Posted June 21, 200717 yr The Arcade in Context: Dayton Markets The heart of the Arcade, the rotunda, is really just a very architecturally elaborate food market, a building type once found throughout 19th and early to mid 20th century America. As such it can be seen in context of food marketing in central Dayton. There were a number of markets in this city. The original market was in the middle of Second Street, but was relocated to the middle of the block south of 3rd, between 3rd and 4th. Subsequent to this market, additional markets developed. 1. Sears Street in today’s Webster Station. This was a neighborhood market. Based on the old Sanborns, this market had a market house at one time. 2. The Haymarket, in the neighborhood of the same name (site of the Dayton Towers). This was just a market square of sorts, but did have scales in the center of the square. 3. A market square near the Front Street mill district, for the workers in that blue collar neighborhood. 4. The Wayne Avenue Market, another neighborhood market, which had two market houses in its history 5. The canal landing next to Cooper Park was eventually used as a hay and wood market. Sears Street and Wayne Avenue were akin, perhaps, to Findlay Market as these were neighborhood markets, with stalls in a long mid-block market house. Some pix of the Central Market, which had City Hall on the upper floors, and two versions of the Wayne Avenue Market (the later market hall was quite impressive) Based on photographic evidence, two curb markets developed downtown, on the east side of Main between 4th and 5th, and on the north side of 5th between Main and Jefferson. Curb markets appear to be sort of a farmers market, where local farmers would bring in their produce for sale off the rear of wagons. As in other cities, Dayton had a network of neighborhood corner grocery stores (or “daily markets” in some city directories), that required provisioning, so a wholesale market system developed to support this neighborhood trade. The wholesale street market was on Saint Clair Street south of Main, and was lined by commercial buildings used by wholesalers. There were also wholesale food warehouses off of west 3rd, near the railroad freight houses and team tracks. Eventually, by the 1920s, a bulk produce terminal developed off the railroad joint tracks just south of Union Station. Cold storage warehouses were built to support this trade. Presumably this is where out-of-season fruits and vegetables would come in by rail from California and Florida. Dayton’s central markets, including two of the defunct 19th century markets The Arcade Market was convenient to this bulk produce terminal, so one could assume there was some sort of transfer hauling going on, with produce and fruits being shipped up Ludlow and stored in the cold storage rooms in the basement. Based on the city directories there was quite a few fruit purveyors at the Arcade, so one can assume this was an ideal location for that trade. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Building and Owning the Arcade. The Arcade complex represents the growth of downtown Dayton in response to transportation technology that encouraged business centralization and concentration at nodes and central points. This technology was electric streetcars and interurban railroads for local and regional travel. The “tractions”, operating on a frequent schedule, centralized business activity downtown, and expanded the market area to shoppers and commuters well into the rural and small town countryside surrounding Dayton. The Central Business District had been expanding into surrounding residential areas throughout the 19th century. During the 1870s and 1880s downtown had extended south to 5th Street. The Arcade represents the start of the 20th Century extension of downtown west to Ludlow, replacing old residential and obsolete commercial establishments, such as carriage makers and livery stables. The three players in the Arcade development were EJ Barney, MJ Gibbons, and the Adam Shantz estate. EJ Barney was the chairman of the board of Barney & Smith car works, one of the citys largest employers. B&S was doing well at this time as it was selling rolling stock to the growing Midwestern interurban railroad network. So, there was cash to invest. Apparently Barney formed a real estate partnership with other to fund the development of the Arcade. MJ Gibbons apparently was branching out from his plumbing and mechanical contracting business into real estate. Gibbons also participated in the transformation of Ludlow by constructing the Gibbons Hotel at Ludlow and Third, and partnered with Barney to develop the Arcade off of Third Street, which apparently was a joint venture were Barney owned the west side and Gibbons the east (it is unclear to me how the common area in the middle was treated). Gibbons also replaced his next door shop with a still standing 4 story commercial building. The Gibbons hotel is still standing, as the Doubletree…. The Shantz estate played a small role in the Arcade, developing a corner lot into the 10 story Commercial Building. However, this was just a part of the Shantz real estate interests, as the estate was