By: Michael Pack, Makailah Hill, and Sarah Litteral, with contributions by Dr. Caroline Waldron Merithew and Dr. James Todd Uhlman. Edited by Hannah Kratofil.

Introduction: The Beginning

The Dayton Arcade was constructed in a city transformed by the rapid growth of industry and the increasing consumerist culture of America on the cusp of entering the twentieth century. The area where the Arcade now stands had long served as an open street market for farmers to hawk their produce. Plans had been floated as far back as 1889 to construct a grand arcade market within Dayton, but they had come to naught.

By 1900 however, things had changed. Dayton had become one of the major cities of the midwest. Although not the largest city in Ohio in population, Dayton had more patents than any other city in the state, marking it as an unusual hotbed of innovation and investment.^[1] In the first half of the twentieth century, Daytonians would invent the airplane, the automatic starter, and leaded gasoline, among many other things. In such a dynamic city, prosperity lead to a reconsideration of constructing an Arcade. The design of the structure was influenced by the historical trends of middle-class consumerism and Progressive notions of cleanliness and efficiency.

Feeding a City

The Dayton Arcade, at its inception, was primarily a hub for food distribution. To properly understand the history behind its construction, one must examine a transformation in the way Americans acquired their food in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Cities throughout America began to move away from large outdoor markets and construct closed-air, indoor markets where foodstuffs could be sold.  Traditionally, such markets were long, narrow structures built in the middle of wide city streets. Market houses were another place where people bought food. They were often architecturally imposing buildings with more space. Both types of markets would be centrally located in the commercial districts of the city, oftentimes near railways or docks to facilitate the transportation of goods. In addition to market spaces where vendors could rent stalls, merchants had also begun open grocery stores. 

Figure 1: Map of Markets in Early Dayton

 This map is a modified version of one created by the independent research who went by the name Guest Jeffrey. The original can be found at “Aspects of the Dayton Arcade.”[4]

Left: Market day circa 1910, farmers looking toward South Main and West Fourth Streets.  Right: Third Street on Market Day, facing southeast corner of 3rd and Main Street. Both Courtesy of the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Montgomery County Picture File.

Photographs of the entrance and interior of The City Market between Main and Jefferson. Courtesy of the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Lutzenberger Picture Collection.

The Rise of Shopping and the Formation of a Plan

The closing decades of the nineteenth century saw a shift in the way consumers acquired what were then called “dry goods,” or consumer products. There was a shift to a consumer culture where shopping became a leisure activity rather than a necessity, a change further fueled the desire to build the Arcade. Increasing prosperity brought about by America’s growing industrial capacity meant an increase in both the wealth and number of the American middle class. The growing number of white-collar employees and professionals who worked for businesses sought to imitate the behavior and habits of the older social elite. New forms of stores began to spring up catering to these clients. Department stores began opening in cities throughout America, selling the traditional dry goods, such as fabrics and sewing material, alongside furniture at fixed prices.

Advances in architecture allowed these department stores to be constructed in new and alluring ways. The use of iron rather than stone as a building material enabled architects to expand the interior of stores. Plate glass, also newly invented, was used to increase the amount of light that came into a building. As one historian wrote, “These technologies enabled builders to construct well-lighted with cavernous rooms suitable for extensive dry-goods counters and large unobstructed street-level windows for showing tempting displays.”^[5] The Dayton Arcade would employ these technological achievements in architecture and retail to replace open-air markets with the food market equivalent of a department store. These stores would feature lavish decoration, intricate glasswork, and large open-air spaces to both display goods and provide ample counter space. 

Indeed, the idea of constructing an Arcade predated the building itself by several decades. Newspaper articles show that the idea was floated as far back as 1889, and was consciously imitating the Emery Arcade of Cincinnati.^[6] In the following year, one anonymous citizen submitting a proposal to the Dayton Herald the idea of not just an Arcade but a massive train station fit for a population of 200,000, much larger than the number of residents in Dayton at the time.^[7] Daytonians believed their city was destined for further growth and was deserving of architectural masterpieces such as a grand shopping arcade or the Midwestern equivalent to Grand Central Station.

