Posted July 9, 200519 yr Urban renewal has made its mark on Ohio's urban landscape, and it was parented, in part, by a leading Ohio politician. Senator Robert A Taft, "Mr Republican", was the chief sponsor of the Housing Act of 1949, of which Title I was the provision for urban renewal. While Akron probably engaged in one of the more drastic urban renewal programs in the state, radically changing the face of its downtown, Dayton wasn't far behind. This will be a series of threads looking at Urban Renewal in Dayton. I will start with an introduction, then explore three neighborhoods; the Haymarket and adjoining areas, Hells Half Acre, and a later example, a small area near the former Hydraulic canal. Perhaps part of the sucess of these programs is that you have never heard of these neighborhoods as they have been "renewed", largely cleared and redeveloped. I might explore the downtown urban renewal projects at a later date. Urban renewal started out before 1949 in Dayton, probably with progressive era concern with slums, but certainly with the 1933 Housing Survey of Dayton, which was an in-depth and fine-grained (at the voting precinct detail) investigation of housing conditions in the city, which dovetailed with the forthcoming New Deal interest in public housing and social reform. As an example, this map shows that even in the 1920s and 1930s inner city areas where falling apart, illustrated by this map showing demolitions. The deteriorated and dilapidated housing stock of the city was already beeing culled, albeit on a peacmeal basis. The 1933 housing survey also generated this housing condition map, wich also enumerated "shacks" and "vandalized units" as well as being a composite of various housing condition indicators: ...which led to this recommended that meshes zoning with early proposals for slum clearance: ...two areas where proposed for immediate clearance and redevelopement, "Project 1" in West Dayton, and "Project 2" in East Dayton, with additional clearnce and redevelopement later. This never happened as land aquisition costs where too high, so the first public housing in Dayton, Desoto Bass and Parkside, where built on more peripheral areas that were easier to aquire. Also, note that alot of residential areas were re-zoned industrial. Around 20 years later as part of a major comprehensive planning effort planning consultant Harlan Bartholomew also did a housing study, pretty much recapping the 1933 study. This map shows the aging housing stock of Dayton. Whats interesting is the east-west orientation of the 19th century city as shown by the older housing, wich contrasts the north-south developement trends of today... ...and again, the worst housing areas in the city, the areas of "urban blight", which would become the candidate areas for urban renewal. This amazing population density map shows how overcrowed and dense Dayton was during the immediate postwar era. This was the era of housing shortage that prompted the 1948 Housing Act, and other housing acts too (like the Wherry Act, that led to Page Manor). Many of the "black" areas would be depopulated during the next 30 years by urban renewal and the processes of suburbanization and changing land use: And a bit of cultural studies digression. Noir City....lit and film crit meets cultural studies meets urban history. Writers have been making connection with the aesthetic of Hollywoods "film noir" and the urban renewal era, or the American city just before and during urban renewal and suburbanization. This was the city of Nelson Algren and the Noir detective/crime movies, the "City of Night" of John Rechys gay hustler novel....this pix juxtaposes the murals inside the Talbot Tower of Dayton as the "City of Night" and a movie poster with a street scene similar to the mural...the mural would be contemporary w film noir, too, from the late 40s/early 50s. "Although noir’s seductive style and aesthetic innovations have drawn much attention from film scholars, few have situated noir in a sociohistorical framework. As white flight and industrial decentralization denuded the physical and social landscape of the inner city, Hollywood marketed spectacles of urban decline as mass entertainment. Set amid the littered streets, dark alleys, and decaying buildings of the downtown, film noir represented the postwar crisis of the public city through its narratives of social disorder and psychological malaise…" Eric Avila , Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight "Urban transformations are the burden of Edward Dimendberg's fitfully brilliant study, Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity: the passage of a historical city of old neighborhoods, traditional if often menacing public spaces, and anonymous crowds into the postwar suburbs, highways, shopping malls, and industrial landscapes...Dimendberg's animating insight remarks the coincidence of this radical reorganization in American space and the film-noir cycle--from 1939 to 1959" ..from a review of Film Noir and the Space of Modernity Playing with the cultural studies turn in a Dayton context...Dayton as Noir City, cutting stills of film noir with scenes of Daytons downtown fringe areas...the stills are from "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" (Paramount, 1946) and "Fallen Angel" (20th Century Fox, 1945)...the pix is also a stand in for the crime maps from the 1933 housing study that maps juvenile delinquency, murder, robbery, vice, etc, onto the housing maps of the city, showing the connection between "urban blight" and crime...a connection made explicit in this statement from a 1960 planning document: “No neighborhood is completely safe from blight which creeps out from its starting point like a grass fire…The records of the public health service, fire division, police division, and welfare agencies all show higher rates of disease, fire, crime, and human suffering in blighted neighborhoods.” 