Moraines' Last Week

This is the last week of operation for Moraine Assembly.

Daytonology will be doing a series of history posts on the place, the town of Moraine as well as the factory, as sort of a memorial and milestone of the end of an era for the Dayton region.

A lot of people are really into schadenfreude about 4,000 (in total) people losing their jobs, as indicated by the posts at the Dayton Daily News, which is part of the general "hate/mock unionized workers" sentiment abroad in the land. This blog won't engage in that. In fact this blog contains a number of posts on the history of how Dayton was organized, (including the original Moraine plant) and on the racial aspect of losing assembly line employment (which no one is really talking about). In short, maybe more of a long view and looking at different angles of the situation.

But that's all been said. This will be more of a geographical instead of sociological set of posts.

For the sociological side it sort of sucks to see a lot of people go on the unemployment line just before Christmas. Maybe its the symbolism of it.

And that's all I have to say about that.

The Political Economy of Infrastructure: Beavercreek Utilities

Utilities might seem a dull subject, as they are out of sight underground. But they play a big role setting the foundation for suburban growth, thus are wrapped up in the political economy of suburbia. Places that get water and sewer service can really boom.

The utilities situation in Beavercreek is a bit unusual as this suburb grew at first without any.

The first suburban developments had neither water nor sewer. Houses had private wells and septic systems, which was possible on the large lots


But as one can see from the lower part of the above diagram, public health issues could arise if there was two many septic systems and private wells in too close an area during periods of weather when the areas affected by well withdraws and leach field percolation intermingled.
Theoretically the need for large lots to keep withdrawl and disposal far apart to prevent contamination would limit the density of subdivisions, reducing the profit margin of the developer as he would be selling less lots.

One solution was central sewage.


A centralized sewage system was under construction for Beavercreek in 1964 and 1965, serving mostly Knollwood and other central parts of Beavercreek.

Yet this didn't solve the water supply problem, and not all of Beavercreek was served by the sewer system either, including areas with septic tank problems.



What's noticeable in the above map is the sharp division at the county line, where nearly all areas in Montgomery County, to the west (or left) had complete utilities.

Though some Beavercreek subdivisions close to the county line were connecting up to Montgomery County water the 1960s solution to water supply was the plat water system. This was a private water system put in either by the developer or by a private sector water company, that served just one or two subdivisions. The first one dated, I think, from 1963.

Plat water systems and central sewage permitted increased density in subdivisions, thus more profit for developers .

Plat water systems were an ad-hoc response to a problem. Plat water systems rarely connected with each other, and had limited expansion capability, which meant that surrounding undeveloped land remained somewhat undevelopable unless it, too, had a plat water system.

In the late 1960s a centralized water distribution was proposed, serving at first central Beavercreek, but with water lines out into the surrounding open country, bringing that land into the development market.




So the progression into the 1970s was from house-specfic "personal utility systems" to increasing levels of centralized services:


This wasn't a purley linear progression: as late as the early 1990s some parts of Beavercreek were still on private well water and septic systems. By the 1970s there was a mix of private wells on public sewer, private wells and septic systems, and plat water systems on either public sewer or septics.

Like I-675, but with water

The late 1960s water system proposal was defeated. Partly because of the high cost, but also because Beavercreek residents didn't want to see any more development. In the 1960s Beavercreek still had a quasi-rural feel, even in the older plat areas with their generous lots. Though one might dismiss this as NIMBYism, another way to look at this was that the citizens of Beavercreek at that time wanted growth control, and saw limits on utility services as a way to achieve this. So perhaps this opposition was akin the the I-675 controversy in that citizen opposition was driven by quality-of-life concerns.

But the big picture said otherwise.

This map from a 1969/1970 era map shows the utiltiy systems in the western & central parts of the Dayton metro area. One can see what a sharp divide the county line is, with Montgomery County suburbs having full services, but the Fairborn area too. Beavercreek had incomplete and limited utilities.


This map was from a MVRPC utilities planning document. Suprisingly, it does not show the proposed I-675, which was finalized by the time of this plan. It and it's exits are drawn in red here, showing how Beavercreek was a primo development opportunity, despite what the people actually living there wanted. The unstated subtext of this utilities plan was to extend complete utility service area beyond the proposed interstate, opening up much of western Greene County to developement.

Instead, according to the Greene County Sanitary Engineering website:

The 1970s saw many developers installing “plat water systems” that were turned over to the County to own and operate. The County was operating up to six separate water systems in Beavercreek at one time. As Beavercreek continued to grow in the 1970s, more and more residents were experiencing water problems, such as their wells going dry. In 1977 the Sanitary Engineer was directed by the Board of Greene County Commissioners to build a water system in the Beavercreek Township area for those residents that “needed and wanted it”.

