The oldest house in Twin Towers?:

 

 

 

"And that is a story that no one can beat

When I say that I saw it on Corwin Street!"

"There was so much to tell, I Just Couldn’t Begin!

Dad looked at me sharpley and pulled at his chin.

He frowned at me sternly from there in his seat,

"Was there nothing to look at . . . no people to greet?

Did nothing excite you or make your heart beat?

“Nothing," I said, growing red as a beet,

"But a plain horse and wagon on Corwin Street."

So about how old would the oldest house in TT be?

Somehow a chain-link fence and 'Beware of the Dog' sign don't exactly fit with an arbor.

Chain-link fences in front yards don't fit with most things but Daytonians seem to have a love affair with them.

So about how old would the oldest house in TT be?

 

The house sits on the first Twin Towers plat, from the 1830s.  The plat was in larger lots than what surrounds it, and was split up into smaller lots, too.  But this house sits on an original lot (hence the open space you see around it).

 

I think it appears on an 1869 map of Dayton.  So it dates from 1868, but perhas even earlier, given how it keeps the original plat lot.  I think its from before the Civil War. 

 

There are other candidates for "oldest house"...maybe one can put together a gallery of "oldest houses".

 

I think Twin Towers doesnt get the recognition its due as an early Dayton neighborhood, becuase the houses are more working class simple, not the victoriana beloved by restorationists. 

 

 

 

 

I agree but I think it could still be a neat neighborhood if shaded up like the OD and restored a bit. Having a nice little commercial/dining area like Fairgrounds and OD certainly doesn't hurt either.

Oy.

Chain-link fences in front yards don't fit with most things but Daytonians seem to have a love affair with them.

 

Oh, no..the front "yard"  fences here are really interesting as they are a carryover from the 19th century.  These yards were originally fronted by either wood pickets or wrought iron, and the custom of front fencing was carried over into modern times, but with a modern material & technique.  And are these spaces really yards in the "lawn" sense?  That would be applying a suburban paradigm to the place. 

 

This is one street where one gets that "New Orleans" impression that ColDayMan noted in his remarks to another thread.  At first I thought he was just BSing until I saw some neighborhood pix of older NOLA neighborhoods (Bywater and Algiers Point?)…."Aha, now I see what he was talking about!"  Dayton probably looked a lot more like NOLA in the close-in neighborhoods that were demolished as downtown grew and during the 1960s & 70s..a taste of that gone urban world survives here.

 

This thread is just a start.  I'm going to be doing more on Twin Towers & Xenia Avenue at a later date.  This is actually a rather interesting neighborhood for an vernacular architecture fan like me.  Yet it is also a dying neighborhood, with at least one vacant or abandoned house on nearly every block.

 

 

This is one street where one gets that "New Orleans" impression that ColDayMan noted in his remarks to another thread.  At first I thought he was just BSing until I saw some neighborhood pix of older NOLA neighborhoods (Bywater and Algiers Point?)."Aha, now I see what he was talking about!"  Dayton probably looked a lot more like NOLA in the close-in neighborhoods that were demolished as downtown grew and during the 1960s & 70s..a taste of that gone urban world survives here.

 

And that is why ColDayMan is God.

A lot of missing wrought iron fences was due to WWII.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020531.html

 

Xenia Ave still have some gorgeous structures on it. I look forward to whatever you post about Twin Towers, Jeff.

 

(Still waiting on, as you would call it, upper South Park, tho ;) )

Okay, gotta remember that—MayDay is king and ColDay is God.  :-D