Tour Dayton View

Pump House
Harvard Boulevard and Salem Avenue

This interesting structure once served as a pump house for Dayton's early water system. Based on the similarity in design and building materials, it was built about the same time as the neighboring United Methodist Church. Today it provides a focal point for the entrance into the Dayton View Historic District and is an example of the attention once paid to the aesthetics of design for utilitarian structures.

1062 Harvard Boulevard

• c1930
• Tudor Revival
• Cohn House

This Tudor Revival house was built for Harry E. Cohn, vice president and sales manager for the S.J. Patterson Company, a wholesale coal dealer. Houses like this are sometimes referred to as English cottages, a description which is not totally inaccurate since Tudor Revival designs are generally based on a variety of early English building traditions from rural folk houses to urban palaces.

Tudor Revival houses built during the 1920s and 30s were increasingly picturesque. Blending comfortably into wooded settings, they were usually characterized by asymmetrical massing, steeply pitched roofs with one or more cross gables, casement windows, sometimes in multiples of two or more with multi-pane glazing, and massive chimneys often crowned with chimney pots.

The Cohn house, with all of these features, is an excellent example of the style, however, the stucco walls are relatively uncommon on Tudor houses. The Cohn house features twelve rooms with three fireplaces. The kitchen was once featured in Better Homes and Gardens.

1140 Harvard Boulevard

• c1910
• Tudor Revival

1160 Harvard Boulevard

• c1925
• Tudor Revival

Though both of these houses were designed in the Tudor style they symbolize the contrast between the formality and symmetry of early examples of the style with the more picturesque models of the 1920s and 1930s. At 1140 Harvard, quaint false half-timbering is offset by a balanced facade featuring front gables. Also contrasting with the formality of the house is the massive granite boulder first story wall cladding. The extensive use of natural materials is evidence of the influence of the craftsman style.

In contrast, the wooded setting of 1160 Harvard with its winding front walkway is more picturesque. After World War I, the Tudor style expanded rapidly, rivaling the Colonial Revival style in popularity. With the development of veneering techniques a variety of wall material could be used, including brick, stone, stucco and wood. Here the combination of brick, stone and decorative brick half timber infill attempt to mimic English prototypes. Another standard feature of later Tudor Revival houses is the large, elaborated chimney. Rivaling the flattened Tudor arch main entrance for prominence, the chimney at 1160 Harvard is decorated with a complex stone pattern which attempts to replicate the appearance of an old English ruin. There are separate chimney pots for each flue.

1200 Harvard Boulevard

• c1905
• Neoclassical

This house owes its existence to the revival of interest in classical models dating from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The classically inspired, monumental white colonnaded buildings of the Exposition were widely reported and photographed, providing the raw material for a new architectural fashion to hit the country.

Like the Exposition buildings which spawned the style, everything about the Neoclassical house is usually larger and more ornate than earlier Greek Revival prototypes. Most prominent is the full height pedimented gable entrance porch supported by massive, ornate columns. This feature is further enhanced on the house at 1200 Harvard with the presence of a second story balcony with balustrade. Another common feature of the style found here is the boxed moderately overhanging eaves with large modillions.

123 Yale Avenue

• c1928
• Tudor/Classical Revival
• Herman Miller House

In some ways the Herman Miller house defies a stylistic identity, successfully combining the half-timbering of the Tudor style with the formality of Renaissance and Classical Revival styles. Constructed by master builder Herman Miller, who also built the nearby Salem and Grand building, the house reflects Miller's exacting building standards and sensitivity to artistic detail. The Miller house took three years to build at a cost of $95,000, an astronomical sum for the 1920s.

Alternating dark and light bricks give the walls of the house a checkerboard appearance. The symmetrical main facade includes paired, square casement windows and round arch casements with decorative voussoir bricks, keystones and fanlight stained glass windows. The formality of the facade is further enhanced with a handsome classically inspired portico supported by fluted, paired Doric columns. The terra cotta tile roof features a large central dormer and flanking dormers, with paired round arch windows, bargeboard trim and half-timber veneer.

58 Cambridge Avenue

• c1920
• Craftsman

Are you surprised to find a little bit of Switzerland in Dayton View? Though relatively uncommon, Swiss balustrades did appear on front-gabled Craftsman style houses. The Craftsman style dominated the smaller house building industry across the United States during the first three decades of the twentieth century. This international movement favored simple design, natural materials and fine craftsmanship as a reaction to the increasing mass production of the industrial age.

Here the use of uncut limestone to form the porch wall and chimney are clear expressions of the movement, as are vague references to old world architectural influences found in the Chalet style balcony and the false half timbering in the porch roof.

