Part 2: 1913 – 1945
Two Wars, One Arcade
By: Andy Rosta, Jack Gesuale, Fatima Alfaro, Elise McTamaney, with contributions by Dr. Caroline Waldron Merithew and Dr. James Todd Uhlman. Edited by Hannah Kratofil.
Introduction: A Period of Challenges
The Flood of 1913 was the beginning of three decades of dramatic change for the Arcade and the City of Dayton. From 1913 to 1945, the Dayton Arcade experienced two World Wars, the boom of the 1920s, and the bust of the 1930s. The growth of industrial production during World War I led to prosperity in Dayton. Although inhibited by the needs of rationing, increased population and good paying jobs helped Arcade shop owners weather the years. The 1920 post-war period of prosperity was a boon for the retailers, but the small shop owners also faced growing competition from national chain stores. Like many other businesses during the Great Depression, the Arcade struggled to remain open, but thanks to Dayton’s relative economic health, it managed to survive. World War II brought an end to the Depression, and although the wartime rationing once again negatively impacted shop owners, the growth of the city’s population and dynamism of wartime production compensated for the economic losses.
Recovery from the Flood, 1913-1919
After the Great Flood of 1913, the city of Dayton began to rebuild slowly. Debris littered the streets, corpses of animals rotted in the open, and people were homeless and in need of relief. During the flood the Arcade had been one of the places that citizens were able to find help. Advertisements in the Dayton Daily News shortly after the flood indicate booths in the Arcade were open and offering their goods at “reduced prices”.[1] Shop owners sold their goods on credit with the expectation that they would be paid once people of Dayton were able to recover. The events in the aftermath of the flood highlight the importance of the Arcade to the city and it’s people.
Debris in front of Elder and Johnston department store on Main in the days after the flood. Courtesy of Courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Wright State University, Dayton, OH. Rikes Historical Collection.
In the decades after the flood, the Arcade continued to serve as the primary marketplace for the City of Dayton. The absence of large-scale chain store grocers for most Americans prior to the 1930s meant the routines of visiting specialized food vendors continued. The butchers, produce stands, and dairy sellers at the Arcade still provided the majority of the goods people used daily. However, competition for these establishments was rising. Data collected by Guest Jeffrey, a local researcher, reveals that the number of stores in the Arcade declined steadily after it opened in 1913. One reason was the increased competition from national chain stores. The Arcade attempted to combat the threat by increasing its use of advertising. The Arcade’s owners bought space in newspapers around Dayton and advertised the businesses inside the Arcade. The ads listed butchers, dairy shops, barbers, tailors, shoe-shiners, and much more.[2] As late as 1918 the Arcade still boasted fifty different types of stores.[3]
Figure 1: Graph of the Number and Type of Booths in the Arcade.
Guest Jeffrey, “Aspects of the Dayton Arcade.”
The Arcade and city had recovered nicely from the Flood and by 1918, the outbreak of war in Europe four years before had led to increased industrial production in Dayton. According to Bruce Ronald, the population of Dayton at the time of World War I was 123,794. This was due to the reputation Dayton had as a manufacturing city. Also noted by Ronald, at this time Dayton was known as the “city of one thousand factories”.[4] Not only did this draw people from around the United States to Dayton for work, but it also drew immigrants to Dayton . These immigrants, specifically Germans, would not only shape the city of Dayton, but they would also have a significant part to play in the First World War. Dayton and the surrounding areas of Ohio were very pro-German, due to the large German immigrant population. “Of the five newspapers in town, two were German,” wrote one local historian, and “many Daytonians adopted an exceptionally vocal peace stance before U.S. entry into the war.”[5]
But in 1917, when the United States entered the First World War on the side of Britain and France, support for Germany rapidly declined. The war increased the prosperity of Dayton and improved the fortunes of the Arcade. However, the support given to other countries by specific ethnic groups was not the only way Dayton and Daytonians contributed to the war effort. Airplane production at the Wright Brothers factory, along with other forms of war material, resulted in good paying jobs. Arcade retailers reaped the benefits of the prosperity.[6] During the war, the city observed “heatless days” and stores at the Arcade closed on certain days to support the general efforts to ration food and limit spending. [7]
World War One bond drive in Dayton. The 3rd Ohio National Guard Parade down Main Street upon their return at the end of the war. Courtesy of the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Lutzenberger Picture Collection.
