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The Longworth Steam Plant: Dayton’s Lost Medieval Castle

December 1, 2023 By Andrew Walsh Leave a Comment


Our recent article on the soon to be demolished Ice House Building near Chaminade-Julienne High School reflected on the area’s past identify as a thriving industrial hub.

Perhaps the most important building in the area, and certainly the most noticeable, was the Longworth Steam Plant that was built in 1930 and demolished in 2005.

Architecturally, it’s not what you’d expect to find in a steam plant that would likely prioritize function over form.

Instead, the 13-story building was painstakingly built to resemble a Gothic castle.

Just after it was razed, Dayton Daily News reader Tim Good waxed poetic on the significance of the architecture:

One of the finest examples of Gothic architecture I have seen is not in the highlands of Scotland, nor is it sitting on a bluff along the Rhine. It stood here, along the Great Miami River. It had all the marvelous attributes of Gothic architecture — the crosses, the tower, and the Norman windows.

But what was most amazing, was the building’s purpose. It was not a castle or a cathedral, but a steam plant. There was no utilitarian justification to add such decoration or style to the Longworth steam plant, but somebody did. Somebody actually took the time and effort to design a building that would not only serve as a source of steam, but would also contribute visually to the Dayton landscape, and would serve as an inspiration to those who worked there or who passed by it.

This says something about America, what is best about our creativity, our ingenuity, and our imagination. Dayton and its citizens have been fortunate to have known such a work of art as this. Whenever someone suggests we take the easy road, the simple way, I will pull out a photograph of the Longworth steam plant and tell them about a remarkable building I once knew that was built by the citizens of Dayton.

(Miami Valley Voices, DDN, 3/18/05)

Digging into the history surrounding the plant’s construction, we can learn more about who that person was and how it came to be:

“In 1928, a Dayton engineer took a vacation in Europe, where he saw, among other attractions, the castles and cathedrals in the hills above the French seaside town of Normandy. He was enchanted. All the way back across the Atlantic, he carried pictures of classic French architecture in his mind.

When he returned to his office, he went straight to work on a contract with the Dayton Power and Light Company to design a steam generating station. But although he was behind a desk in Dayton, Ohio, his mind was still in Normandy. His mental wanderings, had, shall we say, an effect on his work. That’s how Dayton came to have its own replica of a medieval castle.”

(“French Connection Obvious at Longworth Station,” Journal Herald, 10/10/83)

The Longworth Street Steam Station cost $1 million when it was built in 1930.

At that time, steam heat was used “by factories in factory district on E. First st. and Monument av. not only for general heating, as do 95 per cent of the buildings in the central part of the city, but for many other purposes, (such as) in the cleaning of various parts, the heating of water, for use in laundry and pressing machines, in the cooking of impregnating insulating wax, in electronic motor and generator manufacture, in the roasting of peanuts, and the making of candy.”

Its capabilities demonstrated downtown’s extreme growth in just two decades, as in 1911, “all the steam required for heating and industrial purposes in downtown Dayton was supplied by one 12-h.p. boiler with a capacity of only 4,000 pounds of steam and hour.” The new station, with the two power generating plants, had “12 boilers with a total of 12,825 h. p., capable of producing 720,000 pounds of steam an hour.”

The steam system was also lauded for its environmental benefits, a “citadel of cleanliness” that prevented the need for “hundreds of individual heating plants belching smoke and the attendant evil of smoke, dirt, dust, grime, and obnoxious fumes, which would saturate the air to make a gloomy and unhealthful city.”

The large center tower hid a 100,000-gallon water tower, and the front of the building once featured a sign that spelled out D-A-Y-T-O-N in red lights. This sign “used to be all some people saw of Dayton. It was aimed so that it could be seen from (nearby) Union Station, and it was a beacon in the night to train travelers. For years, that sign meant Dayton” (“French Connection”).

The biggest blow the steam division was the urban renewal projects in the late 60s and 70s which demolished the old homes downtown that had made up half of its customers.

The plant ceased operations in 1994, and a decade later DP&L gifted the 3.8 acre plot of land to Chaminade-Julienne High School, which opted to demolish it and later determine a use for the site. The school also planned to keep and sell the significant amount of steel in the building to help offset the demolition cost. The Castle was razed in 2005.

Photo credit: tron on uer

Today the site is the location of the high school’s Roger Glass Stadium and for a short time also the home of the Dayton Dynamo soccer team.

At least the other steam production plant that served Dayton has fared better: it has been restored and is now the Steam Plant event center at Third and Webster Streets.

Additional Sources

“Local Demands Grow Rapidly for Heating,” Dayton Daily News, 11/9/30

“Dayton, with New Plant, to Have Sixth Largest Steam System,” Dayton Daily News, 5/11/30

Historic Image Courtesy of Dayton Metro Library

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Filed Under: Historical Dayton Tagged With: Architecture, Chaminade-Julienne, Dayton Power and Light, Demolition, Downtown, Gothic Architecture, Union Station

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I'm Andrew Walsh, a writer and academic librarian. I research Dayton history, architecture, preservation, and urban redevelopment.

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