Corner Store Vanity Post

I guess since this is a blog all my posts are vanity posts to some degree or another...but here is a personal one that doesn't have a connection to Dayton.

One of the reasons I'm interested in corner stores or "neighborhood retail" is that is what I grew up with in Chicago.

Here's a few from my old neighborhood. During my time these were still operating as either stores or taverns (there were more, but turned into apartments by then), and as you can see one is still in buisness as a corner store...


...one not shown is kitty-corner across from the "Hondos' Tavern", it was a bakery and my grandfather was born on top of it a year after my great grandparents emigrated from Lublin, Poland (at that time Russia) in the decade before WWI.

The ones I have a connection to was Stak's tavern as my grandfather used to stop off there on his way back from work, and especially Zosias (sp?), as it was the one we used since it was around the corner and down the street.

Zosia's husband, Stanley, was the butcher, and they lived behind the store. The place had an old metal pressed ceiling, and a retarded guy, Joey, used to hang out there, and deliver grocerys for them with his wagon. Some of the older neighborhood guys would pitch pennys on the front stoop, too.

Joey had his wagon, but, usually, if people went shopping beyond just a few items you'd see them use those two-wheeled carts for grocery bags. Everyone had them. I guess you can still buy them in Chicago, but don't know about Dayton.

Royal Blue was probably part of an old chain or buying co-op, as they had this neat art deco lettering and graphics in blue and white. Zosias was, at one time, part of something called "Midwest Markets". Probably another local Chicago chain.

Hondos was probably pretty interesting at one time, before they put the brick siding on. It is in one of the older streets in the neighborhood, built in the 1890s, I think. Chicago has a lot of those corner turret buildings, but more on the busy streets, and closer in.

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As for Dayton, I might go ahead and post my St Annes Hill corner store tour. That one is more about what was in these stores, not so much the architecture.

"Gonna be a ghost town": Dayton's Stagnant Economy

There was a really depressing cover story in this weeks City Paper, about the closure of the Delphi plants, the big auto parts plants that provided a living wage to thousands of workers in this area.

From the article one can see that one of the benefits of unions is that they negotiated a good buyout with the company, sort of delaying the impact of unemployment for a bit for these guys. But the union was pretty much powerless when it came to Delphi relocating manufacturing to Mexico, China, and other low wage/no benefit countries.

At the end of the article there was this:

One man at Fricker’s that afternoon, Nick Hinders, expressed concern for the community and wondered about the effect it would have on local businesses. He didn’t work at Delphi, but his girlfriend did. She chose option one, the buyout.

“I’m self employed”, said Hinders, 39. “I lay carpet. People are losing their jobs, and I can see it. My job is already slowing down. It’s not just Delphi. It’s all the plants in Dayton. The place is gonna be a ghost town, I think”.

I had already posted about the decline in manufacturing here, or the stagnation of it, elsewhere on this blog. But lets see if this is “gonna be a ghost town” (reminds me of that old Specials song).

One way is to once again do some digging in County Business Patterns (CBP). This time looking at the Montgomery County private sector economy as a whole.

CBP groups firms by sector using the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS). The following sectors are found in Montgomery County:

Rather than measure employment I will use payroll, as this would show the economic impact of a sector…how much is paid, in aggregate, to workers, and then how much payroll is in the county, as an indirect measure of the degree of economic activity.

The aggregate payroll for Montgomery County (built up from the various sector aggregates is thus:



As one can see there is no real net growth, or minimal growth (perhaps due to inflation over the time series). Aggregate payroll is more or less stagnant in the Dayton area, indicating a degree of economic doldrums, aside from the slow growth during the “good times” of the late 1990s.


Then a look at shifting percentages, showing the two big sectors, Health Care/Social Services and Manufacturing, and how Manufacturing is shrinking. Yet the economy is actually somewhat diversified here, as neither sector dominates.


Now some trends. The drop in manufacturing and rise in health care payroll is quite evident here.

But note also the rise in the scientific/profession/technical payroll. Perhaps this is reflection of the importance of Defense spending in the local economy? If so, these firms are “private sector” but not really, as they are almost like quangos as their revenue (and reason for being in Dayton) comes from government contracts.



Looking at the lesser sectors, one can see the drop in management, the plateauing and slight drop in retail, and the rise (and then plateauing?) of the Information and Scientific/Professional/Technical sectors


Comparing the sectors in another way, for 1998 and 2005. One can see that growing sectors in terms of payroll are:

1. Health Care/Social Services

2. Scientific/Technical/Professional

3. Information

The strength of Health Care is a bit of an issue as some form socialized medicine is back on the political agenda, and what would the impact of this be on this strong local sector?