1960, Workable Program for Urban Renewal So, what to do? Why, rebuild the city! The following two maps shows a regional approach to slum clearance and reconstruction, and a close up of the inner parts of Dayton. Note that blight was also out in the suburbs too, such as in Little Kentucky in Fairborn, "Roherers Little Farms" in Mad River Township, and "Dogpatch" in Moraine. Drexel shows up too. As in the 1933 recommendations, clearance and reconstruction was proposed for West and East Dayton, but in an expanded plan. Here is a before and after proposal for West Dayton, todays Wright-Dunbar neighborhood. This was never executed, and Wright Dunbar was partially demolished by highway construction, and eventually deteriorated to the point of abandonment and demolition, and was recently reconstructed as a neotraditional neighborhood, not a modernist housing project. The focus of this thread will be in East Dayton, in three neighborhoods or project areas that perhaps better illustrate the intentions of Daytons urban renewers. This thread will focus on the Haymarket and vicinity as this area is probably the best example, the most fully realized instance of urban renewal in the city. Recapping housing age, conidtions, and proposed urban renewal treatment of the neighborhoods, via blowups of the previous maps To set the stage, a brief historical discussion. The east side areas are some of the oldest in the city, and were the first areas platted outside the original city plat, after the Miami and Eire canal was built. This map shows the subdivided areas around 1830, on top of an 1872 map. This was "suburbia" in antebellum Dayton. And suburbia was not particularly fashionable as it was the home for immigrants and blacks...including the first black neighborhood in Dayton, "Africa", which was apparently destroyed in an 1841 race riot. The first Catholic parish was also in these marginal suburban areas. Also note "Seelys Ditch". This was a canal built on the east side of the city, roughly parallelling the low bluff that is St Annes Hill and Fairgrounds Hill, partly as a real estate speculation, by Morris Seely, a mechant, mayor of Dayton, and sometime real estate developer (who platted the areas around Steele High School). It apparently sparked a number of plats on the east side of town. With all these canals cutting through town Dayton was a vertable "Venice of the Midwest"...well, maybe not.... Seelys Ditch was a failure and the northern part was filled in in stages, and a market house was built over it on Wayne Street. One of the northern areas filled in became the Haymarket. The lower part apparently was intact until the 1890s. About the only memory of this canal in Dayton's urban landscape is Burns Avenue, with the median to the left of the pix below being where the canal was. Probably a good photo as it looks somewhat open and rural, as this area was in the 1830s and 40s... By the 1870s the area became the Dayton version of Over The Rhine, the 19th century home to Daytons "Deutschtum", or German community, with a concentration of German churches, a German newspaper, a brewrey. The local Turnverein built their hall here. The Liederkranz singing society had a hall on Wayne Avenue, and there was also a Jewish synagogue on Wayne. One of the landmark churches in the neighborhood, Holy Trinity, dates to 1860, and was the third Catholic parish in the city. Around this time the market house was built at Wayne and Burns By the early 20th century the area had become somewhat congested, and was selected as the site for playground by the Olmstead Park Plan of 1911, as Bomberger Park was too small. The plan seemed to envision this playground park working with Burns Avenue as sort of a park system, with Burns functioning as a boulevard leading to the playground. “The Wayne Avenue end could be treated ornamentally with walks lined with seats and with trees and shrubs and enclosed lawn … The plan also envsioned this playground as a driver for improved developement in the surrounding area, as an example of the first attempt of "urban renewal" in the area.. "It is quite possible that the value of the adjoining private lands will increase with the laying out of this playground, as it will come into demand for tenement houses for respectable families ho will pay a good rent for even the fourth floor rather than go out further from the center of the city. The increased taxes thus received should go far toward meeting the interest on the cost of the playground.” A close-up of Bomberger Park, which predated the Olmstead Plan. Holy Trinity church is visible in the backround. This verision of the park was demolished during urban renewal, and an expanded park was installed. Around this time Dayton was recieving the "second immigration" from eastern and southern Europe. This neighborhood recieved a scattering of Italian immigrants, who worshipped at Holy Trinity. Though this area never became a "little Italy", the Italians did have their social hall in a large victorian building at the corner of Wayne and Fifth, later renamed Pirelli Hall. The 1933 housing study identified this area as project #2 for slum clearance, and this map from that plan illustratest he density of the neighborhood. The red circle locates a house that will appear later, in another map, to show how drastic the change was in this area. This area was also becoming home to alot of Applachians, including my barber...who moved here from Tennessee. He told me some interesting stories about what this the area was like when he was young. There where alot of shops along 5th east of Wayne, including the American Lunch, Fifth Street Smokery, beauty shop, a "jot-em-down" store (corner grocery store). The market house on Wayne & Burns was still being used, too... I don't have a good map of what the revedelopement plan was, but here are some grainy pix of some of the proposed housing, which was somewhat typical of public housing in the 1930s..it reminds me of some "New Deal" era housing in Louisville and Chicago: After WWII the City Plan Board kept on reworking the redevelopement plan. This is a model of the plan from the late 40s showing a more modernist design, with Fifth street being the north-south street in the pix, and Wayne the diagonal at the bottom. An expanded Bomberger Park is in the upper left hand corner of the model. The city finally finalized a plan, and the following is the chronology of execution of urban renewal for the Haymarket, and the area north of Fifth between Wayne and Dutoit around Holy Trinity (to be developed as an industrial park). Next to be rebuilt was the "Burns-Jackson" area, todays Oregon District. 