Jeff

Here is an older pix of the Huffman School (from the Dayton Public Library Lutzenberger Collection) ...the 1869 map of this area shows it as platted but nearly no development, so I guess this area built-out in the 1870s and 1880s. I thought an interesting feature of 4th Street, which is where most of these are from, was that slope that caused a limestone retaining wall to be built between the houses and the sidewalk, on the north side of 4th, making the houses a bit more imposing as they are higher than the street by nearly a half story or so.

Providence holds the political distinction of the first large US city to elect an openly gay mayor. And by the looks of these pix it has a great downtown (one that is alive) and neighborhoods. I like what they've done with that river too...ive read it was decked over as a parking lot at one time!

Apparently there is a new Dayton online portal. I sort of like their mission statement: DaytonMostMetro Our Mission Create a community portal that will EDUCATE current & future Dayton metropolitan residents about events and initiatives in the downtown & urban neighborhoods of Dayton, OH. GENERATE enthusiasm and energy with others that are working to make a positive contribution to our community. PROMOTE a positive self-image for citizens throughout Greater Dayton As a Downtown Dayton technology business (ResConnex, Inc.) owned and operated by Downtown Dayton residents, we want to show everybody out there that Dayton has many living and entertainment options. There are many people like us that are equally as enthusiastic about the future of Downtown Dayton and nearby Historic Districts, and we plan to highlight the efforts being made by those dedicated to the vitality of our urban communities. If you are a fellow urban dweller, a curious suburbanite or even an out-of-town visitor, we hope that you will find Dayton MostMetro.com a valuable resource. Our goal is for you to tour our site and find a Metro Place you might then visit for the first time, find a Metro Event you might then attend, or read about the positive news & developments that are happening here and begin to spend more time in our urban core. Who knows, if you're like us and enjoy the walkability, diversity, and independent spirit we have here - you may even decide to LIVE here! Dayton MostMetro.com will be in continous development, so check back often to see what is new. New Metro Places and Events will be added on a daily basis (if you see something missing, let us know). And in the coming weeks we'll be adding things like a customizable My Metro Events Calendar and an Interactive Metro Pedometer where you can track the miles you walk/jog/bike through downtown and along the river trails - just to name a few. We want to make this YOUR MostMetro.com - so tell us what you think and let us know your suggestions. Thank you for visiting, and thank you for your support. Sincerely, All of us at MostMetro.com Reading the site (there are some blogs and messages as well as a calendar), it seems to have similar interests as the folks here at Urban Ohio. Interesting to see this popping up for Dayton.

Visiting Tall Stacks piqued my interest in a history that I have taken for granted....the development of steamboats and steamboating on western rivers. Two good books on this: Steamboats on the Western Rivers by Louis C. Hunter, published in the 1940s and still a classic on the topic. This book discusses the economics and operations of steamboats as well as technical details. A more recent book, published in 2004: The Western River Steamboat, by Adam L Kane. This book is based in part on steamboat archeology, which is a promising new field as there are a lot of steamboat wrecks, preserved in silted-up oxbows, and is more on the technical details of steamboat construction. A work of industrial archeology as well as history. One learns that the early sternwheels had the wheels inside the hull, and that the Ohio Valley was the center of steamboat manufacturing due to proximity of iron (though built of wood steamboats used a lot of iron). Apparenlty St Louis first started building boats only in the 1840s. The buisness side was interesting as steamboat manufacturing was not verticaly integrated; differnt companys where responsible for different aspects of the construction. Typically, one company built the hull and superstructure, another did the engines and mechanicals, while a third did the finish carpentry, glazing, painting and gilding.

A few quick shots of the Huffman district in east Dayton.