The market on St. Clair Street adjacent to what was then called Library Park. c.1920.  Courtesy of Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Lutzenberger Picture Collection.

The Progressive Era

By the beginning of the century, the growing concern over public health that was characteristic of the Progressive Era increased public interest in the building of an indoor food market. The proponents of the Arcade criticized the street market as unsanitary, unsightly and inconvenient. An article that ran in the Dayton Herald stated:

 “This proposition appeals strongly to the best interests of the city, as it is destined to remove from the street all of the market people who now congregate on the curbstone, making an unsightly object to strangers and citizens alike, littering the street with garbage, and turning the public streets into grocery and vegetable stores”^[10]

In the market, local farmers sold fruits and vegetables, often from the backs of wagons. The rise of  germ theory at the time led to street markets being increasingly viewed with concern, as the Herald article expressed:

”The unsanitary features of this condition are apparent to everyone, as there is great danger of spreading the germs of disease, owing to the exposure of fruits and vegetables upon the street and it has been a serious problem how to obviate this difficulty,”^[11]  

A second issue identified by critics of the outdoor markets was that they operated on nature’s whims; rain, snow, or summer heat could force the vendors to close or keep customers away. 

The final criticism leveled against the street markets was that they were primitive, a holdover from Dayton’s past as a small village and not fit for a rising city of modern industry. In contrast, the purposed Arcade’s planners promised an enclosed market building shielded from both the dirt and grime of the city’s downtown and the notoriously fickle weather of the Ohio Valley. Planners touted the Arcade’s modern amenities: a cold storage facility, ample counter space, and electricity.^[12] The unspoken implication here was that the new Arcade food vendors and retail shops would bring the city up to par with its rivals and give it a market that could compete with the bustling Victorian commercial districts seen elsewhere. 

Figure 2: Sanborn Insurance Map of 1898

Jeffrey Guest, “Aspects of the Arcade.”

Despite the weight of an illustrious local businessman such as Mr. Barney behind it, there remained apprehension about the new Arcade building among city officials. There were already a number of market houses in the city of Dayton where produce could be sold indoors.  These market houses, such as one on Wayne Avenue, were built and operated by the city. Spaces were rented out to vendors in order to recoup the debt incurred in the building’s construction. Officials worried that the construction of the Dayton Arcade by a private company would attract vendors away and ruin any possibility of the city making a return on its investment. The Arcade was also considered to be too small to fill the role of both the open markets and the market houses of Dayton. A report in the Dayton Daily News said: “City officials have given it their opinion that the site is of insufficient size and that many market people would be left outside.”^[13][14]

In a little over a year, however, Barney and Gibbons had secured the additional properties and in partnership with others, began the processes of building the Arcade complex. Construction took more than two years. The complex is reported to have cost two million dollars, approximately $55 million today.

The Commercial Building under construction. You can see the “Arcade” sign over the original Fourth Street entrance to the right of the construction. Courtesy of the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Montgomery County Picture File.

Opening Day

On March 3, 1904, the Arcade opened its doors to an excited crowd eager to see what the newspapers were calling “one of the country’s most modern and complete structures of its kind.”^[15] What helped draw the almost 8,000 visitors to the first day of what would be a three-day event, however, was the charity festival meant to benefit the Miami Valley Hospital, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the Women’s Christian Association, and the Young Women’s League.^[16] With nearly 1,000 women volunteers having worked upwards of two weeks beforehand so that the charity event would be a success, the excitement of everyone was high, and ultimately people were not disappointed.^[17]

The Buildings of the Arcade

While the opening day was meant as a charity event, it would simultaneously establish the businesses of the Arcade in the local community. The architectural design of the Arcade was on full display to the many would-be customers, businesses, and renters who came for the charity event. Composed of four buildings that each had their own individual purposes, there was little about the Arcade architecture that was unimpressive.^[21] Below are descriptions of each of the four original buildings, with the fifth building, the Commercial Building, being added in 1908.^[22] The first of these indicated on the Sanborn Insurance Map from 1918 is the (1) Rotunda Market House. The second is the (2) Arcade itself. Buildings three and four are the (3) Ludlow and (4) Third Street Buildings. Finally, there is the (5) Commercial Building located at the corner of Ludlow and Fourth.