1957 Planning complete, federal urban renwal funds requested 1958 Approval of project, Acceptance of Federal Contract, 717 relocation units built as "Allendale Homes" (?)(the pix looks likes a suburban developement) 1959 1/2 of properties aquired for clearance by year end 1960 Clearance nearly complete, parcels readied for resale. 1961 Haymarket has been cleared and land sold. Sales of industrial property north of 5th proceding. US 35 Expressway under construction. 1962 Groundbreaking for Dayton Towers. Plans for a second tower and a shopping center being developed. 1963 Dayton Towers complete 1964 New post office plans for the area north of 5th, New commercial center, and beginning of demolition/redevelopement in Burns/Jackson (Oregon District) The end result was a dramatic reconfiguration of the neighborhood. Refer upthread to the 1933 current conditions map to see how much has changed in this area ..the red circle is the same house/location as in the above map. The Oregon District public housing is also visible to the west of Waune, and the industrial park to the north of 5th. Keowee has been cut through, and the US 35 expressway, too. Now lets walk around the neighborhood... The classic shot..Dayton Towers...the tower in the park right out of Le Corbusier. Possibly one of the better realization of this vision of urban developement And Keowee Street, developed as an inner city crosstown route to the US 35 Expressway Fifth, the new Post Office, and Holy Trinity Keowee looking north to the railroad. This was mostly residenial, now all industrial... Dayton Towers, and the "second" high rise (elderly housing, I think) close up of second high rise. The expanded Bomberger Park, w. St Annes Hill in the distance...this was all housing. Eagle and McClain, following an old sidewalk on the alignment of Eagle Street, walking toward Stivers High School... The new Bomberger park rec center, Stivers in backround looking back from where we came from Looking at downtown, from the hill at St Annes Hill, across the parklike urban renewal zone. Dayton Towers across Bomberger Park The second tower again... Entering into the parkland surrounding the Dayton Tower and its sister tower, a suprise...an ghost street (the old Haymarket itself?) still remains as a landscape feature, a path into the heart of the urban renewal site.... The ghost street leads to the second tower....(this is almost rural or suburban in feel)..... via a little plaza and garden frisbee field... ...the grassy knoll..expressway as landscape feature and urban renewal feature. One would never know one is in the heart of the city On to Dayton Towers Straight out of Le Corbusier... architecturally, though, this tower is a bit "project-esque" cooling tower with the logo.... cocktales by the pool wall around pool & parking... snazzy entrance. Very '60s. Very "New Frontier". Views out of the project area toward some of the surroundings... Now lets look at the commercial part of the Haymarket developement. Plenty of parking. Modernist space This used to be a modernist Shell gas station, and could have been remodelled into an interesting retro venue, but has been transformed instead into an Irish pub. This was the site of a rather grand & tall 3 story brick victorian "flatiron" block, w. a corner tower. Modernist shopping center, w. chinese and italian restuarants. This was like a continuation of 5th Street in the Oregon district. Commercial/Industrial developement. I wonder what a "Print Prod" is? It sounds very space age. Urban renewal on 5th. I get the feeling beatlemania is just about to hit... The beginning of the urban renewal of Burns -Jackson..modern storefronts, projects in the backround.. A little of "old Wayne Street" is left..this the 1880s Dietz Block. The corner building on Wayne & Fifth was a more elaborate and taller version of this (w bigger windows)... This project was probably going to be the fate of much of the rest of the Oregon District. Probably the last straw for the presevationists. Also, by this time, there was alot of critique of urban renewal coming from people like Jane Jacobs, and alternative examples, like German Villiage in Columbus... ..but, as housing projects go, this is a nice project! Expressway as a park feature, w. Burns-Jackson playground in South Park in the backround. This was all houses, too... ..looking back out of the project to Wayne.... Now, a quick tour of the urban renewal area north of 5th, "Queensgate Junior". Most of this area was housing, but also industry closer to the railroad. So it seemed logic to make the whole area industrial. Holy Trinity on Bainbridge Street, neighborhood landmark....this church now has a Spanish language Mass for the latino community. Parish school... The area has been redeveloped as modern low factory and commercial buildings, and the central post office... and, finally, back at the "new" crosstown Keowee Street... ..the area east of Keowee was redeveloped into commericial/industrial, and as playing fields for Stivers High School. Dutiot Street houses & Blosser Mansion visible on the hill in the distance. So, urban renewal. This was the first big project Dayton undertook (aside from early public housing)...as this was fairly sucessfull, the city soon embarked on much grander schemes downtown. Yet, it probably kicked off the urban preservation movement here, too, as Burns-Jackson (the Oregon District) was going to be next in East Dayton. 1960 was the peak population for Dayton, after which it dropped drastically. Perhaps this urban renewal response to "urban blight" was partially a cause, replacing people with buisnesses and industry? Yet, with two high rise towers, is this area is any less dense than when it was the "Haymarket", even though it looks like a suburban park? I would say this is one of the more sucessfull "tower in the park" urban renewal schemes that I am aware of (perhaps Lafayette Park in Detroit is another good example), due to the lush landscaping. Next, a look at urban renewal, or recycling, via "downzoning" in Hells Half Acre.
