Belmont Then and Now: Watervliet and Smithville History

The Belmont business district, largely centered on Watervliet Ave and Smithville Road, is an interesting part of Dayton.

The commercial buildings are not among Dayton’s most architecturally significant–the majority are rather nondescript one or two story structures built long after Dayton’s early neighborhoods developed–but it is nicely intact and walkable along Watervliet.

The major intersection with Smithville Road, however, has changed significantly. Smithville has been widened over the years and 3 of the 4 corners are now dominated by surface parking with suburban-style stores behind (although one at least has some grass in front of the parking).

The below image is looking north up Smithville.

Compared to a present-day aerial, we see that the building on the NW corner is the one that survives.

According to county records, the structure was built in 1925. One of its first tenants was Paul J. Kennett, dealer in general merchandise. Next to Kennett’s shop was the hardware store of Fred F. Foster.

In the mid-1920s the area was booming. A Dayton Herald article said that “Belmont’s business district is expanding and many new and modern homes have been erected in the progressive community. The stores of this suburb have been unusually busy this season attending Christmas wants.”

Those stores at the time, in addition to the ones already mentioned, included the Belmont Confectionery at 703 Watervliet (today the location of Angie’s Firehouse Tavern), Elmwood Grocery, and Cherrington’s Cut-Rate Drug Store.

Returning to the corner building at Watervliet and Smithville, James F. Clark opened Clark’s Pharmacy here in the 1930s and later expanded to a network of stores that came to be known as Mr. Prescription. In the 1950s he opened a store in the Riverdale neighborhood and one in Centerville in 1962, among others. The Belmont location eventually moved to 2601 Smithville. Several Miami Valley locations of Clark’s Mr. Prescription remained open into the 2010s.

The corner building was also occupied by Olson’s Toys and Fisher Hardware, which can be seen in this 1958 image:

Now we’ll stay at the same intersection but now look the opposite direction, south on Smithville.

In the image below, we can still see the Marathon sign from the first aerial, and the word “Clark” on the far-right in the foreground is also the same corner building that we just looked at.

On the other side of the street, however, we see several structures that no longer survive.

On the left is the Dayton Xenia Railway bus barn. That company dates back to 1899 as an interurban railway between Dayton and Xenia. At the beginning there were two separate companies but they quickly merged. The last rail cars ran in 1937, but it was immediately replaced by the bus service which ran every hour except Sundays (when it ran every two hours).

The most significant structure that has been lost in the district is the Belmont Theater which stood at 712 Watervliet. It cost $200,000 when it opened in 1946 and seated 1,000. Later it was known as Cinema East, but it was destroyed in a fire on June 5, 1973.

It’s interesting to note that this is a neighborhood that was spared from highway construction, so that gave it a boost when compared to some other east side neighborhoods. But it was not immune to the problems that came with suburbanization and urban flight which affected all of Dayton’s business districts. These days there are several longstanding businesses on Watervliet and Smithville as well as new ones that have recently opened.

Sources:
Dayton Daily News
Dayton Herald
Dayton-Xenia Traction Line, Xenia Gazette
Dayton History Books/Dayton Metro Library