Tour Oregon District

This tour will indicate the architectural and historical features of buildings in the Huffman Historic District. For a complete glossary of architectural terms used below click here

22 Brown Street

  • 1877
  • Victorian with Eastlake detailing
  • Built by John Rouzer. Rouzer was a builder by trade, and utilized the first wood molding machine in the U.S. to turn out the decorative woodwork so prized in Victorian times
  • Hipped roof with decorative cornice
  • Eastlake ornament at windows, side porch, second story balcony, and around door

Eastlake architectural detail is also referred to as "gingerbread." The style originated in the furniture designed by Charles Eastlake, and was quickly translated to architecture. Eastlake architectural ornament is very intricate and detailed, and gives the building to which it is applied a somewhat fanciful appearance.


26 Brown Street

  • c1846
  • Federal
  • Built by Jacob Doll; acquired by Elias Heathman, a carriage builder and cabinet maker, in 1863
  • Rectangular plan with regular proportions
  • Side gabled roof
  • Six-over-six windows

The Federal style is fairly formal. Windows are arranged in rows and line up both horizontally and vertically. The windows usually are made up of multiple small panes of glass. The style was popular from about 1800 to 1840, and is also called the Adam style.


29 Brown Street, Church of Christ

  • Romanesque Revival
  • Heavy, horizontal shape broken by corner tower
  • Decorative horizontal banding
  • Arch-topped windows and blind arcade
  • Stained glass
  • High fieldstone foundation

The Romanesque Revival style is characteristically heavy and massive-looking. Buildings in this style have round arches, asymmetrical facades and most often are made of masonry. Towers and stained glass windows are common. The style was made popular by Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson, and is sometimes called "Richardson Romanesque." It was popular from 1880-1900.


299-301 East Sixth Street

  • c1864
  • Brick double
  • Built by Joseph Kratochwill, owner of the Oregon Mill located just down the street. Kratochwill served as city councilman and also fire commissioner
  • Squared, formal, symmetrical shape
  • Side-gabled roof with brackets below
  • Tall foundation
  • Centered entry with ornamented porch

225 East Sixth Street

  • c1870
  • Once Joseph Kratochwill's Dayton Corn and Grist Mill, located on Miami Canal, now Jay's Restaurant
  • Doors on all three levels
  • Six-over-six arch-topped windows

8 Tecumseh Street

  • c1845
  • Built by Jacob Morrison. During the Civil War the occupants included a bricklayer, a wheel-maker, a miller and a Union army soldier
  • Simple plan, regular window arrangement
  • Bay on Sixth Street side
  • Windows with shallow brick arch at top instead of horizontal lintel
  • Use of long limestone foundation blocks
  • New brick and iron fence complements original architecture

12 Tecumseh Street

  • Federal
  • Simple, symmetrical design
  • Matching moldings above doors and windows, brick window sills
  • Recent stained glass in doors and some windows

24 Tecumseh Street

  • c1842
  • Greek Revival
  • Built by Salvatore Schaeffer, a tobacco dealer
  • Side gabled roof
  • Long, narrow windows with stone lintels and sills
  • Recessed doorway has classical pilasters and entablature, and an art glass transom

The Greek Revival style gets its name from the use of columns and moldings from classical Greek architecture. It was popular from 1825 until 1860, and also features an elaborated door surround with a transom. There is usually a wide cornice capping the structure, just under the low-pitched roof.


28 Tecumseh Street

  • c1850
  • Victorian Eclectic
  • Home of Anthony C. Brown, his wife Delia and their five daughters. Brown was a hatter and ran a hat, cap and fur business opposite the Courthouse on Main Street
  • Side wing with bay
  • Emphasized molding around front pediment
  • Windows do not line up with roof
  • Stone brackets and shelf above recessed doorway

Any building termed eclectic means that it does not follow the rules of any one style, but rather combines details from a number of different types. Homes which can be termed eclectic are likely to reflect the personal preferences of their builders regarding decoration and plan


35 Tecumseh Street

  • c1852, with addition in 1868
  • Built by Dennis Ensey, a brick contractor involved in the construction of the Southern Ohio Lunatic Asylum When he died in 1907 at the age of 95, Ensey was the oldest man in Dayton
  • Ground plan shaped like L
  • Long windows to match doors on first level, shorter windows above
  • Large limestone blocks of steps and foundation

These austere houses on Tecumseh Street reflect the simple lifestyles of the merchants who built them This street contains the most complete assemblage of early Dayton buildings found in the city.


