Shawen Acres
Historic Bridges 
The Historic Arcade
25 S. Main St.
Webster Station
Memorial Hall
Duncarrick Mansion
Ecki Building
YWCA House
Mallory House45-47 Riverview Avenue
- cl890 Free Classic Queen Anne
- The Elston House
This house represents a subgroup of the Queen Anne style known as Free Classic. Common after 1890, Free Classic Queen Anne anticipated the revival of classical and colonial style architecture by nearly a decade. The style is characterized by the use of classical columns rather than the turned posts and delicate spindle work usually found on Queen Anne houses. Nevertheless, traditional features of the Queen Anne style are evident, including the asymmetrical facade, dominant front-facing gable, steeply pitched roof, tall chimneys, and bay windows.
241 Riverview Avenue
- c1940s
- Urban Cottage
This brick cottage post dates the majority of the structures in the McPherson Town neighborhood. Built during the 1 940s, the house makes the most of the lot on which it sits. Typical areas of grass have been replaced with flower gardens and a side patio. This cottage is reminiscent of an English garden home. Take note of the red clay tile roof which is rare in residences in the area.
El Morado Place
- c1924
- Spanish Eclectic
During the early 1900s new construction in McPherson Town consisted primarily of multiple family dwellings. Two prominent buildings constructed during this period were the Floral Terrace Apartments, 118-124 McPherson Street, constructed in 1912, and the El Morado Apartments.
The El Morado must have attracted a number of "sidewalk superintendents" during its construction. It was built in a style sometimes referred to as Spanish Eclectic or Mediterranean, a name popularly applied to styles originating in the southwestern European countries of Spain, Italy and France. The Mediterranean style was most common in the southwestern states where original Spanish Colonial construction had occurred, but relatively rare in northern cities and particularly in nineteenth century neighborhoods. First popularized by the Pan-American Exhibition in San Diego in 1915, the style should not be confused with the earlier Mission style, which was inspired by California's Hispanic heritage.
The El Morado features many of the characteristics typical of the Mediterranean style, including a landscaped entrance court, a loggia or arcade balcony, textured wall surfaces, decorative terra-cotta entablatures, casement windows, metal balconies and of course the red tile roof.
220 West McPherson Street
- c1897
- Free Classic Queen Anne
- The Ulrich-Boone House
Sometimes the history of a property overshadows its architectural significance. So it is with the Ulrich-Boone House. In 1897 William Ulrich built for his family this Free Classic Queen Anne, sometimes referred to as a Queen Anne cottage because of its modest size. Katherine Boone, William's daughter who was born in the house, and her husband Walter still reside here. In fact it is the unbroken succession of family history retained in the Ulrich-Boone House which is so significant.
Katherine has vivid memories of the McPherson Town neighborhood. She recalls her mother's prize-winning yard, landscaped by Siebenthaler's Nursery, and carriage rides with her uncle Fred Without, Dayton's postmaster. Perhaps most significant in terms of Dayton history, Katherine remembers the great flood of 1913. She recalls being stranded on the second floor of her home because the water rose so quickly. Katherine and her mother were finally rescued by boat while standing in 21 inches of water.
We can admire the architectural simplicity of the Ulrich Boone House with its Doric neoclassical porch columns and dentiled cornice, but it is what happened and what is remembered here that probably turns our head once more.
212 Floral Street
- c1875
- Urban Barn
Take a detour down the alley which runs between Babbitt and McPherson Streets and you will find an increasingly rare architectural artifact: an urban barn. Once common along the back streets and alleys of America's cities, towns and villages, these reminders of the horse-drawn vehicle era have largely disappeared from urban environments.
Like their much larger country cousins, urban barns were excellent examples of form dictated by function. The first floor included a stable for horses and space for the wagon or buggy. A second floor loft or mow contained hay for the horse. By the early 1900s many urban barns had already been converted to garages. Those that remain usually have traditional overhead garage doors.
125 McDaniel Street
- c1994
- Loft studio
Slightly further down the alley between Babbitt and McPherson Streets you will find an urban barn of the 90s. This structure constructed in 1994 is designed to mimic the two story carriagehouse or urban barn which was popular at the turn of the century. The first floor of the building contains a garage space while the second floor serves as an artist's studio.
202 West Babbitt Street
- c1900s
- Storefront
- Chester Anderson's Store
In the days before the automobile freed us to travel from our front door to nearly any destination neighborhoods like McPherson Town functioned as small communities. People walked to school, to work and to nearby shops, which offered a variety of goods and services. Dominating the entrepreneurial element of pre automobile neighborhoods was the so-called mom and pop grocery store. Chester Anderson's store is a rare reminder of that era.
Typical of the small neighborhood grocery store this frame, gable front building replicates the ancient shop house in which the merchant operated a business from the first floor and either lived with his family in the second floor of the building or rented the space for extra income. Though the display windows have been covered it is not difficult to envision children from nearby Hawthorn School stopping by after school to pick up a supply of penny candy.