A sun drenched market floor in roughly 1920. Courtesy of the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Lutzenberger Picture Collection.
Economic Growth and Competition, 1920-1929
In the 1920s, the Arcade benefited from the post-war prosperity occurring in the U.S. The growth during the war years continued. Consumer spending greatly expanded in the post-war years. Business began to offer credit and installment purchasing plans. They began to use new forms of product display that featured artificial lighting and product placement. The use of more sophisticated advertising campaigns had also begun.
Signs of the change can be seen in advertisements for the Arcade, as well as efforts to lure new customers by updating the amenities offered. For the Arcade, advertising greatly expanded in the early 1920s, with increased advertisements for the businesses, specifically for the food markets. Prices on items were continuously advertised in these newspapers and into later decades as well. Many Dayton newspapers had ads from the Arcade specifically called “The Arcade News,” a space in the papers that allowed the merchants of the Arcade to spotlight items that were available for purchase in the market.
In February of 1924 the Arcade began to be referenced as “The City Within a City” in newspaper advertisements. Billing the Arcade as its own city within Dayton was a way to show the importance the Arcade had to the Dayton community. These advertisements were found mainly in the Dayton Daily News. They describe the Arcade as the “Spirit of Progress.” One-sixth of the population, it declared, passed through the Arcade daily. If accurate, a little over 29,000 people visited the Arcade each day.[8]
The “City Within A City” Advertising Campaign, The Dayton Daily News, February 24, 1924.
Other advertisements wrote about how easy living in the Arcade was because one could just purchase everything they needed without ever having to go outside. A Dayton Daily News article from 1929 reported how the thirty-one merchants who were working in the Arcade were experiencing immense benefits from advertising in local newspapers. The article explained that newspaper advertising had proven an effective tool for the merchants, writing that the Arcade was “one of the most popular merchandising quarters in Southern Ohio.”[9]
The Dayton Daily News, February 14, 1926.
Main Street Dayton Ohio 1925. Courtesy of Courtesy of the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Lutzenberger Picture Collection.
The prosperity and vitality of city, suggested by the above image of a busy Main Street in 1925, only tells part of the story of the Arcade during this decade. Like other older retail establishments, the Arcade had begun to face competition in the form of new chain grocery stores like Kroger. In her 2009, book on consumerism, American Consumerism Society 1865-2005: From Hearth to HDTV, Regina L. Blaszczyk writes how “by the 1920s, chain stores appeared on Main Streets from coast to coast, pushing old-fashioned retailers out of business.”[10] Local historian Curt Dalton wrote in his 2008 book about the Arcade, The Dayton Arcade: Crown Jewel of the Gem City, that the number of vendors in the Arcade had shrunk in the decade after World War I. According to Dalton, “by 1920 there were fewer than fifty booths selling merchandise year-round in the Market area,”[11] and a 1924 advertisement reported forty-two merchants working at the Arcade.[12] In 1924 the department store Traxler moved out of the Arcade. Multiple ads appeared in a multitude of papers declaring that, “Everything Must Go!”, signaling a change in the steady stream of business. Despite setbacks such as this, the Arcade remained popular “City Within a City” through the 1920s.
The 1920s also saw changes to the building itself. Although one of the most modern buildings in the city in 1904, by the mid-1920s much had changed. Electric lighting was now standard, and refrigeration facilities had become far more common. In 1927 the Arcade was closed for repairs and refurbishments. According to the Dayton Daily News, the Arcade’s market area was rearranging and canopies were being removed so the complex would “bear more resemblance to the accepted type of market in America.”[13] The glass dome was also given an update with new glass being installed to bring more light into the building. The popularity of the Arcade made it a prized place to set up business. In 1931, what would become one of the Arcade’s most famous tenants, Culp’s Cafe, opened its doors. According to the advertisement marking its opening, it was Mr. Culp’s dream to own a store in the Arcade. But trouble for men like Culp and the owners of the Arcade lay just ahead.