largely responsible for transforming the lower reaches of Ludlow into a commercial corridor leading to Union Station (today’s Terra Cotta District). The Shantz estate maintained an office in the upper floors of the Commercial Building, the better to survey the blocks of real estate holdings on Ludlow (the Commercial was the estates’ tallest property). Initial property ownership, on an old city plat map Ownership of the Arcade buildings through time. The Schantz estate sold the Commercial Building to the Arcade Company shortly before the 1913 flood. After that it is unclear to as to the ownership chain through the ‘teens and ‘twenties, but, based on press reports, the Arcade Buildings, owned by the Gorman estate, did go into receivership during the Depression, and was bought in 1941 by a real estate syndicate fronted by Arthur Beerman, who later bought out his partners. In 1952 the Arcade was sold to Robert Shapiro, who held it until he sold it for $1.9M in 1977 to the Arcade Partnership (the redevelopers). After bankruptcy in 1984 the complex was owned by a consortium of three financial institutions. At the end of 1990 the Arcade was bought for $100,000 by the Danis corporation, a local builder/.developer, closed, and donated to Brownfield Charities in 2004. The Gibbons interests retained ownership of their portion of the Arcade into the 1970s, presumably selling to the partnership in 1977. The complex was built in stages, with the 3rd street arcade, rotunda, and 4th street arcade building built first, the Ludlow Street arcade building built next, and the Commercial Building last. All told there was 55,600 SF of ground floor space. The architects for the Ludlow and Fourth Street sections was Schenck and Williams. The architect for the Third Street building was Frank Andrews The complex cost around probably cost between $40M to $60M in today’s money. When it opened six months’ free rent was given to desirable tenants to ensure occupancy, and the opening was celebrate by festivities that included animals imported from the Cincinnati zoo and a one week charity bazaar. The first manager was EJ Barneys secretary and business repetitive. Basic concept was to surround the Arcade rotunda with two identical five story buildings and a corner high rise. Though they look identical the two 5 story Arcade buildings are actually somewhat different in use: a) 4th Street Arcade Building a. 1st Retail b. 2nd Offices and services c. 3th & 4th Apartment suites d. 5th Two bedroom apartments b) Ludlow Street Arcade Building a. 1st Retail b. 2nd Offices and Services c. 3rd, 4th, & 5th Offices The Commercial Building under construction, with the 4th Street Arcade Building visible in the background, and the light wells to the apartments. The Commercial Building and the two flanking Arcade Buildings Sanborns of the complex in 1918-19. Ground floor circulation of the Arcade, which combines vertical and horizontal access. One can see three entrances from the street: two from Ludlow and one from Fourth (on axis with the Gibbons/Third Street Arcade), plus one from the alley to the Gibbons Arcade. Also a number of little lobbies for the two arcade buildings, and elevator feature for the market and for the buildings above. There are three boilers shown on the Sanborn, for either a building power supply or to provide heat (though the buildings may have been connected to the downtown district steam heating system). And the ice machinery under the sidwalk, with perhaps curb loading for the basement cold storage Because of its architectural design and large rotunda providing one of the finest public food markets in the United States, the Arcade has attracted much attention and has been described in many publications (from a 1940s news clipping) The dome was originally glazed in a tinted “coke bottle” glass laced with chicken wire. Due to leak issues the dome was eventually covered over with either shingles or roll roofing. Aside from the archictural magnificence of the dome, the interesting feature of this complex was it’s true mixed-use aspect. This is really evident in the 4th Street Arcade building, which had retail, office use, and two different types of apartments Office tenants on the 2nd floor at one time or another were the builders exchange, Dodge room, and a collection of contractors and building supply agents, then, after the war, the Fig Leaf Costume shop. Some views of the Ludlow Street building, which was all offices on the upper floors, except there was some retail or commercial creep, until by the 1960s the most of the second floor was filled with beauty shops! @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Occupying and Using the Arcade The occupancy in these buildings through time is quite colorful. Early users where some of the interurban companies radiating from Dayton, such as the Dayton, Covington, & Piqua (Overlook Route), and Dayton, Xenia, & Southern. Later, private eyes had offices in the buildings, which, with the small apartments and later cocktail lounges and news stands) bringing to mind a film noir setting. In the late 40s and very early 50s, Beerman Realty had its offices in upper floors of the Commercial building, where