Eastown and Westown came in the middle 1950s, with Eastown a bit earlier (1954-55).  Eastown was like Northtown, located on the edge of the built up and platted areas of the city, on a major highway leading east of town, so it could intercept in-bound traffic from the early subdivisions east of the city, like Knollwood (the precursor to Beavercreek).  And it was close to the proposed US 35 Expressway.  Both towns had a Beerman Department Store as anchor.

 

 

A lot of the white space in the above map would go under development during the 1950s, leading to the country lane of Woodman Drive to become a feeder into the Eastown vicinity, but Eastown was already ensured of a customer base due to its proximity to built-up areas to the east, along Smithville Road.  One of these was Hearthstone (directly to the west), which was initially built-out as a mix of Hansel and Gretel cottages and bungalows, before the Depression.  Hearthstone received subsequent burst of development during the “Pearl Harbor Suburbia” era of 1939-1941 and the 1940s WWII and postwar era.

 

Eastown was poised to take advantage of this automobilized market.

 

 

The form was similar to Northtown; parking in the rear, as a jazzed-up L shape (more a “j”?),  modified into a U via a row of shops to the east.  And, borrowing from Northtown  the “trademark” auto access through the middle of the strip to the rear parking.

 

 

(the bus hub came much , much later)

 

And here we see the last surviving “big sign” of the “towns”, unfortunately missing the back-illuminated “Eastown” in the populuxe quasi-oval frame.

 

 

This is more the typical postwar strip center compared to Northtown, with the deep parking lot.  True suburban space.  As with the other Beerman towns” this one had a façade makeover.

 

 

Like Northtown but unlike later strip centers there was the two story office/arcade block.  In this case the arcade is gone, but the upper offices are still there.  In the 1950s the office housed medical offices, credit agencies, and, apparently, a defense contractor.

 

 

Even though there was a façade makeover, the storefronts weren’t changed much.  In some case, like Big Bob’s Carpets, the original hardware, doors, and windows from the 1950s remain.  Sort of freaky walking by this place since suburban storefronts usually get moderinzed.

 

 

Perhaps the oddest thing about this shopping center was the modifications to bring in the trolley buses (sometime in the 1990s?).  The center lane through the strip center was transformed into a busway, and one can easily imagine this as a light-rail line, with tracks and cantenary instead of bus wire

 

 

Looking back from the rear parking.  The details here are interesting since they show that there was something more than cinder block…they use decorative brick veneer and scupper boxes for the roof drains

 

 

 

Looking east across the parking lot to the eastern range of shops….

 

 

 

….which retain a lot of original detail, like the aqua blue tile block parapet and aluminum canopy…

 

 

…as well as the original storefront treatments (the “modern” angled windows to the entrances)

 

 

The bus hub is in the background.  One can sort of imagine a “densification” of this strip center via maybe housing being inserted, making this more mixed use.

 

Westown

 

Unlike Northtown and Eastown Westown was located in the middle of a previously platted and somewhat built out area.  The area directly to the north, Residence Park, was subdivided around WWI and parts closer to the shopping center were partially built out during the 1920s, which continued when the economy improved in the late 1930s (similar to Hearthstone on the east side).  The built-in market for shoppers traveling “out” was the Westwood/Decker Park area to the east of Gettysburg Avenue (mostly built-out in the 1920s).  There was population growth and development in the 1930s-40s to the west along West Third in the Drexel and Ridgewood Heights area, with no reason to expect this not to continue

 

 

But as we known, this didn’t happen. Townview was the only development to go into the "white space" on the map, and then nothing.

 

Also, early proposals for the US 35 Expressway (blue line on the map) had it ending in the vicinity of 3rd & Gettysburg, directly across from the Westown site.

 

Yet, one suspects Westown was built for a market that was in prewar developments as much as postwar suburbia. 

 

A close-up showing how the center was situated amid prewar suburban "bungalow era" plats,  the proximity to the important Gettysburg/Third intersection, and the VA military cemetery across the street

 

 

The layout of the center was in the characteristic Beerman Town L-form with a center drive leading…to no parking.  Apparently parking was never built to the rear of the site, nor was there additional development to create a U-shape like in Eastown.  Instead there is another bus hub holding down the eastern side.  Here one also see outlot development for banks and fast food.  In Eastown these were at the edges of the center.  And one can see how the center is set amid older bungalow-era suburbia

 

 

(note that the headstones in the military cemetery are just visible in this pic)

 

Westown on the ground.  Again, a façade update, but no two-story arcade-office building.

 

 

The trademark of Westown; the big illuminated sign over the driveway to rear parking that never was built.