59 Green Street

  • c1890
  • Queen Anne
  • Jacob Sortman residence. Sortman was one of Dayton's leading brick contractors
  • Built of pressed brick, Dayton limestone, Berea stone and pressed ornamental tile
  • Irregular ground plan, with multiple projections
  • Dormers in roof with brackets, dentils and inset decoration
  • Large ornamented chimneys
  • Cornice with dentils
  • Windows have incised lintels
  • Entrance door with sidelights and transom

The Queen Anne style was popular from 1880 to 1910. It featured a sprawling ground plan with wall planes moving in and out, and a variety of wall surface treatments. It is a romantic style, not formal, and often contains fanciful elements such as towers, second level porches, and elaborate decorative passages.


53 Green Street

  • c1873
  • Italianate
  • Iron fencing on widow's walk
  • Elaborate, wide, bracketed cornice and gable ornament • Stone window hoods with ornamented keystone above and arches below
  • Front bay with iron cresting

 Built by William McHose, founder and senior partner of McHose and Lyon Dayton Architectural Iron Works. The firm produced much of the iron fencing and cresting visible in this and other historic districts

 


52 Green Street

  • Folk Victorian
  • Painted banding in front gable, painted window lintels and sills
  • Eastlake porch
  • Brick and iron fence
  • Large lot with Victorian garden
  • Folk Victorian is a term used to describe a simple house adorned with an elaborate porch utilizing spindles or other cut wooden trim.

68 Green Street

  • c1882
  • Free Classic Queen Anne
  • Built by Edward Buvinger, a proprietor of Dayton Cornice Works. This firm specialized in sheet metal building cornices, window caps, chimney caps and tin and slate roofing. Henry Buvinger, a shoemaker and father of Edward, lived next door at 74 Green Street
  • Tower with fishscale shingles, curved glass windows and roof peak ornament
  • Projecting front two story bay
  • Porch with paired Doric columns on high bases, an entablature with dentils and balustrade
  • Free Classic Queen Anne is a variant of the Queen Anne style which utilizes classical architectural detail such as the Doric columns found here. This classical vocabulary is usually found on the porch, and the remainder of the building follows the Queen Anne norm with various types of wall surfaces, odd projections and asymmetry.

201-203-205 Brown Street

  • Storefront
  • Basic rectangular plan has angle cut out facing street corner for entry, and various lower additions accumulated over time
  • Second level windows with arched tops, decorative stonework and sills

200 Brown Street

  • ltalianate storefront
  • Roof line emphasized by brackets
  • Small attic windows in cornice on Brown Street side
  • Arched window lintels with keystone
  • Queen Anne windows: large pane surrounded by smaller panes

This building and the one across the street are good examples of the storefronts which would have been intermingled with residences when the Oregon district was founded. These small businesses, often grocery stores, would cater to neighborhood residents who could walk to them. The proprietor would live above the business.


119 Jones Street

  • c1851
  • Simple, symmetrical brick structure
  • Unusual flat roof with wide, overhanging eaves with brackets
  • Prominent cornice with brick dentils and brick banding
  • Recessed entry

Built by Marcus Bossler, a prominent Dayton builder. He eventually left the Oregon district and built a mansion on Dutoit Street, in the St. Anne's Hill neighborhood


123 Jones Street

  • c1885
  • Queen Anne
  • Advancing and retreating wall surfaces
  • Ornamented gable and dormer windows
  • Detailed cornice
  • Stone banding; window sills and lintels
  • Porch with bracket and bead ornamentation

Built by Fred Cappel, a businessman. Cappel worked at the Barney & Smith Car Works before opening his own business, the Cappel Furniture Company


127 Jones Street

  • c1852
  • Home of Theobald Eichelberger, proprietor of a building supplies company
  • Originally simple rectangle shape, later brick addition
  • Galvanized iron window lintels
  • Stained glass in entry doors
  • Brick and iron fence

248 Green Street

  • c1853
  • Built by Joseph W. Clayton, who paid $50 for this corner lot
  • Simple ground plan
  • Carved stone surround to entry door
  • Recent stained glass windows and brick and iron fence enhance original design

243 Green Street

  • c1855
  • Built by Jacob Brenner, a carpenter
  • Front porch added to simple brick structure in 1911
  • Classical design of porch, with Doric pillars and dentils in the classical entablature
  • Curved stone lintels over windows

235 Green Street

  • c1850
  • Greek Revival
  • Built by R.A. Kerfoot
  • Perhaps originally triangular pediment shape in gable: marks of attachments still visible
  • Stone window sills, ornamental brackets and lintels
  • Elaborate door surround with pilasters and sidelights

228 Green Street

  • c1856 and 1893
  • Queen Anne
  • Original simple brick built by James Tingle. In 1893 the third owner, Dr. Dagobert Scheibenzuber, began to alter the house by adding the tower, a new wing, and the front porch.
  • Stained glass windows, windows various shapes

NewcomPark at the intersection of Brown, Hess and Green Streets is maintained by the Oregon District Historic Society. The gazebo was designed and built by neighborhood residents. The park is a focus for neighborhood activities such as picnics, parades, and an annual chili cook-off.


