This is in part a follow up on some of the Dayton posts on the deleted sprawl thread, plus some preliminary notes on a future “black history” post, continuing the research and history threads I was doing on the development of Dayton's black community into modern times.

 

I started with this sprawl map, showing the fairly compact pre WWII city of Dayton + suburbs, plus clusters of outlying plats strung out along transport lines…canal, rail, and interurban.  The platted areas in 1940 in red and the mostly postwar suburbia in orange, and note the orange areas are spilling out into Warren and Greene County(off the map in Greene, which would also include the county seat of Xenia).

 

 

The population number behind all this.  I only have two years of numbers for northern Warren County, but you can tell the Greene & Montgomery counties mirror the big demographic jump after WWII…then Montgomery enters into a ZPG era after 1970, while Greene continues to grow, albeit more slowly.

 

 

And housing unit numbers for Montgomery County, showing a steady increase, then a leveling off in the past 20 years or so, which would seem to contradict the population numbers

 

 

Yet its not just population that’s of concern, but households that drive new housing construction of various types.  Even though Montgomery County was at ZPG at the end of the 30 years after 1970, households continued to grow, especially due to non-family households in the 1970s, due to the social changes of the 1960s becoming mainstream in the 1970s (and perhaps due to more widows and widowers as the population aged)

 

 

Similar thing with Greene, which mirrors Montgomery pretty closely, except there is a continued growth in family households.  Note that a collection of colleges plus a military installation could mean more non-family households than one would expect in a suburban/rural place.

 

 

An area of interest is Northern Warren county.  This area would be included in any Cincy metro numbers, or perhaps Hamilton-Middletown, but the northern tier of townships could arguably be considered part of a notional Dayton sprawl zone (and yes I did not include Massie Twp here)

 

 

Census data (that I could find in the library at WSU) is incomplete, but there is enough to show some comparison with the Montgomery and Greene.

 

In these cases I aggregate the three townships to come up with a topline number, but the aggregate is shown to show how Clear Creek Twp (AKA Springboro & vicinity) is really booming.

 

Housing units & Households for North Warren.  ...one can see a big jump for Clear Creek in these:

 

 

 

Now, combining the three areas, one can see the jump in households since 1970, and also a slow increase in units since 1980

 

 

 

 

Looking at this as shares of units and households, one can see how Montgomery County is slowing&  losing share of both.  In the case of Montgomery we also know that “surplus” of units are increasing, too.

 

 

Patterns of Sprawl:  Discovering the Empty Quarter

 

Taking a look at the map at the top of the post, noting the way development has grown out from the old city during the postwar period, and then drawing a circle more or less around the mostly built-up or subdivided areas

 

 

Removing the base map and arrows and just showing the CBD, pre, and postwar development it become pretty obvious that there is an empty quarter of underdevelopment vis a vis other postwar growth axis.

 

 

So empty that there has been no new subdivision, or minimal subdivision since before 1940 in some areas, particularly the US 35 corridor, as is obvious from these arils, particularly the last one where there is nothing but farm country westward beyond and adjacent to the prewar plats.

 

 

(what looks like a large agribiz farm is visible on the upper left of the last pix)

 

I’ve lived in Chicago, Sacramento, Lexington and Louisville and I have never seen anything like this before, such a degree of imbalanced growth.  It is a distinctive feature of the urban geography of Dayton.

 

What would account for the empty quarter?

 

It’s not lack of infrastructure, as this map from a recent transportation study shows the area has water (the black box is the area in the pix above)..not shown is that is has sewer as well. 

 

 

My theory is that the empty quarter exists for two reasons:

 

1.  Lack of highway access…the needed roads were not built..and in fact where killed during the initial postwar boom era.

 

2. Racial steering and a dual housing market, kicking off white flight and killing land development in the area, starting in the mid 1950s (actually an extension of pre-war practices into the suburbs).

 

One can see how road projects to connect the area to the rest of the county where killed, starting with this thread.

