Though we've seen the early planning for the suburb and the first industry and subdivision there was considerable real estate speculation in the area prior to the Great Depression. We'll take a look at some of this development, probably related to the Frigidaire expansion of the late 1920s.

 

Roaring 20s Land Speculations

 

This map shows how this area was in play well before the era of postwar suburbia. Orange shading shows plats prior to 1930, red shading shows land held by development companies, and the yellow is land held by local notables, mainly the industrialists Kettering and Deeds, newspaperman Cox and the heirs to Adam Schantz. Blue is the GM holdings, as GM had expanded in the area during the 1920s, substantially adding to and reconstructing the old Dayton-Wright plant in 1926-1927 to manufacture refrigerators. This may have kicked off the land boom in the area.

 

 

The 1920s was the era when the framework for postwar suburbia was being set; as one can see land was in play as far south as Alex-Bell Road, actually south of Alex-Bell. Alexanderville, on this and the other maps, was a canal village platted before the Civil War, and apparently remained an identifiable place until being swamped by post WWII sprawl.

 

An enlargement showing the Moraine Development Company holdings and the first two subdivisions, Moraine City sections 1 and 2, and the three sections of Moraine South. The Frigidaire & the CH&D interuban shops are also outlined in red.

 

 

The Schantz story at Moraine ends during this era as the Schantz estate liquidated its interest in the development company in the late 1920s, say around the time Frigidaire was being built. It's unclear who the principles were in the development company but Schantzs orginal partners were Deeds and Kettering, so presumably they retained some interest in the development company. Or maybe it became a subsidiary of GM.

 

The Paper Suburb

 

This Wagner's Map from the early 1930s shows the extent of subdivision activity in the Moraine Area. It labels most developments, but I put in labels for a few more. The map mistakenly locates Moraine Riverview further north than it really was. It does show, however, how this area continued to have passenger rail service for commuting via the interurban.

 

 

And it also shows the appearance of Kettering Boulevard, which indicates that though this area had commuter service the car was probably the main driver of real estate speculation as most of the plats shown here are not oriented around the interurban line.

 

One can see that the plan for Moraine Development Company property coming out of the 1920s was to subdivide the land between Kettering Boulevard and Sprinboro Pike, with the proposed streets drawn in for part of the plat. This was aborted during the Depression.

 

Perhaps an example of the Dayton economy, booming though it was in the 20's , not booming as much as, say, Detroit. Or maybe this was just too far out; places like Westwood and Belmont were the 1920s boomburbs.

 

The Big Hill portion of Hills & Dales park also appears: this was either under development or developed later as a subdivision, as Hills & Dales south of Dorothy Lane was not gifted to the city but retained by the Patterson family for real estate development.

 

One can see Stroop rerouted as Moraine Park Drive to intersect with Dixie Drive at Big Hill Road, cutting through the Deeds property; perhaps the start of even more subdivision activity?

 

South Moraine, Moraine Center, Morain Riverview, Moraine Little Farms, Moraine City Section 2 and Miami Shores all appear on this map, though most of them would not see build-out until after WWII.

 

These were paper suburbs of the 1920s

 

Approaching WWII

 

By 1940 a more realistic map shows land development of the time. Moraine Development Company lands in red (extending as far north as Dorothy Lane), show the aborted 1920s subdivision gone, plat vacated. Readers familiar with this area know well what happened to the property, and it wasn't a residential subdivision.

 

 

We also see West Moraine finally appear. "Dogpatch" later became an district of self-built war worker housing. During the era of this map all the subdivisions shown here construction, from, say 1938-1939 through WWII.

 

The old canal ROW is also shown, indicating Dryden Road hadn't been extended yet into the northern reaches of Moraine. The interurban still appears, though it was on it's last leg.

 

This close-up at the southern reaches of Moraine shows the original Moraine City plat in red and 1920s subdivisions, demonstrating how much the area had grown (on paper at least)

 

 

But it wasn't all on paper. The little pix of representative houses demonstrates how this area did see some pre WWII construction, so there are bits and pieces of an older, perhaps more humane version of suburbia embedded in a matrix of

postwar sprawl.

 

@@@@@

 

Taking a closer look at the early suburban era in pix.  As we’e seen In 1926 or 1927 GM decided to expand and reconstruct the old Dayton-Wright factory to make refrigerators as an expansion from the downtown plant.  This probably kicked off the real estate boom mapped out above

 

We’ll take a closer look at this area, the vicinity of Moraine City.…

 

 

Some labels. The interurban was out of business by now as the tracks by the “CL&E shops” are gone. But during the 14 year overlap between Frigidaire and interurban service there was a freight service developed, with an industrial spur running out from the mainline to the plant. Subdivision activity also appears, particularly Moraine Center and the second section of Moraine, now under development as the economy was coming out of the Depression. It appears Kettering Boulevard is being built around this time; though it shows up in earlier maps this was apparently a paper highway to go along with the paper suburb.