This appears to be a good example of "public be damned" on the part of Greene County government. Subdivisions don't just happen. There is usually some sort of zoning and permitting process. So it seems local government, despite the wishes of Beavercreek residents who wanted to limit growth (was it a majority?) permitted unsustainable development to occur, percipitating a water crisis, which led to the start of a centralized water system.

And this centralized system was a prequisite for a real estate boom that would come with the construction of I-675.

One can see how utilities infrastructure issues overlapped highway infrastructure via this timeline.


Overcoming opposition to I-675 requied a change in Washington. Opposition to more growth in Beavercreek was apparently overcome by the fait accompli of unsustainable development, which drove the installation of a central water system.

Speculation

..in land and on this blog. To really document this story would require some research into newspaper stories and interviews with the players. Presumably there would have had to be some coverage on this in the media as the involvment of the Greene County commision indicates this was in-part a political issue. In any case a good example showing how something obscure and quite and mundane like water and sewer service can be a big player in the urban srpawl phenomenon.

Beavercreeks' Pearl Harbor Build-outs: The Birth of the Defense Suburb

The Depression pretty much killed the bungalow era in Beavercreek, putting suburban development mostly on hiatus until military mobilization spending kicked in during the late 1930s.

And when it did kick in Knollwood was the locus of some agressive construction in new housing, housing a lot different in style than the pre-Depression bungalows and foresquares.
Stylistically new housing following simplified traditional forms and was smaller, too, it seems.



So we start to see streetscapes that already appear "postwar", but predate WWII by just a bit.



Yet note the big lots. Development in Knollwood was mostly on fairly large lots, perhaps to keep the septic tank leachfield far away from the private water well/pump in the basement.




Taking a look at build-outs on the three Longview, Central, and Shady, up to 1949, one can see how construction paralled historical events and eras. Clearly the pre-war buildup was boom times in this part of Knollwood.


...with a bit of hiatus during the war and wartime conversion. With the advent of the Cold War the area started to boom again, but the cottage style was eventuall dropped for the ranch after 1949.

That Knollwood and neighborhing plats were related to a military/civilian market from the base is indicated by some of the streetnames. Next street over from Shady Drive is Beaverbook. Beaverbrook is not just a pun on Beavercreek, but is perhaps a reference to the UK wartime figure Lord Beaverbrook, who was Minister of Armanents under Churchill, also involved with managing military aircraft production.

Other streets in the Knollwood vicinity are named: Yalta, Dumbarton Oaks, Harry Truman, and Winston Churchill. Clearly one of the developers was on top of current affairs in the 1940s.

Early Versions of Suburbia: Beavercreek Bungalow Belt

Knollwood is sort of the genesis community of Beavercreek, as this collection of plats is where Beavercreek as a suburb was born. What's interesting is that suburbia here goes back well before the postwar boom era.



We'll take a look at three Knollwood streets as representative of proto-suburban Beavercreek; Longview, Central, and Shady Drives.

People don't usually think of pre-war suburbia when thinking of Beavercreek, but it is that old.

The first suburban era was the 1920s and maybe earlier, when the interurban railroads and then (more likely) widespread auto ownership and paved roads opened up the Dayton-Xenia corridor to suburban settlement.

This was the era of the bungalow, hence "Beavercreek Bungalow Belt":



The first house, here, on Central Avenue, isn't a bungalow but something just as common in Dayton, the foursquare. Something you'd find in Linden Heights or maybe off Lakeside Avenue in Dayton proper. Here, well out in the country (at that time). The street is, I think, Longview.


Another foursquare


A less elaborate bungalow, but with the charactersistic brick porch. Nice pinstriping and spoiler on that car, too...


Classic midwest bungalow on a large lot. Recall that these houses didn't have water or sewer until the 1960's.

Not sure what to say about this one. Its sort of a mix of dutch colonial and foursqare....

Yet another good bungalow example.

Landscape of bungalow land. Wood frame, dormers, little bay windows, partial brick porches....you'd see this in Dayton, but much closer together.


Bungalows can be spotted on Dayton-Xenia Road, too...


...but this one doesn't have a porch, which is a typical bungalow and foursquare feature. These two house style were the last to make a substantial porch a feature of the exterior design.

Beavecreek: How It Grew

Beavercreek! Dayton's Orange County. With all the interest, almost obession, in the local blogosphere over developments "south" (i.e Austin Road and Warren County) the real development story is negletcted. And that story is in Greene County, in Beavercreek and Sugarcreek/Bellbrook.

