sANTA cLARA Business District
In addition to the photos above, check out these images from the interior of the Smith & Theatre buildings from Industry Imagery: www.industryimagery.com/Miscellaneous/Santa-Clara-building
The Santa Clara Business District was selected as one of Ohio's Most Endangered Properties by Preservation Ohio in 2022.
Preservation Dayton is in the process of nominating the district to the National Register of Historic Places utilizing a $12,000 pipeline grant from the Ohio Department of Development in order to open up opportunities to utilize Historic Tax Credit funding. This process is expected to be complete by the end of 2024.
Preservation Dayton was also awarded a $10,000 Special Projects Grant from the Montgomery County Arts & Cultural District in 2023 to paint the boarded up store fronts in the Business District to represent the storefronts with businesses that used to be present in the corridor. This work is expected to be completed by the end of September 2024.
Preservation Dayton is in the process of nominating the district to the National Register of Historic Places utilizing a $12,000 pipeline grant from the Ohio Department of Development in order to open up opportunities to utilize Historic Tax Credit funding. This process is expected to be complete by the end of 2024.
Preservation Dayton was also awarded a $10,000 Special Projects Grant from the Montgomery County Arts & Cultural District in 2023 to paint the boarded up store fronts in the Business District to represent the storefronts with businesses that used to be present in the corridor. This work is expected to be completed by the end of September 2024.
This work builds on the various implementation plans the city has drafted over the years to reinvigorate the district.
In addition to the work above, the City has received funding to put North Main Street on a road diet, making it safer for pedestrians and drivers alike, while maintaining public transit and adding on-street parking to the neighborhood business corridor. You can learn more about that plan on the city's project page. This work is currently underway and expected to be complete in 2025.
The video below discusses the roadmap for the Santa Clara Business District as a part of the "North Main Street Corridor Plan" adopted in December 2018. Although some aspects of this plan are currently underway, we hope the projects we are undertaking will be able to push it closer to the intended outcomes.
In addition to the work above, the City has received funding to put North Main Street on a road diet, making it safer for pedestrians and drivers alike, while maintaining public transit and adding on-street parking to the neighborhood business corridor. You can learn more about that plan on the city's project page. This work is currently underway and expected to be complete in 2025.
The video below discusses the roadmap for the Santa Clara Business District as a part of the "North Main Street Corridor Plan" adopted in December 2018. Although some aspects of this plan are currently underway, we hope the projects we are undertaking will be able to push it closer to the intended outcomes.
The 2020 Northwest Dayton Vision Plan can be seen below. The Santa Clara Business District is addressed on pages 13-16 and implementation plan on page 35.
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Redevelopment Resources
The Santa Clara Business District will soon qualify for a combined 55% Federal and State Historic Tax Credits when it is added to the National Register of Historic Places. In addition, a developer can save on property taxes by initiating an application in the Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) recently implemented by the City of Dayton.
Additional funding resources and tools may be available. Learn more from the Dayton Development Coalition.
Additional funding resources and tools may be available. Learn more from the Dayton Development Coalition.
The curved, red brick building, known as the Smith Building, has floorplans from a prior real estate listing.
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HIstory
The following history is from our friend, Andrew Walsh, at www.DaytonVistas.com. For additional links and photos, please visit his site.
The business district located on North Main near Santa Clara Ave is surprisingly intact. Outside of East Fifth in the Oregon District and West Third in Wright-Dunbar, no early neighborhood commercial district with this level of density remains in Dayton. The district represents and ear of unbridled growth and optimism Dayton and took on various identities of as a center of retail, entertainment and the arts. These districts were once ubiquitous throughout the city, but from West Fifth Street to Troy & Valley to Brown & Warren, planned renewal projects or decades of neglect have resulted in their disappearance. And as urban living has once again become desirable, these quirky, compact areas have the potential to be vibrant once again, and also to help build wealth for their communities.
Upper Riverdale had begun to develop in the 1880s with the advent of the electric streetcar and many lavish homes were constructed on North Main. As development continued north, the area took on an identity distinct from the “bedroom community” suburbs in other parts of town that remained solely residential. Instead, this stretch of North Main would grow into a thriving commercial area that aimed to bring all downtown conveniences directly to Riverdale restaurants. The district sprung up extremely quickly over the course of just a few years in the middle of the “roaring 20s.” Most of the structures are one and two story brick buildings, with two examples of commercial additions built in front of existing houses.