 

And a map of the black population, showing how this area is immediately adjacent to the inner city black neighborhoods, and are substantially black themselves.

 

 

I am still doing research on this (and its pretty tedious) but that is my preliminary hypotheses. 

 

One could say “so what”?  My comeback is that if an entire side of town wasn’t written off by the real estate and land development industry, and there was equity in infrastructure investment, Dayton would have had a healthier core and more compact sprawl, rather than the wave of suburbia rolling into Greene and now Warren County.

 

This extensive, imbalanced sprawl extending south and east is one reason why the Dayton Mall-725-Sprinboro Pike corridor and the Fairfield Commons/WSU/WPAFB areas (connected by I-675) have replaced downtown as a business center (28% vacancy rate downtown) as well as a shopping center…the center is not the center anymore because it is becoming increasingly remote. 

 

 

 

 

Excellent thread as usual.

Although relatively new, what do you make of the lack of really any new development along the Trotwood Connector?  Is it just too early to say to say?  Too little too late?  Lack of necessary infrastructure?  Reinforce hypothesis about racial steering? 

 

It's amazing how easy it is to identify where the major roads and highways are.  I expected that to be the case, but I am surprised how pronounced it is.

 

 

My comeback is that if an entire side of town wasn’t written off by the real estate and land development industry, and there was equity in infrastructure investment, Dayton would have had a healthier core and more compact sprawl, rather than the wave of suburbia rolling into Greene and now Warren County.

Do you think sprawl would be more compact (in overall area), or just more centered around downtown (a la more compact relative to downtown])?  Might just be semantics on my part.

Jeffrey,

As I have become acquainted with Dayton through your excellent posts, I have noticed that empty quarter, and wondered about it. Keep up your excellent work, and thank you for sharing it with us. :clap:

 

Is there a similar reason why I hear less about Trotwood on  these forums than southern and eastern suburbs?

Jeffrey, great stuff.

 

A couple questions based on my own work, were there identifiable Jewish neighborhood(s) in Dayton after 1900? 

 

Second, how German was Dayton pre-WWII? and what neighborhoods did they locate in?

 

 

What would account for the empty quarter?

...

My theory is that the empty quarter exists for two reasons:

 

1.  Lack of highway access…the needed roads were not built..and in fact where killed during the initial postwar boom era.

 

2. Racial steering and a dual housing market, kicking off white flight and killing land development in the area, starting in the mid 1950s (actually an extension of pre-war practices into the suburbs).

 

Jeffrey, I grew up in Dayton the 1960s and 70s. I read and heard about the things being done in the area back then. Your analysis is completely correct. I'd say that (1), lack of good roads, was the most significant factor between the two when one tries to account for the fact that there isn't even any industry in western Montgomery County. It just used to take too damned long to get through the west side.

 

As always, I love your graphics. The "empty quarter" is certainly apropos. That whole pie shaped wedge area between Rt 49/Salem Ave and Germantown Pike in western Montgomery is terra incognita to almost all Daytonians.

 

To supplement your linked article about the circumferential non-freeway belt around Dayton, the story of early I-675 planning up to its initial construction as a stub between Medway and Rt 35 in Beavercreek should be explored.

 

I believe that 675 was originally (in the 50s) planned to be a beltway around Dayton similar to 670 in Columbus or 275 in Cincy. The western part was first whacked as basically not being supported by a population in that part of the county (chicken --> egg effect.)

 

I also recall that the initial building of the final alignment of 675 was deferred for several years by pressure from black Dayton leaders including Mayor James McGee who argued that the routing of 675 as finally planned was "unfair" by not providing better access from the west side, and would drain the economic energy of Dayton out eastward. Well, what do you know, he was right!!! :(

 

Although, building some form of interstate belt around Dayton was basically a matter of regional economic competitiveness and survival. IE, ensure the Dayton region survived as a whole by selectively gutting part of the region in favor of others. 

 

It seemed to be somewhat obvious even back in the 1970s that the Dayton area was in slow motion decline and that in order to save the region as an economic entity, local leaders and planners were "triaging" the less sexy areas of Dayton, namely west, northwest and southwest, in favor of the southern and eastern suburbs.

