This long-lost structure located at 125 West First Street in downtown Dayton was known as the Loretto, a Catholic-run boarding house for women.
The Loretto (also known as the Loretto Guild) was originally established in 1912 by The Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de Ricci, who also operated similar homes in New York City and Philadelphia.
Its first Dayton location was a pair of homes on Franklin Street. It then moved to the Schwind home on Riverview Drive in 1921, before moving again to 217 North Ludlow Street the following year.
The larger and grander West First Street building opened on September 8, 1928.
The Loretto’s primary tenants were young single women arriving in Dayton to work or pursue education in the greater downtown area.
One account said that its rooms were “small and drab, but easily take on the personality of the occupant.” Religious imagery was present throughout the Loretto, but there was no pressure, “not even a suggestion” that residents adopt Catholicism.
Residents during the later years of the Guild did not have a curfew, but if one was observed “keeping funny hours” she may have been “called in for a talk.”
(And in earlier years, a curfew was indeed in effect.)
In addition to the 150 rooms, other facilities at the Loretto included a library, gymnasium, cafeteria, lounge, five dining rooms and chapel. In the 1970s, rooms rented for about $70 per month.
Many Loretto residents were students at Sinclair Community College, while others were employed at a variety of downtown businesses. One tenant, a writer who published a blog post about her experience living in the building, moved to the Loretto after accepting a job at Pflaum Publishers which was located just a few blocks away. Another notable Loretto tenant was Kathleen Rubadue, the first woman to work for the NFL.
The Loretto closed in 1976 due to a lack of funds and staff, challenges that were shared by many religious orders at the time. It also had been steadily losing tenants.
One account at the time argued that the Loretto’s success in fulfilling its mission also helped bring about its downfall:
“Over the years, (they) provided a place for the working girl, the homeless, the broke. It was a tiny island downtown of what organized religion is supposed to be about. And, probably without intending to, they helped change the world in ways they could not predict. When women became more independent, as the Dominicans of St. Catherine de Ricci wanted from the beginning, they had less need for the Loretto.”
Its furnishings and other items were offered up at a sale which was described in a Journal Herald article:
“It seems sacrilegious. A garage sale in a chapel. A confessional up for grabs for $500. A price tag on the crucifix.”
Like so many other downtown Dayton buildings, the Loretto was demolished for a parking lot.
But in this case, there was at least some consideration of reusing the building. According to a Journal Herald article, “three architectural surveys were made in an effort to keep the Loretto building for some other use, but all determined the four-floor building was too obsolete to renovate.”
One proposal was a conversion to apartments, while another would have turned it into a medical building with restaurants and other commercial space on the first floor. However, “the cost of the two projects ranged from $1.5 million to more than $2 million and the amount of space available made both of these proposals economically unreasonable.”
Instead, the property was sold to Jesse Phillips and the Schear brothers who at the time owned the adjacent 111 Building. The building was razed in 1977 for the parking lot that still occupies the site today.
First and Wilkinson in Downtown Dayton: Then and Now
Historic images courtesy of Dayton Metro Library
My friends who were Catholic and I, who was not, used to go to CYO dances in the basement of the Loretto back in the ’60s. I had to borrow someone’s CYO card to get in. As a ballet student I was quite the dancer and even got a tap on the shoulder by a chaperone for getting a little too wild! I had a bad knee that dislocated many times and back then if you tore a muscle like I did they put a cast on your leg from ankle to mid-thigh. I managed to get some stretchy pants over it and my friends would kick my shin on that leg and freak people out as it didn’t hurt me. Made dancing difficult though.
I was a student at St. Joseph’s Commercial HS, which has also been torn down, in the mid-60’s and on Friday nights my friends and I would get one of our parents to drive us to the Loretto for the weekly CYO dance. Going to an all-girls school, it was one of the few ways to meet members of the opposite sex although we also bopped around with each other. In addition to the CYO dances, I was a member of the Inland Children’s Chorus sponsored by General Motors and comprised of kids from all around Dayton. We rehearsed every Thursday after school at the Loretto and performed at Memorial Hall. Even as a kid I thought that the Loretto was a beautiful place and I was saddened to learn that it was yet another Dayton landmark that had fallen to the wrecking ball. At one time I feared that downtown would one day be one, big, ugly parking lot. I’m shocked that the Arcade, another favorite place of mine, has survived.