Category Archives: Historical Neighborhoods

Street and Bridge Honorary Designations

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Perhaps you’ve seen the blue street signs above the regular street signs with names on them. Did you recognize the names? Did you wonder who they were or what they did? Here’s a list of many from around the Dayton area.

This list is thanks to the book Hidden History by Tony Kroeger, with a small amount of Googling on our part.

  • Page E. Gray Jr. Way (Liscum Drive) – Gray was the first African American to hold a position other than custodian at NCR. He was a parts inspector and later became an assistant design engineer during the 1960s.
  • Mick Montgomery Way (Patterson Boulevard) – Montgomery owned Canal Street Tavern.
  • Betsy B. Whitney Way (Wilkinson Street) – Whitney was a philanthropist and volunteered for many causes, including the YWCA, which is located on Wilkinson.
  • Paul Deneau Way (Fourth Street) – Deneau was an architect of several Dayton buildings, such as the Grant-Deneau Tower at 40 W. Fourth Street and the Lakewoods Tower at 980 Wilmington Avenue.
  • Ambassador Richard Holbrooke Memorial Bridge (Salem Avenue bridge) – Holbrooke was an American diplomat and a leader in the development of the Dayton Accords in 1995, which helped bring an end to the war in Bosnia.
  • Erma Bombeck Way (Brown and Warren Streets) – Bombeck was a writer whose humorous column and books were widely read. Bombeck grew up in Dayton and is buried at Woodland Cemetery.
  • Mike Schmidt Parkway (Riverside Drive) – Schmidt played in Major League Baseball for eighteen seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies, where he was three-time MVP and 12-time All-Star. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995.

Lewis Kemp and the Oldest House in Dayton

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Lewis and Elizabeth Kemp and their family of eight children moved from Frederick, Maryland to Mad River Township in 1806. Kemp bought 822 acres of land at $10 an acre, and settled on a piece of land that looks out over the modern-day Huffman Prairie. Shortly after their arrival in 1806, Kemp built a brick and limestone house with a stone foundation. A brick addition was added around 1832.

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8.4.2019 – One Year Later

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One year ago, tragedy struck Dayton in a way that will remain in our memories forever. Over the past year, we have watched the city heal and rally together in the midst of a lot of trials.Today we would like to honor the victims of the shooting that took place in the Oregon District on August 4th, 2019.

  • Megan Betts, age 22
  • Nicholas Cumer, age 25
  • Thomas “Teejay” McNichols, age 25
  • Lois “Lola” Oglesby, age 27
  • Logan Turner, age 30
  • Beatrice “Nicole” Warren-Curtis, age 36
  • Saheed Saleh, age 38
  • Monica Brickhouse, age 39
  • Derrick Fudge, age 57

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The Isaac Pollack House

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In 1854, two Jewish immigrants named Isaac Pollack and Solomon Rauh began a business partnership dealing whiskey and wine in Dayton from a warehouse on West Third Street.

Eight years later in 1862, Pollack served as a corporal in the civilian Squirrel Hunters during the Civil War and was regarded as a hero after the Squirrel Hunters successfully defended Cincinnati from an attack by the Confederate army. At the end of the war, Pollack and his friend Rauh started to build two identical homes on West Third Street.

Twin Houses

Source: Dayton International Peace Museum Website

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Dayton Sights: Places of Worship

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“When I think of a place of worship, I think of a place where one can sit and be reminded of all the things that are important outside our individual lives. To express spirituality, the architect has to think of the original material of architecture, space and light.” – Richard Meier

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Interesting Street Names

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  • Cline Street – Once known as Zigzag Street because it ran along an open ditch, called Seely’s ditch, but has long since been straightened.
  • Hoover Avenue – Not named for the president, but for local residents and the Hoover Park plat developed in 1917.
  • Demphle Avenue – named for Sebastion Demphle, a local stove dealer.
  • Babbitt Street – A T.S. Babbitt lived at First Street and Bridge Street, later Stratford Lane.
  • Kiefaber Street – named after Warner Harshman Kiefaber Sr, who graduated from St Mary’s Institute class of 1905 and later founded the W.H Kiefaber Company on Keowee Street and Monument Avenue in 1920.

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Dayton Firsts Part 12

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  • First Telegraph Message – Received in Dayton on September 17, 1847.
  • First United Brethren Church – The first United Brethren church in Dayton was organized in 1847, in a small room in the Oregon Engine House. Their first church building was erected in 1852, at Sixth Street and Logan Street, later being purchased by the city and converted into a city prison.
  • First Gas Company – Chartered February 4, 1848, by Daniel Beckel, Peter Voorhees, Daniel Stout, I.F. Howells, David Winter, J.D. Loomis, J.D. Phillips, Valentine Winters, John Mills and Daniel W. Weelock.
  • First Hebrew congregation – The first Hebrew congregation was organized in 1850. They met in the old Dayton Bank building until 1863, when they purchased the old Baptist house of worship.

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221 Years Ago, Tomorrow

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“The boat party was the first to arrive. Rounding the curve in the river, where for so many years since then it has been flowing under the Dayton View bridge, the pioneers perceived before their eyes the swift current of Mad River emptying itself into the main channel, just as it had been described, and saying to each other (so we may imagine), ‘Yes, this must be the place,’ they tied the pirogue to a tree at the head of St. Clair Street and led by Mrs. Thompson, all clambered ashore.

At that moment DAYTON came on the map!”

– Charlotte Reeve Conover, The Story of Dayton.

Two hundred and twenty-one years ago tomorrow, Dayton was founded. To honor this occasion, we decided to share some of our favorite pictures we’ve taken around Dayton.

Also, please send us your favorite picture you’ve taken around Dayton, and we’ll feature it in a future blog post! You can send it to our email at daytonunknown@hotmail.com – and be sure to provide your name for photo credit!

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David’s Cemetery Notable Burials

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Located at the corner of David Road and Mad River Road in Kettering, David’s Cemetery has many notable burials:

  • Harry Schwab – Dayton golfer, won Senior P.G.A., died July 25th, 1976
  • Hadley Watts – former Superintendent of Centerville Schools, died August 9th, 1969
  • Richard E. Kelchner – founder of Kelchner Excavating Company, died July 15th, 2002
  • Clark Haines – founder of NCR Band in 1973, died 6/23/2001

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