Salem Ave is an important Dayton thoroughfare that declined over the latter decades of the 20th century due to suburban flight and disinvestment in the surrounding neighborhoods. Recently, however, there has been better news. The Gem City Market has been open since 2021 and is carving out a crucial niche in the community. A road construction project is wrapping up on Lower Salem Ave and helping turn a wide and dangerous “stroad” into a safer pedestrian and biking experience for those who live nearby.
And there is certainly a lot more to come. The former Longfellow School property just across from the Gem City Market is a major development that has recently taken some steps forward.
The plan is for the site to be turned into “a 126-unit senior residential community “intentionally programmed as welcoming and enriching for the LGBTQA+ community and allies.”
The historic school built in 1882 will be preserved and the rest of the 2-acre campus will include a new apartment and shared community spaces. The school building will house 54 apartments, and the new building will contain an additional 72. The school will also have performance spaces to be used by local theater groups.
According to one report, “original features of the school will be incorporated into the residential reuse such as pressed metal ceilings, terrazzo floors, and broad hallways.”
The development is being done by Kentucky-based Weyland Ventures, who also did the Wheelhouse and Dayton Motor Car Building just east of the Oregon District, and United Church Homes.
CareSource donated $1 million to the effort in November 2022.
In December it was awarded $1.84 million in state historic tax credits.
Most recently, however, community members requested a change to the design, asking for the removal of a parking lot near Central and Plymouth avenues, which the school paved in the 90s “likely without proper authorization.” They also asked for the Central Ave side of the building to look more similar to the Salem Ave side. These changes may lead to a parking evaluation but are not intended to derail the project in any significant way.
The demolition of a vacant house, apartment building and an auto shop on the south side of the site began in December.
I’d like to apply for resident at Longfellow site. Please send info. Thank you.
I believe the razed apartment building was called Dolly Manor, or something close to that. It had lovely stained glass front doors – part of a neighborhood that was home for years.