Posted January 27, 200718 yr Continuing east, beyond St Anne’s Hill. I used to think this neighborhood was a big zero, a place to quickly pass through on my way into the city, but it is worth a closer look as an example of a late 19th /early 20th century working class neighborhood. Everything here was built after 1870. Much was probably built after the streetcar came in 1890. Things to look for: 1. Changing houseforms, moving from the early to mid 19th century local urban vernacular styles to “nationwide styles” of the early 20th century, such as the four-square and bungalow as well as variations on the local vernacular. 2 Change in character of the urban fabric due to changing ways of building. Moves from one-off construction to serial construction, affecting the appearance of the streetscape. 3 Changing street orientation, from north-south to east-west streets. 2. Evidence of neighborhood retail via surviving corner store buildings, though the stores are closed. 3. “Cultural Weathering of the Vernacular Landscape” via owner-modifications. 4. Impact of freeway construction 5. Survival of a portion of Richard Street and a relic of the streetcar era 6. Evidence of vacancy and demolition as one of inner Dayton’s zones of destruction. 7. An inner city neighborhood that still retains a somewhat suburban character due to lack of trees and open spaces due to demolitions and the freeway. At first I thought the development history of this neighborhood was simple, but a closer look at the plat record, and land division prior to platting indicates otherwise…the platting history of the area (omitting small smaller plats)…. 1850 map showing the names of some landowners. Widow Newcom (perhaps related to the owner of Newcom’s Tavern) and a McReynolds appear here. Apparently the land was owned by both. Thumbnail is of the Newcom House (at the time of this map it was listed as “McReynolds”). … …larger view, awaiting an uncertain fate at the closed Kettering-Moraine Museum. Back in the early 1990s this house was moved to the museum from its original location. There is a marker at the former site, which is an unkempt vest pocket park. 1869 map showing property lines. The Church Street plat dates from the 1850s but was almost all vacant. The McReynolds and Newcom properties are in the hands of heirs and executors. The McReynolds property was subdivided in 1870 and Newcom property in 1875, though it appears land was already being divided up. The old Newcom/McReynolds house is, I think, the one I circled in red. Note that in this area land divisions start to follow the N-S-E-W rectangular coordinate survey system, as we are beyond the original Dayton out lots. D Webster Clegg’s Plat of Newcom Plain, north and south of Richard Street. Clegg belonged to a family of early Dayton industrialists. The Cleggs, along with other local industrialists, went into local real estate development as well as manufacturing The south of Richard Street plat has this interesting arrangement of mid block lots, slowly decreasing as one moves east as the slope of Xenia Avenue progressively diminishes the block. …and these midblock lots where also modified, and became the site of alley houses, as in this Sanborn excerpt Newcom Plain as part of 1880s Dayton, from a map in a Census report. Newcom Plain in 1890. At this time the Green Line street car was extended down Richard Street to a terminal at Linden (which still stands, or a later version). Presumably the Green Line opened this area up to more development. Green Line schedule from 1907 (at this time the western end of the line was on Lexington Avenue in Dayton View). The “Richard Street Loop” times are outlined in red. Platting and development the 1890s. Note that the neighborhood was still fairly “suburban”. Industry also began to locate out in this area in the late 1880s and ‘90s. In 1899 the Xenia Rapid Transit extended the range of mass transit beyond the Green Line terminus out Linden and Dayton-Xenia pike, opening up new areas to the east for development. Not sure if the interurban cars ran down the Green Line into town, or this was just a transfer point. (image is, I think, from the Dave’s Railpix webstie) Richard Street, as the main axis of this neighborhood, developed as a corridor of corner stores at intersections (and occasionally midblock), though these were also found elsewhere in the neighborhood, on McLain and Haynes. And there where the larger business districts on 5th and on Xenia. Neighborhood business corner, including a movie theatre, drug store, two storefronts, and a restaurant. US 35 Expressway construction (esp. the interchange for the aborted Southeast Expressway, now Steve Whalen