway ever built”).
Section three, “Retail,” introduced me the reader to the Dayton Arcade (with its Flemish-inspired façade and glass dome sometimes called either the “white palace” or the “Crown Jewel of Gem City”, though it ceased to be bathed in sunlight when its iconic dome was painted over in black after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941) and Rike’s Department Store (the most iconic and closely associated department store in Dayton, comparable to Macy’s in New York or Marshall Fields in Chicago, its demise a mirror of major downtown department stores across the nation).
Section four, “Early Skyscrapers,” discussed the Callahan Building (considered Dayton’s first skyscraper at seven stories high when built in 1892, was famous for its enormous clock) and the United Brethren Building (built in 1904, said to be “the tallest reinforced-concrete building in the world”).
The fifth section, “Recreation/Education,” introduced the reader to Lakeside Park (an amusement part that was the source of a disturbance in 1919 due to racial segregation of black amusement park goers), Triangle Park (site of the first game in the NFL, between the Dayton Triangles – who won – and the Columbus Panhandles), the fact that “Dayton was the first city in Ohio to incorporate a public library, and it did so in 1805, its first year of official existence” and for a time had one of “only two library schools in the country,” the famed Leo the Lion statue that once existed outside Steele High School (created by prominent sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, was modeled after a lion at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, and whose bronze was cast in Naples, Italy in 1907), and Roosevelt High School (whose music program and students had an enormous influence in making Dayton in the mid 1970s and early 1980s the “Land of Funk”).
The sixth section “Downtown: The Heart of the City” had six chapters. Topics covered include once beautiful and now long lost Robert Boulevard and Union Station, a site that hosted Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1920 when he made a speech on behalf of then Democratic candidate for president James M. Cox and Ronald Reagan in 1983, who while on a whistle-stop tour across western Ohio hosted a public phone call to the space shuttle Challenger, saying the lines “Houston, Houston, this is Dayton.”
It was a good book and a surprisingly good read. I think the author was careful to select in each section the most interesting examples of each topic whether it was retail or education or what have you, with no chapter boring at all.
To my mild surprise, it was! I knew really nothing about Dayton other than the Wright brothers connection and it wasn’t exactly a city a lot was known about to the average person outside Ohio. Much like my reading experience with the work of history dedicated to Michigan, it both informed me of things I knew nothing about whatsoever, and provided new, interesting, regional wrinkles on national events and trends.
The book was nicely written. It didn’t blow me away with riveting prose or engrossing narratives but it never bored me either, nor did it bury me in local esoterica to the point I put it down. Even the chapters I thought I might skip, such as detailing the histories of individual retail department stores or high schools, were interesting, revealing more about the overall history and culture of Dayton, of Ohio, and in many cases national trends as well.
There were many photographs – all black and white – and every chapter had multiple photographs depicting the subject of an individual chapter. There is a thorough index, a very admirable bibliography that goes on for pages and pages, but unfortunately, I didn’t see a map, though given the wide range of history covered in the book might have been a bit daunting a task to complete.
The “lost” part of the title was often true, as many of the buildings, neighborhoods, and industries discussed in individual chapters were gone, in some cases replaced by newer buildings, in other cases razed and left as an empty field, in still other cases replaced by highways or parking lots, but this wasn’t always the case, as some buildings were repurposed but still exist and some weren’t lost at all but still exist, perhaps as museum pieces, though this was not usually the case. A recurring theme or event throughout the book was how the Great Flood of 1913, first mentioned in the book’s introduction, Ruined Everything, as again and again the “lost” part of the title came from this flood, which either destroyed something or forever altered something so much that it was put in a permanent downward spiral.
The book was divided into six sections and within each section there were multiple chapters. The first section was titled “Neighborhoods” and had four chapters detailing four historic sections of Dayton. The reader learns about Bomberger Park (the first public community center in the state of Ohio), the Classic Theater (built in 1926, the first theater in the United States built and operated solely by African Americans, sadly demolished in 1993, the event marked with a public funeral that included a eulogy), the business district formerly centered on West Fifth Street (called the “Nickel,” and strolling down the street, “hopping between the many jazz clubs and cocktail bars, was affectionally referred to as “walking the Nickel”), and the Kossuth Colony (a primarily Hungarian neighborhood that was walled in, sometimes called “the walled ghetto of Dayton,” which had a fascinating history).
