Gem City Ice Cream Building at Risk of Demolition

A historic building in the Wright-Dunbar neighborhood is at risk of demolition after the City of Dayton asked the Landmarks Commission for permission to remove it.

The Gem City Ice Cream Building, constructed in the late 1800s, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988 as part of the West Third Street Historic District. The Gem City Ice Cream Company was founded in 1901 and was one of the first manufacturers of ice cream in Ohio, and the first in Dayton.

The site was also the location of the Wright Brothers’ first bicycle shop, although sources differ on how much, if any, of the original structure still remains. A series of additions to expand the building followed in the early 1900s, including adding the present facade in 1914.

We covered more history of this and adjacent buildings in our article on the History of West Third Street in Wright-Dunbar.

This is not the first time the structure has faced potential demolition. In 2012, the City of Dayton, which has owned the building since 2000 when a utility company moved out, declared the property a public nuisance and held public meetings that appeared to be leading toward the building’s removal.

Instead it has managed to hang on to the present day. The structure is one of Preservation Dayton’s Top 10 Most Endangered Properties and was also included on Preservation Ohio’s 2016 Most Endangered List for the whole state.

But despite the interest in its history, redevelopment proposals have made little progress and inspections have found that the building is structurally compromised and at risk of collapse. The City of Dayton is now seeking a major certificate of appropriateness from the Dayton Landmarks Commission to demolish it.

Preservation Dayton shared in a Facebook post that it had “previously helped draft a proposal for The British Transportation Museum to renovate and occupy the space, but the city rejected the RFP.”

For individuals interested in saving the building, Preservation Dayton has also issued the following recommendation:

Please also consider contacting the City Landmarks Commission staff to holly.hornbeak@daytonohio.gov and abigail.free@daytonohio.gov and/or speaking at the Landmarks Commission Meeting: 4:30 p.m. Thursday Mezzanine Planning, Resource Room, City Hall, 101 W. Third Street.

Update 2023: The building has been demolished.