All in all if there is continuing significant drop in manufacturing and if health care employment/payroll is reigned in or cut back this could move the regional economy from mere stagnation to actual decline. There could be a similar impact if defense contractor spending is cut back (if my assumption about character of the firms in the Scientific/Professional/Technical sector is true).

Another interesting measure is retail trade. This is a fairly stagnant to declining number for Montgomery County, perhaps indicating the move of retail more to Greene County due to the new shopping centers opening up there. A cause for concern for entities like RTA, which depend on sales tax revenue.

South Park Corner Store -a-rama

A quick look at this obsolete building type.

South Park is one of the parts of Dayton that had corner stores inside the neighborhood. South of here, in Ohmer Park and Walnut Hills, there are no corner stores on the side streets. South Park’s concentration is not quite as dense as St Anne’s Hill (which seems to have one on nearly every corner,) but it's pretty close :

Each store had a trading area of just a few blocks. In the days before refrigeration and large-scale home food storage, shopping was probably more frequent and for smaller loads of food, hence a close net of stores selling foodstuffs (this was the pattern for St Anne’s Hill, so I assume it holds for South Park).

South Park also had access to a large neighborhood market house at Wayne & Burns Street (where US 35 meets Wayne). This was Dayton’s equivalent to Findlay Market or West Side Market (in Cleveland).

Wayne and Brown/Warren probably formed another neighborhood retail location for the residents (perhaps these streets could be seen as strips of corner stores, serving the neighborhoods off the street)


For South Park, I don’t know what was in specific stores (this could be found out via the city directories), but they are interesting as a building type. A gallery of corner stores:



Corner stores might seem pretty generic, but lend themselves to a bit of formal analyses. Up close, the original detailing could be elegant, yet simple:



For an in-depth tour & stab at typological analyses click here.

Mapping Same Sex Partners in Montgomery County.

To follow up on the previous post, as promised some maps on same sex partner households. The census actually asked this question in 2000, counting unmarried partner households, and counting them for male-male, male-female, and female-female couples.

Admitting there will be some error here (how much?), this is about as good as it gets in trying to actually measure homosexuals and homosexual couples for the Dayton area.

About 58% of Montgomery county census tracts report 5 or more same sex households

Mapping this out, showing the locations of the top ten tracts and the count per tract of same-sex partner households.

What I like about this kind of stuff is how it blows stereotypes out of the water. One of the big urban affairs stereotypes is that of the “urban homosexual”, a pioneer of gentrification and a marker of the “creative class”.

As one can see by this map, not one of the top ten census tracts is in a historic district undergoing renovation. Nearly all are in suburban areas, some rather snaggletooth (like northern Riverside) and one (Trotwood/Madison Township) nearly rural. The only Dayton concentration is in Old North Dayton and downtown.



In fact, the two hottest historic districts, Oregon and South Park have no same sex partner households reporting (neither does Wright-Dunbar). One does see a bit of a concentration in what looks like St Annes Hill and Huffman.

Taking a look the top tracts for female-female and male-male partners. Again, no historic district concentrations:




And some percentages. Again, the top ten tracts by percentage of households that have same-sex partnerships. Here, small tract size might mean a higher %. Grafton Hill and McPherson Town show up here.


Then, looking at no or 4 or less same sex partners reporting, which shows a few clusters of tracts, like parts of Kettering, Huber Heights, Drexel, and Miami Township and the older part of Miamisburg.

So, looking at these maps, just by the raw numbers, it seems the favored locations for same sex partner households are:

Centerville/Washington Twp, Trotwood/Madison Twp, Riverside, Old North Dayton.

And downtown.

Does this indicate a potential niche market for downtown housing?

National Coming Out Day (and some numbers)

Local gay & lesbian activists and their straight friends gathered today at high noon, at the Patterson/Jefferson intersection near US 35 for a "National Coming Out Day" (as there is Arbor Day, Take Your Dog To Work Day, etc, there is also a National Coming Out Day).

The purpose was to unveil their new billboard, which you see in the background. There was speeches by the minister of Cross Creek Community Church ( in Centerville), Diversity Dayton, and others.


A good question is how many gays and lesbians are there?

Counting Queers:

I usually don't do sociology, but maybe one can arrive at some guesses as to the number.

