The 1930 Wagner Map of Dayton shows the development north of the city along the Dixie Highway.  Development was also extending east along Needmore Road.  Though the map shows these eastern streets as par of the suburb of Needmore….

 

 

.,..they were really their own plat; Outing Park.

 

…which conjures up images of taking an outing to the country in ones Model A or Chevy or Maxwell, perhaps to a picnic grove.  Or to this new plat,  to build your small bungalow out in the open spaces, away from the crowded smoky city.

 

 

 

 

This was one of the last plats in the Northridge era before the Depression, and one of the first auto-suburbs of Dayton.

 

And in the 1940s it was partly destroyed by the needs of the auto, as the new US 25 Super Highway bisected it.

 

 

 

A blow-up of the plat, showing the original blocks shaded in yellow.  It looks like the new super-highway took the east side of of Bangor Avenue, which became a sort of frontage road.

 

 

Outing Park in 1954.  By this time the plat was mostly built-out with a mix of housing types.  Probably a few pre-war things, but mostly in wartime housing and early postwar styles of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

 

 

Outing Park in 1962.  This excellent USDA Soil Survey aeriel provides a snapshot of Outing Park pretty much as it was in the early postwar era, showing the plenty of housing and a somewhat wooded area on Outing Park Avenue.

 

The north-south streets are labeled, and one can see some new churches and a gas station at the Needmore/I-75 intersection.  Recall that this stretch of the interstate was not true limited access until later. 

 

 

One can also see the early commercialization of Needmore Road.

 

Outing Park in 1965.  Not much has changed since the early 1960s.  One can still a collection of houses on the southern part of the eastern half of the plat.

 

 

 

Things where about to drastically change. 

 

Outing Park in 1970

 

The stretch of I-75 from the I-70 interchange and the traffic circle had the dubious distinction of being the only segment with traffic lights and unsignalized cross-traffic.  This led to national notoriety as one of the US’s “die-ways” due to fatal accidents as high speed interstate traffic entered this quasi-limited access suburban environment.

 

The result was the conversion of this segment to true limited access, with grade-separated interchanges and no cross traffic.  The work was underway in 1970, which meant big changes to Outing Park.  Houses were taken for the Needmore interchange ramps (including what was left of Bangor Avenue) and the plat was chopped up by frontage road extensions.  Commercial & industrial encroachment was whittling away the housing stock.

 

All shown on this fuzzy 1970 USDA soil survey ariel:

 

 

 

…& around this time Outing Park Avenue was probably changed to Wadsworth Road, obliterating any indication that this place was once a “place”

 

 

Outing Park in 1974

 

..this USGS topo pretty much confirms the changes in the 1970 USDA aerial, showing the disappearance of houses and ongoing commercial encroachment.

 

 

 

Outing Park in 1982

 

The 1970s did their work via continued commercial and industrial encroachment from Needmore Road and in the plat itself, and ongoing house removals.  One can also see large scale industrial development to the south, as this part of suburbia was evolving into an industrial/logistics zone.

 

 

One can see the areas between the frontage roads and the interstate evolving into a commercial/industrial belt.

 

Outing Park in 2000

 

Things get bigger and more parking.  Business and church expansions, especially extensive parking, making things less park like (and somewhat denser).  By this time Forest Hill Ave. is nearly obliterated.

 

 

Outing Park Today

 

Our work is done  The plat is all but obliterated by ongoing transformation to commercial/industrial use and parking.  The last trees are being cleared, and only a handful of houses are left.

 

 

 

Some of the last houses, on Oak Grove Avenue…

 

 

 

..and Outing Park Avenue (now renamed Wadsworth Road).  A postwar transition to the ranch:

 

 

And a 1940s cape cod and 1950s blue collar ranch side-by-side.  These might be taken by the Invasion of the Plat Snatchers; though they appear as single family houses the aeriels don’t show backyards, instead they have parking & utility buildings.  Next door is the industrial big box that one finds all over around here.

 

 

The last of Forest Hill Avenue.  Two houses left…

 

 

…then came Tim Horton and his expanding parking lot

 

 

 

…and then there was one.  The oak grove of Oak Grove Avenue in the background:

 

 

Outing Park to Outing Parking Lot.

 

Depressing.  Thanks for sharing your research.  Shows that once a neighborhood is destroyed, it becomes much easier to claim properties for further commercial development.

 

    Are you saying that I-75 had traffic signals and unsignalized intersections until 1970 or did I interpret this wrong?

 

  If so, that is interesting.

^

Yes that is correct, for between the I-70 interchange and the traffic circle (Wagner Ford Road exit). 

 

You can see the Needmore Road interchange construction in the 1970 aeriel, with completion either in 1970 or 1971. 

 

This stretch of I-75 predated the interstate system.  Here is a history of that stretch of highway:  Dixie Bee-Line.... 

 

 

Northridge is an interesting part of town.

 

Bob Pollard of Gudied By Voices lived on Titus Ave. Recorded alot of material in his basement called "The Snakepit". Also yields the title for this album and one of his monikers "The Vampire on Titus" (via the late Jim Shepard of V3)