 

 

The thing that sets Westown apart is this odd little grass/shrub “mall” between the sidewalk and the parking.  Was the idea to put a mall in here?  Or maybe just a token acknowledgment of the concept?

 

 

 

Two more views of the optimistic modern world of postwar suburban shopping  Try to imagine this as a new experience for Daytonians used to a congested downtown and neighborhood shopping.  New!  Improved! The Futah!

 

 

 

There was to be one final Beeerman Town, but that happened during the “Mall Era”, where the strip center was just one star in a larger retail constellation around the Dayton Mall.  That is another story.

 

Awesome!

I've been to these centers, but did not pick up on their names. Interesting...

My parents owned a Laundromat in Easttown during the mid-1960s

Interesting history, and something I did not expect to find out about Dayton!

Cool thread Jeffery. A great read!! (and a great compliment to your Northtown thread)

Re-reading this and the other one I can see my dyslexia..confusing east and west, left and right...is getting worse.

My family lived near Eastown, in Eastmont in the late 50s-early 60s. I remember as a very little kid tagging along with my brothers to go to stores at Eastown like Goldman's (or perhaps Beerman's.) I recall that the surrounding area was semi-rural at the time and we seemed to have to walk through woods and we entered at the back of Eastown.

 

Re: "In the 1950s the office housed medical offices, credit agencies, and, apparently, a defense contractor."

 

We had a dentist, Dr. Richard Ingle, at Eastown in the 1960s through the early 1980s, who was based in a second story office in that office center. I recall seeing an office door next to his that said "Hallicrafters" - radio equipment - could be the DoD contractor? I doubt that it was a sales office for ham radio enthusiasts.

 

There was a major fire in the office complex at Eastown in the late 70s or early 80s that forced most of the office holders there to relocate. Dr. Ingle moved his practice to another building on Burkhardt, but he kept some of his equipment, which was smoke damaged and then repainted a different color.

Hi! I stumbled upon this site and it's positively fascinating. I was born in Dayton, and lived there until age 13. I'm 51 now, but still have plenty fond memories of Dayton.

 

One of those memories concerns the Westown shopping center. My dad and grandparents lived nearby, and shopped there frequently. The grassy "mall" area noted in the narrative  is not a (deliberate) design feature. I seem to remember at least some of those areas having small, freestanding structures that were additional tenant spaces. (This would have been the early-to-mid '60s) One of the structures housed a laudromat; I don't recall what the others were. Walking along the shopping center's sidewalk was a very different experience compared to what shoppers experience now. Back then it was almost like an enclosed corridor, with the main storefronts on one side, and the small freestanding units on the other, creating a visual and (intermittent) physical barrier between the sidewalk and the parking area. I don't know exactly when those smaller buildings were removed, but planting grass in their places certainly was a good idea.

A few early Westown anchors and stores--the list is not even close to exhaustive:

 

-Beerman's (of course!) located right at the corner of the complex, where the two legs of the "L" meet.

-Kroger at (or near) the far west end,

-Liberal on/near the opposite end of the shopping center, on the other leg of the "L".  (Odd to have TWO grocery stores in the same shopping center, eh? But that's how it was!)

-a record store

-a laundromat (see my previous post)

-possibly a beauty salon in another of the freestanding units--I'm not at all certain about that. (previous post)

-I'm also not sure if a post office was there from the very beginning or not, but it was certainly there by the late 60s, located at/near the far west end.

 

At the southwest corner of the property (intersection of Third & Elmhurst) was a Winters Bank, and just beyond that to the north, along the Elmhurst side of the property, was a Burger Chef (later Sandy's) restaurant.

 

 

1990s could be about right for the trolley-bus configuration. It was around 1990 or 1991 that the long-time standard bearer for Dayton's trolley buses died. I can't remember his name, but he was president of the company before it became a public-owned operation, and was president of the board of directors from then until his death. He vigorously and successfully defended the system against mall developers (maybe this one?) who wanted to dismantle it and who succeeded in having at least one of the major routes truncated soon after his death. I remember going to Dayton in 1991 to take photos of what I thought would be the final operations of the last trolleybuses in the Midwest.

 

Instead, a strong and concerted reaction by citizens against plans to dismantle the system, along with concern that dieselizing in the face of pending federal clean-air legislation would be folly, resulted in that decision being overturned. Bloodshed on the board might have accompanied the policy reversal, as that's what usually happens in those situations, but I don't know the details. The truncated route was reestablished and extended substantially, and new buses were ordered. To Dayton's credit, the system survives.

the busway is very interesting looking! reminds me that transit is like the public school system, both are expected to lead and follow the community at the same time.

 

beermans dept store = elder-beermans yes?