this thread might be more “architecture and preservation”…the mods can move it to that subforum if they want)

 

A look at some mid century modern, since we have been talking about it a bit on that Huber Poverty Pocket thread…..plus three former synagogues, since I was in the neighborhood.

 

 

 

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First, two “proto-modern” houses, being a sort of stripped classicism/art deco thing, mixing some modernist details in one (band windows, corner windows, flat roofs, porthole windows, glass block, etc).   

 

The second house as some great subtle detailing, like he scallops over the canopies and entrance, and the deco patterns flanking the doorway.  I talked to the owner and he said that the original owner had built two others, one in Oakwood and the other in Florida.

 

This style reminds me of a certain “30s” sensibility, a la Noel Coward, old cars,  champagne and tuxedos…modern but stylish and classic…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

The landscaping is great on this one, forming an outdoor room around the terrace.  There is a little roof terrace above, too.

 

 

 

 

 

Moving on to true modernism.  First a small house, then two that are in sort of a California “Bay Region” style, the last one reminds me a bit of Joe Eshrick’s early houses in the Bay Area.  I believe it was the home of the architect developer who built the Miami Valley Tower downtown (33 W Fourth?).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then this rather large house with the interesting monopitch/butterfly roof, nice stained wood siding, and the neat carport with the wrap-around windows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

$$$$$$$

 

 

 

Two commercial buildings.  The second one is a particularly interesting composition using different colored brick and a composition of planes, around a courtyard.   It seems like a real free adaptation of Miesian style.

 

 

 

 

The low curvy knee wall articulates entry, conducting one into the courtyard space

 

 

 

…which has this planting bed and some accent lights and that blue wood thing, maybe a signboard at one time.  Fenestration is a mix of window walls and band windows.

 

 

Views from the rear showing on the brick walls are used to compose the space,

 

 

 

 

Decorative metal grilles over the windows on the side

 

 

….this is one of the cleanest high-modern designs I’ve seen in Dayton.

 

 

 

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Now some houses, including starting with two very high-style high-modern ones, then a few large ranches.  The ranches have some great nice entry features…

 

 

 

 

This one has a grand staircase leading up to the house from the carport, which is about all that is visible as the house is mostly hidden by landscaping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Apartments.  Starting off with this fourplex.  This is a mix of modern styling, but its clean lines and especially the composition with the entry and garages on a sloping site reminds me a bit of Craig Ellwood and some of the CASE Study things, and a bit of Breuer in there too, and maybe Kahn.

 

 

This is perhaps the best high modern multifamily building in the Dayton area.

 

 

 

Really nice clean detailing, including wrapping the siding into the stairwell…which has a skylight and wall-washer wall-mounted spots….the place probably looks great at night too.

 

 

And the sloping site.  One can see balconies and the start of wraparound windows (start of a window wall) near the front)

 

 

 

 

Across the street a fairly nice modern apartment building with huge balconies

 

 

Then more apartments, some fairly large.  Lots of fun mod detailing here, as the big emphasis is on the doorway, lobby, and stairwells.  But in this case the windows are large compared to other Dayton apartments

 

 

 

 

 

I hope the shutters are not original, but the entry is nice.

 

 

Another entry. Grilles were popular in some 60s design.

 

 

Playing around with modernist patterns and 60s kitsch

 

 

Another entry showing how a bit more attention was paid….and the nice light stairwell “bringing the outside in”

 

 

 

 

This multifamily building is interesting as it looks like a very large house.  The detailing is exquisite and simple, with the vertical wood screens, the brick wall along the walk, with revels worked into it, the concealed entrance, overhang detailing on the gable end, and so forth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Finishing up with some houses.  Starting off with this nice ranch in white brick…

 

 

But what’s up with that French Provincial door?   Sort of an icon of 1960s bad taste, almost campy.  Like that headboard in the Valley of the Dolls still, Liberace style, and certain furnishings of the era it says “Deluxe” ,  but not really.

 

 

 

A more Wrightian/Prairie School inspired ranch,

 

 

And perhaps more “West Coast” inspired things, reminding me a bit of the Bay Region style, but also those Eichler homes.  East Coast architects were doing things like this too, to some degree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just got a glimpse of this one driving by  A lot of these are “windshield tour” pix

 

 

 

Two houses on a cul de sac….

 

 

 

…which ends in this little modernist courtyard and gate.  Beyond is a small estate with a huge two-story modern house, a mansion really, that doesn’t look like any of these houses.  Since the gate had a security cam on it I didn’t take any pix.

 

 

 

Finishing up with this simply excellent high modern house, which looks more like a Marcel Breuer/Gropius-TAC influenced design than what we’ve seen so far.  East Coast modernism.