148 Lexington Avenue

• c1900
• Queen Anne

With its decorative half timbering in the porch and gabled dormer it is difficult to pin a particular stylistic influence on this house. In overall form and massing, however, the Queen Anne style is evident. According to architectural historians Virginia and Lee McAlester only about 5% of Queen Anne houses share this feature with contemporary early Tudor houses. Nevertheless the first floor bay window, large external chimney, Elizabethan style dormer windows and slate roof are typical Queen Anne features.

107 Lexington Avenue

• c1895
• Georgian Revival

The Georgian Revival style depicted in this massive house is another period style generally considered part of the Colonial Revival era. Approximately 25% of Colonial Revival houses were simple rectangular blocks, double pile in plan (two rooms wide and two rooms deep) with a central entrance and hallway. On early examples such as this any reference to Colonial detailing tended to be highly exaggerated, sometimes even awkward in proportion. Pedimented dormers, Palladian windows and pilasters such as we find here were often favored.

104 Lexington Avenue

• c1906
• Colonial Revival
• H.C.Hopkins House

Built for H.C.Hopkins, President of Thresher Varnish Works, the Hopkins House is an excellent example of the move toward increasing formal design in residential architecture during the first decade of the twentieth century. Though remnants of the exuberant Queen Anne style remain, including the tall chimneys and bay windows, an air of orderliness has taken over the symmetrical facade with its fluted Ionic columns.

The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 is credited with awakening America's interest in its Colonial heritage. However, early examples were seldom historically correct copies of Colonial prototypes but rather an eclectic mixture of details from two or more historic styles like the Hopkins House.

1000 Grand Avenue

• c1906
• Italian Renaissance
• Thomas Tucker House

This is another house for which it is difficult to identify a single architectural style. The influence of the Italian Renaissance style is apparent, however, defined here by the arched windows, pedimented dormers, corner quoins and the low pitched hip roof.

The Tucker house, built for Thomas E. Tucker, president of the Gem City Boiler Company, is among the relatively small percentage of Italian Renaissance houses that have unbalanced or asymmetrical facades. Concealing much of the facade is a Classical Revival verandah with a dentiled entablature and balustrade supported by fluted Doric columns.

1008 Grand Avenue

• c1900
• Free Classic Queen Anne
• Russell H. Bates House

This fine Queen Anne house was constructed by Russel H. Bates, a partner in D.L. Bates and Brothers, a machining and manufacturing company, at a cost of $10,048.21.

Queen Anne was the dominant style for domestic buildings in Ohio during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. First popularized by a group of nineteenth century British architects led by Richard Norman Shaw, the style gained further notoriety from buildings constructed for the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia and from architectural journals and house pattern books. Ironically, the style borrowed heavily from the late Medieval forms of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras instead of the formal Renaissance architecture popular during the reign of Queen Anne.

The Bates house is a good example of the increasing influence of classical models on Queen Anne houses after 1890. Here elaborate triple Corinthian columns have taken the place of turned porch posts, balusters and spindle work, and Palladian windows and formal cornice lines appear in the gables.

Nevertheless, traditional features of the Queen Anne style remain, including the three story tower with its conical roof, a dominant front facing gable, overhanging eaves and the contrast of colors and textures achieved through the use of brick, stone, wood and slate shingles. A striking feature of the facade is the second story double oval windows.

1034-42 Grand Avenue

• c1925
• Craftsman

This magnificent apartment house is reminiscent of the so-called "ultimate bungalows" designed by California architects Charles and Henry Greene. Major features of Craftsman bungalows present here include the pergola style porch posts, exposed rafters, large triangular knee braces supporting the very wide overhanging eaves and the Oriental flared roof line.

757 Superior Avenue

• 1890
• Shingle

This Victorian house is a rare surviving example of the Shingle Style, popular from 1880 to about 1900. Unlike the complex and detailed nineteenth century architectural designs that preceded it, Shingle houses include little decorative detailing. Instead, the goal was to emphasize the complexity of the shape and form of the house in contrast to the overall smoothness of the shingled wall surfaces.

About 25 percent of Shingle houses were constructed with cross-gabled gambrel roofs like the one we find here, which reflects the irregularity of the form. The strong influence of the Queen Anne style is evident in the two story round tower, while the growing presence of classically inspired design during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is evident in the slender double Doric columns and balustrades and the pediment with modillions.

741-43 Superior Avenue

• 1920
• Prairie

Though designed as an apartment building similar to the property at 1034-1042 Superior and built about the same time, this building is notable for its lack of design details. Instead of the almost whimsical design we find down the street. This is the basic rectangular box, adapted for a large double, to which early Prairie designs clung. It is a vernacular version of the style, with square or rectangular forms and pyramidal or hip roofs, dormers and widely overhanging eaves. The hard, highly glazed brick is also typical of masonry buildings constructed during this period.

648 Superior Avenue

• c1937
• Mission/Eclectic
• Schachne House

Though form and architectural details evoke an earlier period, the Schachne house is actually one of the last houses to be built in Dayton View. The symmetrical fenestration, parapet gable dormer and stucco wall surface vaguely remind us of the California Mission style. However, there is little else to recall that state's Spanish architectural heritage. The date of construction also places it long after the popularity of the Mission style had begun to decline.