Strategies of Survival during the Depression, 1930-1939
With the turn of the decade, the roaring twenties came to an unpredicted end with the stock market crash of 1929. The following Great Depression become the worst economic downturn in the twentieth century. The Arcade felt the effects of the Depression as customers decreased because they did not have extra money to spend. Shop keepers responded by cutting prices in the early 1930s, and the Arcade was no exception. As shown in the image to the right, the shops in the Arcade had to cut back prices to survive.[14]
Mary Jane, Child Star from Dayton, The Dayton Daily News, November 2, 1930.
The Dayton Daily News, April 10, 1931.
In a way to keep the arcade alive during this difficult time, its owners tried many innovative methods to lure people back. One example of this is the use of childhood star and Dayton native Mary Jane, who starred in a film about the Arcade called “City within a City” in the 1920s, as seen in the advertisement.[15] The Arcade set up events where Mary Jane would come to the arcade for “tours” and people could go and meet her. While she was there, shop owners would sell merchandise that featured her. The owners also sought to rejuvenate the complex with renovations in 1932. The renovations were designed to remove the city street market and bring more of the business into the interior of the building. They were also undertaken to combat similar renovations taking place at the older “City Market,” which stretched between Main and Jefferson Street.[16] The older market had reopened under new management in 1930, and two years later increased the pressure on the Arcade by undergoing renovations. The Arcade responded with new renovations of its own.[17] The removal of the city street markets would help by bringing in the city street markets into the Arcade. The advertising for the renovation was a key component in drawing customers back.[18]
Newspaper articles detailing the renovations of the Arcade’s rival, the older City Market referred to here as the Jefferson-Main Arcade. The Dayton Daily News, July 1, 1932.
Arcade management and merchants employed other strategies to gain the attention of customers. In late 1932, the Arcade hosted a elaborate “Mammoth Food Show” to honor its 29th Anniversary. The event promised hundreds of vendors, twice daily attendance prizes of “huge baskets of groceries,” and “tons of free samples.” The Dayton Daily News full-page advertisement (part of it can be seen below) of November 14, 1932 declared:
“Twenty-nine years ago […] the Arcade began in this community. A gradual, consistent growth makes it today the envy of larger cities throughout the nation. Nowhere in this state and more certainly nowhere in this vicinity can such a most [sic] expansive mart be found.”
Four days later, large articles in the paper (see the second image below dated November 18th) predicted “Great Throngs” were expected for the final days of events.
The year 1933 was the low point of the Great Depression. In the coming years New Deal Programs brought relief and hope to millions. Although the economy gradually improved, it did so at a slow rate. Arcade owners and merchants continued to plaster newspapers with full page of advertising on a regular basis. “Thirfty housewives shopped at the Arcade,” they declared. “It is Always Fair Weather” under the dome was another slogan. Why not “Shop in the Sunlight” suggested another. Management also continued to mine Hollywood, as in this advertisement that their would be a treasure hunt inside the Arcade to coincide with the 1934 opening of “Treasure Island” at the nearby Loews theater.
Despite the efforts of the owners of the Arcade, the headwinds of the Great Depression proved too overwhelming. Dayton had suffered a massive economic blow in the 1930s. It became the second city in the U.S. to sign up for the nation’s Federal Surplus Commodity Food Stamp Plan.[19] By 1940, the city’s relief agencies had provided 700% more aid than they had in 1929.[20] The government programs of the New Deal dramatically helped the lives of individual Daytonians, but they also helped keep some business doors open. The difficult economic times felt by the residents of Dayton were also felt by the merchants of the Arcade. Even with the influx of federal money, the number of stores in the Arcade dropped by nearly 30% by the end of the decade. In 1940, there were only twenty-five merchants still operating in the Arcade, down from thirty-five. The apartments in the complex continued to fill, however. People packed into the downtown area needed places to live. The tenants provided an important foundation for the owners of the Arcade even when they had to spend large sums on advertising and the merchants on the floor struggled.[21]
In 1932, in one of the most difficult years of the Great Depression, the Gibbons and Barney estates that had built the Arcade were forced to give up control of the complex when it went into receivership. It was not until 1939 that Author Beerman and Associates took formal control of property. The change in ownership became yet another way of selling the Arcade. Advertisements like the one to the right proclaimed the change to be a new day in the history of the Arcade. Readers were encouraged to get into the “Arcade Habit.” Why? Because “IT PAYS ALL WAYS.”