some of Dayton’s first suburban shopping centers were planned. Interestingly enough Beerman’s first true suburban shopping center, Main-Nottingham (which was managed from its own office on the x floor of the Commercial Building) was mixed use (offices on a second floor) , and incorporated its own small arcade. So one wonders if there was some inspiration from the downtown Arcade? (Main-Nottingham was renamed Northtown). The Gibbons/3rd Street Arcade was a particularly interesting mix, with its upper floor apartments, connection to the next door Gibbons building,, elaborate façade, and its shared ownership …two separate buildings, with two different street addresses and names, two different heights, but joined by a common façade and a shared covered arcade. The mixed use concept behind this place, not just between floors, but even on the same floor (for example, having ones neighbors a photo lab on one side and an sales agent on another), would be anathema to modern land use zoning concepts. On the ground floor, a snapshot of the mix of shops from 1950. Earlier, the Gibbons side had a shop that connected to the next door Gibbons building, and it looked like it sold things like burners for heaters, appliances, and such (this would have been in 1918 and 27). By 1950 there is an interesting concentration of candy stores, florist, and a card shop, which seems like an appropriate cluster to buy things for ones wife or sweetheart on her birthday, Valentines Day, or just as a surprise. Further in the arcade the mix would appeal more to the lady shopper, with dress shops (like Lerners), millinery, and hosiery stores, and a jewelry store. There as also a button store, possibly geared more to the residents in the apartments above. A number of them appear to have been seamstresses, based on the old criss-cross directories. Occupancy graphs, measuring the # of tenants and vacancies, for the two sides of the first floor of the arcade. This doesn’t measure the total SF of occupancy, but is perhaps a measure of the richness of the experience of the place, walking past a number of different shops and uses., which extended into the upper floors. Just a fascinating place!. Yet, in some ways, for me the most curious, yet appealing of the Arcade remains that residential aspect, living right in the very deepest and densest heart of the city, just an elevator ride ride down into the hustle and bustle…. Taking a look at the occupancy graphs, tt appears the Gibbons side was aggressively rented out, as that side seemed to have a higher occupancy and a mix of residential and office or commercial use on the 2nd floor. Perhaps this place was sort of an enhanced SRO (single room occupancy), with limited or shared bathroom facilities. The 3rd street, or Barney, later Beerman, side was not so intensely used, with the 2nd floor being only commercial use. Later, after a change in ownership, the 3rd street arcade become more and more residential And a quick look at the Fourth Street building, which apparently had the really deluxe apartments. One of the last people living here was a fashion designer or window designer (don’t recall which) working for Rikes department store. And finishing up with a graph of total residential occupancy, which seemed to hold pretty well until the eve of redevelopment….. Some pix as an example of the type of tenant in SROs, found in other cities (the two smaller pix are from San Francisco, the large one is a former resident of the Dayton arcade, moving). Apparently downtown crime was becoming an issue for the elderly Arcade residents, as this article illustrates (which accompanied the press pix above) An article by Dale Huffman, from an April 8 1976 news clipping: As relaxed as if he were in his living room, Weldon Peely Peelle said in his tired old rocking chair parked at on a sidewalk of buys downtown 3rd Street at noon Wednesday and said he’s fed up with living in the city. I’ve had it and that’s it, said Peelle, who is 84. “I am moving on to where I feel safer and more at ease. I am all for downtown, but it just becomes more than an old man can handle sometimes. … Peelle…had a small apartment in downtown Dayton for the past eight years... .”It just don’t seem safe for me down here at night, and I am a night person. I want to be where I feel safe and don’t get mugged or robbed or scared to death….. ….Peelle said he decided to move away from downtown after he was robbed some weeks ago,,,, Though Peelle was male he was one of the few; in the case of the Arcade buildings the occupants were mostly women. The Arcade in 1950 via Sanborn maps And the retail use on the 4th and Ludlow ground floor perimeter… ….with Culps cafeteria being the large restaurant area on 4th. Exploring the commercial occupancy under the dome via snapshots through time . Doing a count based on the city directories one finds about 50 purveyors in the market starting with the first criss-cross listings, but then a drastic drop in the 1920s, with a lower slide in the 1940s and 50s. Finally the Arcade has just a handful of vendors by 1975, when redevelopment plans surfaced. What’s interesting is that the Arcade Market apparently stabilized for about 20 years