I picked up a flyer for a CD release party and gallery show for the local band Sleepybird: location was one of the Front Street buildings in east Dayton, which is a favorite location of mine to take pix. The event involved the an opening act Dreamcode, Sleepybird, and a closing act The Professors. There was also a small gallery show by local artist Amy Kollar Anderson, who did the CD art. The server with the big hat…a pretty good idea as he was easy to spot as he circulated in the crowd selling beer. The event was in the Goloka Gallery, which is an exhibition space in one of the Front Street buildings. The first act, Dreamcode. This fellow was doing electronic/synthesizer music, somewhat akin to The Return of the The Durutti Column or Mouse on Mars, if you are familiar with those artists. Some of the artwork from the gallery show. Sleepybird. The band lighting was very low and indirect, and the gallery lights where turned off. Difficult to describe this bands sound. I've heard it said by some local music writers to be "art rock". …with flash. I think my lens needs cleaning. For their last number the band put on these bird hats. I was reminded a bit of that old TV show “The Banana Splits”. This is the “wigglebird”. I was behind a wall so didn’t see what this was all about, but did peek around the corner to take some quick shots. I think this was some sort of performance or set of performances: The Professors’ vintage amps and equipment, waiting to go on next… Gallery of foundry molds as a reminder of Dayton’s metalworking industrial history Finishing up with the Professors, probably my favorite local band at the moment. And some parting shots of the moody Front Street district:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Jeff59c/Polipix/polipix3.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Jeff59c/Polipix/Polipix1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Jeff59c/Polipix/polipix2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Jeff59c/Polipix/polipix4.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Jeff59c/Polipix/Polipix5.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Jeff59c/Polipix/polipix7.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Jeff59c/Polipix/polipix8.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Jeff59c/Polipix/polipix9.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Jeff59c/Polipix/polipix10.jpg Next up..yard signs.

You know my first ever experience with Michigan was absymal. My dad took me on a fishing trip to Hess Lake, near Newaygo, north of Grand Rapids. It did nothing but pour rain...no fishing...and we where holed up in this cabin, with nothing for me to do but play with the Lincoln Logs that the resort owner lent us. He said the only thing to see in the area was to take a plant tour of the Gerber Baby Food factory. We passed on that. Later, though, I spent some time on trips w. my dad camping and backpacking in the Upper Penninsula & Isle Royale and the Porcuppin Mountains and other places, and IMO the UP is really Gods Country. I love that area (in the summer, I hear the winters are brutal). My favorite towns of any size up there are Houghton and Marquette. We also took a trip to the Sleeping Bear Dunes country in Northern Michigan...my favorite town up there is Leland, which is sort of transplanted New England Fishing Village (maybe, ive never been to New England) on Lake Michigan. And the sunsets from Empire Beach are fanstastic. I did take a quick tour of Detroit after going the the Henry Ford Museum for their 100th Anniversery of the Automoblie exhibit...basically we drove around the River Rouge plant, through Dearborn and this arab neighborhood in Detroit n. of Dearborn, then into Detroit, onto Grand Boulevard, through that New City area, then to Hamtramck (as Im polish I wanted to see the polish area..it wasn't that polish), then down Woodward into downtown, then under the tunnel into Windsor (just to say weve been to Canada). My impression of Detroit is that isn't as wasted as I thought. Dearborn reminds me of an older Chicago suburb, and Hamtramck was sort of Daytonesque. I really didnt spend enought time in Detroit to make a solid opinion, and of course didn't see the suburbs.

I was wondering if there are any pix of streamliner in Ohio? I think the Norfolk and Western had one, that came in to Cincinnati. The interiors where pretty good, too. I couldnt find any pix, but some of the parlor and dining cars where some good examples of deco/moderne design. Someone should start an Ohio Art Deco Society. I know I'd join! :-)

Getting back to the thread header...heres something akin to the Electroliner...this train ran between Peoria and Decatuer Illinois (I think) '

Central Park was one of the Olmstead parks...it has that nice pergola in it. During the summer they have "Shakespeare in the Park" in an open air stage there. That Cherokee Park and some of the surrounding neighborhoods where hit by a tornado back in 1974 which took out quite a bit of the wooded areas, some very big old trees, and the park hasn't been the same since, though it is starting to finally seem the great forest that it once was.

I don't see why Ohio cant deport illegal immigrants at least out of state if they can't deport them out of the country. I don't know if there are any hard stats on this, but could it be that some of these illegals are on the run from wrongdoing in Mexico, where they engaged in criminal or antisocial behavior in their villages or wherever they come from, and are now on the run?

You're welcome! I see you did get out of the car and took a walk down Belgravia Court. I liked your pix...always interesting to see what an out-of-towner picks up on re architecture, details, and such. Yes indeed, we used to say Lexington was a little Louisville. Lexington had "parks" (Transyvania Park, Fayette Park, etc) while Louisville had "courts" (Belgravia Court, Floral Court, etc).

^ that does sound a long way to walk.

Becuase it is a false comparison. What percentage of the take at your local Catholic parish bingo goes to the church and what perecentage goes to the rental of bingo equipment? What percentage of the take at a casino or slot machine goes to the owner of the slot machine and what percentage goes to the public. Churches and others that hold bingo as fund raisers are 501©3 oganizations, meaning they are non-profit...their equipment providers are, but a church is rasing money for itself, not the equipment provider (one hopes).