In 1925 the Dayton Savings and Trust Co built its new Riverdale Branch Bank at 1919 North Main. According to The Dayton Herald, the bank was “feeling that the growth of this section warranted the installation of such a convenience.”
The following year (1926), the Bice Building was built just across the street from the bank, with the brick work was done by William Webbert, noted brick contractor (a William Webbert building also stands on West Third in Wright-Dunbar). C. E. Bice constructed it to lease out to retail tenants, and he landed a big one in 1928 when a Reed-Klopp furniture store run by C. S. Noss moved in to sell its high-quality wares. Today the Steps Creative Center occupies part of the structure.
At the same time, the district’s landmark building was also under construction. The Smith Building (1926) is a two-story art deco brick structure that nicely wraps around its corner of Main and Santa Clara and offers five storerooms and apartments above. Leslie L. Smith, a local real estate broker, began investing in the neighborhood by constructing the single-story commercial structure at the NE corner of Main and Ridge Ave. Smith’s ambitions grew after observing that Dayton’s growth was naturally expanding northward. “People residing in that neighborhood will have every advantage of community life,” Smith said at the time, and a wide variety of retail tenants quickly moved in to his new building.
At the time the Smith Building was the most ambitious structure in the district, but another major building would begin construction right next door the following year. The Federation Realty Company started work on a large, two-story building which would add entertainment to the Riverdale scene, similar to a project it had just done on Xenia Ave. The brick work, stone setting and terra cotta on the structure were done by Carl J. Davis and the building as a whole cost $200,000.
The mixed-use structure included the Riverdale Theatre, which seated 1,000 and featured a Page organ, as well as a recreation center including a bowling alley with eight Brunswick lanes and six billiard and pocket tables. Other storefronts were occupied by a shoe dealer, a barber shop, confectioner, and delicatessen.
The new building was called an asset “not alone to Riverdale, but to Dayton as a whole, for as the city grows in its component parts so does it expand and become greater as a whole.”(I believe this sentiment still to be true, only now Dayton needs to work hard to save its “component parts” like this strip before it becomes nothing but a memory.)
Another prominent Daytonian involved with the development of the Santa Clara Business District was Jacob D. Moskowitz, who earlier in life was the founder of the Kossuth Colony for Hungarian workers in Old North Dayton. He bought several lots in the 1900 block of North Main in the 1920s before they had been improved.
The Riverdale bank did not survive the Great Depression, but the building was remodeled into a Liberal Super Market in 1937. The Santa Clara Business District remained a thriving area for shopping and entertainment into the 1950s.
The area suffered from neglect in the latter decades of the 20th century, but as recently as the 1990s this strip was known as the “Santa Clara Arts District” and lined with galleries and eateries. A favorite was the Upper Krust deli (at the location of the former supermarket, 1919 N Main), known for its “Tom Turkey sandwich (and) the choice of beets, chips or apple sauce.”
Although Santa Clara had suffered from divestment and vacancy for decades, the city designated the area a “Town Center” in the early 90s which opened up city resources to help spur development, the same strategy that propped up the Oregon District. But despite gaining momentum at times, the plan didn’t work and most businesses eventually fled. Some relocated to other parts of the city, like Omega Music. More recently nearly all of the buildings were vacant and deteriorating with the district’s future looking grim. The Santa Clara Juicery opened in 2018 to give new hope to the area, but later closed. Some establishments continue, such as the Sugar’s Lounge bar. Recently there was a developer interested in restoring the Smith Building, but the article also revealed that the former Riverdale Theater building is scheduled for demolition. The developer said that “he would buy that building, too, with a little help from Dayton government.”The author of the website Daytonology called the Flatiron Building (1896), called it “one of Dayton’s urban set-pieces, an imposing flat-iron commercial building with the corner articulated by a tower.”
Others have referred to it Dayton’s own version of New York City’s legendary triangular Flatiron Building and it’s difficult to picture this part of the city without the structure that so perfectly and attractively fills its available space.
The building was constructed in 1896 by Charles F. Smith and quickly became the signature image of the Riverdale neighborhood.