 

 

 

 

 

Some details to admire,…the corner with the wrap around windows, stone walls, perhaps a fireplace, and the entrance, with the outriggers on the second story

 

 

 

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Now a quick look a three synagogues. 

 

All of the above houses are in the Northwest sector of the Dayton area, between Wolf Creek and the Stillwater River.   This was also the location of the Jewish neighborhood for many years.  The area was in the path of growth and out migration of Dayton’s haute bourgeois, and would have been the “Oakwood”, but for some reason they all moved to the hills west of Far Hills, in Oakwood and Kettering. Why? Some say the flood, but I think it was the country club locating south, as well as a perhaps a “changing of the guard” generational thing.

 

Oakwood and points south were restricted to gentiles, so the Jews could not join the migration to the early south suburbs.  The Jews moved instead to the areas shown on the map.  These three synagogues formed to serve this community (though the oldest synagogue still standing in Dayton is actually in South Park)

 

 

The Supreme Court ruled restrictive covenants unconstitutional in the 1940s, and the Jewish community dispersed out to suburbia. Two of the three synagogues shown are now Christian churches, and the third is being sold as the congregation is relocating to a new building in Oakwood.

 

The first synagogue was built in 1944 and is tucked away on a side street.

 

 

 

 

The next one is at a prominent location, the corner of Salem and Cornell.  Built in 1948-49 it is one of the very first modern buildings in Dayton.  The curving and streamlined design reminds me a bit of the style of émigré modernist Eric Mendelsohn, who was doing synagogues in the US at the time.  I don’t think this isn’t one of his, though.

 

 

 

These entry porches, leading to the doors and stairwell, are lined with tile vignettes….

 

 

 

 

And the windows.  They are based on Jewish holy days, and you can read the descriptions at the Windows of Beth Abraham site, which is where the images are from….

 

 

 

 

Another view from the side/rear

 

 

 

This final synagogue is a later modern work, though there is an older building behind it.  The nice thing about this design is the way the canopy works with the sidewalk to create an intimate entry space, and the way the building fronts Salem Avenue, so the building has a presence on the street, but not a monumental or overpowering one.

 

 

 

 

 

Even this side annex has some nice simple detailing and composition

 

 

pull up in your eames chair -- awesome thread alert  :clap:  nice collection of mid-cen in dayton.

 

and jews in dayton too? who knew?   :-o   seriously, those synagogues are a fine mid-century collection in themselves.

 

may i suggest some musical accompaniment to enhance your viewing pleasure?  :laugh:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting thread!

may i suggest some musical accompaniment to enhance your viewing pleasure?

 

Ah...Brazil 66!  Heh...and yes I can see Herb Alpert on the hi-fi turntable in those places.  Burt Bacharach and maybe Barbara Striesand would be nice, too  (I havn't heard of Esquivel, but I like that album cover).

 

Dionne Warwick, too. 

 

 

 

that kind of modernism makes me want to barf.  Interesting thread though.

I like mid century modern.  Does anyone know if there are any in Cleveland?  Seem hard to find.  Still house searching and if any are around in Cleveland let me know!

Well, that was refreshing.

Fantastic Post! I grew up at Temple Israel. I had my Bar Mitzvah there in 1979. The older building in the back was built in the 1920s. When the temple needed to expand in the 1950s, the added the building that faces Salem Ave. It contained a 1200 seat sanctuary. The small building on the side was a small chapel that seated about 50. The rectangular windows at the top used to be stained glass. The temple took them to their new location when they moved to Riverside Drive in 1995. The temple tried to deal with the movement to the southern suburbs by opening a branch on 725 east of Dayton Mall in 1979. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to satisfy some people and in 1984 50 families left to form Temple Beth Or on Marshall Road in Kettering.

 

Beth Abraham will soon move to the former NCR Sugar Camp site, meaning Dayton View will have lost the last vestiges of the one vibrant Jewish community in that area.

Some seem to be in dire need of tough-loving-care. I have a heart for modernism, when it is applied correctly and when it is well maintained. Otherwise, many of them become quite hideous.

Good to see there is some appreciation for this style of architecture.  I prefer it to the developer tract mansions we see today.  I like it from a functonal and aesthetic perspective, though I realize that there is this campy/ironic "retro" appreciation for it, too. 

 

I was a bit suprised to heare that this type of residential architecture is difficult to find in Cleveland, as I would expect northern citys to have more of it (like Chicago, which does have quite a bit of custom and tract versions in this style...I lived in one once, briefly, when I was a kid).