Figure 5: Three Dimensional Diagram of the Arcade Complex

Guest Jeffrey, “Aspects of the Dayton Arcade”

The Rotunda and The Market House

Visitors of the charity event entering from Fourth Street would have first encountered the rotunda, the beautiful ‘heart’ of the Arcade, situated inside the Market House. The Market House was an architectural masterpiece designed by Frank Mills Andrews.^[23] Its design was possibly influenced by his previous design of the Conover Building, another historic building of Dayton also located downtown.^[24]

The Market House would be used primarily as a market; it was a 200 ft by 198 ft area in which there could be up to 200 stalls.^[25] There were barbershops, fish markets, fruit stands, vegetable stalls, and many others. Some of these businesses offered exotic produce and goods not typically available to the residents of Dayton; for example, one fruit stand sold Jamaican bananas and Messina Lemon Dates.^[29] Another business, the Palace Meat Stand, sold hams all the way from California.^[30]

Advertisements intended to attract vendors made sure to extol the merits of the Arcade’s modern appliances, including “14 meat stalls, each equipped with opal tile refrigerator, marble top counter, cutting table, and chopping block”^[26] and “7 Dairy stalls, equipped with plate glass and opal tile roll-top refrigerators and marble topped counters.”^[27][28]

Architecturally, the highlight of the building was the rotunda. A magnificent Victorian-styled glass dome that was 90 ft across and 70 ft high,^[32] it shed light into the space below. The rotunda was decorated with tin and plaster sculptures designed to look like local produce and game found in Ohio. The one exception was the decoration of pineapples in the center of the dome, a symbol of hospitality.^[33]

Early advertising-card image of rotunda for Graves and Meade’s Clothing. Courtesy of the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Montgomery County Picture File.

As an impressed reviewer in the 1904 Dayton Herald notes, “The Architectural beauty of the interior of the marketplace, the cleanliness and system of the stalls, and the fact that the market will be open during all hours of business will be features that are bound to attract the public to the Dayton Arcade.”^[37]

The Arcade and Third Street Entrance

Visitors to the charity would have also been able to enter through the Third Street Building. Also designed by Frank Andrews’ Third Street building of the Arcade was a structure that could rival even the Market House’s rotunda in beauty. With a Flemish facade and chateau roofline said to be inspired by a guild hall in Amsterdam.^[38] The photograph to the right gives an early view of the the building’s famed design.  This entrance led into the twenty feet wide Arcade that stretched from Third Street to Mumma Lane (renamed Arcade Lane). Covered by beautiful glass-paneled roof, the Arcade featured shops on the ground level and offices above.^[39][40] 

Figure 7: Structural Diagram of the Aracade

1918 Sanborn Insurance Map, 1918-1932 vol. 1.

Arcade entrance to Traxler’s Department Store. Courtesy of Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Montgomery County Picture File.

Fourth Street Building and Ludlow Street Building

The Fourth Street Building and the Ludlow Street Building of the Arcade were both designed by the architectural firm Schenck and Williams,^[45] and consequently shared an identical appearance of Bedford stone with a trimming of Flemish bond brick.^[46] The buildings had similar appearance and use. Both buildings used their first floors as retail areas and their second floors as offices and services. There were differences, however, in the way the third through fifth floors were used.^[47]

Corner of Fourth and Ludlow: the Ludlow Street building is on the left, Commercial Building at center, and Third Street Building on the right. Courtesy of the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Lutzenberger Picture Collection.

The Fourth Street Building’s upper floors were composed of apartments, while the Ludlow Street Building’s upper floors were used as offices. The apartments in the Fourth Street Building were of two types, both provided with a range of conveniences. The first type, the “housekeeping apartments” on the third and fourth floors, consisted of a hall, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bath.^[48] Residents of these apartments were also provided with a refrigerator, a gas range, a butler’s pantry, and “all other conveniences.”^[49] The second type of apartments, located on the fifth floor, was the bachelor apartments; these were noticeably marketed towards men and consisted of two rooms and a bath with shared shower baths provided on the floor.^[50] Most of the tenants in the early years of the Arcade were outsiders from other cities or men just beginning to set up businesses.^[51] When the Arcade first opened, six months free rent was offered to desirable tenants.^[52]

Figure 8: Diagram Fourth Street and Commercial Building

Diagram created by Guest Jeffrey that shows the floor usage of the early Fourth Street and Commerical Buildings. “Aspects of the Dayton Arcade.”