As it turned out, It was a good year to have bought the complex. While the programs of the New Deal had pulled the nation out of the worst of the Depression and produced steady economic improvement, it was not until 1939 that there were signs of prosperous times ahead. In Europe, war had broken out. Just as in World War I, the combatants began to buy large quantities of U.S.- made goods. Dayton, with its extensive factories, immediately began to see its economy turn around. When the U.S. itself entered the war on December 7th, 1941, the U.S. economy began to grow even more rapidly.
The Dayton Daily News, August 14, 1934.
The Dayton Daily News, June 23, 1938.
The Third Street Entrance of the Arcade in the late 1930s. Courtesy of Courtesy of the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton, OH. Lutzenberger Picture Collection.
Second World War, 1940-1945
Despite the losses at the Arcade, the building and the City of Dayton fared better than many other cities during the Great Depression. Many factories had been re-located to Dayton during or following World War I, and many continued their manufacturing in-city through the 1920s and 1930s. Some of the more significant products produced in Dayton were automobile parts, refrigerators, cash registers, and tires. By 1940, Dayton was home to 432 factories that were producing over 750 products.[22]
Dayton women working in munitions factory. Courtesy of Courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Paul Lawrence Dunbar Library, Wright State University, Dayton, OH. Dayton Daily Collection.
African-Americans wait for bus transportation to work. Courtesy of Courtesy of Courtesy of Special Collections and Archive, Wright State University, Dayton, OH. Dayton Daily Collection.
World War Two provided a new round of economic growth for both the city and the Arcade. In 1939 U.S. industries, including those in Dayton, began to produce goods for the Allied powers in Europe. In total, the city of Dayton would receive over $1.6 billion in war contracts during World War II.[23] The production of automobiles, aviation parts, cash registers, and other engineering equipment positioned Dayton to develop into a booming economy for war time production that accelerated the city’s recovery. Out of the 432 factories in the Dayton region in 1940, 60 were classified as war production facilities. Once the war started, manufacturing plants such as DECLO, NCR, and Frigidaire transitioned into producing bomber gears, aircraft hydraulics, small motors for aircraft, and tank parts. GM’s inland division in Dayton produced truck steering wheels, pistols, and over 2.5 million rifles. Employment exploded for all industries; for example, NCR’s employment increased from 8,000 workers in 1940 to 20,000 by 1945.
An increasing labor force in Dayton, the vast amount of factories, and the military base made the city a desirable destination for war time production. Throughout the early 1940s, the Arcade itself saw increased business from two demographics: women, and African-Americans moving into the city for work. In 1940, Dayton’s African-American population had increased to 20,273 from 17,045 in 1930, most of them migrating from the south to work in factories.[24] Factories also steadily employed thousands of women in Dayton beginning in 1940, with women comprise 50% of the manufacturing workforce by 1945.[25]
Merchants in the Arcade seemed to recognize the increased labor availability of women and African Americans, as their employment ads from 1940 through 1945 commonly promoted jobs openings looking for either white women or African Americans. Culp’s Cafeteria, located in the Arcade market, was an example of this hiring trend, steadily posting job openings for the two demographics throughout the early 1940s.[26] Though stores like Culp’s Cafeteria provided African Americans employment opportunities, racism was still prevalent in the Arcade. For example, a Culp’s hiring ad for white women specified that a salary, uniform, and meals would be provided to the employee. When advertising for an African American porter, Culp’s provides no mention of a salary or any incentives such as free meals, even though a porter would typically have more responsibilities than a waitress.
Job advertisements for women workers at the Arcade, The Dayton Herald, August 21, 1942 and March 5, 1943.
