Today this building’s main tenant is the Texas Beef and Cattle Company, and in the early 1900s the place was known for hamburger. But not the kind you’re probably thinking.
Hamburger’s Hardware Store, named for owner Frank Hamburger, was a longtime fixture on the northwest corner of West Third and Williams Streets.
The Victorian Italianate building, constructed in 1898, is known as the Gunkel Building.
In a 1909 Dayton business directory, Hamburger’s store boasts a diverse selection of “hardware and cutlery, tools, paints, oils, ammunition, lawn mowers, incubators and poultry supplies, (and) gasoline stoves.”
Frank Hamburger was a friend and neighbor of the Wright Brothers, and he lived in one of the rare brick homes in the neighborhood at 30 S Williams St, right down the street from the store. (The Wrights lived at 7 Hawthorn St.)
Hamburger was one of the few neighbors who took an interest in the Wrights’ early work manufacturing airplanes starting in 1910.
Although the Wright Company leased space at the Speedwell Motor Car Company factory, they assembled their engines in their shop at 1127 W Third St (since moved to Dearborn, MI) just a couple buildings down from Hamburger’s store.
The Wrights were frequent customers at the hardware store, and they stepped in to help Hamburger on one occasion when he was in need.
During one of Dayton’s smaller pre-1913 floods that swept through West Third Street, Hamburger was concerned about his large stock of nails kept in the basement.
If they got wet, they would become rusty and ruined. When Orville and Wilbur heard about his predicament, they rushed to assist.
They “removed their suit coats and assisted Frank in removing all the nail kegs from the cellar. The brothers would not accept any compensation for their assistance, but, for many years, as they needed various hardware items, Frank gave the items to them at no cost” (Honious).
In addition to the hardware store, the Gunkel Building was also the site of Dayton’s first branch post office, as well as the home of the Owl Drug Store.
But it, along with the surrounding business district, fell into disrepair in the following decades.
The 1960s riots led to the loss of many businesses, freeway construction isolated the wider area, and the commercial district was in dire straits by the 1980s.
The Gunkel building (along with its neighbor the Gunkel Block) “were in such bad condition, the interior second floor of the two story structure had been removed, and the exterior walls had been shored up with cross bracing.” (see below)
Image Credit: Getting the Story Wright
At that time, city leaders believed that area was so far gone that the best solution was to demolish the buildings in an attempt to attract new businesses to build on vacant land.
But preservationists and area residents fought back, and eventually the decision was made to rehabilitate the area, aided by a variety of housing and business development initiatives involving both public and private actors.
The Gunkel Building was renovated in 2002, a year that was good for West Third Street but bad for nearby West Fifth Street as the Palace Theater, a significant symbol of that once-thriving commercial corridor, was demolished.
By 2014 the Gunkel Building’s tenants were Sweet Dots Bakery Cafe and Wright Dunbar Inc. In 2016, after Sweet Dots had closed, it was announced that Texas native James Nuñez was launching Dayton’s first co-op barbecue restaurant in the space.
The Texas Beef and Cattle Company opened in June 2016, serving up mesquite-smoked brisket, sausage, pork, and chicken, as well as Texas-style sides and a breakfast taco brunch on Sundays.
It’s earned rave reviews and is a major anchor for the Wright-Dunbar commercial district, an area that will hopefully continue to welcome new businesses in the coming years.
Update 2024: The BBQ restaurant has since closed, but a food hall has opened across Third St at the same intersection and has multiple restaurants offering a variety of food options. Another restaurant is also slated for the Gunkel Building.
Sources
- Honious, A. (2003). What dreams we have: The Wright brothers and their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Fort Washington, Pa.: Eastern National.
- Williams Directory Company. (1909). Williams’ Dayton directory for 1909-1910: Embracing a full alphabetical record of the names of the inhabitants of the city of Dayton, Ohio, a business directory, city guide, etc. Cincinnati, Ohio: The Williams Directory Company.
- “West Third Street Historic District.” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form.
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