Customers were presented with a souvenir program that listed the various shops and attractions in the Arcade. The program showed people where each attraction could be found and advertised the businesses that contributed to the charity event. Among them were the plumbers FitzPatrick and Hoepfner, ^[57] who did all the plumbing work for the Arcade, and the Roebling Construction company, which constructed the fireproof floors.^[58] 

The ten-story Commercial Building completed the Arcade. The building was erected at the corner of Fourth and Ludlow Street, connecting to the Ludlow and Fourth Street facades, which are Italian Renaissance Revival Style. It was seen as a defining part of Dayton, standing out in the city skyline as one of the very few high-rises of the time.^[61] Designed by Albert A. Pretzinger and built for Adam Schantz Jr., the versatile ten-story structure was purchased by the Dayton Arcade Company.  Its list of tenants in the first years include attorneys, bankers, insurance agents, physicians, brewery owners, civil engineers, real estate agents, architects, and even a Christian Science Reading Room.^[60] 

A City on the Rise

The charity event that marked the opening of the Arcade was very successful due in no small part to the efforts of the women volunteers and the magnificence of the Arcade itself. In the end, it managed to make over $10,500, approximately $274,000 today. ^[59] In the coming decade the Arcade prospered. According to Reverend W. W. Drury,^[62]

“The Dayton Arcade is in a class to itself. It is almost a village within itself in the very heart of the city. The large and well equipped all-day market, the cold-storage rooms in the basement, the forty-four storerooms, two hundred and seven offices, sixteen living apartments and twenty-two 2 room bachelor apartments unite in making a combination unlike anything else in the country.” (1909)

The Arcade’s success was fueled in no small part by Dayton’s industrial enterprises. In the decades before the construction of the Arcade, the most influential local businessman was John Patterson. In 1884, Patterson bought out James Ritty’s National Manufacturing Company and acquired his patents for a mechanical cash register. Patterson’s business, renamed National Cash Register (NCR), would enjoy meteoric success, driven by Patterson’s personality and effective sales techniques. NCR became vital to the city of Dayton and many of the future luminaries of the American business world would work there, learning sales techniques and observing the production methods employed in NCR factories. The cash register itself seemed ready-made for the new era evinced by the commercial energy of the Arcade.  The machine was suited both to Progressive notions of order and precision, as well as to the commercial realities of the advent of mass consumer culture. More people were shopping, more money was changing hands, and there were more temptations for dishonest workers to pocket some of the profits. These temptations were made impossible by the new-fangled mechanical cash registers. Additionally, in 1909, the Wright Brothers were being celebrated for training new pilots around the globe and the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO) was created by E.A. Deeds and Charles F. Kettering.^[63] By 1910, Dayton’s 1,200 factories had an annual output of $45 million, or a little less than $1.2 billion in today’s dollars.^[64] For leaders like Patterson, the Arcade reflected the dreams they had for the city. A noted Progressive, Patterson hired the noted landscape firm Olmsted Brothers to build the city’s Proposed Park System. In their report, they stated:

“We find the city of the most rapidly growing and one of the most prosperous of many in one of the most populous and prosperous states of the Union. In population Ohio is the fourth state and Dayton is the forty-third city in the Union. It has increased 36.6 per cent in ten years. There appear to be no unusual natural resources, the exploitation of which has caused this prosperity of Dayton. We must attribute it, therefore, to the intelligence and industry of its people.”^[65]

Photograph showing the Arcade’s famous Flemish Third Street entrance as the waters rises.  Courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Wright State University, Dayton, OH. Rikes Historical Collection.