The United States officially entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and Dayton became a key city in the war effort. According to the executive director of the Ohio State Council of Defense at the time, Ralph H. Stone, the city of Dayton was “probably the No. 1 target city of Ohio, perhaps of the United States.”[27] Indeed, Dayton proved to be an essential city to the U.S. war effort. In addition to Wright-Patterson Air Force base located in the city, the city produced, among other items, vital airplane parts and Enigma decoding machines.[28] Like many homes and businesses at the time, the Arcade blacked out its famous glass rotunda in an effort by the Dayton Council for Defense to prevent possible enemy air-raids.[29]
Covering the Arcade rotunda was one of many steps the city took in order to prepare for possible enemy attacks. Dayton held city wide air raid drills and a total “blackout” drill in the summer of 1943, where all lights were turned off and all windows covered. [30] Next, food rationing became the new norm for Dayton residents, as it did for all Americans. Arcade merchants, like Dayton residents, struggled with shortages of butter, coffee, soap, cigarettes and rubber.[31]
Ration books complicated the typical grocery shopping process. Certain ration books were designated for the purchase of certain foodstuffs, but only at specific times during the week or month. Residents relied heavily on local newspapers, like the Dayton Daily News who published the following ration book guide, and grocers like the Arcade market to help them navigate the strict rationing rules.[32]
Darkened Rotunda dome seen here in the early 1950s. Courtesy of Courtesy of Courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Wright State University, Dayton, OH. Dayton Daily News Collection.
Parts of a helpful notice in The Journal Herald February 21, 1943, explaining rationing during World War Two.
The total number of merchants in the Arcade remained at twenty-five during the war. Those that remained open were greatly affected by the ration purchase limits and other government-sponsored programs. For example, the government encouraged community “victory” gardens as an alternative to buying produce, leaving produce merchants in the Arcade market at a disadvantage.[33] Equally as affected were bakers, candy stores, and grocers, as sugar became a coveted commodity. Sugar price boosting was condemned by the Dayton Council of Defense in 1941 and grocers called constantly about the struggle to meet high sugar demands until finally, in May of 1942, sugar rations were implemented.[34] The rising cost of meat also put butchers in the Arcade market in a difficult position. Dayton’s growing population was depleting the city’s meat and poultry supplies by the end of the 1942. Despite the high demand for meat, butchers had to adhere to a set ceiling price and limits on the amount of animals they could butcher.[35] Butchers took another hit from black market “meatleggers, ”farmers who ignored ceiling prices and butchering quotas, and the Dayton Daily News insistence that residents of Dayton begin raising rabbits for their meat.[36]
While the market at the Arcade faced challenges due to rationing, department and specialty store merchants saw an opportunity to market to the working women across the city. Women in Dayton were working alongside any man not at war during the early 1940s – in everything from factories, restaurants, and the Wright- Patterson Air Force base – trying to minimize the labor shortage created by 1943 after most young and able-bodied men had left for war.[37] Women became a large majority of the labor force, the primary source of income in many homes, and therefore, primary consumers. From groceries for the home, gasoline, or clothing, women oversaw the shopping while men were away. Department and specialty store merchants in the Arcade began to direct their advertisements towards women shoppers throughout the duration of the war. Merchants took out large ads, even whole page spreads, in the Dayton Daily News or Dayton Herald. They focused on their assortment of women’s clothing, home products, and other goods aimed at women.[38]
Advertisments for the Arcade targeted at women, The Dayton Herald, March 20, 1942. and June 22, 1943.
The heavy presence of women shoppers also produced another type of advertisement for newspapers and stores in the Arcade: lost and found ads. Beginning in 1941, newspapers like the Dayton Daily News and Dayton Herald began to have large sections – if not whole pages – of lost and found ads. Most of the ads detailed lost pocketbooks, ration books, coats or purses left behind by women shoppers at the Arcade.[39]
For example lost and found notices for the Arcade, The Dayton Daily News, March 13, 1934.
By the end of World War II, unlike every other country in the world at the time, the average American’s standard of living had actually improved in the previous four years. Unemployment was approximately one percent and, unable to spend much of their earnings during the previous years due to rationing and a requirement that a portion of each workers check had to be saved, many Americans had money in the bank. Not surprisingly, as suggested by the picture below of Dayton’s Main Street in 1944 not far from the Arcade, Americans were eager to open their pocket books for new consumer goods. In the coming decades the U.S. economic growth begun under the New Deal and World War II would continue unabated. As Americans prospered, so would the Arcade.
Downtown Dayton between Third and Fourth on a Sunday afternoon in 1944. Courtesy of Courtesy of Courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Wright State University, Dayton, OH. Dayton Daily Collection.
