Dilapidated building faces demolition despite history

Black women's organization was founded in 1909 on West Fifth Street by those excluded from the YWCA

JOANNE HUIST SMITH | [email protected]

March 13, 2007

 

DAYTON — Designation on the National Register of Historic Places may not be enough to save the time- and weather-beaten Women's Christian Association building at 800 W. Fifth St.  The city of Dayton's Division of Housing Inspection declared the building a structural nuisance in April 2006. Now the city has asked the city's Landmark Commission for permission to bring down the building, which has been vacant since 1975.

 

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/03/13/ddn031307demolish.html?UrAuth=%60NbNUObNWUbTTUWUXUVUZTYU_UWU\U_UZU%60U%60UcTYWYWZV

"We've got to stop destroying our history," said Margaret Peters, a retired Dayton schoolteacher, author and local historian. "I'm adamantly opposed to this."

 

She is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

 

No, the image isn't fuzzy.

Champion sought for historic building

Some residents say West Fifth's WCA should be saved; others say its poor shape is a safety issue.

 

By Joanne Huist Smith

Staff Writer

Friday, March 16, 2007

 

DAYTON — — Dayton's Landmark Commission believes only a champion with ready cash can save the historic Women's Christian Association building from demolition or eventual collapse.

 

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/03/16/ddn031607landmark.html

That building looks like heck.

 

It could become the Urban Ohio world headquarters. Anyone got half a million dollars?

The local neighborhood association supports the demolition of the house.

 

You would expect them to advocate preservation.  Having been to Detroit and seeing how they brought back those totally ruined Brush Park mansions one can imagine that happening here, as well. 

 

That this house will be demolished is due to a lack of will as much as a lack of money.

 

 

Speaking of neaby abandonment and demolition, this old church at a prominent intersection, of Germantown and Broadway, has recently been turned into a vacant lot.  They must have just demolished it.

 

 

 

...and of course Dayton will be losing a part of Twin Towers, including the Ecki Building, to be repalced by a suburban-style strip center.