The story of Downtown Dayton from the 19th century through the first half of the 20th largely involves the transition from homes to office buildings and other larger structures. Then in the 1950s and 60s still more were removed for parking and some whole areas were cleared in the name of urban renewal. These trends were especially notable west of Main Street, which was historically a strong residential area.
I’ve written before about some of these beautiful old houses including those that stood on Robert Boulevard as well as Fourth and Third streets.
But today we’ll look at West First Street, where there once stood a concentration of some of the finest homes in the city.
In fact, one Journal Herald article said that the street was “Once Dayton’s ‘Park Avenue”:
“Back in the 1880s and for a while preceding and after, if you wished to impress someone you said “I called on Mrs. E. of West First Street. It was the nucleus of the leading residential section in those days.”
By the time this nostalgic article was published in 1951, the prominent homes had already been knocked down and replaced.
At the SW corner of First and Ludlow was a beautiful residence built by Horatio Gates Phillips in 1846. It was removed for the construction of the first phase of the Talbott Tower in 1938.
It was well-known around Dayton as the J. D. Phillips home. Before it was razed, noted artist David Payne was in Dayton, and “said it was the loveliest house in Dayton, made record of it in water colors, and gave the picture to the Dayton Art Institute.” Payne pled that the home be saved, but to no avail.
Across the street at the SE corner of First and Ludlow stood the home of H. C. Graves “who owned some fine hunting dogs … which howled on Sunday morning when the church bells rang.”
The home and those surrounding it were demolished on March 1927 for the Van Cleve Hotel which was was built on the site.
The hotel was itself razed in 1969 after an attempt to convert it to apartments failed, and although the plan was to rebuild something on the site right next door to Christ Episcopal Church, it is still a surface parking lot today.
Moving over to the SW corner of First and Main, we see another beautiful residence, the Ebenezer Thresher home:
Thresher was a Baptist minister and prominent manufacturer who owned the Thresher Paint Co and helped form the railroad car company that became Barney and Smith.
The final home recounted in the article was the brick residence of Robert Steele on the NE corner 1st and Ludlow.
Another of Dayton’s most distinguished residents in its early years, Steele was a “businessman, headed many forward-looking city projects, and loved books, trees, and flowers.”
An anecdote from the article sums up a sentiment that could apply for many a home that once stood in downtown Dayton:
“It is said that not long before his death he looked out from his residence at West First Street and exclaimed he should like to come back years after his demise to see how beautiful Dayton remained.
How startled he would be to see a parking lot where his tree-surrounded, vine-covered residence had once stood.”
I had no idea – these were gorgeous. Thanks for the information and photos! I wonder how much damage the flood did to the residences.
They really were! You’re very welcome. I would suspect quite a bit; I’ve seen photos of how wrecked Steele HS was which was right around here at 1st and Main. And the residences on Robert Boulevard to the west were also damaged significantly. One of the worst effects of the flood on downtown residential, however, was that it made many of Dayton’s wealthy move away to higher ground in emerging suburbs of the time, which hurt many downtown businesses.
CAN YOU TELL ME WHERE DANIEL COOPER LIVED? AND WASN”T HE BUILDING A NEW HOME WHEN HE DIED….PUSHING A BELL IN A WHEELBARROW TO A CHURCH, RIGHT?
DEBBI
Hi Debbi, he initially owned the farm south of town that later became the Patterson Homestead. Then he built his “luxurious” log cabin at First and Ludlow downtown. I’m not positive about him building a new home when he died (definitely possible) but he did load the bell for the First Presbyterian Church into a wheelbarrow and pushed it there when he collapsed and died.