30 Hess Street

  • Vernacular brick
  • Gabled Ell design
  • Two story porch with neoclassical pillars and coffered ceiling

The Gabeled ell designation refers to the shape of the ground plan. Homes of this type have an L-shape made up of two wings of approximately equal mass, and are roofed with a front-facing gable.


37 Hess Street

  • Victorian Gothic
  • Sawn ornament at roof edge and on porches
  • Ornament around six-over-six windows

The Victorian Gothic style was popular from 1840 until-1880. Buildings had tall, thin proportions and lots of decoration along the roof line, on porches and over windows. Board and batten wooden siding was often used, which added to the vertical emphasis.


46 Hess Street

  • c1852
  • Greek Revival
  • Built by Allen Fauver, a stone cutter and dealer in Dayton and Delphos stone
  • Rectangular plan
  • Four sets of double chimneys
  • Double decker rear porch with doric pilasters
  • Recessed entry door with stone posts and lintel capped by a decorative stone cornice
  • Ornate wrought iron fence

5 Cass

  • Italianate
  • Hipped slate roof with large chimneys and iron ridges
  • Ornate bracketed cornice under roof
  • Decorative window hoods and sills
  • Recessed door with stone pilasters, flattened arch and pediment
  • Side bay with finial
  • Side porch with decorative wrought iron

Daniel McSherry home. McSherry was one of the founders of Dayton Grain Drill Works, a farm implement manufacturing firm. He was also a noted inventor: between 1864 and 1891 McSherry patented seventeen separate agricultural machines


110 Van Buren Street

  • c1854
  • Italianate
  • Roof altered by William Nauman, a manufacturer of agricultural implements, who bought the house in 1866. Nauman added the mansard roof to the tower
  • Wide roof overhang with decoration
  • Stonework in front stoop, sills, lintels, and trim
  • Ornate door surround

Built by Samuel Fauver, a stonecutter and brother and partner of Allen Fauver who built the home at 46 Hess


108 Van Buren Street, FirstGermanMethodistChurch

  • c1866
  • Building covered in stucco after 1913 flood
  • Large roof brackets
  • Palladian window with architectural motif in stained glass

30 Van Buren Street, CentralBaptistChurch

  • 1889
  • Romanesque Revival
  • Irregular plan
  • Heavy, multicolor stone construction
  • Tower with buttresses
  • Arch-topped windows

27 Van Buren Street

  • c1850
  • Home of Beniah Tharp, first man in Dayton to manufacture bricks
  • Symmetrical arrangement of windows and doors
  • Long, narrow windows with stone hoods
  • Door with fanlight
  • Ornate Eastlake side porch

25 Van Buren Street

  • 1899
  • Flemish
  • Built by William P. Eckert, founder of Eckert Brothers Meat and Grocery
  • Slate roof with curving parapet
  • Banded brickwork
  • Projecting bays
  • Porches and parapets
  • Flemish style residences were popular from about 1893-1900 due to the influence of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. They have steep roofs, curved outlines to the gables, balconies, multicolored decorative stone or brickwork and two story bays.

12 Van Buren Street

  • c1849
  • Owned by Jacob Wolff, a carpenter
  • Simple rectangular brick
  • Especially elegant cornice with brackets and dentils
  • Stone lintels and sills
  • Six-over-six windows

2 Van Buren Street

  • c1904
  • Hipped roof
  • Dormers have neoclassical ornament and leaded glass
  • Neoclassical cornice with dentils, brackets and other moldings
  • Ornamental brick at house corners and over windows
  • Neoclassical porch with Corinthian columns and entablature which repeats elements of cornice

Designed and built by Lou Prinz, who lived on Jackson Street, for Pearl N. Sigler. Sigler was at one time chief legal council for John H. Patterson of National Cash Register, and later entered private practice


139-141 Jackson Street

  • c1876
  • Italianate
  • Symmetrical, with matching porches
  • Use of decorative brackets in wide cornice, at roofs of front bays, and on porches
  • Ornate window hoods with incised decoration

Built by Dr. Alfred Iddings, a surgeon, who lived and maintained an office at this address


134 Jackson Street

  • c1841
  • Italianate
  • Built by Thomas Brown, a brick-maker. At one time a boarding house
  • Flat roof with deep overhang and wide, decorated cornice
  • Hoods over windows
  • Simple neoclassical porch
  • Very ornate wrought iron fence