The Schachne house is constructed of concrete block covered with stucco. The decorative corner quoins and square porch posts with recessed panels are particularly attractive features of the facade. Note the leaded glass in the first and second story windows.

546 Superior Avenue

• c1886
• Eastlake
• Wilcox House

Constructed by City of Dayton Police Commissioner D.B. Wilcox, this house is a good example of the late nineteenth century Eastlake style rendered in masonry. Named for British furniture designer Charles Locke Eastlake, the Eastlake style is known for its fanciful combinations of three-dimensional ornament and color. The masonry construction of the Wilcox house dictates a rather more subdued design than frame examples such as those found in the McPherson Town Historic District. Nevertheless, the furniture-like turned porch posts, delicate incised motif and lattice work on the porch roof, curved brackets and wooden gable awning are clear evidence of the Eastlake influence. The decorative possibilities of patterned masonry can also be seen in the second story of the front-facing gable.

563 Superior Avenue

• c1910
• Neoclassical

The Neoclassical house with a full height entry porch and lower full-width porch is a relatively uncommon subtype of this style. The full height pedimented portico supported by massive triple fluted Ionic columns dominates the facade of this large house. The influence of the early twentieth century Prairie style is also evident in the wide overhanging eaves supported by large modillions. Notice the unusual triple round arch windows in the portico gable. A two story carriagehouse, which probably included a servants' quarters, is behind the house.

936 Grand Avenue

• c1910
• Colonial Revival

Beginning with the nation's bicentennial in 1876, Americans increasingly searched for ways to evoke our Colonial architectural and decorative arts heritage. Patriotism, romanticism and academic correctness were watchwords as the leading architects of the day studied and published measured drawings and photographs of American Colonial architecture. Meanwhile, national publications such as Ladies' Home Journal and House Beautiful popularized the style. Generally described today as the Colonial Revival, the style actually encompasses several colonial ethnic influences, including English, Dutch and Spanish.

Here the ethnic influence can be described as vaguely Dutch because of the massive gambrel roof. However, the origin of the design may also be traced to a style referred to as Palatial Georgian after the prototype John Hancock mansion of Boston. Though demolished well before the end of the nineteenth century, a reproduction was constructed at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Though it too was demolished, its influence lingered on, especially with architect designed homes such as you see here. Though a full length porch has replaced the giant portico normally associated with Palatial Georgian houses, other details including the rectilinear form, porch balustrade, pilaster columns, dormers and Palladian windows are present.

22 Oxford Avenue

• c1909
• American Foursquare
• Layman-Gibbons House

This square house built by W.S. Layman and purchased by M.J. Gibbons in 1917 is one of very few house types that can be called essentially American. It was dubbed the American Foursquare by Clem Labine, former editor of Old House Journal. In fact, the foursquare (also sometimes called the box or the double cube for its boxy outline and interior plan of four nearly equal size rooms per floor) was advertised and marketed for its "Americanness." The foursquare house proved to be so popular that thousands were built in American's Post-Victorian suburbs and in the countryside as well.

The Layman-Gibbons house is an excellent example of the foursquare house. Two stories high and constructed of striking highly glazed, golden brick, the house is set on a raised basement with a limestone water table and is approached by steps leading to a porch which runs the full width of the first floor. Another defining feature of the foursquare house is the pyramidal roof with dormers. Here the roof is covered with slate and the handsome three light dormers match the roof line. Note the decorative cresting, a holdover from the Victorian era, along the roof and dormer ridges.

Another excellent example of the American Foursquare house is the Cassel house, built by prominent physician William H. Cassel in 1907 and located at 57 Oxford Avenue.

Engine Company 9
612 Salem Avenue

• c1916
• Dutch Colonial Revival with Craftsman influence

One indication of the importance of quality architecture in Dayton View during the first decades of the century is the attention paid to the design of utilitarian buildings such as this fire station.

Designed by Thies and Thies Architects during the administration of Henry Waite, Dayton's first City Manager, Engine Company 9 so completely resembles a house that one hardly notices its real function: exactly what the architects intended.

The style for the building is known as Dutch Colonial Revival for its pre-Revolutionary war Dutch prototype. However, the only design feature this revival style has in common with its predecessor is the gambrel roof and even it has been modified with a much steeper pitch and shed roof dormers to accommodate a second story.

Engine Company 9 also displays an unusual combination of classical and Craftsman style influences in the design of its front and rear entrance porches. The pergola, an open wooden-framed garden structure, became almost synonymous with Craftsman style houses because it was considered one of those honest expressions of structural materials so important to the Arts and Crafts movement. Here the pergola roofs sit on top of modest Doric columns. The space between the columns is latticed, also reminding one of the original garden function of pergola structures