The historic West Third Street business district in Wright-Dunbar has a BBQ restaurant and a few small independent retail businesses catering primarily to neighborhood residents.
But the best-known attractions in the area are the sites connected to the men who gave the neighborhood its name: Wilbur and Orville Wright and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
We’ve already looked at two of the more famous buildings that are part of this National Historic Park, the Wright Cycle Shop and the Dunbar House, but there’s another important site that connects the three men.
This is the Hoover Block building at the SE corner of Third and Williams, where Orville and Wilbur tinkered with their earliest business venture before aviation and even before bicycles: printing. The three-story red brick building was erected in 1890, and initially contained stores on the first floor, offices on the second, and an open meeting space on the third.
Wright Bros. Job Printers and Paul Laurence Dunbar
Orville and Wilbur Wright would occupy the building from 1890 to 1895, renting an office suite on the second floor in the NW corner while they lived just a short distance down the street.
From a young age Orville took an interest in printing, as he acquired a printing press when he was in the eighth grade and started a job printing business with classmate Ed Sines. Showing some of the ingenuity that would later help the brothers tackle the problem of human flight, Orville built his own larger printing press in 1888 and set up in a rented space at 1210 West Third Street. He identified the business as “Wright Bros. Job Printers” and soon launched a weekly newspaper called the West Side News to cater to the neighborhood. Orville was listed in the masthead as publisher and Wilbur often appeared as editor, and the latter would write humorous essays to help fill the pages.
This is where the connection to Paul Laurence Dunbar begins. Dunbar was a school friend of Orville Wright, and many believe he contributed to the West Side News, as several uncredited poems in the paper bear his style. Dunbar also established his own paper for the African-American community in Dayton called The Tattler which was printed Orville, although it would only last for three issues. Nevertheless, Dunbar composed a short poem in tribute to his friend’s printing operation, which was reportedly written on the wall in the office in the Hoover Block:
Orville Wright is out of sight
In the printing business
No other mind is half as bright
As his’n is
The West Side News gave way to The Evening Item, a daily paper that the brothers suspended after only a few months. They later launched a weekly magazine called Snapshots, which was “devoted to vigorous comments on current local events.”
But job printing, not newspapers, made up the majority of the Wrights’ operation, including “the printing of minutes and reports of church conferences, constitutions and bylaws of various church-related or civic organizations, advertisements, holiday menus, letterheads, calling cards, directories, and annual reports.”
Wright Cycle Shops and the Hoover Block’s Later Years
In about 1892, the Wrights became fascinated by the bicycle craze that was starting to sweep the nation, and they opened a shop at 1005 West Third Street in order to give them a new challenge in addition to printing. In 1895, they would move away from the Hoover Block and consolidate their printing and bicycle businesses in a new shop at 22 South Williams Street which is located right next to the Hoover Block.
Aside from the Wrights, the Hoover Block has housed a variety of other businesses over the years, including several grocery stores, bakeries and other retail establishments. Not many office tenants, however, are known. The third floor was used for meetings of the International Aeroplane Club of Dayton after that organization was formed in 1909.
A popular store on the ground floor of the was Frank B. Hale Fine Groceries, in business from 1900 until World War I. Owner Frank Hale’s residence stood at 1129 West Third Street, just west of the building the Wrights would occupy for their bicycle shop from 1897-1909, and which would later be moved to Greenfield Village by Henry Ford. Frank Hale also served as mayor of Dayton from 1922-1925.
In later years, the building declined along with the rest of the neighborhood. By 1972 the upper two floors were vacant, and in 1981 the last ground floor tenant left.
Rebirth as a Museum
The business district’s comeback all began with a photo. In particular, a rare unpublished photo of the Wright bicycle shop at 22 South Williams, which was published in a 1980 magazine article. Mary Ann Johnson, who was researching Dayton’s aviation heritage sites, discovered that this building was still standing, and that set in motion the preservation of that structure and the Hoover Block, which were eventually opened as two of the historic Dayton buildings making up the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park.
Today, the Hoover Block and the adjacent Setzer Building are connected to a new visitor center behind them that serves as the main entrance to the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center. Its exhibits include information about the Wrights as well as Paul Laurence Dunbar. In addition, on the northwest corner of the ground floor of the Hoover Block is a full-scale reproduction of Hale’s grocery store.
Works Cited
Historic Structure Report: Hoover Block (Historic Structure 02), Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park, Quinn Evans/Architects, 1999.
Concerning the Hoover Building. I lived at 1104 West Third during the 50’s in an apartment on the third floor on the corner next to it. Not many people knew is as the Hoover Building but as the corner where Sylvia’s Market was located and where we bought groceries (I’m pretty sure that’s the name).
I remember upstairs on the top floor was Union Hall and at one time there was a fire there. I think Beerman may have had that building during that time, but i am not positive.
When we first moved to the West side we lived over the Hungarin Village at 1261 West Third, next to the Railroad tracks. My brother and I attended Edison School on Braodway. We would always go to Gallaghers which was the Old Cycle Shop. I als went to Rosesvelt High School for my freshman year. It’s amazing how many things I remember of the West side and they were treasured years, good and bad. Take care, Tom
I think this is also where my dad’s grocery store was from the late 50’s until arouind 1974. Grocery store was call Shop Rite and my dad was known to all as Mr. Allen. Brings back a lot of memories!
Can anyone tell of the origin of the Setzer Buidling adjacent to the Hoover Bldg? It was the home of the Setzer Brothers Bakery 1034, 1036, &1036 and was built in 1906 but by whom? Why does it bear the Setzer name? Any info would be apprecitated.
Hi Kristin,
That’s a good question and would require some further research, but I did find the following: “To the east of the Hoover Block is the small, three~story building that was evident in the I 893 photo. which plays host to the “Tom Joe Hand Laundry” and the “Empire Bakery.” According to the 1989 National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for the West Third Street Historic District, the Setzer Building was later built at this location in 1906, but apparently retained the earlier facade, which is still visible in this post~1906 photograph (see Figure 5 also). The existing Setzer building facade was constructed in 1922.” (source is the Hoover Block Historic Structure Report)