First allow me to say hello to everyone....I have been lurking about Skyscrapers and now this site for some time....You are a very interesting group of folks...slightly unstable...a little deranged but basicly good eggs. Now on to business...Does anybody know the fate of the white and blue former Reynolds and Reynolds building snuggled against I75 Southbound near the US 35 interchange. More specificaly I wonder about the fate of the increasingly inacurate clock. My wife told me today (she might be wrong, she frequently is) the clock is being moved. This would be a shame. The building and clock so close to I75 is unique and adds a very urban feel to that stretch of I75. It reminds me of sections of the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. It was on of the first things I noticed when I moved here 7 years ago. Once again greetings and thanks for entertaining me the past few months.

I believe the building is still going to be owned by R&R, though operatinos will be based downtown. I don't think the famed Third and Main clock will be moved, though it possibly could be.

Welcome to the forum.

 

I hope they aren't getting rid of the clock. I agree it is nice touch to the urban feel of Dayton.

 

It is about time we got another Dayton forumer up in here. Maybe you can keep us informed about Dayton and flood us with pics. You better have a digital camera, not none of the OldMojo crap about not having a digital camera in the 2 DOUBLE-O 4. ;)

Thanks.....yes I do have a digital.....yes I do have some photos....and yes I will post.....I moved here about 7 years ago. Never thought I would stay this long. Comming from Chicago....Dayton was a shock....although it does grow on you (possibly that is code for I have learned to live with Dayton). Dayton is unique....unfortunitaly Dayton has in the past not done a good job of retaining its history. They are getting better. I would be alot happier here with some sort of REAL public transprtation. The trollys are unique. I often use the bus system but becuase of weak ridership the routes and schedules often disapoint. I am waiting for that Dayton Cincy commuter train..........or light rail....unfortunitily it appears I will be waiting awhile. In the summer Dayton often reminds me of a small french town. Lots of festivals, good music, and plenty of places to ride your bike. Downtown is a fun place to live......needs some all night food besides Denneys.....Dayton for me is a love hate relationship. I love what its has but often wish it was more...........

That is actually most people's "beef" with Dayton. It has extreme amount of potential yet not utilized by a faulty city governement and corrupt public school system.

That is actually most people's "beef" with Dayton. It has extreme amount of potential yet not utilized by a faulty city governement and corrupt public school system.

That could go for a lot of cities in the US.

 

Cincy anyone?

Downtown is a fun place to live......needs some all night food besides Denneys......

 

What about Cold Beer and Cheeseburgers? lol

Cold Beer and Cheeseburgers is not open at 3am when I am craving coffee and eggs.....now that I think about it nobody should be eating those things at 3am........3am coffee and eggs are both usualy cold and hard.Hey mabye I have created a market here....a place open all night called Hard eggs and Cold Coffee.....?

LOL.

 

Isn't there a diner called Circle J's (euphemism) somewhere downtown? I ate there once after visiting the Oregon District, and I think it was pretty late into the night.

Well lets see there is Wimpies....and White Tower....both of these used to be open late. I belive White Tower was once open 24hrs. One encouraging sign is the amount of small fast food store fronts downtown. I really do like Flying Pizza. The ruben pizza at Oregon Express is good too. In the summer I try to have lunch at Hearts Hot Dogs on the square at least once a week. The only place I have found in SW Ohio that makes a true Chicago style hotdog. Outside of downtown La Perogola on Dorothy Ln has good pizza. Jays in the Oregon still has that great salmon rolled in fila dough. The Riverscape in its first summer had a great italian sausage in a hollowed out hard roll. I belive the sausage came from East Dayton Sausage Company, which by the way if you ever get the chance stop in and fill your freezer. I wonder has anyone here tried "whos on First " since they moved down the street. They had wraps before it was fashionable to charge $9 for them at Applebees.....whoa look at this! I just did 500 words on food...hmmmm mabye I have a problem.....Im thin really I am.......

Have you been to Bimini Bills yet, Gerwoc?

Havent been to Bill's yet...Every time it crosses my mind I a driving by on my way somewhere else.......Perhaps someday before they close.....I say that because I never see to many folks in there....and really how many tropical themed clubs come and go. What survives is usually the basics...beer, wings, pizza ect. And really thats ok.......