July 9, 200519 yr Best Dayton thread ever! Excellent work; I'll look forward to the next installments!
July 9, 200519 yr ^Agreed. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
July 10, 200519 yr Seriously...I agree too. Why aren't you writing books? Because there is a limited market for that kind of material (especially in the internet age) Otherwise, May Day wouldn't be the only published author here. :-)
July 10, 200519 yr ^ For the record, I never mentioned this material per se. He puts a lot of time and effort into doing research and putting the thing together, and that would work well for more marketable stuff. That being said, there is a market for the material he presented above, albeit small. Have you seen some of the publications of historical societies? Some of that stuff is interesting to about 100 people.
July 10, 200519 yr ^ For the record, I never mentioned this material per se. He puts a lot of time and effort into doing research and putting the thing together, and that would work well for more marketable stuff. Well, you left your original interpretation to be unlimited. Due to location (being in this thread) I was under the impression you were speaking specificly about this topic that Jeff worked on. That being said, there is a market for the material he presented above, albeit small. Have you seen some of the publications of historical societies? Some of that stuff is interesting to about 100 people. Yes I have. You either work on it as a hobby and takes a loooong time to put it together (because it's an hobby and you work on part-time at best) or it was a scholarly work that itself won't bring you any $$$, but will fulfill your contract requirements, since professors are expected to produce so many articles (and the occasional book) along with their teaching requirements. One could argue that showing material on here is like sharing it with a group of 100 (like in your historical Society example).
September 10, 200717 yr Jeff, As for the second tower located adjacent to Dayton Towers, I believe its name is Jaycees Tower, my late great-grandmother lived there.
September 10, 200717 yr Wow, people are still reading these old threads...... ....thanks, Fred. I don't know that much about the place, really. I figured it was built later than Dayton Towers. #### One thing about doing research like this is that I always miss things and find out more info after posting the thread, and by then its too late and the thread has dropped to the bottom due to discussion dying out. In the case of Dayton Towers one wonders why the plural...Dayton Towers instead of Dayton Tower as there is only one tower...well, two, but that other tower looks different. I found out recently, via some old news clippings (which had a rendering), that the there was supposed to be two towers and a lowrise townhouse complex built, sort of like a smaller version of Carl Sanburg Village in Chicago or Lafayette Park in Detroit (both of which would be contemporary with Dayton Towers). Thus the plural in Dayton Towers Only the first phase of Dayton Towers was ever built. The high rise had leasing issues, and the developer (who was from Columbus) went bankrupt. The site was never fully developed as planned, with the old folks high rise coming in at a later date, and as a separate project, which accounts for the different architectural style.
September 10, 200717 yr A few old picts of the houses are posted here http://www.oregondistrict.org/archives/ before the urban renewal happened. It was bad. Jeff, I still reference what you post, wherever you have posted, no matter how long ago. It's great info.
September 10, 200717 yr Very interesting about the plural thing. I got all excited thinking this was a new post when I saw it at first. I miss the good old fashioned Jeff posts on here.
September 11, 200717 yr Fifth, the new Post Office, and Holy Trinity Hey, I work at the "new post office"! Truth be told, it was finished in 1970. Thanks, Jeff, for the pictures!
September 12, 200717 yr well i do have that blog. But im not really comfortable with blogging. Kdoggs link to that Orgeon achive was great. There are some pix from Burns and Baal Lane, which was where US 35 went through. Also, some pix of Richard & Eagle, showing the demo work for US 35 and the old German church on Commercial Street. I wish there was more surviving from the urban renewal area, but those pix appear to be lost, or never taken. I know in Louisville, the urban renewal authority documented the buildings on every single block that was torn down, so there are thousands of images of the neighborhoods that used to be immediatly east and west of downtown, stored away in the UofL library archive. That would an great resource for someone researching urban history in Lou.
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