First, the census doesn’t count this, but it does count how many adult males and females are in Montgomery County. Gays and lesbians would be a subset of this number.

The census also counts the number of same-sex partner households. One can assume that some percentage, probably a large percentage, are gay and lesbian. That’s about as firm the number gets.

Second, how does one define gay and lesbian? The diagram below shows how I define it, which is if one calls oneself that that's what one is....with varying degrees of gay identity (which would increase or decrease depending on how tolerant or accepting the society). The outer limits…that dashed line circle…is probably around 10-15% based on some surveys.

Another assumption is that out-of-the-closet gay and lesbian people are going to self-ID on surveys.


....and there are some surveys out there (doing some googling on it) that do ask the question. This gives a range of percentages.

I take averages of the surveys and arrive at male, female, high, and low numbers, and the "CNN Exit Poll"(a large, recent sample) for combined genders.


I then apply them to the Montgomery County adult population, and arrive at ranges of numbers. I then compare them with the same sex partner numbers as a test.


The ranges for out gays& lesbians in Montgomery County are:

Lower: 4,047

Mid: 8,171

Higher: 13,139


The higher range of 8,171 to 13,139 seems reasonable...2.1% to 4% of the adult population that are out enough to self-ID. This puts the size of the local G/L population at larger than, say, Germantown, Brookville, or Yellow Springs.

Another test is to compare with census numbers for Never Married. The census counts the numbers of males and females that have never married for various age cohorts, for Montgomery County. I lay in some of the above percentages as a comparison:

Obviously, more younger unmarried people. But what about the older age cohorts. One expect some (not all) of these folks to be either gay or lesbian. And the older cohorts hover right around the % ranges identified above:
The Billboard.

And now we have this billboard:


The gay rights fight was fought and lost (by the gays) here 8 years ago. Is the groundwork being laid for another attempt? And is that even politically feasible given the assumed low numbers for out gays and lesbians in Montgomery County?

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Next, mapping the same sex households.

Trad Music Jam Sessions: Quintessentially Dayton.

I almost never go out on work nights. I made an exception this Wednsday to check out a jam session at the Trolley Stop. It starts at 9 PM.

I was glad I went.
This is sponsored by members in the band from Rhythm in Shoes. One had the expected instruments. Mandolins, fiddles, banjos, a dobro, and even a guy playing bass:
...playing and jamming on the various old string band tunes, fiddle tunes, breakdowns, jigs, etc. from the traditional American repetoire, tunes in the public domain.
I just love this stuff.

But that's not all. While at the music fest, I saw a sign at the OE for a bluegrass jam session. It turns out some guys from Cincy and Dayton got together a pick-up bluegrass band and jam over at the OE on Wednsdays for just this month. Go see them as they are quite good...."That Bluegrass Band:"
Bluegrass jams and trad jams are sort of a Dayton thing. This has been happening around town for years, in places as unlikley as doughnut shops in Moraine and pool halls in Fairborn. There also used to be an open mike/acoustic thing at Canal Street, the Muscians Co-Op (great name), but that has went defunct.

So its good to see that some of this impromptu trad/acoustic music is still happening in town.

South Park Plats through 1870

A sort of real estate history of South Park and vicinity through 1870, when the neighborhood assumed its more or less final street pattern.

(note: For the maps and graphs, mouse over and click and they will enlage, if you want detail).

Starting out with the out lots as of 1828, just after Coopers Executor's platted their land.

By this time I think the out lots were just offered for speculation or at best some sort of market gardening. If I knew how to do title searches I could ID ownership from 1827 to the time the town lots were platted. But like all neighbohood history, where do you stop?

Tom Owen, Louisville alderman and historian/archivist by trade, said that with neighborhood history the more you did the more questions you raise.

Anyway, this is the framework. One now literally fills in the squares.


The 1829 Plats

The canal opens in 1829, and that year the fist plats appear. I will take a look a bit at the Oregon and the area between Main and Warren as a context, so show how South Park developed along with these areas.

Here we see the Brabham plats on Brabham Hill, mostly gone due to Cliburn Manor. And the start of Pulaski Street north of what is now Burns. The Brabham plat was really chopped up, and later replatted. The oldest house in South Park, the 1840 House, sits on this plat.

An early Oregon plat shows here , too: the start of Jones Street.




The 1830s...early Canal Era.

