Many areas in Dayton were radically transformed by urban renewal. In my book Lost Dayton, I talk about the former Haymarket neighborhood between Oregon and St. Anne’s Hill. Then there is the multi-block area downtown that was leveled for the Convention Center, hotel, and Transportation Garage.
But rivaling those for the most radical change is the west edge of downtown, which went from a primarily residential area to Sinclair Community College; the County building, jail and courts; a variety of newer offices, and a whole lot of surface parking to fill in the rest.
Much of this area was totally leveled during the 1960s and 70s, including Robert Boulevard, once called “one of the most beautiful residential streets and parks in the country.”
But there are a few older buildings remaining if you know where to look.
For the purposes of this article I will use Wilkinson Street as the dividing line for what is “west.” Interestingly, all but one of the buildings form an almost straight north-south line on the west side of Wilkinson. Closer to the river nothing survives* due to the construction of I-75 and associated clearance.
(Note: I’m using Wilkinson because if we expanded our scope one block to buildings west of Ludlow, we’d add a ton of historic structures including the downtown YMCA, old Dayton Daily News building, and many more. If we went farther south into “midtown” we’d add some old industrial buildings and Emmanuel Catholic Church. This article is already over 1500 words as is…)
*If I’m forgetting any buildings, let me know in the comments!
We’ll start our tour at the corner of Fifth and Perry and work our way north up Wilkinson.
Sinclair College Building 13 (Formerly Otterbein Press, United Color Press Building)
What is now Building 13 of Sinclair College predates the current campus by decades (although the institution itself dates back even further).
The building at 240 West Fifth Street was built in 1915. According to one source, it is significant “for having housed the manufacturing operations of the United Brethren Publishing House and for representing the move of housing and industry out of the downtown as the area became more specialized for office and retail use.”
The United Brethren Publishing Company is associated with today’s Centre City Building (originally called the United Brethren Building) downtown (the first version of which is the “office building” in the composite image above). But the press built its new building on the west side of downtown and took the name of The Otterbein Press.
The new structure was called “one of the most modern and completely equipped printing plants in the country” and is where the press published its periodicals the Religious Telescope the Watchword, the Evangel and many other publications. The editors’ offices were also located in the building.
In 1970 the business was sold and became United Color Press. In the 1980s, United Color Press moved its operations to Monroe.
Sinclair purchased the building and completed a major $18 million renovation jointly funded by the State of Ohio, the Federal government, and Sinclair.
Building 13 was designed by Edward Durrell Stone & Associates and opened in 1993. It today houses the college’s aviation department, art galleries, the hospitality department, and more.
According to some, the building is also home to a resident ghost named “Mr. Joshua.” The legend states that a worker was killed in the building when his arm became caught in press machinery.
Holden Hotel / Holden House Apartments
Just down the block from the former press building, the 9-story Holden Hotel also first opened in 1915.
At the time it was considered ideally located next to busy Union Station which provided a consistent clientele of “railroad men and salesman passing through the city.”
One of the few structures in the vicinity of Union Station to survive to this day, it was converted to senior apartments in 1972. Today it is known as the Holden House Apartments.
Sacred Heart Church
This church at the NW corner of 4th and Wilkinson was built in 1895 after St. Joseph’s Catholic Church became too crowded and a new parish was organized. The Romanesque building was designed by Charles Insco Williams and features rock-faced, creamy Dayton limestone, Berea Brownstone and a striking copper dome.
The church closed in 1996 but reopened five years later for the local Vietnamese Catholic community.
This great aerial below depicts Sacred Heart with some of the surrounding street context that has since been lost. It also captures the AT&T Building as well as the Masonic Temple and Dayton Art Institute across the river (in the days before I-75 ran directly in front of it).
And a modern day approximation from Google Maps:
AT&T Building (Ohio Bell Telephone Building)
A beautiful example of Art Deco architecture, this 11-story, $2 million building at 2nd and Wilkinson opened in 1931.
The structure “is said to rest on a thick concrete slab that floats on an old riverbed of quicksand” (Dalton, Postcard History Series).
