This historic image depicts the old Patterson Gristmill which was constructed in 1816 by Colonel Robert Patterson.
Its location was just a couple hundred feet west of the corner of Brown and Caldwell Streets, roughly the area depicted below close to Fitz Hall at UD (a former NCR building):
Patterson bought the land that came to be known as the Patterson Homestead or Rubicon Farm from Dayton pioneer Daniel C. Cooper. Patterson’s land once spanned some 2,000 acres but today it is limited to the historic home that is operated a museum and the grounds surrounding it.
Patterson had several mills on his homestead, which “ground corn and wheat into flour, carded and spun wool, crushed flax into linseed oil, and sawed lumber.”
This gristmill would stand until 1870, when it was demolished to provide stones to construct a bridge for the brand-new horsecar line to cross the Rubicon Creek, which ran through the area and previously powered the mills.
According to one source, “Rubicon Creek originates near the Shroyer Road crossing and flows alongside the Dayton-Kettering Connector before disappearing into a culvert just south of Irving Avenue. The culvert channels the creek below the ground surface to an outfall at the Great Miami River just west of the Dayton Marriott hotel. Prior to the 1920s, Rubicon Creek flowed in the open along the southern edges of the University of Dayton and National Cash Register areas.”
The Dayton-Kettering Connector path, popular for running and biking, opened in 2013 after the creek channel was stabilized. The former railroad right-of-way had been deactivated back in the 1970s.
The construction of Baujan Field on the University of Dayton campus also required the creek to be diverted.
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