The Reynolds and Reynolds clock tower, a longtime fixture to motorists along Interstate 75 in Dayton, will be moved soon.

 

Officials at the Dayton City Commission meeting announced the move Wednesday morning and said the building that now holds the clock will be demolished. Reynolds and Reynolds owns the clock on Germantown Pike.

 

Reynolds and Reynolds, however, says it has not decided where the clock will be moved.

 

"There's no final agreement as to when a move will be made, and where the move will be made to," Reynolds spokesman Mark Feighery said.

 

The clock originally was atop the Gem City Savings offices at Third and Main streets. The timepiece came down when the current building, the I.M. Pei-designed National City Plaza, was erected.

 

The old Germantown Street property may become the site of a new technical high school. The Dayton Board of Education took ownership in a swap worked out among the city, the Dayton school district and Reynolds and Reynolds.

That sucks.

Put a 25 story tower there instead..;)

That is another low-key landmark for Dayton and travelers driving through Dayton. Personally, put the clock at the corner of Third and Main, on some pedestal or something. It will help out the transit folks at the RTA Arcade and a symbolizing a return to downtown. To advance my point, put it on the Courthouse Square corner.

I kind of got used to it being there. Maybe it will be saved.

bah!

 

Just fix the horrid bottle neck around downtown with I-75. What a joke!

I say it should stay in Dayton, because it is a Dayton lanmark, put it back in the Downtown like on the RTA Bus Hub or on the new Reynolds & Reynolds building.

Yeah, I think it should be downtown, too. Putting it in Huber Heights would suck.

With all the talk about the tech town development, pehaps it should be placed on one of the new buildings there.

HUBER HEIGHTS?!?! THE CLOCK!?!?

 

What is next? Carillon Tower in SPRINGBORO!??!

Oh heck that clock is so decontexualized l, so what if it goes to Huber Heights.

 

The building it was originally on was a neat little skyscraper. The replacement building by IM Pei was & is an urbanistic disaster.

Agreed in an urbanist fashion, but the clock was a landmark for travelers through Dayton and is a true shame that it is going to Huber Heights, of all cities. They could've atleast put it on some Olmstedian boulevard in Oakwood.

Sure sounds better than moving it to Huber Heights. Whenever my family would go to Dayton when I was a kid, my two memories were always "that big building that said Mead at the top" (they made my Trapper Keepers, ya know) and "that blue clock" by the big maze of highway ramps. Although the building is still there, the Mead sign no longer graces the Dayton skyline and now the clock will be moved. Although I'll kinda miss it along the highway, its good that it's going back downtown.

 

Historic clock returning to downtown Dayton

The Gem City clock, a historic symbol of downtown Dayton, is returning near its original chiming spot.

 

Dayton-based commercial real estate firm Hutchins Commercial Realty and the Downtown Dayton Partnership will move the clock from its current resting place atop the former Reynolds and Reynolds Co. building on Germantown Street to a new location at Third and Jefferson streets next spring.

 

The clock, which dates back to 1892, was originally located on the Gem City Savings building at Third and Main streets and then moved to the Reynolds building in the 1970s.

 

"The clock will be a centerpiece for a new historic and entertainment district along Jefferson Street, which will further enhance all of downtown Dayton's offerings," said Paul Hutchins, owner of Hutchins Commercial. "As we re-develop our properties in that area, we will be focusing on historic preservation of the original facades and creating an exciting, enticing area that will attract more people to downtown Dayton."

 

A new structure, created specifically for the clock, will be erected at the corner of Third and Jefferson Streets in front of property purchased recently by Downtown Dayton Holdings LLC, a partnership which includes Hutchins Commercial partners Paul Hutchins and Ron Smith.

 

Dave Williams, who recently joined Hutchins Commercial Realty as vice president of development services, will oversee the development of the new entertainment district along Jefferson Street, which will run from the Convention Center to RiverScape.

 

"We have a vision for an area in downtown where visitors can walk, dine and enjoy this historic time piece," Williams said. "Our goal is to create a place which will honor Dayton's heritage and roots, as well as paint a bright picture for our town's future."

Hmm...This is news. A new entertainment district on Jefferson?

