Posted December 3, 200618 yr I was at the Liederkranz-Turner Kristkindlmarkt today, and since was in the neighborhood decided to walk around St Annes Hill and take snaps. I was thinking of giving this neighborhood "the treatment", as its one of those 19th century districts of Dayton that I'm interested in, but this is just some random pix without all the graphics and maps and stuff.... The German hall....they will be having a very nice German xmas concert here next weekend.... I could do a thread on the "corner stores of St Anne Hill" There is no St Annes parish on St Anne Hill...this is St Lukes UCC, which is sort of a landmark. The violin shop and the old Odd Fellows Hall...for some reason this caught my eye. the way the light was working here.... Dayton rows.... The view of downtown is, no doubt, simply fabulous from the corner porch of this house....(retaining wall built of "Dayton Stone") The forlorn and deteriorating "Steamboat House". Wonder what the story is here, why this landmark and gem of the neighborhood went down the tubes? Amazing building with that massive stone masonry. No doube once a church, but now people live in it.
December 3, 200618 yr St. Anne's is one of my favorites, certainly. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
December 3, 200618 yr Interesting tour. The violin shop and Odd Fellows photo is beautiful. The steamboat house looks like a modification that was applied to an older structure. The house behind that two-storey veranda doesn't have the symmetry that was an essential part of steamboat gothic. It also looks like the renovation is recent and ongoing; the temporary porch posts aren't weathered.
December 3, 200618 yr Nice job Jeff. I've gotten a good dose of St. Anne's Hill this weekend....went to a Christmas party there on Friday and then the Liederkranz-Turner Kristkindlmarkt on Saturday.
December 3, 200618 yr oh nice i know that area. interesting variety around there, attests to waves of history. i'd say bring on "the treatment."
December 3, 200618 yr The Steamboat House…Rob you are correct on your observations. From the now out-of-print Craig McIntosh “Dayton Sketchbook”: “With more fancy than fact, some imaginative individual decided that the façade of this house at the northeast corner of McClain and Josie Streets looked like the exterior of an old paddlewheel riverboat and gave it the romantic name by which it is still know to many Daytonians.,,” “Actually the house was built by a local real-estate man, Albert McClure, in 1852. From about 1865 to 1876 the homes occupant was John L Frank, who was first a practicing attorney and then a probate judge here in the 1870’s.” “During that period however, William Dickey was the apparent owner who sold the house in 1871 to Jacob O Joyce, inventor of the railroad jack and later president of the Joyce-Cridland company. The George Shroyer family… lived in the house until 1918” “When the house was built it was a six-room structure with huge cooking fireplaces. The ‘steamboat’ porches where added about 1889. Queen Anne dormers and two rooms were added to the front at about the same time. Four rooms were added to tbe back about 1903. When the house was sold at auction a few years ago it comprised sixteen rooms plus carriage house. When its present restoration is completed…it will contain thirteen rooms, four baths, full attic and basement, plus four porches. And through a lot of diligent effort its beautiful interior woodwork is being saved.” “Like the St. Anne’s hill area where it stands the house declined with age. But like that area, as restoration continues, it should be a stirring reminder of past glories.” This was written in the 1970s, revised in 1985, so the house had undergone restoration, and was in pretty good shape when I took a tour of it back when I first moved here in 1988 of 1989. I don’t have pix, but it has a sort of funky diamond-plan widows walk on the roof, too (and it being one of those long & narrow Dayton houses, the steamboat analogy just fits) @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ More unusual St Anne’s Hill things…… The Dayton Society of Painters & Sculptors has a gallery in this 1870 house. They acquired it early, in 1967… “Built by Wesley Boren, President of the Dayton Surprise Bedspring Company and brick contractor for his son-in-law William H. Pritz…” (who was the son of a local ag implement manufacturer…), Parts of St Anne’s Hill have these midblock (actually end of block) alleys, which feel like country lanes a bit, some with houses on them. McLain Street, is the cross street running east west more or less. It occasionally has houses on it like these two twin houses (they look like they are joined but are separate) The oldest house on St Anne’s Hill? This house is supposedly the Dutoit farmhouse, from the 1838, but it sure looks newer. There is an L addition that sort of faces 5th street, so that might be the 1830s part and this side, facing Detroit Street might be newer. That elaborate gable looks later, that’s for sure. The newest house in St Anne’s Hill? This place is a hoot, a suburban tract house built in the middle of the neighborhood. It must take up four lots or more. And the name St Anne’s Hill…no one is sure where it really comes from, though there are multiple theories. It also used to be called Smith’s Hill (south of Fifth) and Bacon’s Hill (north of Fifth), and oldest city directories will refer to these place names in lieu of streets.
December 4, 200618 yr Thanks for sharing this, Jeff. I'm suprised not to see the Bossler Mansion or maybe I missed it. All of Dayton's historic districts have uphill battles. Doing what we can to save what is left with what we have.
December 5, 200618 yr Thanks for sharing this, Jeff. I'm suprised not to see the Bossler Mansion or maybe I missed it. no, i didnt take any pix of it or those neat double houses on Dutoit Street, or that huge old red brick church around the corner from the Blossler Mansion. I am probably going to spend a bit more time w. St Annes Hill and takes some pix of these later. St Anne's Hill is pretty well documented...check out the neighborhood associations' impressive Online Walking Tour All of Dayton's historic districts have uphill battles. Doing what we can to save what is left with what we have. I have a lot of respect and even a bit of awe at people who buy into the city and restore these old houses.
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