The second section was “Industry” and was also interesting, a series of five chapters where I learned about National Cash Register (“the company most closely associated with Dayton and a dominant force in the community for 125 years after its founding in 1884,” a very interesting chapter), Delco (also closely linked with the history of Dayton, an important player in the industrial history of the United States, but though its buildings – albeit repurposed – still survive, lack any historical markers, as the author talked about how often important industrial buildings “either get demolished with little pushback or become adapted to new uses, often with little understanding from the general public of their original functions”). The reader learns that thanks to Delco and various General Motors plants, for a time Dayton was the third-biggest GM town after Detroit and Flint, “employing at least thirty-thousand local workers during its height.” My favorite chapters in this section though dealt with the Wright brothers (covering Huffman Prairie Flying Field, which one can still visit, and various buildings associated with the Wright brothers bicycle and airplane manufacturing) and the Dayton Motor Car Company Historic District (fun fact, a “Stoddard-Dayton car…won the very first race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which had just opened in 1909 as the first proper speedway ever built”).
Section three, “Retail,” introduced me the reader to the Dayton Arcade (with its Flemish-inspired façade and glass dome sometimes called either the “white palace” or the “Crown Jewel of Gem City”, though it ceased to be bathed in sunlight when its iconic dome was painted over in black after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941) and Rike’s Department Store (the most iconic and closely associated department store in Dayton, comparable to Macy’s in New York or Marshall Fields in Chicago, its demise a mirror of major downtown department stores across the nation).
Section four, “Early Skyscrapers,” discussed the Callahan Building (considered Dayton’s first skyscraper at seven stories high when built in 1892, was famous for its enormous clock) and the United Brethren Building (built in 1904, said to be “the tallest reinforced-concrete building in the world”).
The fifth section, “Recreation/Education,” introduced the reader to Lakeside Park (an amusement part that was the source of a disturbance in 1919 due to racial segregation of black amusement park goers), Triangle Park (site of the first game in the NFL, between the Dayton Triangles – who won – and the Columbus Panhandles), the fact that “Dayton was the first city in Ohio to incorporate a public library, and it did so in 1805, its first year of official existence” and for a time had one of “only two library schools in the country,” the famed Leo the Lion statue that once existed outside Steele High School (created by prominent sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, was modeled after a lion at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, and whose bronze was cast in Naples, Italy in 1907), and Roosevelt High School (whose music program and students had an enormous influence in making Dayton in the mid 1970s and early 1980s the “Land of Funk”).
The sixth section “Downtown: The Heart of the City” had six chapters. Topics covered include once beautiful and now long lost Robert Boulevard and Union Station, a site that hosted Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1920 when he made a speech on behalf of then Democratic candidate for president James M. Cox and Ronald Reagan in 1983, who while on a whistle-stop tour across western Ohio hosted a public phone call to the space shuttle Challenger, saying the lines “Houston, Houston, this is Dayton.”
It was a good book and a surprisingly good read. I think the author was careful to select in each section the most interesting examples of each topic whether it was retail or education or what have you, with no chapter boring at all.
July 17, 2025
A really well-written and relatively short book on the history of significant Dayton architecture.
October 24, 2022
This review of historic locations in Dayton, Ohio will appeal to anyone familiar with the city and those interested in historic preservation in general. The organization is somewhat haphazard. Initially, it's geographic, with chapters on the St. Anne's Hill (Bomberger Park), the vanished Haymarket, and the Kossuth colony, etc., but later it becomes subject oriented (skyscrapers, sports, theaters, etc.). This isn't a problem but it makes the book more anecdotal than comprehensive. Clearly Mr. Walsh's intended audience is casual readers not students of urban history. He also tiptoes around sensitive topics like the loss of the Wright house and bicycle shop to Greenfield Village and the demolition of Paul Lawrence Dunbar's childhood home along with the entire street. Overall, this is an interesting book that should inspire readers with genuine interest to delve more deeply into the history of an unusually influential small American city.