It was originally known as the Ohio Bell Telephone Building and today is called the AT&T Building.
In 2017, a 65-foot tall microwave tower that had been on top of the building since 1959 and had become a recognizable part of Dayton’s skyline was removed.
Westminster Presbyterian Church
Directly adjacent to the AT&T Building is this Gothic Revival church erected in 1926.
In 1919, First Presbyterian and Third Street Presbyterian combined into one congregation and took the name of Westminster.
The beautiful church features a Te Deum medallion window on the south wall of the Sanctuary that was designed by Tiffany Studios of New York City. (Read more about the window and the details on its panels.)
Monument Ave Homes
Next, as we arrive at Monument Ave we encounter two beautiful historic homes next to each other in between Wilkinson and Perry Streets. The twist is that neither of them is in its original location!
Isaac Pollack house (208 W Monument Ave)
The Isaac Pollack house was built in 1876 at 319 West Third Street (which I’ll note still fits our criteria of west of Wilkinson Street).
Its identical neighbor was known as the Solomon Rauh house, Pollack and Rauh being business partners in the liquor and wine trade.
According to Dayton Unknown, the two men flipped a coin to determine who would live in which house after they had been built!
The Pollack home was a residence until 1913 when it was purchased by Fenton T. Bott who opened the Bott Dancing School which operated until 1941.
The building was next used by the Board of Elections from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s.
When the Safety Building was constructed on West Third Street the Rauh home was demolished.
The Pollack house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 but with its future at the site uncertain, it was moved to its present location in 1979.
Hanitch-Huffman House (214 W Monument)
This home, built in 1868 at a cost of $17,266.35, was moved a short distance to avoid the threat of demolition similar to the Isaac Pollack house.
The Hanitch-Huffman House’s journey was an even shorter one across the street; its original location was 139 West Monument Ave (just to the east of Wilkinson St. but we’ll count it due to its present location).
The house is “typical in its Victorian Italianate massing and detail” and features a “classical veranda supported by pairs of slender Doric pillars” (Ohio Historic Places Dictionary). It was built for John Hanitch but he passed away before he had a chance to move in. His wife Mary Hanitch and nine children, however, lived there until 1894.
After Mary Hanitch passed away, the home was auctioned off. The buyer was John McIntyre who had purchased it for his daughter Ada and her husband Colonel Frank Huffman of Huffman Manufacturing/Huffy Bicycle Company fame.
Later, from 1946 until the late 1970s, the house was used by the Dayton Council 500 of the Knights of Columbus. At that point membership had shrunk and the downtown YMCA which was directly next to it wanted the land.
The group sold the house to the YMCA who wanted to demolish it for parking; however, the Y said they would work with anyone who wanted to move the building to another location.
The Martin Folino law firm had been looking for a downtown office location and fell in love with the historic house. In a major endeavor, the firm moved the building across Monument Ave on Saturday July 31, 1982 to its current location which had been acquired from the City of Dayton. (Source)
The two saved houses now represent the grand residential past that is otherwise lost from this area of downtown.
And although it has been written that Ada Huffman’s death in 1942 “marked the end of the last mansion on Monument Avenue to be maintained as a private family residence,” the Isaac Pollack house recently transitioned back to that status.
In 2021 the Dayton International Peace Museum, which had occupied the house since 2004, vacated the space for another downtown location and sold the Pollack home in order to launch an endowment for the museum.
The new owners are said to “appreciate the home’s beauty and intend to restore the site’s use as a family home — with space for local artists.”
Historic Images Courtesy of Dayton Metro Library
Thanks for the history lesson!
You must have spent a good bit of time putting it together.
I’ll keep this where I can access it and be able to share the details with my grandchildren.
The building you referred to as building 13 has some interesting history which many people no nothing about. During the restoration down deep in the basement are a couple of old printing presses that are buried way deep in mud from the 1913 flood. It was too costly at the time to dig them out and they were literally TOO big to move out of the basement, so as far as I know they are still buried to this day.