Although relatively new, what do you make of the lack of really any new development along the Trotwood Connector?  Is it just too early to say to say?  Too little too late?  Lack of necessary infrastructure?  Reinforce hypothesis about racial steering?

 

Well, the infrastructure is there.  I am still looking into this, but I think "too late" is probably a good hunch. 

 

 

 

Do you think sprawl would be more compact (in overall area), or just more centered around downtown (a la more compact relative to downtown])?  Might just be semantics on my part.

 

No, you're right..I should have been clearer.  I meant more centered, not compact as in denser.  Maybe more like Columbus.

 

 

Is there a similar reason why I hear less about Trotwood on  these forums than southern and eastern suburbs?

 

Well, in my case, I live on the other side of the metro area from Trotwood and the other northern suburbs so don't get up there...months and years could go by.  I have been up there more recently as part of my digging on this imbalanced growth interest.

 

 

 

A couple questions based on my own work, were there identifiable Jewish neighborhood(s) in Dayton after 1900?

 

The only one I know about was the upper Dayton View one, off Salem, which was in-place by the 1930s & 40s.  I recently found out about an scattering of eastern European Jews living in South Park, and their old synagogue still stands on Wyoming.  This wasn't an urban shtetl though, like Maxwell Street in Chicago, as South Park was mostly a gentile neighborhood.

 

I'm not sure where the Jews lived before that Dayton View neighborhood.  I know there was a synagogue on Wayne Avenue (later to become the Labor Temple) and, nearby, a "Hebrew Institute" in St Annes Hill, next door to the Steamboat House, so maybe they lived with the Germans out along Wayne?

 

Second, how German was Dayton pre-WWII? and what neighborhoods did they locate in?

 

Dayton didn't get a big ongoing foreign immigration like Cincy.  Yet the Germans here did maintain a bi-lingual culture here until WWI and maybe even after the war as a German newspaper was published into the 1920s.  Based on where the Liederkranz and Turners halls were, and the churches, and whats on the historical society website, Oregon, East Fifth, Wayne Avenue, and Xenia Avenue were the had Germans at various times.  Maybe the area west of downtown around Emmanuel and Sacred Heart, too.

 

 

 

Jeffrey, I grew up in Dayton the 1960s and 70s. I read and heard about the things being done in the area back then. Your analysis is completely correct. I'd say that (1), lack of good roads, was the most significant factor between the two when one tries to account for the fact that there isn't even any industry in western Montgomery County. It just used to take too damned long to get through the west side.

 

As always, I love your graphics. The "empty quarter" is certainly apropos. That whole pie shaped wedge area between Rt 49/Salem Ave and Germantown Pike in western Montgomery is terra incognita to almost all Daytonians.

 

To supplement your linked article about the circumferential non-freeway belt around Dayton, the story of early I-675 planning up to its initial construction as a stub between Medway and Rt 35 in Beavercreek should be explored.

 

I believe that 675 was originally (in the 50s) planned to be a beltway around Dayton similar to 670 in Columbus or 275 in Cincy. The western part was first whacked as basically not being supported by a population in that part of the county (chicken --> egg effect.)

 

I also recall that the initial building of the final alignment of 675 was deferred for several years by pressure from black Dayton leaders including Mayor James McGee who argued that the routing of 675 as finally planned was "unfair" by not providing better access from the west side, and would drain the economic energy of Dayton out eastward. Well, what do you know, he was right!!! :(

 

Although, building some form of interstate belt around Dayton was basically a matter of regional economic competitiveness and survival. IE, ensure the Dayton region survived as a whole by selectively gutting part of the region in favor of others.

 

It seemed to be somewhat obvious even back in the 1970s that the Dayton area was in slow motion decline and that in order to save the region as an economic entity, local leaders and planners were "triaging" the less sexy areas of Dayton, namely west, northwest and southwest, in favor of the southern and eastern suburbs.