214-216 West Babbitt Street
- c1902
- American Foursquare
Built as a two-family rental property this house is designed in what the former editor of Old House Journal Clem Labine has called American Foursquare. The name stuck and rightfully so, for the square or block shape of the style is usually evident inside and out. Often consisting of four rooms over four rooms, the floor plan could be easily adapted to a two-family dwelling like the one we find here simply by dividing the house in half. The American Foursquare was often promoted as the "most house for the least money," and was one of the most popular house types of the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Common features of the style present on this house include its pyramidal roof, central dormer, three post or column porch with balustrade and porch and dormer roofs which duplicate the form of the main roof.
212 Floral Street
- c1875
- Shotgun
- The Spirk House
The house type represented by this recently rehabilitated property is commonly referred to as a Shotgun. Its name originates from folklore which claims that a shotgun fired through the front door would exit uninterrupted through the rear door.
The Shotgun is rectangular in plan and is one room wide and two or more rooms deep. The main entrance can be found on the front-facing gable end, with additional entrances at the side or rear of the building. The Shotgun is said to have evolved from houses originally introduced by African-Americans into Haiti and New Orleans. It was later built as inexpensive company or worker housing and is thus usually found in urban neighborhoods where it could easily accommodate narrow lots.
The Shotgun's function as worker housing is reinforced by some of the former occupants of the Spirk house. In 1882 it was occupied by a Mr. Pierpont, who identified his occupation as a "huckster," or one who peddles goods. In 1890 Charles Spirk, the local machinist for whom the house is named, was the owner.
During the rehabilitation of the Spirk House for the 1993 Rehabarama the architectural integrity of the house was maintained by constructing an addition off the back of the house instead of at the side as might normally occur.
201 McDaniel Street
- c1890
- Queen Anne
- William Britton House
The Britton House is another excellent example of the Queen Anne style masonry house, common in McPherson Town. Here the otherwise plain brick walls accentuate the contrasting turned posts and bracketed cornice of the rear verandah and the patterned shingles and decorative bargeboard of the two projecting gables. The attention to detail common with the Queen Anne style extends to the slate roof which features cresting and crockets (an upward oriented ornament of Gothic origin) along the roof ridge.
A common characteristic of older houses is the alterations they have experienced through the years. The neoclassical style front porch of the Britton house appears to have replaced an earlier Eastlake style porch similar or identical to the rear porch.
226 McDaniel Street
- c1886
- Romanesque
- Hawthorne School
The size of this former school building reflects the school age population once living in and around the McPherson Town neighborhood. Built in the Romanesque style, it is an excellent example of a large Victorian era school building.
Significant features include a rusticated limestone foundation with water table, a soaring multiple gabled roof, a louvered bell tower with double round arch windows, brick corbelling and a round arch entrance bay with keystone. The interior of the building includes other reminders of late nineteenth century educational institutions, including polished wood floors and wainscoting in the classrooms.
Today, Hawthorne School sits vacant, its once active halls silent. Recently, feasibility studies have been done on possible reuses of this structure including upscale condominiums. We hope to see Hawthorn School filled with activity again.
43-45 West Babbitt Street
- c1886
- Eastlake
- The Miller-Leedom House
The Miller-Leedom House is Dayton's best example of theEastlakestyle of Queen Anne residential architecture. Known for its fanciful combinations of ornament and color, the Eastlake style is defined by its knobby, table leg-like porch posts; large, elaborate, wing-like brackets and a variety of exterior wall-surface treatments resulting from technological advances in woodworking machinery including scroll saws, chisels, power lathes and spindle-shapers.
It is not surprising that Eastlake ornament sometimes resembles furniture. The style is named for Charles Locke Eastlake, a British furniture designer whose book Hints on Household Taste strongly influenced American interior design. Eastlake, however, rejected the American interpretation of his art and architectural designs.
Prominently sited on a corner lot, the Miller-Leedom House features a striking two story central polygonal and box bay window separated by a checkerboard panel and topped with a three part round arch window, pierced sunburst brackets and a variety of wall surface treatments, including decorative wood shingles and horizontal and vertical siding. The ever-present table-leg posts support a porch roof sheltering the main entrance.
125 and 127 McDaniel Street
- c1890
The stucco salesman was one of the forerunners of the aluminum and vinyl siding salesman. Sometime during the early 1900s he visited these two houses and sold the owners on the advantages of the new product. Like its predecessors, asbestos and asphalt shingles (Insulbrick) and aluminum and vinyl siding, stucco was promoted for its insulating qualities and as a way to update the look of older buildings burdened with outdated architectural details. Applied over both frame and masonry buildings, it could then be painted the desired color. Churches and commercial buildings were also stuccoed but it is unusual to find two side-by-side, identical stucco houses.
118, 120 and 128 McDaniel Street
- c1890s
- "Three Sisters"
These three wood frame houses built during the 1890s are very similar in size and style, in fact, two of the three could pass for twins. Take note of how the builder varied them slightly through the use of different fish scale designs and slight architectural modifications.
121 McDaniel Street
- c1886
- Folk Victorian
Walk by this small house and your eye is immediately drawn to the porch which fills the space formed by the house's L-shaped form. This is exactly what the builder intended, for with the exception of the porch, the stylistic pretension common to larger houses of the period is noticeably absent here.