^{Matters only got worse as explosions and fire spread throughout the city, a tragedy that would have saved the city $2 million in fire damage had they had turned off the gas in time. It began in the Burkhardt and Rottermann Drugstore which stood on the northwest corner of Third and St. Clair Streets.[73] The fire only ended once a power company employee, Edward Hanley, dove deep into the water and swam to the valve room to turn off the gas, saving the city from further destruction.[74]}

Flood waters at the intersection of Fourth and Main Streets in March 1913. To the right is the Fourth Street Building and just to its left the Commercial Building at the corner of Fourth and Ludlow Street. Picture was taken from the Davies Building looking west; in the background are the Dayton Daily News Building and the top of Sacred Heart Church.  Courtesy of the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Montgomery County Picture File.

During the flood, some 250 people found themselves trapped in the Arcade, unable to leave for several days due to the rising floodwaters. One such example was John Breen, who was stuck in the neighboring Phillips House Hotel with his wife and children when the flood struck. Worried that the flaming logs he saw floating down the street might set fire to the hotel, Breen took dramatic action to protect his family. He laid one board between the hotel and the neighboring Gibbons Building and another from the Gibbons Building to the Arcade building. He and his family carefully crossed these boards to reach the Arcade, believing it to be a safer and more secure location to wait out the disaster.^[75]

“My grandfather, John T. Breen, was afraid some of the logs might go into the Phillips House and set it on fire. So he became very fearful and was afraid that the foundation of the Phillips House would give way. So he went up onto the roof of the Phillips House and put a board across to the next building and then a board across to the next building, which was the Arcade, and he had his wife and children cross these boards and go into the Arcade. They broke into a dentist’s office in the top of the Arcade. They stayed there for the rest of the flood because they felt that the Arcade was a safer building.” – Edward Breen, 2008.^[76]

In the photograph taken just a block from the Arcade, a horse is seen swimming against the current of the water. In one story told about the Arcade during the flood, refugees from the rising water observed from the second gallery of the rotunda a horse struggling through the flooded Market House floor. After the waters eventually receded, the Arcade and city were nearly unrecognizable: thousands of dead horses littered the streets, more than 300 lives were lost, and there was $100 million worth of damages done to the land and buildings.^[77]

Footnotes

^[1] Bruce W. Ronald and Virginia Ronald, Dayton: the Gem City,  (Boston: Continental Heritage Press, 1981), 71.

^[2] “Food and Beverage Retailing in 19th and Early 20th Century America” from University of Michigan Library. Accessed 5/4/2019.

^[3] Guest Jeffrey, “Aspects of the Dayton Arcade,” https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/4351-aspects-of-the-dayton-arcade-building-owning-and-occupying-the-arcade/#msg192506.

^[4] Ibid.

^[5] Regina Blaszcyk, American Consumer Society 1865-2005: From Hearth to HGTV. (Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 2009), 75.

^[6] 23 February 1889, Dayton Herald.

^[7] 20 March 1890, Dayton Herald.

^[8] 28 March 1901, Dayton Daily News.

^[9] 17 April 1902, Dayton Herald.

^[10] 11 December 1900, Dayton Daily News.

^[11] Ibid.

^[12] Ibid.

^[13] 12 December 1900, Dayton Daily News.

^[14] “Wayne Avenue Market” Jeffrey. Jeffreys Arcade. 25.

^[15] “Beautifully Dedicated By A Labor Of Charity,” The Dayton Daily News, March 3, 1904.

^[16] Curt Dalton, The Dayton Arcade: Crown Jewel of the Gem City. (Dayton: Friends of the Dayton Arcade, 2008), 12.

^[17] Dalton, The Dayton Arcade, 11.

^[18] “Beautifully Dedicated.”

^[19] Ibid.

^[20] Ibid.

^[21] Guest Jeffrey, “Aspects of the Dayton Arcade,” https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/4351-aspects-of-the-dayton-arcade-building-owning-and-occupying-the-arcade/#msg192506.

^[22] Ibid.

^[23] Dalton, The Dayton Arcade, 5.

^[24] William L, Conover Building, 1904, JPEG, Lutzenberger Picture Collection, Dayton, content.daytonmetrolibrary.org/digital/collection/lutzenberge/id/362.

^[25] Dalton, The Dayton Arcade, 10.

^[26] “Rental Department: The Dayton Arcade company,” The Dayton Herald, February 19, 1904.

