This week The Extraordinary Times caught up with Andrew Walsh, an author, researcher, and academic librarian at Sinclair Community College. Andrew’s book Lost Dayton, was published by The History Press in 2018. He also writes about Dayton, Ohio history and urban development on his website DaytonVistas.com. * How have you been keeping this past year? I'm fortunate to have stayed safe and healthy along with my family, so that's the important part. There have been challenges along the way, especially since our son was four months old when the initial shutdown happened. My wife and I had some hectic months trying to navigate working from home while doing child care, and it's been tough for him to be growing quickly while barely knowing his extended family. I'm also very lucky to have been able to keep my job and do it remotely, but I'm really looking forward to being in person again hopefully soon. * Given that your subject is Lost Dayton, what challenges arose in salvaging the city's vanished past? For many areas that I've written about, not many photos remain (and certainly not ones that give a real sense of the streetscape). To write those histories you have to get creative; for example, digging into old fire insurance maps and city directories in order to piece it all together. When I wrote my book, another challenge was selecting the right landmarks to tell Dayton's story. As I wrote in my introduction, Dayton has lost so much that one could easily fill multiple volumes on the subject! So I tried to pick sites that represent something significant about the city, themes like urban renewal, the loss of industry, or the historic preservation movement. I don't just use the word "lost" to mean totally gone or demolished, but also transformed so that a building's original use has been forgotten by many. That brings its own challenges: presenting forgotten sites in a way that will hopefully inspire the reader to appreciate their history and advocate for their preservation. * Is there a single building, neighborhood, or dimension of Dayton you most regret having been lost? I like your phrasing of "dimension," since for me the losses transcend any particular building or even a single area of town. I'd say what I regret most is the loss of the neighborhood business district which was once ubiquitous all over Dayton , where residents could walk to work, get their daily necessities, and be entertained. I think these quirky little districts are what give a city its character and differentiate it from the suburbs. Various forces combined to erase these commercial clusters from the map, from highway construction and urban renewal on one hand to gradual neglect and piecemeal demolition on the other. Today we only have a few small examples left, and the irony is that these are by far the most popular areas in the city (5th Street in the Oregon District being the most significant). It's a shame that we could still have so many more areas like this if we'd made different choices in the middle of the 20th century. * How can the legacy of the 1913 flood best be appreciated today? My research on the flood revealed a city suffering a terrible tragedy, but the community banding together in recovery: citizens helping one other survive, recover what was lost, and ultimately thrive once again. For me this has a direct application to the events of the last couple of years in Dayton, with the Memorial Day tornadoes, the Oregon District shooting, and of course now the devastating pandemic. It won't be easy and I know so many have been suffering, but I know the community will channel a similar spirit of the 1913 recovery to get us through. * As an adoptive Daytonian, how has historical research shaped your appreciation of the city? When I came to Dayton in 2013 I didn't know a whole lot about the city. My historical interest started small, investigating the story of the area where I lived (the lost Haymarket neighborhood just next to the beautiful architecture of the Oregon District). That gradually radiated out to other parts of the city, and at the same time I was discovering what a powerhouse Dayton truly was in its heyday. Not just the Wright Brothers, but "the city of a thousand factories," home to a multitude of other innovations that changed the world. For me it actually went the other way too, in that the city shaped my appreciation of historical research. I always have had a general interest in history, but Dayton was the catalyst for my pursuing it in any serious manner. I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin which is a very different city from Dayton and one which was always growing during my lifetime. So moving here and seeing things like rows of abandoned buildings, and hearing about the pain caused by the loss of industry and its iconic companies leaving, made me want to learn as much as I could about how Dayton got to where it is today, and how it best can reinvent itself for a new era. * What challenges or opportunities face Dayton over the coming years? All over Dayton, many landmark buildings are currently vacant and finding the resources to bring them back to life is certainly a challenge. But I think it's also one of our greatest opportunities to honor our shared past and bring new energy to our neighborhoods. Right now Dayton is seeing a lot of investment downtown, both new construction and redevelopment projects like the Arcade. A big challenge in my view is ensuring that the city as a whole benefits from this, as many neighborhoods aren't seeing this type of attention and are continuing to suffer and deteriorate. Giving those areas the resources they need to thrive once again doesn't always seem as exciting as putting money towards a flashy downtown development, but it's just as crucial for the well-being of our city.
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AuthorMatthew Smith, PhD (History). Public Programs at Miami University Regionals. Historian of Appalachia, the Ohio Valley, & the early American republic. Archives
February 2024
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