 

Wow, thanks for this!  I always appreciate hearing from people who where around and can add to the things I post about, as I don't have a long connection here.

 

I might have posted on I-675 before...dont recall...but the history of that road and the politics around it are absolutey fascinating, real high stakes. 

 

But I think alot of what was going on was the consquences of some decisions made as far back as the 1920s, though I am still researching this. 

 

..based on my reading McGee comes across sometimes as a Coleman Young wannabe.  I am also interested in Pat Roach, who figures prominently in news reports on the controversy.  What do you (or anyone else) remember about her?

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was not going to post on "the empty quarter" as I was getting interested in this demographic angle to sprawl, that it really does track with household growth and formation.  The growth in non-family households, for example, might track with a growth in various types of multifamiy housing starting in the 1970s.

 

One thing I didnt add was Dayton numbers as a subset of Montgomery County.

 

Here are some Dayton graphs

 

One can see that already by 1970 the core city had a fairly small % of housing units vis a vis the rest of the county + Greene Cty and North Warren:

 

 

 

And here is a particularly interesting set...the growth in househlds in the rest of Montgomery County post 1970.  Taking Dayton out the county actually looks pretty good for housing market growth.

 

 

and then %s....One cans see how Daytons share of households continues to drop. , partiicularly between 1970 and 1980

 

 

ANd finally suprlus units.  There would need to be some surplus in order to ensure enough supply to meet demand, but where is the cut off point where surplus = increased vacany and abandonment??

 

 

My theory is that the empty quarter exists for two reasons:

 

1.  Lack of highway access…the needed roads were not built..and in fact where killed during the initial postwar boom era.

 

2. Racial steering and a dual housing market, kicking off white flight and killing land development in the area, starting in the mid 1950s (actually an extension of pre-war practices into the suburbs).

 

One can see how road projects to connect the area to the rest of the county where killed, starting with this thread.

 

Troubling and telling observation.

 

Ditto Colday: fantastic thread (as always).

Thanks for the data. I'm a bit surprised that Dayton wasn't more German(American) considering the massive German hinterland to the north and west of the city. It would be interesting see what other cities have as clear an empty quarter as Dayton. Cincinnati is squished to the eastern part of Hamilton Cty, but it doesn't upset the balance really. Richmond, VA has a relatively empty quarter to the east of downtown.

^I think Dayton got a few Poles, though.

And Hungarians...

^

Yeah, the Hungarian radio show finally went off the air after 50 years..a pretty long run.

 

Thanks for the data. I'm a bit surprised that Dayton wasn't more German(American) considering the massive German hinterland to the north and west of the city.

 

I haven't looked in depth at the Germans in Dayton, but I see what you are saying.  The situation here was more complicated than just immigration from the old country.  There were three sources for Germans for Dayton:

 

1.  Pennyslyvania Germans:  Born in America, these were the first German ancestry group here, and made up the farming communities (also founders of Germantown and Miamisburg) west of Dayton as well as some early townsfolk in Dayton.  They were protestant (Lutheran or other reformed churches).

 

2. Germans from Germany:  Came over before the Civil War, including the "'48ers".  These were also a mix of farmers and townsfolk.  This is where the first Catholics come in, but also protestant. These were the Germans that created an urban bi-lingual community perhaps akin to those in Cincinnati and Louisville. 

 

It would be interesting to know the interaction between these groups, or how they saw each other. 

 

3.  German American Farmers:  Now with Dayton growing mostly via in-migration from country areas, one would see these German farming areas being a source for people leaving the land for work in the city, probably in conjunction with farming being more automated and population growth in rural areas. 

 

So the story could become complicated in terms of how these various migration streams or "stocks" influenced each other and created an urban German culture in Dayton, assuming there was one.

 

 

 

 

Another subjective data point, this time on the first generation European stock in Dayton in the early 20th century -

 

My mother (born in 1918) grew up in Old North Dayton. From what I recall, she said that the area up around Troy Street was extremely Hungarian. I think she said there were quite a few Slavs around up there, too. From what she told me, North Dayton in the early 1900s seemed to attract eastern Europeans. I need to re-review the notebooks in which she recorded her "life's history" a few years before she passed away in order to get this straightened out.

