More Ludlow Street Rephotography: Downtown Housing

The theme here is building subsitution and downtown housing.

First, the familiar Dayton Daily News building, looking like a bank because thats what owner/publisher Cox wanted it to look like. In front are the all the newsies posed for a group shot, label says "picinic", so maybe that's somewhere other than the intersection of 4th and Ludlow.

Note, though, the building just to the right, with the awnings. This was one of Dayton's downtown apartment houses. Beyond that the old Gibbons Hotel, now Doubletree.



Today, the DDN building expaned to the rear, then north on Ludlow via a new building in the 1950s, removing the apartment building. Next door is the Schwind Building, built as office, then converted into a hotel (popular with vaudeville and theatrical types) and later low income apartments.



A bit further south on the same block, looking to the east side of Ludlow between 4th and 5th (you can just see the Commercial Building anchoring the NE corner of 4th & Ludlow). This was what was before the Keith theatre. The back of the Methodist church (one cans see the two spires) and another downtown apartment building (this one 4 stories).

In the foreground are two very interesting houses. One can speculate by the scale and style that these were before the Civil War, probably the second structures built on their lots after the "log cabin era". Looks like a double next to the church, too.

The things closer to 4th were replaced by the Keith theatre, which itself was replaced by the 4o W 4th skyscraper. The rest of this part of the block was replaced by the Wurlizter and Ludlow buildings. So a good illustration on how downtown expanded into a residential area.
Another illustration around the corner on 4th Street. This house was on the south side of 4th between Ludlow and Main. The house survived into the 1950s as a womens club. I think it was replaced by a parking lot.

By the time of this pix the backyard was taken up by a five story loft building that opened up onto an alley "Temple Lane", which brings to mind the Callahan Power Block or the Ohmer factory. Dayton blocks were so deep that alleys, or lanes, worked as secondary streets with a second layer of construction behind the street -ront buildings.

In the background on the upper left one can see the upper floors of the Riebold Building.

The scene today. The vacant lot next door to the right (also a house) became the Keith Theatre and now the 40 W 4th Building. Reibold building is stil visible. The parking lot that replaced the house is now Pretzinger Lane...


...which reintroduces the secondary street or "lane" concept back to this block as Temple Lane has disappeared, being blocked by the new parking garage and what's left acting as a private drive to parking behind 4o W 4th.

Pretzinger Lane...the side closer to 5th...presents an opportunity for some infill housing, which we will look at next.