In my last article about the history of the Deeds Barn, the site of the invention of the electric self-starter, I traced its somewhat convoluted path over the decades: a replica was built in Carillon Park in 1949 but the original barn remained in Grafton Hill until 1962 when it was set to be razed for an apartment building. It was saved and moved to Kettering’s Prugh Park but suffered damage and deteriorated for roughly a decade, was moved again to the new Kettering-Moraine museum at 35 Moraine Circle, and was eventually also moved to Carillon Park in 2009.
Meanwhile, the location of the original home and barn on Central Ave is today nothing more than an empty lot. But Dan Barton, a local preservationist who has already spearheaded many projects in Grafton Hill dating back to the 1980s, hopes to change that.
Barton has proposed reconstructing the Deeds home and barn exactly where they once stood. His goal is not to create another museum, but rather to bring back a significant lost piece of the historic neighborhood while also providing much-needed housing units in both structures.
Barton’s project has earned widespread local support, but obtaining key federal and state historic tax credits is proving to be a bigger challenge.
Barton expanded on his goals for the project as well as the importance of reconstruction as a preservation method in an interview with Dayton Vistas:
Historic Preservation in America is guided by principals laid down into Federal law and explained in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.
These guidelines include the foundational law, aka “Title 36” which proscribes appropriate standards and treatments for preservation, rehabilitation, restoration & reconstruction of historic assets. These standards have been interpreted into Policy, with many specific guidelines attempting to further the goal of saving important cultural and heritage assets.
From the very beginning of federally supported preservation efforts, Reconstruction was an important aspect of this federal directive. Philanthropists in the 1920s and 1930s got the ball rolling with massive financial support for the construction and promotion of sites like Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, Sturbridge Village, Monticello, Mount Vernon and other important historical sites. Local sites throughout the country replicated this initiative. These national historic assets recovered much of our lost foundational history for modern populations. Interpretive education brought our history to life for contemporary generations.
I was 11 years old when we first toured Williamsburg Virginia. It turned my interest in history into something much stronger. Looking at the reconstructed Governor’s Mansion, the re-enactments, the crafts-people at work, it all swept me back in time into a reality well beyond what a history book could impart. I was captivated and overwhelmed. Getting lost in a period maze, walking the grounds of Mount Vernon, the servant’s quarters of Monticello were simply magic. I wanted more. And I wanted to be a participant in historic preservation.
Fast forward to 2023, as a member of Preservation Dayton, and the Grafton Hill Association, I was painfully aware of the extent of Dayton’s lost historic buildings. I became aware of the Federal Programs supporting all aspects of preservation. I became a part of several initiatives to further historic preservation. I began to work in Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits, and understood the important role played by the National Register.
I also came to own the site of the original Deeds Barn Site on Central Avenue. This led me to propose to the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service that the Reconstruction of the Deeds Site would be consistent with the goals and directives in Federal Law.
That initiative continues, as beginning in the 1980s “Reconstruction as a treatment” began to fall from favor with National Park Service. We don’t know why this occurred, but it has become a deep seated institutional bias.
We are working to change that perspective, and to recover important lost historic assets. There is no reason that short sighted anti-historic trends of the 1960s should forever deprive us of our history. Henry Ford made off with the Wright Brothers house to Dearborn, but why can’t Dayton rebuild it on it’s original site in the Wright Dunbar District? No Policy should prohibit this, when the law is clearly supporting reconstruction.
This policy now embedded in the SHPO and NPS which needs to be reexamined. We intend to do just that. We would appreciate your help.”
Beyond his deep knowledge of tax credit policies, Barton’s past historic preservation projects make him the perfect candidate to work in this particular neighborhood. Preservation Dayton wrote that “It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Grafton Hill Historic District would not be the thriving neighborhood it is today” without Dan and wife Chris Rashilla Barton.
The Bartons’ first home renovation in the neighborhood was the 1908 Rothenburger House in 1982. They have also renovated three other homes on Central Ave: the 1889 Harry Canby House, the 1887 Turner House, and the 1886 Gebhart Hawker House.
They also helped create a community development corporation for the neighborhood which has rehabbed and saved 4 more houses, including two that were set to be demolished in 2016 for a Masonic Center parking lot expansion.
Those houses “were successfully moved to empty lots in Grafton and were also the first relocated structures in the nation to retain their National Register status and to qualify for historic tax credits.”
As Barton notes, opening up new opportunities for reconstruction projects would be invaluable for a city like Dayton which has lost a staggering amount of its built environment including many important historic sites. Reconstruction has the potential to re-establish streetscapes that were lost when they began to suffer disinvestment, while the historic assets were either razed to the ground or moved away to become a museum piece while the original site sits empty. These projects focus on that authentic context, and also serve to uplift those neighborhoods.
We don’t need to look far to find a site with even more national significance which too has been moved away from its original location. The Wright Brothers’ home at 7 Hawthorn Street was moved to Dearborn’s Greenfield Village by Henry Ford, while only “an undersized, inaccurate, porch fragment” can be found on the site. As Barton notes, the “potential for an accurate NPS-compliant reconstruction was not undertaken on the original site.” Ditto for their bike shop at 1127 West Third, where the brothers first seriously delved into the world of aviation. It too is found today in Dearborn while a replica stands in Carillon Park.
This type of reconstruction is a different approach to preserving history than collecting historic structures in a single location for visitors to tour (or reconstructing them there). But definitely count Brady Kress, President and CEO of Dayton History which operates Carillon Park, as a supporter. “It returns some of the historic context to the neighborhood, which is great,” he told the Dayton Daily News. “It’s a neat project.”
Anyone interested in supporting Barton’s effort is welcome to contact him at 937-672-8489 or dan.barton@brainwave-connection.com.
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