Hello, Jeff. I wanted to send you a message, but with no success. You seem to have a lot of access to Dayton history and some interested in the subject. I have been trying to work on Wikipedia pages for the historic neighborhoods of Dayton. Some pages in progress can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Kjmoran. What do you know about Slidertown, currently South Park Historic Neighborhood? I assume it was you that wrote about Slidertown to Hell's Half Acre on www.skyscrapercity.com. Absolutely facinating. My wife and I are currently in renovation of house on Oak St. We are trying to hunt down the descendants of the builder from 1884 by the name of Eichenlaub.

 

Take care and drop me a line sometime. kjmoran at sbcglobal.net

I guess I should clearify my question. Do you know why South Park use to be called Slidertown?

 

I am absolutely floored by this site and not until today did I come across it. The posts on Dayton alone are great. Jeff, your post on Lower South Park/Older South Park was facinating. I always wondered about the houses on the north end of Bonner St.

 

Thank you.

Do you know why South Park use to be called Slidertown?

 

All the White Castles they had?

 

^

More like the Dennys menu. 

 

Slidertown.  Because people who lived there where on the slide down?  Thats one explanaton I've read..that it was where the down-and-outers lived, or that was the preception. 

 

There might be other more obsecure and now lost origins for the name, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Downtown Dayton is littered, or use to be, with white diners that look like White Castles. I can think of 3 off hand...5th and Patterson/St Clair, Patterson and 3rd, and 3rd and Wayne (Wympees). I have no photos of them. :|

 

 

They are still there, just not White Tower anylonger.  One is Thai, one is BBQ, and one is still Wympees.

^

Wympees now has a Mexican menue. 

 

 

Will they allow you to pay them on Tuesday for a hamburger today?

 

^

Wympees now has a Mexican menue. 

 

 

You're kidding me. Last time I was in there was 1993 and don't remember what I ordered. But I do remember it being a run-of-the-mill diner with the basics.

 

mytwocents image.

yeah, they still have burgers, but you can get mexican stuff too.  This is a new thing, I think.

 

 

Here is a Dayton question...for anyone...:

 

What neighborhood is the Rite Aide on Linden located on? As you go down the hill (away from Rite Aide, toward 35) you pass two large stone homes that are located at the end of a crossing street; they have always intriged me.

Here is a Dayton question...for anyone...:

 

What neighborhood is the Rite Aide on Linden located on? As you go down the hill (away from Rite Aide, toward 35) you pass two large stone homes that are located at the end of a crossing street; they have always intriged me.

 

Are you talking about he Rite Aid at Smithville and Linden?

^I think that is Smithville...there is a pie company on the adjacent corner.

^I think that is Smithville...there is a pie company on the adjacent corner.

 

Yes, Mehaffie's Pies is on the northeast corner of the Linden-Smithville intersection.  Mehaffie's is in a different neighborhood (Hearthstone?), but that Rite Aid is just on the edge of Linden Heights (my neighborhood).  I am slowly working on a website for the neighborhood at http://www.lindenhts.com/  and there is a map of the neighborhood on there.  I think the houses you are talking about are on Kolping or Santa Cruz.

I believe those are the Sears Catalog houses. I think there's another one over on the west side south of West Stewart St. I could be wrong.

 

Across the street from Wympee restaurant they just opened that new wine bar. If I liked wine, I'd be there.

^I think that is Smithville...there is a pie company on the adjacent corner.

 

Yes, Mehaffie's Pies is on the northeast corner of the Linden-Smithville intersection.  Mehaffie's is in a different neighborhood (Hearthstone?), but that Rite Aid is just on the edge of Linden Heights (my neighborhood).  I am slowly working on a website for the neighborhood at http://www.lindenhts.com/  and there is a map of the neighborhood on there.  I think the houses you are talking about are on Kolping or Santa Cruz.

 

Fantastic website! I remember you mentioning Linden Heights (and me getting it confused with Lincoln Heights).

 

I couldn't think of Mehaffie's, and I didn't want to say Pie Peddler. I picked up 85 pies from them last Friday, which got me thinking about the neighborhood.

Great website, but I think the link to the Wright-Dunbar neighboorhood website is incorrect. According to Preservation Dayton's site, Wright-Dunbar's is www.wright-dunbar.org

 

 

 

South Park had their tour Saturday in Dayton. I had someone ask me about the name Slidertown as I was posted to help out at one of the houses.

Darn...i forgot all about that!  I recall hearing about the tour and was going to take it but it totally slipped my mind!

 

I recall taking a South Park house tour back round 1990 or so.  At that time an aquiantance of mine was invovled with South Park Preservation Works, via his job at MVH (he didnt live in the neighborhood).  And a former co-worker and his wife had bought into the area...they moved back into the city from Englewood around when he retired, I think.

 

 

Damn. Well, I'm kicking myself for not publicizing it here. The turn out was considered a success. About 450 attendees in 5 hours. I got to take the tour with the other volunteers on Sunday. I wish I brought my camera. Sometimes you forget all the little gems around the neighborhood such as South Park that still exist through the craziness the sixties and seventies did.

 

As I have heard them called, and I understand the case, the single-story cottages that pepper the neighborhood were called Slider cottages. That is where I got the information that Slider was a last name of the landlord that owned most of these cottages (hince the name Slidertown). He, or she, catered to low-income and kept the area a bit depressed. Along comes Patterson who builds his NCR factories at Brown, Stewart and Main. Punks called the Slidertown boys (pict below) would leave him with broken windows in his factories. So to alleviate the problems, he started giving them projects with beautificating the greens in the neighborhood for money and incentives, integrating some management possitions among the labor works that came from NCR and changed the name to South Park. In doing this, you can see a lot of incredible houses next to a somewhat non-descript cottage. South Park is a mismatch of architecture. Just drive up Park Blvd. You have a gorgeous 3-4000 sqrft victorian next to 500 sqrft cottage.

 

Interesting!