So what is Beavercreek anyway?

Well, its a city (without city income tax, a real selling point) and a township. But it's mostly a centerless urban sprawl occuring east of the Montgomery County line, mostly east of the I-675 bypass....


Or it seems at first glance. But there is ..well not exactley a method to the sprawly madness, but maybe a bit of structure. Lets take a look....

Early Beavercreek

Pre-suburban Beavercreek with its grid of country roads and rural villages. One wonders how long they spoke German in New Germany, a name nearly lost to us now that New Germany Road has become Pentagon Parkway. One of these, Alpha, is actually somewhat intact and rather quaint. It was the site of the first Greene County court, before Xenia became county seat.

The main transport arteries w the Dayton-Xenia Road, cut through before the War of 1812, later a turnpike, then the Dayton, Xenia, and Belpre railroad of the 1850s (which never got past Jamestown), later part of the Pennsylvania System.




By the early 1900s the pull of Dayton was felt stronger due to two competing interurban railroads passing through on their way to Xenia. One, the D-X, survived into the 1930s. Oddly enough the one with the most direct connection into Dayton, the Xenia Rapid Transit, failed early. I think the D-X had a profitable streetcar service in Dayton proper, which caused it to survive longer.

Perhaps the interurbans stimulated some consideration of suburban living out here, or maybe it was paved roads leading people to drive east out of Dayton, but by 1940 there was already subdivision activity, and construction, in Beaver Creek Township. This map shows what was actually developed by the mid 1940s, but I think platting might have extended beyond what's shown here.

The subdivision shown here are additions to Alpha and the first sections of Knollwood




Postwar Development

By 1952 we see a cluster of subdivisions in the northern half of Beavercreek, growing up around Knollwood and the Zimmerman area. This was a mix of wartime and early postwar growth.



Though rail transit to Xenia ended in 1940, the D-X or its sucessor maintained frequent bus service (over 20 runs per weekday) through the area between Dayton/Xenia. Pardoxically a less populated 1940s/early 50s Beavercreek was better served by transit than the modern boomburb.

As one can see from this 1952 Dayton planning map (demonstrating an early reach toward regional thinking), Wright Field was close by as a possible employment center. What's also interesting is how the old State Hospital Farm, "Bergamo" and a country club sort of acted as a barrier between Beavercreek and Dayton, with Linden-Dayton/Xenia Pike being the main artery into the city (though one suspects Kemp Road might have been used, too)


Beavercreek might have been an early suburban extention of Dayton's eastward growth.

By 1960 platting continued, but one can see how the county line did form sort of a barrier.
This was partly due to the lack of utilities. Though this appears to be a growing suburban area there was no centralized water or sewer systems. Yes, houses in Beavercreek had private water wells on the same lot as spetic tank leach fields, unless there was a private "plat water system" for a specific subdivision.


By 1960, the US 35 expressway (really a quasi-expressway) was built between Xenia and near the county line, relieving traffic on Dayton-Xenia Road. There was still bus service though the area to Xenia during this era.

Recall in the I-675 history posts there was an argument of an "immediate need" for a highway to Indian Ripple in the early 1960s. Well, this was maybe in perperation for development as Beavercreek really didn't have the infrastructure in place for intensive suburbanization yet.

The central part of Beavercreek was first sewerd in the mid 1960s. In 1965 the I-675 alignment was set, and in the early 1970s the state disposed of the State Hospital Farm, which became the Miami Valley Research Park. There was a proposal for a centralized, community wide water in system in the late 1960s but this was opposed. Private wells and plat water systems continued to be the source of potable water into the 1970s.



In the 1960s US 35 was finally cut through Dayton to US 75, giving Beavercreek indirect access to the interstate system.

Plat water systems worked until the 1970s, when overdrafts were causing wells to go dry. After 1975 Beavercreek finally began to install a centralized water system, laying the last foundation stone for signifigant suburban sprawl.

The I-675 Era

With water and sewer in place and I-675 finally approved and under construction (open in 1987) Beavercreek was poised for a boom, which was already underway by 1988.


The boom continued into the 1990s and 2000s. Beavercreek became a small version of boomburbs and edge cities found all around the the US during this era. The northern part of the suburb filled in, and development jumped the Beaver Creek and Little Miami valleys to the east.


By 2005 Beavercreek had developed into a New Kettering, replacing that older suburbs role as the brave new world for the Dayton region. The county line/I-675 axis became a psychological barrier as there was nearly no reason to travel beyond it.

Why?

Becuase by 2005 Beavercreek was self-sufficient. No longer just a bedroom community, Beavercreek had signifigant employment centers at Research Park and in the new Fairfield Commons/Colonel Glenn edge city. Shopping was available in this area (Fairfield Commons Mall) and in The Greene, which is developing office space, too.