or so as a viable downtown place after its market heyday was over. A 1918 criss-cross directory snapshot of the end of the era of the Arcade as a large food market. As one would expect there is a concentration in produce and fruits, plus a variety of other foods, such as butter sales, baked goods, “daily markets’ (probably produce), and some miscellaneous uses, such as “Alexander the Arcade Bird Man”. Some of the names of the vendors are familiar into modern times, such as a Frank Gentile, fruit vendor, who was also at the St Clair market, too, and became a large local wholesaler, and a Culp, who eventually started a lunch stand, later Culp’s Cafeteria. By 1927 the market aspect of the arcade was in sharp decline, losing most of the produce vendors, though retaining a number of delicatessens and some fruit vendors. Lunch counters or stands appear in this snapshot. In 1930 the first seafood vendor appears, which is probably the parent of the current Arcade Seafoods. In 1940 WING radio had a spot in the Arcade; perhaps they did a remote man-on-the-street type of broadcast from the Arcade. In 1940 Walkers Fruit Drinks appears, which was recast as The American Way sandwich shop when the Arcade was remodeled in 1980. Another new purveyor in the baked goods department was Smales pretzel bakery, which is still in business on Xenia Avenue in the Twin Towers neighborhood. In the postwar era the Arcade really looses its market character as there are not enough purveyors to comparison shop, and there is no produce or fruits. Yet other uses surface, in 1950 a grocery reappears. Other new uses at one time or another was a popcorn stand, a nut shop, costume jewelry, women’s clothes, and so forth. A drug store was in the Arcade for all of this period, though I think at the end it was also a variety store or discount place of sorts. One of the uses I liked was a news stand, probably of the old school like you still see in the big cities. Though not “under the dome”, the first cocktail lounges appear in the complex during the 1950s. On the Gibbons side there was the Steppe Inn (which went by other names, but I like the pun there) On the Ludlow side, next to the Commercial building, facing the Dayton Daily News building across the street, was The Blue Lounge (nicknamed by the regulars “old Blue”, or “The Blue Lagoon”). ….from a Dec 19, 1977 news clipping: ….What kind of place was the Blue Lounge, Well it was a spontaneous tavern, anyone who frequented it would admit. For instance, as a reporter talked with the bar’s old friends to do this story, a women out of the dark grabbed him, planted a kiss on his cheek, never did say who she was, and left uttering the words “a farewell kiss for you and the old Blue Lounge, huh, baby?” ”….they’re Breaking Up the Old Neighborhood” During this era the Arcade Market appears to be more a convenience center for downtown shoppers and business people, but also probably a neighborhood shopping center for people living in the upper floors of the Arcade buildings, and in surrounding apartments and SROs (there were a number of apartment and rooming houses downtown through the early postwar period, before urban renewal and code enforcement hit). In a sense the Arcade, with its elderly residents, food stores, cleaners, lunch counter, and cocktail lounges, was sort of a compact urban neighborhood in the heart of downtown, and was seen as such by at least one elderly resident (overheard at the closing sale at one of the shops). Occupancy declines through this era, really dropping in the late 1960s into the 70s. At the end a number of the Arcade purveyors were not individually owned, but controlled by Robert Shapiro (the owner of the Arcade Buildings) and ran as independent operations, perhaps to make the place seem somewhat occupied? One of the characters of the Arcade during this closing era was the manager of a grocery store, who was brought in by Arthur Beerman as a tenant, around 1950 or so. Leo McGarry “the Dean of the Arcade”, surfaces in the press reports of the era as sort of a one man Greek chorus commenting on the action: …a brief walk through the arcade, from a news clipping dated Nov 10 1975. “…Our dreaming of the future done, Bob Shapiro and I enter the Arcade by its amusing portal, grateful for the open view of it that Old Courthouse Square now affords. We speak of the smudged reputation the Arcade acquired when rip-offs were everyday occurrences at the turn of the decade “ Virtually no problems since we put in our own security two years ago” Bob says” “Then, with pride and affection he inventories his “old timers. Vince’s Fruit Stand, Dishers Cheese Stand, here 71 years. Smale’s pretzels-an original tenant, now second generation. And Leo McGary’s market’s been 26 years on the Ludlow side”. “Best fish and poultry anywhere”, says Bob, then, waiving toward the precincts of Morris Friedman’s Fish Market and poultry cases across the aisle. “That’s because nothing’s frozen. Freezing dries. Everything here is kept fresh with crushed ice.” “Fine people, Bob says of Culp’s, and moves on to Emerson Slyder’s hot dog stand…” In 1977 most of these establishments would close to make way for the Arcade renovation.
