When I write a history article like this, I typically start by choosing the subject because I have some reason for wanting to delve into a particular organization or company.
For this one, however, I simply stumbled upon the following image and was so intrigued by the building that I wanted to dig deeper.
What type of building was it, even? It doesn’t neatly match any of the common categories we normally see. (Some sort of municipal building, or school?) And where was it located?
As I did some research, I discovered it was the home of an interesting organization that still lives on today, and not too far from this site either.
If you look carefully at the sign, it reads Dayton Turngemeinde, which is a German organization dedicated to gymnastics and physical health which was founded back in 1853.
Also known as the Turner Society or simply the Turners, it was a group that was also found in cities like St. Louis, Buffalo, and Cincinnati around the same time.
When it was first founded in Dayton by young German Daytonians, “they met in a small brick structure on East Third Street and evinced a deep interest in gymnastics.”
According to an article profiling the group, “The society is non-political and is not, in any way, involved with religious questions. The sole purpose of the organization is social enjoyment and physical development. Their motto is–in the language of an oracle in gymnastics–Health is the vital principle of bliss, and exercise of health. The Turngemeinde practice their principles, and have the courage of their convictions.”
The Turners even offered afternoon and evening classes for boys from age 12 to 18, intended to “provide the opportunity for the most physical training of children and youth in this city.”
As of 1890, a man named John Roehm was the oldest turner in the entire country, having been a member of the inaugural Dayton class and up to his seventieth birthday he “has been an active turner, taking his place at the bars and vaulting with the best of the youngsters.”
Another article ten years later said that the Dayton Turners were “known throughout the land” and “won distinction in nearly all of the national fests for a period of thirty years.” These included an annual “Turnfest” in locations as far as Newark, NJ. At the 1889 National Turnfest in Cincinnati, the Dayton Turngemeinde won the “1st class prize and 4 single prizes.”
In 1903 the group dominated a competition among Ohio and Kentucky athletic societies, with a boastful reporter writing that “Of course, everyone knew the Dayton boys would win the competition. They always do. There was nothing else to it. The Turngemeinde has won about everything they ever went after. They won all the state competitions and national honors as well, and, headed by the Roehms and Linxwellers and Nohr, Templeton, Eiser, Roth, and others there was no chance for them to come out second best.”
The article also recounts the competitions, which included swimming races, fencing, wrestling, and numerous individual competitions.
Some time before the turn of the century the Turners built a larger structure at 4th and Commercial streets (the building above) which was close to Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
In 1900 even that bigger space proved inadequate, so they built a new gymnasium and added showers and tub baths, expanded the library and social rooms, and added balconies on three sides of the building “thus affording a larger capacity for public gatherings.”
The group “abandoned actual gymnastic exercises” in the 1930s and fully transitioned to its social activities.
And in 1938, the group celebrated both its 85th anniversary and the opening of another new Turner Hall at 1400 E Fifth St (Fifth and High Streets).
In 1953 the group decided to merge with another German club, the Liederkranz, which was a singing club founded in 1890.
With the merger, the new group was called Dayton Liederkranz-Turner which would remain at 1400 E Fifth (the older homes of both organizations were demolished for urban renewal projects in the area of the Haymarket neighborhood.) As of 1961, the combined organization had 208 members.
Both the building and Liederkranz-Turner survive to the present day, but the structure looks much different than its original appearance.
The organization did an extensive renovation in 1963 to give what had been a relatively plain-looking two-story brick building the look of a “scenic Bavarian inn … as authentic as you could get in Ohio.”
It even featured a stork (which is a “good-luck bird” in Germany) on the roof.
At the time the stork was “perch(ed) on a nest beside a gable where he can eye the new high-rise apartments looming in the western sky (note: today the Jaycee and Dayton Towers) … a fitting addition to Dayton’s urban-renewed middle east sector.”
Sources
Historic Dayton Daily News and Journal Herald Articles (3/19/1890, 7/6/1903, 3/19/1938, 9/13/1963)
Historic images courtesy of Dayton Metro Library
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
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Matk miller