With the Fire Blocks development undergoing some major changes and hopefully starting real construction soon, let’s travel back in time and take a look at the area from a high vantage point. Some buildings will look familiar, but others are long gone.
The Beckel Hotel (bottom left) is now a parking lot (just east of today’s National City Center/former PNC Building on the corner of Third and Main) as is Adler and Child’s across the street (today the parking lot for the bus hub).
But three buildings near the middle of the shot survive, the long Huffman Block building (with the Reed’s sign), the Oriel Studios apartments (the taller building to its right), and the building to its left that is today a pawn shop.
The beautiful corner building, however, has been demolished, but the building to its left remains. The large building in the background was a Delco factory, and is now the Mendelson’s Liquidation Outlet.
Let’s now move ahead to the present day, and attempt to find the same angle using Google Maps/Google Earth:
Interestingly, the tower visible on the right-hand side of the old image actually belongs to today’s Key-Ads building (labeled on the “now” image above), believe it or not.
The upper floors of what was a longtime temple and meeting hall for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows fraternal organization (built in 1870) were lost after a fire in the 1930s.
The now two-story building has undergone extensive modernization over the decades. Below is a picture of the building in all its former splendor.
Today’s version doesn’t quite match up:
Historic images are courtesy of Dayton Metro Library
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