We recently published our first Opinion piece by city planner Jon White about making Wayne Ave more pedestrian friendly.
Wayne is a great street with a distinguished history, so we’re also going to take a closer look at some of its prominent buildings and businesses of years past.
For today’s post, we’ll head a little farther south to look at two of the street’s more impressive old residences: the houses very close to each other across from Esther Price which are both currently operating as funeral homes.
At 1632 Wayne Ave is the Schlientz and Moore funeral home.
The brick house is Classic Revival in style and was built in the late 1860s by Samuel D. Edgar.
Edgar had inherited a large amount of land in the area (roughly from Wyoming Street to 10 Wilmington Place–formerly the Southern Ohio Lunatic Asylum/Dayton State Hospital) from his father Robert Edgar.
The elder Edgar was an early Dayton pioneer who built the famous Newcom Tavern.
Samuel Edgar built this house as a wedding present for his daughter Marianna Gebhart.
In 1936 Gertrude Moore, the first woman to graduate from embalming school, and husband Fred Schlientz moved their funeral home into the space.
Next door we find a house that’s even older, if only by a few years.
The structure housing today’s Westbrock Funeral Home was built in 1865, and it’s Second Empire/Italianate in style with soft brick and limestone trim.
It too was given by Samuel Edgar as a wedding gift for one of his daughters, in this case Margaret Herrman and her husband Ezra.
The Westbrock Funeral Home was founded all the way back in 1892 by Ben Westbrock, who had started in the business as an assistant to undertaker Peter Meyers.
In 1923 Westbrock would purchase this residence and renovate it into Dayton’s first modern full-service funeral home.
One source commented on Westbrock’s influence on Wayne Ave:
“For a generation or more Mr. Ben Westbrook (sic) has maintained a palatial funeral home at number 1712 Wayne avenue and he rightfully can be called one of the pioneer business men of Wayne avenue who has contributed much to the development of the street.”
The business has stayed in the Westbrock family ever since, and the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Stay tuned for another article on Wayne Avenue’s historic residential and commercial architecture.
Works Cited
Landmark Committee Report: Study and Evaluation of Significant Structures and Sites of Montgomery County. 1968.
The Story of Wayne Avenue in the 80s and 90s. Edward P. Deis.
Westbrock Funeral Home, Who We Are. https://www.westbrockfuneralhome.com/who-we-are/
Dayton’s Hilly Walnut Hills. https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=357701
In your article about the funeral homes on Wayne Ave that were once mansions belonging to members of the Edgar family, you incorrectly say that the two houses listed are next door to each other. This is a glaring error, unless a rather modest 2-story frame house between these Mansions has been torn down, or otherwise no longer exists. Look at the Google streetview of this part of Wayne Ave., or look the next time you are in the area. This frame dwelling is rather unremarkable except for the very deep front yard, similar to what you see in front of the tow Edgar mansions.
I have been told that this house belonged to the Edgars also. I would asusme that perhaps there was another building on this lot at one time, and the current house was built in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s due to the building design and details. The Sclientz family told me that Samuel Edgar lived at this location (perhaps in a different dwelling) at the time his daughters were given the Mansions as gifts.
Yes, you are correct about the house in between. I just meant to signify that they are in close proximity to each other on the same side of the street, as I say in the second paragraph. So that was sloppy wording on my part. I would have assumed that the two mansions were originally built as neighbors, though, but I realize that might not be the case. Either way thanks for the additional details.
My wife and I live in the Samuel D. Edgar house. It is up the street from the funeral homes. I have documented a lot of Edgar family history here http://www.thisoldcrackhouse.blogspot.com/ and there is more info here http://www.weirs.dns2go.com/garyleitzell/wgnetwork/walnuthills.html
Hi Gary, thanks for commenting! I have come across your blog when doing research and it’s a great read! I’m not positive I’ve seen the second link so I’ll give that a look also. Thanks for all you’ve done to document all of this history.
Gary,
The original oil painting ( vs the sketch in your document) of Samual Edgar hung in my parents house in Beavercreek until my mother Carolyn Seufert passed away 5 or 6 years ago. My mothers father was Thomas Edgar Hermann.
After my mother’s passing, we donated the painting to the Westbrocks as we felt it should be in the home he built for his daughter.
Just thought you would like to know.
Thanks so much for your thorough research. Much of it we knew and some we did not!
My Grandfather (Thomas Hermann) and grandmother lived across the street from the Ohmer house on Creighton Ave; I remember Susie Ohmer as a kid!
Be of good cheer,
Steve