This is an objective look by policy anaylsts: ..which says this is being oversold. As in all gambling, the profit from this will go to gambling companys. I see no economic benefit from this at all. Certainly not an educational one. This is is one of those "window dressing" issues that purports to solve a problem (lack of access to higher education for poorer people) while not really addressing it at all. There is no way in hell I will support this, and I need to find out who the "No on Three" people are so I can make a campaign dontation.

Larry Flynt..hmm...I thought he got his start in Columbus or Dayton, or thats where he lived, and the Cincinnati connection came later via his run in with the local politicos there. Another well known person from SW Ohio, from Middletown, is Clarence Paige, the journalist. He graduated from high school in Middletown and to college at OU. He has a syndicated column but is based, I think, with the Chicago Tribune, and is occasionally on TV (I first saw him on the McLaughlin Group).

"American Scene" (realist) painter from Ohio was Charles Burchfield. I think he was from Salem or Ashtabula, that NE part of the state. Edmund White, a writer and critic and one of the pioneers of gay literature via his participation in "The Violet Quill", was a native of Cincinnati, and that city (unnamed) occasionally appears in his work. I am not sure how well he is known outside of gay or literary circles, but he has done some non-gay oriented writing, too.

Funny reading that list. Martin Mull was probably before peoples times here, more from the '70s....but he used to work "Ohio" into his stuff a lot. A lot of cartoonists seem to have come from Dayton. He's not on the list but a more recent cartoonist that had a following in the more "alternative" scene was Ted Rall (grew up in Kettering, though I think he was born elsewhere). Robert Crumb was a underground cartoonist who is pretty well know in the comix subculture, came from Cleveland.

I tell you I am mad as hell about this issue 3 after reading more about it. I recall them passing around petitions for what I thought was some sort of scholarship fund, and here it is for legalized gambling! So this is just an indirect tax on people who like to gamble. The whole concept sucks as far as I'm concerned.

Crowd composition was multigenerational...granparents, parents, and their kids. I noticed people in the crowds with these period 19th Century costumes, which was pretty cool (is this starting to be a costume event too?)...there was one couple in costume, standing on the landing, with the General Jackson in the backround, late afternoon sun, which would have made a great pix if I had brough my camera. You really got a taste of what the glory days of the steamboat was perhaps like a bit, with all those boats in port. Also, I noticed they had a ferry from Newport to Covington, too, and there was this big military landing craft in port in Covington. It wasn't listted as part of the Tall Stacks events, so does anyone know what that was about? I must say I really didn't spend too much time with the music as the acts I would have wanted to hear played on other days..though there was an impressive gospel group that I did here, and Olabelle, which I was curious to hear. True, the line up was heavy on the trad-based/Americana styles or genres, but that befits an event like this.

I noticed the steamboats all were heading upriver for their excursions when i was at Tall Stacks. How far upriver did they go?

Yes, you are correct, the Skokie Swift was part of this line. The North Shore had two lines, the "shore line" through all those North Shore suburbs (which included some street running), and finally some very well engineered right-of-way up to Milwaulkee beyond Waukegan (straight as an arrow, bypassing Racine and Kenosha). In the 1920s the Skokie Valley Route was built to bypass the congested North Shore, and it branched off at the Howard Street station, then ran through what is now Skokie and a few other suburbs like Deerfield and Northbrook (using high tension line ROW..the high tension wire gantrys where incorporated into the power trestles) before connecting back with the main at Waukegan. The Skokie Swift is all thats left of that route, and the Evanston service north of Howard is all thats left of the Shore Line route. The pix of the Electroliner in the loop is looking north, and the train is southbound, I think. The Aurora/Elgin also came into Chicago on the L, the old Garfield Park L (replaced by the line running down the middle of the Eisenhower Expy), but it didn't loop the Loop like the North Shore did..the A/E terminated at a station at Wells and Jackson, I think. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I remember that pix Rob has of that NYC railcar powered by what looks like a B52 engine! That was published in "Trains" magazine back in the 1960s, when I was a kid...but in black and white, so I didnt realize that engine "cone" was painted in red. Those RDCs where built by the Budd company, who I think did the very first streamliners that where posted in the thread header.

concertina wire and board-ups. lovely.

^ I thought that was Ripon, Wisconsin? Good link, Dfly