The Dayton Arcade opened in 1904, but one part of what we call the Arcade today was built a couple decades earlier.
That’s the Kuhns Building, and like the Arcade itself it also represented a Dayton industrialist investing profits into enhancing downtown’s commercial presence.
The Arcade was conceived by Eugene Barney of the massive Barney and Smith car works, while the Kuhns Building was planned by Benjamin Kuhns, a prominent farm-implement manufacturer which had made him extremely wealthy.
Kuhns was born in 1825 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and came to Dayton in 1855 at the age 30.
Even before Dayton’s more famous inventions that would come later (from the cash register to the airplane), the Miami Valley was a breeding ground of innovation and discovery.
And Kuhns was one of early leaders, earning many patents for his farm implements such as seed planters and grain drills.
Kuhns’ patent for a seed planter in 1868:
The Farmers Friend Manufacturing Company
Kuhns joined two partners, Weustoff and Getz, who made grain drills, and soon became president of a new Farmers Friend manufacturing company in 1871.
For that firm he built a large factory in 1875 that still stands today as the Wheelhouse apartments and Troll Pub restaurants at Wayne and 4th.
Kuhns built the 4 story structure on the corner, and expanded their existing building.
In this map below you can see many other structures used by the company, including the foundry, rattling and grinding shops, boiler and engine room, blacksmith shop, and office.
And a present-day aerial of the same area, where you can see the new 503 apartments have replaced the old Pierce and Coleman company, manufacturers of sashes, doors and blinds (and also the location of Garden Station in recent years).
One of the company’s grain drill models was named the Farmer’s Friend, another was known as the Monarch. They also made corn planters and a lawn mower known as the “Dayton.”
Later Kuhns was the primary founder of Miami Valley Hospital and became known for philanthropy. He would build the Kuhns Building in 1883 and exited from his farm implement business some time after that.
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