135 Jackson Street

  • c1874
  • Italianate
  • Built by carpenters William Crume and Andrew Slentz
  • Blocky, balanced plan
  • Deep wooden cornice
  • Eastlake porch, which repeats brackets from cornice
  • Decorated stone window hoods on long windows

132 Jackson Street

  • 1881
  • Italianate
  • Very narrow lot and house
  • Side two story bay, front single story bay
  • Cornice under roof
  • Decorative stone banding
  • Recessed entry with pilasters and pediment
  • Wrought iron side porch

Built by Dr. Julius Maetke, a German-born doctor who came to America to do research on yellow fever. After contracting the disease the doctor went to St. Louis to recover and then to Cincinnati, where he met his wife. He served as a medical officer during the Civil War, and afterwards moved to Dayton


126 Jackson Street

  • c1854
  • Italianate
  • Very broad facade
  • Ornate cornice, window sills and hoods
  • Decorative wrought iron on front first floor windows
  • Recessed entry door with decorated surround

Built by contractor John Butt, a partner in the firm of Beaver and Butt. Mr. Butt was a city councilman for many years


124 Jackson Street

  • c1860
  • Simple plan
  • Ornate scroll work on roof line
  • Window hoods and sills

Home of John Doren, editor of the Dayton Democrat, and his daughter Electra, head librarian of the Dayton Public Library, Electra Doren rebuilt the library's collection after the 1913 flood and established a system of book wagons and branch libraries


443 East Sixth Street

  • c1854
  • Home of Eichelberger family, owners of a building supplies business
  • Simple frame structure
  • Bay window with cornice
  • Porch with turned posts
  • Limestone block foundation

425 East Sixth Street

  • c1836
  • Federal
  • Brick dentil molding

 The original frame home on this site was one of the earliest in the district; unfortunately, it was deteriorated and had to be removed. It was replaced by a similar clapboard addition. The brick Federal at the front was added later.


419 East Sixth Street

  • c1877
  • Eastlake
  • Built of soft brick and limestone with galvanized metal trim
  • Chimneys with decorative banding
  • Ornate cornice with unusual design
  • Corners of building cut, with ornament at top and bottom
  • Very ornate windows
  • Reverse bay inset around door, with balcony

Balsley home, built by John H. Balsley, who became quite wealthy after inventing a practical wooden stepladder


430 East Sixth Street

  • c1850
  • Folk Victorian
  • E. Henderson, a constable, was the building's first resident
  • Simple window arrangement with two short windows above and longer windows on the first floor
  • Eastlake side porch with brackets, spindles and turned posts

502 East Fifth Street, Ware Block

  • c1891
  • Romanesque Revival
  • Built by Charles F. Ware, a tea and coffee wholesale dealer
  • Contained five separate storerooms with living space above
  • Facade of pressed brick and limestone
  • Decorative patterns in facade masonry
  • Central bay emphasized at roof line, cornice
  • Rounded arches above top windows

500 East Fifth Street, MosesGlasBuilding

  • c1876
  • Italianate
  • Tall proportions
  • Detailing at building corners
  • Elaborate cornice, with special feature at corner
  • Center axis emphasized by differing window treatment
  • Clear exterior division between levels; different window hood designs
  • Corinthian Pilasters dividing store display windows

Built for Moses Glas, a cigar maker and dealer. The ground floor functioned as a sales room and factory for making cigars, while the upper floors were living quarters


419 East Fifth Street, Pfanner's Block

  • c1879
  • Large, pedimented cornice with decoration
  • Ornate window caps

Built by Philip and Adam Pfanner as an investment property. Occupied by Rike, Hassler and Company dry goods business before that business was absorbed into the existing Rike Dry Goods at Fourth and Main


411 East Fifth Street

  • 1869
  • Italianate
  • Built by Dr. Dennis McCarthy to house two businesses with apartments above
  • Ornate cornice with pattern that reflects but does not copy exactly the arrangement of the window hoods
  • Center axis emphasized by change in window pattern
  • Limestone arches around entrance doors

424 East Fifth Street, Balsey Block

  • c1878
  • High Victorian Eclectic
  • Four rows of bay windows
  • Center emphasis
  • Varied types of ornamentation in cornice, around windows, and dividing floors
  • Victorian paint scheme

Once home and carpenter shop of John H. Balsey. It also housed Newsalt's Jewelry shop and meetings of the Murphy Movement, a temperance organization


400 East Fifth Street, Heathman Block

  • c1850
  • Early Victorian storefront
  • Built by Elias Heathman as grocery store and cracker making business
  • Flat roof, with cornice supported by large brackets
  • Windows in row with simple sills and lintels
  • Entrance emphasized by diagonal angle
  • Large display windows at ground level


 
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