Blvd) in the 1960s eliminates nearly all of Richard Street and also the heart of the neighborhood, leaving it divided four ways. Today, Newcom Plain, as a neighborhood designation, really relates to just the Northwest quarter of the area., including areas from the 1850s that are related to St Anne’s Hill The balance is part of Twin Towers and maybe Linden Heights. Now let’s look at what’s left in the rump of the neighborhood, moving from west to east, and then south. The McReynolds Plat Looking at the McReynolds plat on the western edge of the neighborhood. As in St Anne’s Hill, the streets are developed more north-south, while elsewhere in the neighborhood there is a east-west orientation. Looking down McReynolds Street, towards the grid shift, where the outlot plats end. Another street at the grid shift Butches’ Bar. The last corner tavern in East Dayton? (one that is inside a neighborhood, not on a busy street). Houseforms resemble the one’s we’ve seen in St Anne’s Hill, but also quite a few cottages. Cheap land at the edge of town led to construction of small one-story houses, a characteristic of working class neighborhoods throughout the Midwest. Two styles of working class housing…a local vernacular Dayton workers cottage and a “national style”….the bungalow style. This area is starting to become a zone of destruction. Also, this area has the last of the brick houses, as building materials become mostly wood as one moves further into the 19th century. A few two story houses…. Side Street scenes (there are some nice iron fences here, and the houses remain fairly close to the sidewalk and street, with minimal front yards (but large back yards….perhaps to give plenty of space for a privy as there was no sewer system here until the 1880s) D. Webster Clegg’s Newcom Plain The Newcom Plain plat from 1875. A view to some of the houses off Hamilton Avenue, paralleling the railroad. Hamilton Avenue (between 5th and Linden) is what most people see of the neighborhood, aside from US 35 and what’s off Xenia Ave. Inside the neighborhood, Moving into the Newcom Plain plat proper, on to Sherman Street, shifting from north-south streets to east-west streets. Visible on this block are two and one story doubles, urban I houses, a foursquare and a bungalow, illustrating the transition in houseforms through the later 19th Century. Some streetscapes…. The last blocks of McLain….Houses remain close to the street, minimal front yards, but the fences here are modern chain link. More a stick style house to the left….. Side & front entry urban I-houses, like we’ve seen in the Oregon and St Anne’s Hill, but in wood. Urban I-house of the antebellum “Dayton Style”, next to a larger, later one. Sherman Street again Yards and porch decoration as a local folk art Evidence of urban abandonment….vacancy, board-ups, and vacant lots due to demolitions. The treeless open spaces here become a flashback to what the neighborhood might have felt like when it was being built. Corner Stores. Quite a bit of the neighborhood retail was on Richard Street, and, as in St Anne’s Hill, on McLain. Dayton version of the shotgun house. I am intrigued by the appearance of this houseform in Dayton as it is not typically associated with the Midwest. I suspect the local version was developed independently of the types found down South. Note the modernization of he front window. Hitting the Steve Whalen Blvd interchange. One can almost imagine this area back when it was open country going under development. Freeway construction as urban renewal, removing blocks of houses via extensive frontage road construction and related demolitions….note the extended garage driveways across former lots. The big sky country of Newcom Plain. The lack of trees and vacant lots allows one to imagine what this area was like as an early suburb. (note porch details of columns and stonework…probably late 19th or early 20th century. One sees very similar details in Louisville houses from this era.) More cottages. The larger ones are usually L or T shaped. And some surviving iron fences. Note that these are set further back on their lots than the ones upthread in the McReynolds plat. Perhaps a more 20th century approach to siting is starting to appear? And a foursquare, showing the start of “national styles” of housebuilding starting to replace local vernaculars. The wide open spaces of Newcom Plain The last of Richard Street. Platted in 1889, just before the Green Line was built out Richard to Linden. This neighborhood is slowly eroding away via increase in industrial and commercial uses as well as demolitions. Richard Street, Two surviving corner stores, as an example of what was happening