Perhaps Indian Ripple will be the next hot commercial corridor. Or maybe the car dealer strip of US 35 toward Xenia.



It is perfectly possible to work, live, shop, worship, and play in Beavercreek without ever having to cross west over the county line.

What's also noticeable on the map, though, are the blocks of open space, like the one along Kemp Road between Grange Hall and I-675.

Or this one along Indian Ripple. The iconic rural landscape: red barn, cornfields, cows, a country graveyard with the tombstones of pioneer settlers, and forest in the background, set in a broad valley.


What you don't see or know is the subdivision beyond the trees, or the one behind the camera lens. Or the planned unit development zoning on the farmland beyond the cemetary, or the highway relocated to improve traffic flow.

So that pix is sort of the blue pill for those who want to believe the bright and shining lie that Beavercreek is still in "the country" , or close to it (with all the attendant cultural baggage). The cold fact is that this area is on the cutting edge of globalism and technology due to its connections with the defense community, and a key player as a job and retail center in the Dayton regional economy.

Today's Beavercreek draws in commuters and shoppers as much as provides them.

Fall Almanac Final

Feels like a train roaring into night,
the journey into fierce cold just beginning.
The ground is newly frozen, the crust
brittle and fancy with striations,
steeples and nipples we break
under our feet.

Every day we are shortchanged a bit more,
night pressing down on the afternoon
throttling it. Wan sunrise later
and later, every day trimmed
like an old candle you beg to give
an hour's more light.

In the Grip of the Solstice- Marge Piercy


Well, we are two weeks or so out from the Solistice, the official end of Fall. But it's already winter, isn't it? High temperatures below freezing and the first snow to actually stick. Advent has begun, as has the Christmas shopping season. Maybe Fall really ends the day after Thanksgiving?



As we can see by the cloud cover graph, we are in the time of the Dayton Gloom, more mostly cloudy days than not... but a pale sunny day like today does make up for it, especially that low late afternoon sun causing everything to just glow.
The rest of that Solstice poem:

Feels like a train roaring into night,
the journey into fierce cold just beginning.
The ground is newly frozen, the crust
brittle and fancy with striations,
steeples and nipples we break
under our feet.

Every day we are shortchanged a bit more,
night pressing down on the afternoon
throttling it. Wan sunrise later
and later, every day trimmed
like an old candle you beg to give
an hour's more light.

Feels llike hurtling into vast darkness,
the sky itself whistling of space
the black matter between stars
the red shift as the light dies,
warmth a temporary aberration,
entropy as a season.

Our ancestors understood the brute
fear that grips us as the cold
settles around us, closing in.
Light the logs in the fireplace tonight,
light the candles, first one, then two,
the full chanukiya.

Light the finre in the belly.
Eat hot soup, cabbage and beef
borscht, chicken soup, lamb
and barley, stoke the marrow.
Put down the white wine and pour
whiskey instead.

We reach for each other in our bed,
the night vaulted above us
like a cave. Night in the afternoon,
cold frosting the glass so it hurts
to touch it, only flesh still
welcoming to flesh.

UD Visual Journal Show: "Dayton Is..."

520 E. Third, in the same space the Urban Handmade people are using. Its' a short run, so get down there! Open till 9 PM on weekdays though Dec 13. (Open to 6 PM on Dec 13)




This was a student show, a product of a class at UD. From the flyer available at the show:

"The students explored the city in all directions and in many dimensions . They responded to it by making things. The nature of these things evolved from their interactions with the urban environments. Their work therefore reflects both person and place"
Two or three things that I liked a lot (there was one conceptual piece that didn't photograph well):

This set of collages (by Laura Mack?), taking things like drawings, found objects and also photographs, pulling them together but also working text into the pieces as the artist interprets the city and her reactions. There was a strong temporal aspect, as reactions evolve through time.


This one was fascinating. The two posters draw one to the book in the foreground, which is an art book of sorts, exploring using the city in various ways via photography, text and diagrams. The minimalist, modernist aesthetic was appealing, reminding one of Ulm HfG work of the 1960s. The quality here is equivilant to what yer humble host has seen in museum shows like Shrinking Citys. Artist: Kevin Sullivan.


Another set of collages, but a bit more painterly. Artist: Melisa Starkowicz. These have a strong people focus, working around photos of people around town, persumably taken by the artist.


An example: "The King of Third & Main".
These are just three examples. One has to go downtown and see the show for the rest.

(tip of the hat to F. Berkemeir at DMM for informing us of this)