 

The popularity of modernism probably varies city to city.  I know Louisville has this somewhat, but it was only a brief period before the buildiers went back to the revival styles like French Provincial and the ever-popular Colonial. 

 

In California, of course, modern design in housing is ubiquitous, all the way down into the 80s, when on started to see craftsman/bungalow revival. Particularly in the Bay Area and northern California, where a lot of the mid-cen aesthetic originated.

 

 

 

 

Great thread, nice examples of modernist style.  I usually think of Columbus having the most of this type of architecture, but Dayton looks like it has some great examples.  I can't think of anywhere around Cleveland that might have any....maybe Parma, Fairview Park or Rocky River?  Other than that, Shaker Hts has some modern style mansions closer to the Beachwood border.  The Fairlawn suburb of Akron has some too I believe.  It would be nice to see the mid century modern craze really catch on in Ohio and see neighborhoods of these homes being renovated and commanding high prices. 

i wish someone would do a thread like this for the usonian homes of rush creek in worthington.

 

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040829/news_mz1h29wright.html

 

the houses come up,but the synagogues are blank space (no pictures).

we lived next to one of these houses,the white international style, and

we were married at Temple Israel.Still members 50 years later.

In fact we recognize one other as still being lived in by a close friend.

Our loft in downtown is furnished with many item of "mid-century modern"

 

I've been in Dayton for nearly 3 years now, and I don't think I've stumbled upon any of these homes (other than the synagogues along Salem Avenue). Guess I need to get out and explore more! Lots of gems hiding in plain sight. 

Yeah, the southern 2Cs don't have much like this at all. Does Cleveland? That mid-century residential architecture might have been pretty sweet in 2007, but is absolutely HAWT in 2019!

You'll find a few sporadic MCM homes in Cleveland Heights and down toward Northfield (my great-great uncle had a Neutra-built house down in that area before he lost his mind and got sent to a home by my grandma). Worthington of course has Rush Creek Village but that's the only really big collection of modern homes in one spot in central Ohio. There are a few cul-de-sacs in Clifton with some modern stuff, but none of them are particularly stand-out examples. Our googie game is so weak compared to all the weird cool stuff you can find out west. 

I feel kinda stalky hanging out in Rush Creek Village

Beachwood has some of this on Timberlane.

Wow, what a great thread. I love seeing all the different variations on modernism shown here, and the little bit of Dayton Jewish history was interesting, too.

 

As for modernism in Cincinnati, there are some cool streamline moderne homes on Rawson Woods Circle, and some great ones on Lafayette Lane, too, like this, this, and this (private street, so no streetview available). There are also some cool mid century modern homes in Wyoming, like this home with the googie inspired roof. The Valley Temple in Wyoming also is a modernist structure, though probably from the late 60s or 70s, so a little after the synagogues shown in this thread.The biggest collection in Cincinnati, though, has to be in Amberly Village. There is at least one FLW home in Amberly, and there are several fine examples of mid-century modern sprinkled throughout the neighborhood. Beyond these areas, there are some interesting one off mid-century modernist mansions in Hyde Park and Indian Hill, but that's all that comes to mind.

 

It's interesting that Jewish neighborhoods seem to have an attraction to this style of architecture. I wonder why that is.

 

Edited January 29, 20196 yr by edale

^The influx of Jews to the U.S. right before this type of architecture got popular is my guess.

Jeffrey started this thread and used to do many really detailed architecture posts/threads around Dayton full of incredible research.   He hasn't posted on UO for a year and a half, so I wonder what happened to him.  His posts are works of art.

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Now some houses, including starting with two very high-style high-modern ones, then a few large ranches.  The ranches have some great nice entry features…

 

The house right below this comment is right around the intersection of Captala and N. Main in Dayton.

It sits off a cul-de-sac that dead ends into Captala and was on the market about a year ago for around $200k.

The neighborhood around there has a ton of great mid-century modern architecture, must have been a prime spot back in the 1960's.

 

If I was a couple of years more financially stable, that would be my house right now lol, it is truly a beauty and a classic

On 3/11/2019 at 9:40 PM, SWOH said:

 

 

 

The house right below this comment is right around the intersection of Captala and N. Main in Dayton.

It sits off a cul-de-sac that dead ends into Captala and was on the market about a year ago for around $200k.

The neighborhood around there has a ton of great mid-century modern architecture, must have been a prime spot back in the 1960's.

 

If I was a couple of years more financially stable, that would be my house right now lol, it is truly a beauty and a classic

 

I did a home inspection on that house. It was a museum piece, all original. I've inspected several other hidden gems in Dayton that have me anxious to find one of my own before too long. 

I also wonder what happened to Jeffrey, I have learned so much about Dayton's history from him on this website.