Dayton has quite a few historic sites connected to the Wright Brothers and their early experiments with aviation. Today several of them are linked together under the name of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, which also commemorates the Wrights’ earlier forays into printing and bicycle businesses, as well as the life of pioneering African-American writer Paul Laurence Dunbar.
The sites that make up the park are scattered around the Dayton area, ranging from the Huffman Prairie Flying Field located on Wright-Patterson Air Force base to Hawthorn Hill, the longtime Oakwood residence of Orville Wright.
One of the major park sites is located in the West Side neighborhood where both Dunbar and the Wrights once lived.
Known as the Wright Cycle Company Complex, it contains the Wright–Dunbar Interpretive Center in the historic Hoover Block building on W Third St, where the Wrights operated their job printing business from 1890 to 1895. During that time one of the items they printed was a newspaper for Paul Laurence Dunbar. (The Dunbar House is another museum site just a few blocks away.)
Next door at 22 S Williams St is the Wright Cycle Company building where the Wrights operated their fourth bicycle shop, the only one still standing at its original location. Co-located with the Interpretive Center is the Aviation Trail Visitor Center and Museum, named for the Aviation Trail nonprofit organization that helped preserve these historic sites and successfully lobbied for the creation of the national park in the 1980s and 90s. The bicycle shop was derelict and forgotten in the early 80s until a magazine article was published that included an unpublished historic photo of the building. The realization that it was still standing helped spark the effort to preserve both it and the Hoover Block.
The museum complex features two floors of exhibits on the Wrights’ early years as well as the life of Dunbar, and a short film about the Wrights narrated by Martin Sheen. The second floor also houses the Aviation Trail Parachute Museum which tells the story of the free fall parachute dating back to its invention after WWI at McCook Field right here in Dayton.
And if you need another reason to visit, right across the street is the delicious Texas Beef & Cattle Company, so you can enjoy a tasty meal after your visit to the museum. (Update: That restaurant has closed but there is a food hall just across the street at 3rd and Williams with multiple food options.)
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