January 3, 2025
This was a great little book of local history.
It's crazy to think my grandfather worked at one of the NCR buildings just across the street from the administration building that I spent a majority of my undergraduate in (what is now UD's Fitz Hall). I was also one of the last photography students to go to the fairgrounds as part of our first assignment before it was bulldozed. Moreover, I was again also among the first of the art students to study at The Hub in the Arcade. Such a cool space and I hope it is used to its fullest extent to help round out the program in the future.
I'm not sure if the data on redlining in Dayton was published at the time this book was written, but I helped with some of the design for that exhibit in 2021.
I wish there were more maps in this book, but it's a treat to learn my apartment building was built on the remnants of Dayton's former brothels.
It's crazy to think my grandfather worked at one of the NCR buildings just across the street from the administration building that I spent a majority of my undergraduate in (what is now UD's Fitz Hall). I was also one of the last photography students to go to the fairgrounds as part of our first assignment before it was bulldozed. Moreover, I was again also among the first of the art students to study at The Hub in the Arcade. Such a cool space and I hope it is used to its fullest extent to help round out the program in the future.
I'm not sure if the data on redlining in Dayton was published at the time this book was written, but I helped with some of the design for that exhibit in 2021.
I wish there were more maps in this book, but it's a treat to learn my apartment building was built on the remnants of Dayton's former brothels.
August 6, 2021
I checked this book out from Dayton Metro Library out of curiosity. I’m from a town about 30 minutes north of Dayton and now live in a city about 15 minutes south of Dayton. I had some knowledge of the more significant historical individuals and place, but this book was a true education. As I read I felt pride for inventions, businesses, and people that made an impact on the area, the state, the country, and the world. The were times when I also felt sad for what was. It seems that the 1913 flood had a significant impact on Dayton. I’d ‘heard’ that before but didn’t know to what extent. I found my self wondering what could have been if there hadn’t been a flood.
If you have any curiosity about Dayton, Ohio, I recommend this book.
If you have any curiosity about Dayton, Ohio, I recommend this book.
July 31, 2018
I was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio and both of my parents were too. This book brought to life places I remember from my childhood and also about areas my parents talked about. It was wonderful learning about neighborhoods, businesses and buildings in the area. I see some walking tours in our future as we go downtown to see the buildings up close. It did take me a bit to read not because of content but because I had to figure out where the places were and also had to get my For the Love of Dayton book out to see more of the buildings! It is so nice to see Dayton making a mark again! Highly recommend the book if you love history!
July 24, 2021
A history of Dayton written about buildings, streets and businesses which were at one time significant in Dayton but which have disappeared over time. The great flood of 1913 did in many businesses and buildings, but others have come and gone for different reasons. An interesting history of what has been lost through the years.
March 21, 2019
Great read! The author does an amazing job describing these long forgotten places. I grew up in the area and didn’t know 90% of this awesome history. I highly suggest this book to folks interested in history, architecture and urban development.
October 9, 2018
Wish it went in chronologic order as opposed to various locations, but great read given I live here:)
April 11, 2019
I was very impressed with the original research and the amount of information and work that went into this book. Keep up the great work!
May 2, 2019
It’s great, but needs a map for each chapter.
January 28, 2021
Now I know the (brief) origins of the "Cabintown" name. Overall, a trove revealing I didn't know what I didn't know.
October 31, 2021
A thorough treatment of many of the places and buildings in Dayton that have been demolished, burned, plowed over, destroyed by flood, sold to Henry Ford (for real!) or otherwise lost.
December 30, 2025
I learned a lot of interesting facts and history reading this book about Dayton. Did not know the architectural style of Sinclair College is Brutalist (it fits), that I. M. Pei designed the Gem City Plaza, that Eleanor G. Brown a Dayton educator for 40+ years was the first blind graduate from OSU (and to earn a PhD at Columbia University), and so much more. Andrew Walsh has written an informative, very readable and enjoyable volume. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews