Dayton Arcade

The Dayton Arcade is a multiple-building complex in the heart of downtown Dayton. It spans a whole city block from Third to Fourth Street in between Main and Ludlow Streets.

The first section consisting of the Third Street, Fourth Street, and Ludlow Street Buildings as well as the grand central rotunda that originally housed a market house, opened in 1904. In 1908, the 10-story Commercial Building was completed at the corner of Fourth and Ludlow, which was one of the taller buildings in Dayton at the time and the first such structure to be built west of Main.

Other structures that are today considered part of the complex were not originally built as part of the Arcade, such as the Kuhns Building (built in 1882 so actually predates the Arcade by a couple of decades), and the McCrory and Lindsey Buildings on Main.

The Arcade was known as the Crown Jewel of the Gem City, but actually suffered some adversity even in its early years, such as the Great Flood of 1913 and the Great Depression which affected downtown shopping patterns. Then the construction of interstate highways and the opening of suburban shopping malls caused it to decline even further.

In the 1980s it was re-envisioned as a new type of shopping and food center, and although its food court was popular the rest of the complex never bounced back. It closed for good in the early 1990s.

The Dayton Arcade was vacant for roughly three decades, during which several redevelopment proposals failed to move forward. But in 2016, a major new project spearheaded by Cross Street Partners began to take shape, eventually rehabbing several buildings back to residential use, a new business hub with anchor tenants The Entrepreneurs Center and University of Dayton, and multiple retail and other tenants. The first phase opened in 2021 and phase two, which will include small retail and a boutique hotel, is slated for early 2025.

To read all of our articles about the Dayton Arcade, click the links below.