June 21, 200717 yr excellent work. so many markets, who knew? "The mixed use concept behind this place, not just between floors, but even on the same floor (for example, having ones neighbors a photo lab on one side and an sales agent on another), would be anathema to modern land use zoning concepts." so true. breaks my heart, esp given where i live now. sheesh. also strange we are merely reviving such an old mixed use concept in some cities with today's downtown/lifestyle mall real estate booms.
June 21, 200717 yr ^ yeah, after visiting that big old market in Detroit back in March I got interested in this topic a bit more, and started to pull together some evidence from Dayton...one can see there was a whole lost buisness world here, with transfer trucking across town, agents, warehouses, wholesalers, and so forth....not to mention the market gardeners who probably surrounded the city... But the mixed use thing...believe it or not I lived in a place like that in downtown Sacramento...two rooms facing a gangway + a small kitchen facing a light well. But huge, and I mean huge, ceilings and windows and neat built-in things. This was supposed to be an apartment building, but the owners rented it out as offices too, so ones neighbors could be lobbyists or poltical organizations doing buisness at the Capital as well as people who actually lived in the building (my neighbor was the California offshore oil producers PAC). There was also, I suspect, some "live/work" things going on some of the tenants. And it had a little elevator to take you down to the lobby, just like these arcade buildings. So when I started doing this research and anaylses on the Arcade there was a real flash of recognition as to how this place was leased out, with that mix of things, and people running little buisnesses from their apartments. The "womans building" aspect of some of this also reminded me of certain buildings in the Chicago Loop, that also had floors of beauty shops and things like that. And related buisnesses clustering together in the office buildings (I didnt get into that here, but there sure is evidence of that in the directories).
June 21, 200717 yr Wow. Great research Jeffrey, it reminds me much of the arcades in Huntington and Ashland -- although both are on a very small scale compared to Dayton's. When was this image taken? And is there one from today?
June 21, 200717 yr Nice! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
June 21, 200717 yr At the beginning of the 20th century, a lot of electric utility companies didn't have the capacity to provide commercial/industrial customers, and some of them didn't provide 24-hour service. The establishment may have had its own generating plant to provide electricity, not uncommon in that era, and may have had a steam-driven refrigeration compressor to maintain the cold storage. Those old industrial refrigeration systems usually used ammonia, and the compressors always leaked a little. I recall going with Dad to a local dairy when I was about twelve or thirteen, and walking with him as we followed one of the men into the compressor room. It hit me like tear gas; I almost went into respiratory arrest before I could get back outside. The guys who worked there seemed to pay no attention to it.
June 21, 200717 yr When was this image taken? And is there one from today? This was from a magazine article around the time of the renovation, probably around 1980. I used it in this thread because the restoration was trying to match the original paint scheme. There was a subsequent renovation that altered the space. I don't have any current pix of the interior. I do know the owner has let others into the space to take pix, but they are professionals or semi-pro amateurs, not a snapshooter like me. I've seen some vignette pix of some of the old rooms and offices, but no recent overall panoramic or wide angle pix of the dome. At the beginning of the 20th century, a lot of electric utility companies didn't have the capacity to provide commercial/industrial customers, and some of them didn't provide 24-hour service. The establishment may have had its own generating plant to provide electricity, not uncommon in that era, and may have had a steam-driven refrigeration compressor to maintain the cold storage. Rob, thanks for your intel on this, and on the details on that refrigeration technology. I was wondering about power generation. I do know downtown did have electricity, as one of the first Dayton generating plants was just down the street. But individual buildings had their own generators too. I do know one of Adam Schantzes properties on the old hydraulic race was retrofitted for electric turbine power, based on his ledgers. So I can see this as a possibility. I am wondering how the original mechanical systems operated in this building..the heating and such.
June 22, 200717 yr The mention of the name, "Shantz" ("Schantz") brought to mind a memorial I saw in Johnstown, PA, last fall. I wonder if there was a family connection.
February 24, 200817 yr As soon as you enter Woodland Cemetery there is a copper statue of a man sitting in a chair. He is Adam Schantz. Sorry, no pic...yet. Great thread Jeffrey, should be read by anyone interested in the Arcade.
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