When you think of award-winning architecture in Dayton, it’s unlikely you’d picture the intersection of Keowee and Webster Streets. But among the auto service shops and empty land that occupy the majority of the area, we find one really interesting building.
The light industrial structure is a 2-story brick building with some interesting architectural details. There is a clear Spanish Revival influence, especially in the small tower and corner element.
The building won an award in Dayton’s Annual Architecture Contest back in 1930, being rated “best of the industrial buildings.”
Antonio Dinardo, an architect and and city planner in Cleveland who served as judge, said that “it is a clean cut but interesting elevation, showing the possibilities even a factory facade offers when well designed” (Dayton Daily News 7/13/30).
At that time the Dayton chapter of the AIA was led by president Edwin F. Simpson as well as Ellison Smith and Harold Harlan.
As of 1930 the building was occupied by the Crystal Rug and Carpet Cleaning Co. That firm stayed in business until at least the 1970s.
As of 1940s, the Art-Craft Upholstering Company also called the building home.
The building also has a connection to the Dayton Art Institute. The DAI’s School of Art once offered printmaking studio classes, and after that school closed in the late 1970s, Ray Must and Mary Campbell-Zopf founded the Dayton Art Institute Printmakers Cooperative in 1983.
After the museum underwent renovations, the group needed to find a new home. In 1996, the Printmakers Cooperative moved to a new studio space at 901 Keowee.
Elemental Studio, offering “fine art, murals and more” is also currently located at 901 Keowee on the second floor, and Heartland Creative Studios and Dawg House Barbershop are also located in the building.
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