 

I don't remember her telling me or talking about many other ethnic groups in particular, except Hungarians.

^

OND.

 

True, Lithuanians, Poles, and Hungarians. 

 

Heres the best Ive seen on this ethnic heritage:

 

Old North Dayton

 

...theres a Czechoslovakian and Slovak club up there too. Though I had a boss who grew up there, and he said his part of the neighborhood (Holy Rosary parish?) was mostly German ancestry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The University of Dayton and the Marianists in general are an outgrowth of German Catholicism. Another way to measure it would be to look at the presence of Precious Blood priests - Sanguinists in the old phrasing (their headquarters/seminary are out in Mercer or Darke Cty @ St. Charles). Another way would be to look at German-speaking parishes as the Archdiocese of Cincinnati divided its parishes between English and German into the 1910s with a few Hungarian and Czech/Slovak parishes tossed in. The archdiocese never developed the kind of ethnic parish system that one saw in Chicago or Cleveland. It was basically German and Irish/English with a smattering of others.

 

It also didn't help that the diocese nearly went bankrupt after 1880 which happened as lots of immigrants were still coming in. Abp. Pilarczyk is a Daytonian fwiw.

 

It is interesting that the Pennsy Germans were in Dayton as there is little evidence in Cincy for them as a culturally significant presence.

 

The challenge with all the eastern euro groups is that pre-World War I, nearly all of them were coming from German empires (Austria and Prussia). In many cases, German-speaking people were also migrating from places that are now variously Czech, Slovak, Hungarian. Bohemians were long hard to place as German or Czech.

Let's stick to the topic.

I never said that Dayton was heavily Eastern European.  I just said there are a lot of Hungarians in Dayton, which there are.  Now if you bring up TOLEDO or GREAT LAKES or whatever off-topic thing in this thread about DAYTON, then it's going to be deleted.  That simple.

I think in the 1930s & 1940s, before mass suburbaniazation, white flight, and the big appalachian immigration wave, these Dayton ethnic communities, small though they were, were more visible and more a "presence" in the city.

 

It's something that is on the borderline of history and nostalgia.

 

Getting back to the sprawl issue, it seems that the so much is postwar yet not much is said about these suburban communities.  And I think I really need to do a photo tour of Drexel...the place has got a sort of "Cops"/meth lab vibe to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeffrey, I have been transcribing my mother's notes. Here is one paragraph she wrote on the makeup of North Dayton. The time frame would have been around when she entered public school, about 1924 or so:

 

North Dayton had a uniqueness all its own from other areas of Dayton. It was made up of Hungarians, Polish, Italians, Irish Dunkards, a religious sect, the women wore long gray gowns and small white hats and the men all dressed in black. Two odors stood out: garlic and the stench of the smoke belching out from the foundry smoke stacks which left a gritty substance on the sidewalks. Everyone got along, it is difficult to fight with people if you don’t understand what they are saying.

 

I've been learning new stuff I didn't know as I transcribe her notes. "Irish Dunkards"? Never heard of 'em.

 

Also she witnessed a classroom fight that allegedly lead to the death of Principal Wogaman of an old Harrison School, which was torn down and rebuilt as Wogaman Elementary (they moved around town a lot - there were family problems.)

"Everyone got along, it is difficult to fight with people if you don’t understand what they are saying."

 

Classic.

I'd never heard of Irish Dunkards but there are still Dunkards in Western Ohio (Versailles area), they are related to the Amish/Mennonite tradition. Generally they are German, but who knows.

There were Dunkards in Dayton too...there was a Dunkard church in the Oregon district.  But the Irish Dunkards are interesting. to hear  about!

 

 

I really appreciated your sharing your moms memoir here!  I  would like to hear a bit more if you care to share.  Did your mother live in the Wogoman School area in the 1920s?