Much more plat activity in the 1830s. The Oregon is starting to form up as the out lots get platted. The first Buckeye Street plat appears, and Pulaski is extended north to the end of an out lot. J. Burns plats road frontage on Warren: in the 1850s his heirs will plat the rest of that out lot. David Pruden plats "Dock Street" along the canal.

Seelys Ditch was built in the early years of this decade, cutting through the Brabham plats, but generating extensive plats of its own. The 1832 Lodwick's Adminstrators plat , related to the ditch, extends wll beyond this map, to ecompass the Haymarket neighborhood and the areas north of 5th (Bainbridge Street). I don't know who Lodwick was but 5th Street was originally named for him. That this was platted by "administrators" might indicate that he might have went bankrupt and his land sold off?

We also see the familiar "Brown" name appear as partner in a plat south of Jones Street.


The 1840s

An active real estate era. Buckeye Street is finally completed via the 1845 Dodson's heirs plat, and what is now Lincoln Street completed via the Shartel plat.

The first parts of the South Park Historic District appear, with the Brown plats at the southern end of the study area, and the plat north of Hickory Street on Brabham Hill, east of Emerson School.

The T & RP Brown plat is part of a group of outrider plats on Main & Warren Streets. This was the decade that the Fair Grounds and Woodland Cemetary was established, so perhaps intensifying interest in real estate south of town, more down Warren and Main than on Wayne.

Note that we see the City Council getting involved, platting an outlot south of the Pruden plats. Pruden was probably the ancestor of the co-founder of the Sachs-Pruden brewrey, todays Hauer Music building.


The 1850s & Park Drive

The 1850s is a key decade is this is when we see some important plats. The 1851 Jones Plat of Bonner Street would eventually set a block module for the monster 1870 plat, and is a good case study street for building substitution and for a few examples of early Dayton workers cottages.

The big story here, though, is the appearance of Park Drive. I speculate that T.W. Prosser, as the first platter here, probably had something to do with the laying out of Park Drive, or that the blocks around were laid out by others, sold to speculators (like Prosser and his partner), and then subdivided. I speculate that this was when the watercourse was set down the middle of the drive. Wyoming Street appears at this time, and Oak is extended to Wayne.

Another new feature is the extension of Brown Street through the 1829 Brabham plats. This occured sometime between 1850 and 1862.

At the end of the decade three outlots get subdivided by Brady and Corwin. Two Bradys and Bradys' Executors appear on the plat record, so this was an active familiy in subdividing the south side.

The 1860s

The 1860s is not a particularly active decade due to the Civil War, but after the war platting starts up again. We see the finishing up of that big Brady & Corwin plat by Bradys executors', and one of the last large plats in the Park Drive area. The Wayne Avenue area gets a plat by S.N. Brown extending Clover from across Wayne.

The Council is also pretty active this decade platting bits and pieces of left-over out lots.



South Park in 1868-69. Decades of platting but not much construction (particularly on Park Drive).

A note on this map: although structures are shown on lots, they might not be the structure that is currently on the lot. Like Cincinnati and Over The Rhine, some of these older Dayton neighborhoods underwent a building substituton (though not as drastic as in OTR).

Plat Volume by Family and Year

Taking a look at who platted what. The numbers here come from the area bounded by Main, Wayne, Wyoming and, say, I-35, excluding the peripheral areas you see in the maps above.

When I say "family" here, I mean groups of people by the same name, or their heirs and exectors. One can see a host of smaller players, but then a cluster of larger landowners/speculators, subdividing the larger outlots.


Then looking at the volume of plats through time, to 1869. I put in some local things that might impact real estate activity, and then lay-in two financial panics and the Civil War as national events that could affect things. Not much of an affect other than the Civil War and maybe the 1857 crisis.


The Big 1870 Plat

Finishing up with the huge 1870 plat. This area, and Park Drive, is what we think about when we think about South Park. This plat came at around the right time as horescars where extended down Wayne in the early 1870s (and on Brown). making this area more accessible.

I also show a small 1873 Brown plat finishing up that corner of South Park.

There is probably a lot to say about this plat, in how it extends streets, alleys, and block dimensions from the surrounding plats, making the plat integral with its surrounding development. And the solid block fronts on Wayne for, perhaps, buisiness use. New street names are probably from the platters (Perrine, Bradford, etc).

This was not the end of platting as there was smaller lot splits and internal subdivisions. But 1870 pretty much marks the last big plat for the South Park.

Next, a closer look at the buildings of South Park, first at corner stores, then some of the houses when I go to Rehabarma.