^[27] Ibid.

^[28] John K, Arcade Market, JPEG, Dayton PostCard Collection, Dayton, http://content.daytonmetrolibrary.org/digital/collection/postcards/id/49/rec/5.

^[29] Dalton, The Dayton Arcade, 19.

^[30] Ibid.

^[31] Ibid. 13.

^[32] Ibid., 10.

^[33] Ibid., 15.

^[34] “Rental Department.”

^[35] Ronald, Dayton, 89.

^[36] “Crowds Throng Arcade Market,” The Dayton Herald, March 19, 1904.

^[37] “Crowds Throng Arcade.”

^[38] Guest Jeffrey, “Aspects of the Dayton Arcade,” https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/4351-aspects-of-the-dayton-arcade-building-owning-and-occupying-the-arcade/#msg192506.

^[39] Dalton, The Dayton Arcade, 7.

^[40] I and M Ottenheimer, Arcade, 1907, Dayton PostCard Collection, Dayton, http://content.daytonmetrolibrary.org/digital/collection/postcards/id/50/rec/6.

^[41] Guest Jeffrey, “Aspects of the Dayton Arcade,” https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/4351-aspects-of-the-dayton-arcade-building-owning-and-occupying-the-arcade/#msg192506.

^[42] Ibid.

^[43] “Rental Department.”

^[44] “Arcade Easter Edition, 1906,” The Dayton Evening Herald, April 12, 1906.

^[45] Guest Jeffrey, “Aspects of the Dayton Arcade,” https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/4351-aspects-of-the-dayton-arcade-building-owning-and-occupying-the-arcade/#msg192506.

^[46] Dalton, The Dayton Arcade, 7.

^[47] Guest Jeffrey, “Aspects of the Dayton Arcade,” https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/4351-aspects-of-the-dayton-arcade-building-owning-and-occupying-the-arcade/#msg192506.

^[48] “Rental Department.”

^[49] Ibid.

^[50] Ibid.

^[51] “Beautifully Dedicated.”

^[52] William L, Fourth and Ludlow Streets, 1904, JPEG, Lutzenberger Picture Collection, Dayton, content.daytonmetrolibrary.org/digital/collection/lutzenberge/id/362.

^[53] “Beautifully Dedicated.”

^[54] Ibid.

^[55] Dalton, The Dayton Arcade, 12.

^[56] “Beautifully Dedicated.”

^[57] Dayton Arcade Company, Souvenir Programme Arcade Festival. Dayton: Arcade Company, 1904.

^[58] Ibid.

^[59] Dalton, The Dayton Arcade, 12.

^[60] Memorial Arcade Book, 20.

^[61] Andrew Walsh, Lost Dayton, Ohio, (United Kingdom: The History Press, 2018), 80.

^[62] Memorial Arcade Book, 19.

^[63] Theresa Zumwald and Sol Smith, For the Love of Dayton: Life in the Miami Valley, 1796-1996. (Dayton: Dayton Daily News, 1995)

^[64] Zumwald, For the Love of Dayton, 106.

^[65] Olmsted Brothers. Report on Proposed Park System for the City of Dayton. Brookline, MA, 1911. Retrieved from: http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/page/page/4894557.htm.

^[66] Roberta Sue Alexander, A Place of Recourse: A History of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, 1803-2003. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005) 93.

^[67] Alexander, A Place of Recourse, 94.

^[68] Ronald, Dayton, 90.

^[69] Alexander, A Place of Recourse, 96.

^[70] Zumwald, For the Love of Dayton

^[71]  Ronald, Dayton, 96-98.

^[72] Zumwald, For the Love of Dayton

^[73]  Ronald, Dayton, 100.

^[74] Zumwald, For the Love of Dayton.

^[75] Andrew Walsh, Lost Dayton, Ohio, (United Kingdom: The History Press, 2018), 81.

^[76] Memorial Arcade Book, 22.

^[77] FLOC

Bibliography

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Lutzenberger, William. Fourth and Ludlow Streets. 1904. JPEG. Lutzenberger Picture Collection, Dayton, content.daytonmetrolibrary.org/digital/collection/lutzenberge/id/362.

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