 

There used to be quite a few nightspots off of Jefferson....Bostons Bistro in the Eve Feldman Apartments, the State Door Musical Bar (Daytons, and possibly Ohios, oldest gay bar), 1470, which was this sort of gothic/"industrial" disco, the Buckhorn, and the corner of Jefferson and Third (now closed), and the venerable Century, on Jefferson between 3rd and 4th. Across from the Century is Cold Beer and Cheesburgers, sort of a sports bar/food place.

Boston's has moved to 135 E. Second St., the old El Diablo building.

 

Although this guy is probably a very successful businessman, he sounds like an ass. I understand he needs to turn a profit on his properties, but I think he could go about things in a better manner. Maybe be a little more personable.

I have mixed feelings, too, about reading that article. Especially the line about "problem tenants"...

 

So, El Diablo is closed? I recall that was a popular place at one time.

I have mixed feelings, too, about reading that article. Especially the line about "problem tenants"...

 

So, El Diablo is closed? I recall that was a popular place at one time.

Granted, the actual clock structure looks more like a construction site than a normal "radical" modernistic design but whatever, at least it isn't going to Huber Heights.

I rather like it myself. Better than a top a plain white factory looking building.

Oh,thanks dfly...thats a neat location..a block away from the original site on 3rd and main, and on the NE corner,too.

 

Incidentally, that vacant lot was once the site of a neat neo-romanesque commercial building, that was featured in a MHS calender, and also in a rendering in an old "city magazine" from the 1960s as an example of potential reuse. I think the building was torn down in the late 60s or 70s...for that tiny parking lot.

 

So, this looks like a great reuse of that site. Funny to see the proposal has what looks like a rooftop beergarden on top of the Wright Corner! I need to print this out and show it to Tommy (the bartender there)...he'd have a laugh.

Seriously..that block of Third, between Jefferson and St Clair, has some real interesting little shops/tenants...a real mix. A high "realness factor" on that block.

Any update on this?

Paul Hutchins of Hutchins Commercial Realty said his company has an agreement with Reynolds to move the clock. However, sponsors who in 2004 had agreed to fund building a clock tower and park to house it at Third and Jefferson streets have reneged.

 

I think what he really meant to say was something like... "We have failed to implement anything that we were planning.  We kicked businesses out of their buildings and have failed to replace them.  Basically, we promised a lot, but have failed to delivery anything--including a clock tower."

If you spend enough time on Urban Ohio you will see so many developers never live up to 2/3rds of their promises.

"We are still aggressively looking for a sponsor to relocate the clock," Hutchins said. "Hopefully, it won't end up on eBay like the Arcade."

 

ROFTL...I love this town!!!  Fortunalty ive got pix of the old R&R building so for once I beat the bulldozer.

 

I  think what he really meant to say was something like... "We have failed to implement anything that we were planning.  We kicked businesses out of their buildings and have failed to replace them.  Basically, we promised a lot, but have failed to delivery anything--including a clock tower."

 

Bullseye!  And then some!  But Hutchins did take over PMI Parking, so he is raking in the money from the Masque crowd, which is in one of his buildings.

 

Too bad the rest of his buildings are vacant...so much for the "entertainment district", which was more of an entertainment district before Hutchins evicted everyone.  Maybe he can tear them down for more parking lots? 

 

BTW, the bartenders at the Right Corner tell me the RC owners are trying to work a deal with Hutchins to build a patio area outside where that clocktower park was supposed to be.  Don't hold your breath.

 

 

 

 

 

If you spend enough time on Urban Ohio you will see so many developers never live up to 2/3rds of their promises.

 

It's not unique to Ohio. That's what developers do -- leverage money in the form of grants and loan guarantees with grandiose proposals and promises they never intended to fulfill.

Maybe they should have considered puting it on the new Caresource building?

Its over in Carillon Park now, near the back part of the park.

Brian West, the legal guardian of the tower, was at the Dayton City Commission meeting the same night as the developers presented the Ballpark Village development.  One of the commissioners or the mayor thought it would be nice if the clock tower could be incorporated into the Ballpark Village.  All thought that was a good idea and the two traded business cards.  But we've already seen a promise from a developer regarding this tower, so I'm not holding my breath.  Another idea I've heard is to put it on one of the building in Carillon Park--I think it was the Dicke Transportation Building.

I like the Ballpark Village homage.  Sounds like a good plan.

So did I. But I'm not sure the sale will actually happen.

Does that mean we get the clock back? I kinda miss it