It was also one of the area’s most popular destinations for a wide variety of purposes. Smith operated multiple businesses of his own including a saloon and grocery and also rented storerooms out to others. He was even listed at the address as a sewer contractor in the early 1900s and won a contract to install thousands of feet of sanitary sewers in Riverdale. Apartments were located on the upper floors.
Confectioners were also a mainstay in the Flatiron Building. In 1910 it was the Riverdale Confectionery, which also sold cigars, and years later one could shop at the Leo Eggers Confectionery.
By the late 1980s, the building was occupied by a wood carver. Later it became abandoned like its neighbor across the street, the mission-style Fire Station #14 built in 1899.
The business district located on North Main near Santa Clara Ave is surprisingly intact. Outside of East Fifth in the Oregon District and West Third in Wright-Dunbar, no early neighborhood commercial district with this level of density remains in Dayton. The district represents and ear of unbridled growth and optimism Dayton and took on various identities of as a center of retail, entertainment and the arts. These districts were once ubiquitous throughout the city, but from West Fifth Street to Troy & Valley to Brown & Warren, planned renewal projects or decades of neglect have resulted in their disappearance. And as urban living has once again become desirable, these quirky, compact areas have the potential to be vibrant once again, and also to help build wealth for their communities.
Upper Riverdale had begun to develop in the 1880s with the advent of the electric streetcar and many lavish homes were constructed on North Main. As development continued north, the area took on an identity distinct from the “bedroom community” suburbs in other parts of town that remained solely residential. Instead, this stretch of North Main would grow into a thriving commercial area that aimed to bring all downtown conveniences directly to Riverdale restaurants. The district sprung up extremely quickly over the course of just a few years in the middle of the “roaring 20s.” Most of the structures are one and two story brick buildings, with two examples of commercial additions built in front of existing houses.
In 1925 the Dayton Savings and Trust Co built its new Riverdale Branch Bank at 1919 North Main. According to The Dayton Herald, the bank was “feeling that the growth of this section warranted the installation of such a convenience.”
The following year (1926), the Bice Building was built just across the street from the bank, with the brick work was done by William Webbert, noted brick contractor (a William Webbert building also stands on West Third in Wright-Dunbar). C. E. Bice constructed it to lease out to retail tenants, and he landed a big one in 1928 when a Reed-Klopp furniture store run by C. S. Noss moved in to sell its high-quality wares. Today the Steps Creative Center occupies part of the structure.
At the same time, the district’s landmark building was also under construction. The Smith Building (1926) is a two-story art deco brick structure that nicely wraps around its corner of Main and Santa Clara and offers five storerooms and apartments above. Leslie L. Smith, a local real estate broker, began investing in the neighborhood by constructing the single-story commercial structure at the NE corner of Main and Ridge Ave. Smith’s ambitions grew after observing that Dayton’s growth was naturally expanding northward. “People residing in that neighborhood will have every advantage of community life,” Smith said at the time, and a wide variety of retail tenants quickly moved in to his new building.
At the time the Smith Building was the most ambitious structure in the district, but another major building would begin construction right next door the following year. The Federation Realty Company started work on a large, two-story building which would add entertainment to the Riverdale scene, similar to a project it had just done on Xenia Ave. The brick work, stone setting and terra cotta on the structure were done by Carl J. Davis and the building as a whole cost $200,000.
The mixed-use structure included the Riverdale Theatre, which seated 1,000 and featured a Page organ, as well as a recreation center including a bowling alley with eight Brunswick lanes and six billiard and pocket tables. Other storefronts were occupied by a shoe dealer, a barber shop, confectioner, and delicatessen.
The new building was called an asset “not alone to Riverdale, but to Dayton as a whole, for as the city grows in its component parts so does it expand and become greater as a whole.”(I believe this sentiment still to be true, only now Dayton needs to work hard to save its “component parts” like this strip before it becomes nothing but a memory.)
Another prominent Daytonian involved with the development of the Santa Clara Business District was Jacob D. Moskowitz, who earlier in life was the founder of the Kossuth Colony for Hungarian workers in Old North Dayton. He bought several lots in the 1900 block of North Main in the 1920s before they had been improved.
The Riverdale bank did not survive the Great Depression, but the building was remodeled into a Liberal Super Market in 1937. The Santa Clara Business District remained a thriving area for shopping and entertainment into the 1950s.
