One of the most beautiful historic commercial buildings in Dayton can be found right in the heart of the Oregon District neighborhood on East Fifth Street.
The Ware Block at 502-510 E Fifth was built in 1891 in the Romanesque Revival style.
The impressive facade is made from pressed brick with limestone trim, and the rounded arches above the windows are one of a distinctive feature of the style.
The building was named for Charles F. Ware, a local tea and coffee wholesaler. It has five retail spaces on the ground floor, with apartments on the upper stories.
Other early tenants included a shoe store, a wallpaper shop, and a bank.
In 1907 a theater known as the Dreamland opened at 502 E Fifth, but it would close after a decade in business.
Longtime Home of Bonnett’s Books
There is also a lot of history connected to one of the current tenants, Bonnett’s Books. It opened in 1939 which makes it the oldest continuously operating business in the neighborhood aside from the Goodwill.
The store began selling used comics and magazines, and added books a few years later. Movies were added to the offerings in the 1980s.
It has also been a family operation since the beginning. Harold “Hal” Murray Bonnett, himself an author of detective fiction, and wife Ruth (Guy) Bonnett opened the store in 1939, before their son Walter took it over in the 1970s.
Then in 2001 ownership passed to his sons Kevin and Greg Bonnett. Greg had a stroke in 2016 and passed away in spring 2025. Kevin continues to operate the store to this day, “with an occasional assist from (his) son, Ian.”
Despite the many changes in and around the store since it first opened nearly 90 years ago, Kevin shared that one can find a 1941 photo of his Grandma Ruth at the counter alongside some drawings that had been made by customers in 1940, and “most of those drawings are still on display in the shop today!”
Another commercial tenant is Eclectic Essentials, and the building recently welcomed Blind Rage Records as well.
Sources
https://downtowndayton.org/open-business-spotlight-bonnetts/
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