As you may (or may not) know, I love buildings. My love of buildings started at a young age, and I believe it was when I first walked into the brand new elementary school in town. It was so modern and unique that you would never know it was a school if it didn't have a playground beside it. As I grew older, I also developed an interest in old buildings and their history... long story short, I have worked for an Architect for the past 26 years and our most recent office move landed us in Downtown Dayton. Our initial landlords were big talkers and big planners but they never did anything with any of their buildings until finally some of their investors took over ownership and are finally making some progress (which is all part of another story or multiple stories). Plus, as you probably do know, I'm an aspiring writer. So, pulling all of that background story together, you'll understand why I'm so excited to have gone to a presentation last evening featuring Andrew Walsh author of the book "Lost Dayton Ohio".
Andrew moved to Dayton from Madison, Wisconsin and rented an apartment in Dayton Towers. Looking out of his apartment window he wondered what the green space below used to be. His research led him to discover a wealth of information about his new hometown that most of us Daytonians probably don't even know. For instance, I never knew that Dayton used to have a Red Light District. Did you? If you're over a certain age, (I won't say what that age is) then you may have known it was located along Pearl Street. We no longer have a Pearl Street as it was "repurposed" along with the brothels and bars that made it a red light district.
Another interesting point was a photo he shared of Bomberger Park back in the day. It used to have a beautiful pool but now is only green space. Green space in downtown anywhere is great, but the pool looked pretty awesome.
Andrew's entire presentation was filled with interesting information about the buildings that surround my office building, and the transformations that have taken place and even more that are in the process of changing. So, even though his book is titled "Lost Dayton Ohio" it's not all about what is no longer here. By "lost" he means "transformed." Like the buildings that
once made up Delco. One of the original buildings is now Delco Lofts; another became the Mendelson building, still another was torn down and that site now houses our 5th/3rd baseball field.
There are chapters about NCR, Wright Company Factory, Dayton Arcade, Rike's Department store, just to name a few. Andrew definitely did his research (did I mention he's a Librarian and volunteers part-time at one of our museums?) and filled the book with wonderful old photographs of what Dayton used to look like.
If I've gotten any of this information wrong, I apologize, but you'll just have to buy the book and read all about it for yourself. I bought three copies!
Follow Andrew Walsh on Instagram or Twitter
@daytonvistas
on Facebook
DaytonVistas
and/or subscribe to his newsletter
www.daytonvistas.com/newsletter.
This event was held at the Brookville branch of the Dayton Metro Library.
Check out their website for events near you. We are so blessed to have all of these beautiful new libraries.
Shout out to Frederick Marion for posting this event on his weekly
Dayton Lit newsletter. If you're a writer in the Dayton area, you need to subscribe to stay up to date on all of the latest literary happenings. If you're not a writer, you need to subscribe anyway to enjoy the gifted writing talent of Fred Marion as he shares a personal experience every week filled with wisdom, inspiration, and sometimes just a great twist that leaves you thinking "wow".
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