The area suffered from neglect in the latter decades of the 20th century, but as recently as the 1990s this strip was known as the “Santa Clara Arts District” and lined with galleries and eateries. A favorite was the Upper Krust deli (at the location of the former supermarket, 1919 N Main), known for its “Tom Turkey sandwich (and) the choice of beets, chips or apple sauce.”
Although Santa Clara had suffered from divestment and vacancy for decades, the city designated the area a “Town Center” in the early 90s which opened up city resources to help spur development, the same strategy that propped up the Oregon District. But despite gaining momentum at times, the plan didn’t work and most businesses eventually fled. Some relocated to other parts of the city, like Omega Music. More recently nearly all of the buildings were vacant and deteriorating with the district’s future looking grim. The Santa Clara Juicery opened in 2018 to give new hope to the area, but later closed. Some establishments continue, such as the Sugar’s Lounge bar. Recently there was a developer interested in restoring the Smith Building, but the article also revealed that the former Riverdale Theater building is scheduled for demolition. The developer said that “he would buy that building, too, with a little help from Dayton government.”The author of the website Daytonology called the Flatiron Building (1896), called it “one of Dayton’s urban set-pieces, an imposing flat-iron commercial building with the corner articulated by a tower.”
Others have referred to it Dayton’s own version of New York City’s legendary triangular Flatiron Building and it’s difficult to picture this part of the city without the structure that so perfectly and attractively fills its available space.
The building was constructed in 1896 by Charles F. Smith and quickly became the signature image of the Riverdale neighborhood.
It was also one of the area’s most popular destinations for a wide variety of purposes. Smith operated multiple businesses of his own including a saloon and grocery and also rented storerooms out to others. He was even listed at the address as a sewer contractor in the early 1900s and won a contract to install thousands of feet of sanitary sewers in Riverdale. Apartments were located on the upper floors.
Confectioners were also a mainstay in the Flatiron Building. In 1910 it was the Riverdale Confectionery, which also sold cigars, and years later one could shop at the Leo Eggers Confectionery.
By the late 1980s, the building was occupied by a wood carver. Later it became abandoned like its neighbor across the street, the mission-style Fire Station #14 built in 1899.
Help PDI bring Dayton's endangered historic properties back to life!
Our Endangered Properties Committee provides resources and raises funds to proactively stabilize and/or obtain control of these irreplaceable properties. Preservation Dayton maintains an annual list of the Ten Most Endangered properties for intervention, as nominated by you and selected by the Endangered Properties Committee. Visit our Top 10 Endangered Properties page to see the full list of other nominees. If you have an urgent request for an at-risk historic property, please contact us at [email protected].
Please donate today! Your contribution, large or small, will save Dayton's historic structures before they are lost forever.
Your contributions are 100 percent tax deductible and are dedicated solely to preserving Dayton's rich history. The Dayton Foundation processes all gifts and donations to the Preservation Dayton, Inc. Fund #8630, a component fund of The Foundation. You can contribute by clicking the ‘Donate’ button below which takes you to the Dayton Foundation secure website. Or mail your check to payable to "Preservation Dayton, Inc. Fund #8630" Preservation Dayton, P.O. Box 3614, Dayton, OH 45401.
Thank you for your support!
Our Endangered Properties Committee provides resources and raises funds to proactively stabilize and/or obtain control of these irreplaceable properties. Preservation Dayton maintains an annual list of the Ten Most Endangered properties for intervention, as nominated by you and selected by the Endangered Properties Committee. Visit our Top 10 Endangered Properties page to see the full list of other nominees. If you have an urgent request for an at-risk historic property, please contact us at [email protected].
Please donate today! Your contribution, large or small, will save Dayton's historic structures before they are lost forever.
Your contributions are 100 percent tax deductible and are dedicated solely to preserving Dayton's rich history. The Dayton Foundation processes all gifts and donations to the Preservation Dayton, Inc. Fund #8630, a component fund of The Foundation. You can contribute by clicking the ‘Donate’ button below which takes you to the Dayton Foundation secure website. Or mail your check to payable to "Preservation Dayton, Inc. Fund #8630" Preservation Dayton, P.O. Box 3614, Dayton, OH 45401.
Thank you for your support!
