The House at 153 Santa Clara Ave

A recent post on the @daytonarchitecture Instagram account highlighted this home in the Santa Clara neighborhood.

The house at 153 Santa Clara Ave was built in 1928 and has had a few notable residents over the years. As of 1935, it was occupied by Arthur C. Chesney Jr., an accountant with the Inland Division of GM. That factory was built around the Wright Brothers’ original factory buildings and was later transferred to Delphi before closing down for good in 2008. It has since been demolished except for the Wright Company buildings which will hopefully become part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park.

This is a map of the street around that time, and you can see that 153 Santa Clara was an apartment house from the beginning:

Later, 153 Santa Clara would be the home of Homer Hamilton Williams, a physician born in Uhrichsville, OH in 1892. Williams worked as a bacteriologist for the city of Dayton, as well as for St. Elizabeth Hospital. He was a noteworthy Daytonian who earned a mention in the 1960 edition of Who’s Who in the Midwest.

More recently the house, along with many others in the neighborhood, has fallen into disrepair. As of 2016, Santa Clara was the most vacant neighborhood in Dayton with over 35% of its structures sitting unoccupied. In 2010, it was one of the ten most abandoned areas in the entire country.

A little more than a decade ago, the neighborhood’s business district on North Main Street was known as the “Santa Clara Arts District,” lined with art galleries, retail stores, and eateries. Although the area had suffered from divestment, vacancies and crime for decades, the city designated the area a “Town Center” in the early 90s which opened up city resources to help spur development, the same strategy that propped up the Oregon District. But despite gaining some momentum at times, the plan didn’t work and businesses eventually fled. Some relocated to other parts of the city, such as the popular Omega Music record store. By now most of the commercial buildings are vacant and deteriorating with the district’s future looking grim. But a new business recently opened in the area, the Santa Clara Juicery, and its owners envision it as a first step towards a rebound in the area.

Revitalizing the vacant properties won’t be an easy task, however. The abandoned homes in the neighborhood “carry back tax bills that come close or even exceed what the houses are worth. Many of the homes are also owned by limited liability companies, making it more difficult to hold individuals responsible for the tax bills. Any potential buyer would face a large tax liability, and expensive repair costs … Many times homes have also been stripped of copper and whatever else thieves can sell.” (Dayton Daily News).

The acceleration of the neighborhood’s decline, as well as 153 Santa Clara, coincides with the Great Recession. 153 Santa Clara was foreclosed on in 2002, but appears to have remained in good condition until at least 2005 when it sold for $95,000. By 2011, however, after a series of bank to bank transactions it was sold for a paltry $1,000. It’s had at least 4 code violations in recent years, including a cracked foundation, deteriorated balustrade parts, peeling paint, and damaged or missing gutters.

The glut of abandoned homes can be a magnet for crime such as drug activity and prostitution, and the Santa Clara/North Riverdale neighborhoods were the site of a series of suspicious deaths in the last two years. Remaining neighborhood residents take on active roles in looking out for one another, cleaning up trash, and contacting the city about vacant properties in need of attention. But money for demolition is limited and must be spread out across the whole city, so most cases are unable to be addressed. The ongoing restoration of downtown Dayton and its inner-ring neighborhoods are bringing many residents back to fix up once-vacant homes, but it will likely take decades for the momentum to spread this far north.

153 Santa Clara Ave is currently listed as a four-family apartment house. Its future is uncertain and it would seem unlikely to be fixed up anytime soon.