 

 

A close-up of the new Frigidaire plant, showing how it was a major expansion and reconstruction of the old Dayton Wright factory, forcing the realignment of Springboro Pike.

 

 

One can also see what looks like the first parking lots under construction. 

 

Since this was well outside the city one had to reverse commute.  Apparently during the first years of operation there was,  horrible dictu,  no parking! The way people got to work here was either via interurban or via the Big Four (and maybe via jitney).  During 1920s The Big Four ran two commuter trains per day, one outbound & one inbound, to Moraine.  No station, no platform, the train apparently just pulled over on a siding and the workers just got off and on.  Nothing fancy for the working stiff.

 

This interior shot of the plant shows an unusual feature…the indoor loading area for the interurban…apparently the industrial spur ran inside the building, as one can see one of the interurban box cars spotted on this indoor track (note the rear door, which you never see in conventional box cars).

 

 

This version of the interurban, the CL&E, had a very aggressive freight program and provided an early version of “next day” just-in-time service, but by rail instead of via air the way UPS or FedEx does.  But they operated this over a mostly single track system without block signals, so garbled or misunderstood train orders risked high-speed head on collisions.

 

CL&E also provided at least hourly passenger service (maybe more frequent during rush hour, at times with commuter (“tripper”) service as far as Miamisburg), with apparently two stations at Moraine

 

 

Going to work via interurban.  This is the Springboro Pike station or flag stop.  After the C&LE went under the Dayton & Suburban Railway provide service to Moraine until finally ending in 1941. 

 

 

One can tell it was a bit of a walk from the station to the factory, so the Big Four was maybe a better alternative from a convenience standpoint.  Both services ended in downtown Dayton, so there was still a streetcar ride to and from the downtown stations for workers.

 

 

After that the only way to get out here was by car and maybe bus.

 

Moraine Suburbia Early Take-off

 

Coming out of the Depression one can see a small building boom going on in Moraine. 

 

 

Some of this might have predated the Depression, but there was a lot of new construction going on too, as can be seen by the building sites,  particularly in the Moraine Center plat  These are some of the last of the old school housing, probably following designs from the 1920s or 1930s.

 

 

Moraine City Section 2 was finally becoming more than a paper plat, with streets (with sidewalks!) being laid out, and early houses along Dixie Drive, including a cottage style house, being the popular style from the later 1930s and 1940s.  The old church was one of two,;  one was torn down and this one survives as a local landmark (dating back to the 1880s).

 

 

A close up of the Slanker Plat, showing the old Cureton Foundry (by this time I think a compressed air place), the interurban, and the Springboro/Dixie intersection.  It looks like a nice little collection of houses was springing up here.

 

 

The Slanker Plat today, demonstrating how the landscape has been transformed, with the old interurban  ROW in red.

 

 

A birds-eye of the modern landscape.  The inset shows the little ditch that paralleled Dixie, with ditch gaurds where Springboro bridges it.  Same location, 66 years or so apart

 

 

In modern times the landscape is brutalized, re-engineered to sprawl scale, with the ditch becoming much larger to accept runoff from postwar subdivisions and hard surfaces.  The houses disappear, replaced by who knows what…the bigger ditch?  Yet one can still see how the interurban ROW still determines lot lines, pavement  edges,  tree lines and such, as sort of a ghostly presence driving what are to us inexplicable moves in the landscape.

 

 

Fascinating.

You really need to work at either the History Channel, Discovery or A&E networks.

 

You post are ridiculously informative!

 

I think I'm going to rename you Professor Jeffrey!  Yes, that's it.  Prof. Jeffrey!

You like this?  Wait till my postwar installment.  Then we can get retro!

 

 

You like this? 

 

 

Yes, I learn so much from your posts.  I'm sure others do as well.

You are awesome.

Jeffrey for Mayor of Dayton!

Jeffrey for Mayor of Dayton!

Great Job!!

HAHA, so your posts really are amazing.  I've only read a couple though.  So I decided to search all the City Photos - Ohio threads you've started, hoping to read all of them and there are MORE THAN 70!!!  I guess I've just figured out how to waste my time over break.

 

Just out of curiosity, where do you get your maps and photos?  At UW-Milwaukee we've got tons of these in paper form at the American Geographical Society Library, but I can't get them in digital form to do anything with them.  We can't check them out.

Very nice! I did some poking around the interurbans around Cincinnati, and was very surprised to see how well defined they still are after all of these years. Same goes with Dayton...

Excellent, Jeffery. Your threads are one of the main reasons why I love this site so much. Rock on!