Conclusion
The period between 1913-1945 proved to be a tumultuous time for the nation, the city of Dayton, and the Arcade. All three suffered through natural disasters, economic depression, and two World Wars. While the 1913 flood and Great Depression of the 1930s had threatened the Arcade, the World Wars had stimulated the local economy and thereby aided merchants. All of the changes were marked by significant social transformation as well. The African American migration northward to escape Jim Crow and to find factory employment swelled Dayton’s West Side. In the process, African Americans became a growing part of the Arcade’s clientele. Similarly, the war had increased the number of women in the work force. Both groups would play a major role in the history of the Arcade in the coming post-war era. These changes managed to off-set the growing competition the Arcade faced from the rise of national chain stores in the 1920s. Arcade merchants responded by utilizing newspaper advertisements to help keep the “City Within a City” afloat in the competitive markets. And while the complex experienced its first turn-over in ownership due to the hardships of the Depression, by the end of the Second World War it seemed there was a good deal of promise in the coming future for the venerable building.
Endnotes
[1] “Arcade Market”, The Dayton Daily News, April 18, 1913.
[2] “Dayton Markets,” The Dayton Daily News, July 19, 1917.
[3] “Jeffery’s Arcade”, Under the Dome: Arcade Market Purveyors to WWII, https://photobucket.com/gallery/user/Jeff59c/media/cGF0aDpBcmNhZGUvQXJjYWRlIERldmVsb3BtZW50IGFuZCBoZXlkYXkvQXJjbzMzLmpwZw==/?ref=
[4] Bruce W. Ronald & Virginia Ronald, Dayton: The Gem City, (Tulsa, Continental Heritage Press, 1981), 109.
[5] Ronald, Dayton, 109.
[6] Ibid, 109.
[7] “Heatless Day Well Observed” Dayton Daily News, February 11, 1918.
[8] Dayton Daily News, February 14, 1924.
[9] “Firm Commends Dayton Arcadecial Sale,” Dayton Daily News, March 18, 1929.
[10] Regina L. Blaszczyk, American Consumerism Society 1865-2005: From Hearth to HDTV, (Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc, 2009) 92.
[11] Curt Dalton and Nancy Brune Roach, The Dayton Arcade: Crown Jewel of the Gem City, (Dayton, OH : Friends of the Dayton Arcade, 2008), 24.
[12] The Dayton Daily News, February 14 1924.
[13] James F. Bechtel, “Arcade Will Be Opened Up Next Friday,” Dayton Daily News, October 27, 1927.
[14] The Dayton Herald, January 1 1930
[15] The Dayton Daily News, November 2 1930
[16] The Dayton Daily News, July 1 1932
[17] The Dayton Herald, July 1 1932
[18] Ibid.
[19] Zumwald, Teresa, Marvin Christian, Ron Rollins, and Sol Smith. 2001. For the Love of Dayton: Life in the Miami Valley, 1796-2001. Dayton Daily News. Pages 148, 159-170.
[20] Ibid, 148.
[21] Curt Dalton, and Nancy Brune Roach. 2008. The Dayton Arcade: Crown Jewel of the Gem City. Friends of the Dayton Arcade. Pages 24-35.
[22] Zumwald, For the Love of Dayton,159.
[23] Ibid, 170.
[24] Ibid, 159.
[25] Ibid, 167.
[26] The Dayton Herald, March 5, 1943.
[27] Curt Dalton, Home Sweet Home Front : Dayton during World War II. Dayton, OH : Curt Dalton, [2002], 2002.
[28] Ibid, 46.
[29] Ibid, 34.
[30] Ibid, 17.
[31] Zumwald, For the Love of Dayton, 163.
[32] The Dayton Daily News, February 21, 1943.
[33] Zumwald, For the Love of Dayton, 166.
[34] Dalton, Home Sweet Home Front, 54.
[35] Ibid., 61.
[36] Ibid., 62.
[37] Zumwald, For the Love of Dayton, 166.
[38] The Dayton Herald, 20 March 1942 and June 15, 1943.
[39] The Dayton Daily News, November 14, 1943.
Bibliography
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The Dayton Daily News, February 11, 1918.
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The Dayton Daily News, July 19, 1917.
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