Virginia and Lee McAlester, authors of A Field Guide to American Houses, refer to houses like this as Folk Victorian. According to the McAlesters, Folk Victorian houses are identified by the presence of Victorian detailing on simple folk house forms. The detailing is generally much less elaborate (or more confined) than with the high style Victorian houses they attempted to mimic. Inspired by the Italianate, Queen Anne, Eastlake and Stick styles, this detailing is usually applied to porch and cornice lines.
Here, Eastlake style detailing includes turned porch spindles, turned balusters in the porch railing and frieze and lace-like spandrels which form a flat arch above the porch entrance. The shaped lintels above the windows hark back to the earlier Italianate style. The simple standing seam metal roof and symmetrical facade are also obvious departures from the usual ornate eclecticism of the Queen Anne style.
107 McDaniel Street
- c1890
- Stick style
- Hall House
Once owned by bank teller C.R. Hall, Hall House is perhaps McPherson Town's best example of the Stick Style. The most important character-defining feature of the Stick Style is the horizontal and vertical wood framing on exterior walls, conceptually meant to express the truthfulness of the internal balloon frame construction. Since the decoration is largely cosmetic and not structurally related however, it has never been entirely clear what truth was being expressed.
On the Hall House the wood framing is particularly noticeable because of the corner location of the property and because it is highlighted by a contrasting paint color, as was originally intended. During the early years of the twentieth century when the revival of Classical and Colonial styles dictated the widespread use of white paint the fine architectural details and ornamentation of many Stick Style and other elaborate Victorian era houses was concealed or obscured. Historian Roger Moss is largely credited with reviving the interest in the true colors of American Victorian houses. His Century of Color, Exterior Decoration for American Buildings- 1820-1920, in which he draws on the historic color plates of the Philadelphia Athenaeum and the archives of the Sherwin-Williams Company, is a documentary history and practical guide to American exterior decoration .
41 West McPherson Street
- c1885
- Stick Style
- Hartlev House
Like the Hall House on nearby McDaniel Street, the Hartley House incorporates features of the Stick Style, most notably the horizontal and vertical boards intended to mimic the house's internal construction. Unlike the Hall House, however, surface treatments more common with the contemporary Queen Anne style including decorative wood shingles and the unusual sunburst design in the gable end above the porch dominate the Hartley House.
Built for James Hartley, who owned Hartley and Company Merchant Tailors located on the northeast corner of Third and Jefferson Streets, the Hartley House is another good example of how multiple paint colors can be used to enhance and highlight the myriad architectural details of Victorian era houses.
35 West McPherson Street
- c1886
- Queen Anne
If porches could talk this one would say welcome, for there is an inviting quality about the design. Realtors would say this house has curb appeal. In fact, the horseshoe-shaped entrance enclosed with latticework and topped off with imbricated wood shingles is one of the most unusual porch designs in Dayton and illustrates the decorative complexity and sometimes whimsical quality of the Queen Anne style.
1-100 Block. West McPherson Street
- "Triple Twins"
The first block of West McPherson Street contains not one but three sets of twin structures. Perhaps built by one individual or a group of builders, these three sets of twins are a unique find. Look closely at the twins (30 and 35, 34 and 39, 40 and 27) and you will quickly notice that while some of the porches have been modified or expanded the basic architectural features of these unusual homes remain intact.
39 McDaniel Street
- cl886
- Eastlake and Stick Style
- The Bates House
The Bates House is a good example of the large single and two-family dwellings built in McPherson Town during the last decades of the nineteenth century by members of Dayton's middle class. The dominating architectural feature of this house is its porch or verandah. Sheltering nearly one-half of the property, its design was obviously dictated by the house's corner location and is unusual for its arcade arches supported by turned table leg posts.
In addition to the influence of the Eastlake style, most notably in the porch posts, the Bates House also exhibits elements of the Stick Style, a late nineteenth century, quintessentially American style best interpreted in wood. While contemporary competing architectural styles emphasized the skin or exterior surface of the house, the Stick Style highlighted what architectural historians James Massey and Shirley Maxwell have called the "bones" or the internal construction of the house. On the Bates house allusion to internal structure can be found on the vertical, horizontal and diagonal wood framing of the two-story bay window and the lattice work of the porch railing.
This home was returned to a single family residence as part of the 1993 Rehabarama project.
25 McDaniel Street
- c1882 with later renovation
- Dutch Colonial Revival
- John Caufield House
Once divided into five apartments, the Caufield House has again become a single family dwelling thanks to the recent Rehabarama. Its present exterior appearance, however, dates from the early years of the twentieth century when it underwent an extensive redesign, incorporating a major element of the Dutch Colonial Revival style, the gambrel roof. Popular among middle-class urban and suburban families, the Dutch Colonial Revival style reached it speak during the 1920s.
Typical features of the style present on the Caufield House include the central chimney, gabled dormer and thin classical porch columns.
The owners of 25 McDaniel Street recently added a garage tot he vacant lot next to their home. Take note of how the architect utilized some architectural features of the home i the design of the garage including the fish scale shingling and the unique window of the home's gable.
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