all the way down Richard to LaBelle along the streetcar line. As noted upthread, sometimes business corners formed on Richard, but it never had a solid business district like one found on 5th and still finds on Xenia. Examples of serial construction, probably by speculative builders, including some doubles made to look like single family foursquares. And a few shotgun houses, too. Shotguns appear to be a late 19th /early 20th houseform for Dayton. Dakota’s Tavern More streetscapes..large vacant lot perhaps a sign of ongoing demolitions and thinning out, like we’ve seen elsewhere in Newcom Plain (but nice side porch on that end house). Home improvement project gone awry? And streets stubbing off at the freeway, including some particularly small cottages. The old Green Line car barn, with some Romanesque revival detailing on the arch. This is one of five surviving car barns from the streetcar era. End of the line. Xenia Rapid Transit tracks continued down Linden to Xenia for a brief period starting in 1899, helping kick off development of the next neighborhood to the east, Mount Anthony, known today as Linden Heights . Visible on Linden is the old Dayton Spice Mill (a coffee roaster, apparently in the old days coffee was a local product as well as beer.) . The Dayton Spice Mill relocated here in the 1890s from a location near downtown. Industrial Dayton will be the subject of a future set of posts from me. Putting the plain back in Newcom Plain Accepting the thinning out of inner Dayton…. A what-if if city abandonment continues picks up pace…. The greening of Dayton via removal of neighborhoods and industry that have reached the end of their economic life.…. …or, maybe more realistically, thinning, but also conservation and selective new construction…an affordable housing alternative to suburbia.
January 29, 200718 yr Excellent. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
January 29, 200718 yr Interesting study; at the time of the Green Line streetcar extension in 1890, it was most likely a horsecar line. I noticed that one of the map excerpts refers to a stable, and I think wholesale electrification of city streetcar lines took off in a big way a couple of years after that. Fort Wayne's West Central Neighborhood has quite a few shotguns and an overall very similar housing stock, mostly on the side streets clustered around the GE complex on Broadway. Part of that complex dates from around 1890 as Fort Wayne Electric Works. In the 1950s more than 3,000 people worked there on three shifts. Now several of the buildings have been razed, GE has sold the motor and transformer businesses, and the complex is largely vacant, along with the blocks of land that the company bought in the sixties and cleared for employee parking.
February 2, 200718 yr Interesting study; at the time of the Green Line streetcar extension in 1890, it was most likely a horsecar line. I noticed that one of the map excerpts refers to a stable, and I think wholesale electrification of city streetcar lines took off in a big way a couple of years after that. Yes, I believe it was. Dayton had a fragmented ownership of the car lines, and the first electrficiation came prior to the Green Line, but on a line owned by a different company. The other car line companys electrified later. Fort Wayne's West Central Neighborhood has quite a few shotguns and an overall very similar housing stock, mostly on the side streets clustered around the GE complex on Broadway. Part of that complex dates from around 1890 as Fort Wayne Electric Works. In the 1950s more than 3,000 people worked there on three shifts. Now several of the buildings have been razed, GE has sold the motor and transformer businesses, and the complex is largely vacant, along with the blocks of land that the company bought in the sixties and cleared for employee parking. I recall from my visit to the Fort Wayne historical museum when I was up there, that the city had a lot of extensive old industrial complexes...one that stuck in my mind was the Bowser Company. From what I could see most of these are now gone. The "cleared for parking" phenomenon happened in Dayton, too, to neighborhoods next to old 19th century factorys.
February 2, 200718 yr I am reading a PhD dissertation on the Dayton working class, and a chapter makes mention of a building boom in the 1880s, quoting the Dayton Journal (1882): "On the Newcom plat, east of Hurlbert and bounded by McLain, Sherman, Richard, and Haynes...fifteen houses for mechanics...were sold on weekly payments with small payments down. The whole area (of one hundred lots) is to be built this season."
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