Dayton is a city in southwestern Ohio, United
States. It is the county seat and largest city of Montgomery County. As
of the 2005 census estimate, the population of Dayton was 158,873. The Dayton metropolitan area, or Greater Dayton,
which includes the communities of Vandalia, Trotwood, Kettering, Piqua,
Tipp City, Centerville,
Beavercreek, Fairborn, West Carrollton, Huber Heights, Troy, Riverside, and Miamisburg, had a population of 843,577 as of the 2005 estimate. Dayton is situated within the
Miami Valley region of Ohio, just north of the Cincinnati metropolitan area.
Dayton plays host to significant industrial, aerospace,
and technological/engineering research activity and is known for the many
technical innovations and inventions developed there. The city was the home of the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, which brought an end to the war in Bosnia. The Wright brothers, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, and
entrepreneur John H. Patterson were born in Dayton. The Dayton area is
home to several major international, national, and regional corporations, including NCR,
Reynolds & Reynolds, ChemStation International, Liberty Bank,
NewPage Corporation, Standard Register, WorkflowOne (formally Relizon),
Huffy Bicycles, LexisNexis, and Mead prior to becoming
MeadWestvaco. It was formerly home of Speedwell Motor Car Company.
History
Dayton was founded on April 1, 1796 by a small group of
US settlers seven years before the admission of Ohio to the Union in 1803. The town was incorporated in 1805 and given its name after Jonathan Dayton, a captain in the American Revolutionary
War and signer of the U.S. Constitution.
In 1797, Daniel C. Cooper laid out the Mad River
Road, the first overland connection between Cincinnati, Ohio and Dayton. This
opened up the "Mad River Country" at Dayton and the upper Miami Valley to settlement.
The Miami and Erie Canal, built in the 1830s, connected the Dayton commerce from
Lake Erie via the Great Miami River and served as the principal route of transportation for
western Ohio until the 1850s.
The catastrophic Great Dayton Flood of March 1913
severely affected much of the city, stimulated the growth of suburban communities outside central Dayton in areas lying further
from the Miami River and on higher ground, and led to the establishment of the Miami
Conservancy District in 1914. The flood remains an event of note in popular memory and local histories. The high waters
damaged some of the Wright Brothers' glass plate photographic negatives of their glider flights at Kitty Hawk and power flights
over Huffman Prairie near Dayton.
Involvement in World War II
During World War II Dayton, like many other American cities, was heavily involved in the
war effort. Residential neighborhoods in Dayton and in nearby Oakwood hosted the Dayton
Project, in which the Monsanto Chemical Company developed methods to industrially
produce polonium for use in the triggers of early atomic bombs, including those dropped by the
United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
Japan.
Dayton was also home to the National Cash Register Company whose employees built
airplane engines, bomb sights and code-breaking machines, including the American bombe designed by
Joseph Desch which helped crack the Enigma
machine.
Dayton Peace Accords
-
The Dayton Agreement, a peace accord between the parties to the hostilities of the
conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia, was negotiated in the Dayton
area. Negotiations took place from November 1, 1995 to
November 21, 1995 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton.
Nicknames
Dayton's primary nickname is the "Gem City". The origin of the name is no longer clear; it appears to stem either from a
well-known racehorse named "Gem" that hailed from Dayton, or from descriptions of the city
likening it to a gem. The most likely origin appears to be an 1845 article in the Cincinnati Daily Chronicle newspaper, by an author writing with the byline "T", which reads
- In a small bend of the Great Miami River, with canals on the east and south, it can be fairly said, without infringing on
the rights of others, that Dayton is the gem of all our interior towns. It possesses wealth, refinement, enterprise, and a
beautiful country, beautifully developed.[2]
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) later acknowledged the nickname in his poem, "Toast to Dayton", which contains this
stanza:
- She shall ever claim our duty,
- For she shines—the brightest gem
- That has ever decked with beauty
- Dear Ohio's diadem.
The city was advertised as "The Gem City, the Cleanest City in America" in the 1950s, 60s and into the 70s. The phrase was
often seen on public trash cans, and other places throughout the city during this time period.
Ohio's nickname "Birthplace of Aviation" is also frequently seen due to Dayton being the hometown of the Wright Brothers. In
their bicycle shop in Dayton, the Wrights developed the principles of aerodynamics, and designed and constructed a number of
gliders and portions of their first airplane. After their first manned flights in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wrights continued testing at nearby Huffman Prairie.[3]
Geography
Dayton is located at 39°45′46″N, 83°11′48″W (39.762708,
-84.196665).1 The city sits in the
Miami River Valley, north of Cincinnati, well
south of Toledo, south-west of Columbus, and east
of Richmond, Indiana, in the southwest quadrant of
the state. Most official and government designations place it in west-central Ohio (a term which colloquially often refers
to Lima, Ohio). It is at the confluence of the Great
Miami River, the Stillwater and Mad rivers, and Wolf Creek. Greater Dayton is generally
referred to by locals as the Miami Valley, which is understood to mean the area south of Sidney and north of Middletown, and west of Springfield to the Indiana border
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area
of 146.7 km² (56.6 mi²). 144.5 km² (55.8 mi²) of
it is land and 2.2 km² (0.9 mi²) of it (1.55%) is water.
Climate
| Monthly Normal and Record High and Low Temperatures |
| Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Rec High °F |
71 |
73 |
82 |
89 |
93 |
102 |
102 |
102 |
101 |
89 |
79 |
72 |
| Norm High °F |
33.7 |
38.2 |
49.3 |
60.7 |
71.2 |
80.1 |
84.2 |
82.3 |
75.6 |
63.5 |
50.1 |
38.5 |
| Norm Low °F |
19 |
22.4 |
31.2 |
40.4 |
51.1 |
60.2 |
64.4 |
62.2 |
54.6 |
43.5 |
34.3 |
24.4 |
| Rec Low °F |
-25 |
-16 |
-7 |
15 |
27 |
40 |
44 |
39 |
32 |
21 |
-2 |
-20 |
| Precip (in) |
2.6 |
2.29 |
3.29 |
4.03 |
4.17 |
4.21 |
3.75 |
3.49 |
2.65 |
2.72 |
3.3 |
3.08 |
| Source: USTravelWeather.com |
The region is dominated by a humid continental climate, characterized by
hot, muggy summers and cold, dry winters. The highest temperature ever recorded in Dayton was 105°F in July 1934, and the coldest
was -21°F in January 1985.[4]
Dayton is subject to severe weather typical to the Midwestern United States.
Tornadoes are possible from the spring to the fall. Floods,
blizzards, and severe thunderstorms can also occur from
time to time.
Demographics
- Note: the following demographic information applies only to the city of Dayton proper. For other Dayton-area communities,
see their respective articles.
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 166,179 people, 67,409 households, and 37,614 families
residing in the city. The population density was 1,150.3/km² (2,979.3/mi²). There
were 77,321 housing units at an average density of 535.2/km² (1,386.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 53.40%
White, 43.10%% Black, 0.30% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.70% from other races, and 1.83% from two or more races. 1.58% of the population
were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Dayton remains largely segregated, with African
Americans residing on the West and Whites on the East in the City Proper.
Households
There were 67,409 households out of which 27.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.2% were married couples living together, 20.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.2% were
non-families. 36.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or
older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 3.04.
Age structure and gender ratio
The age structure of Dayton's population is:
- under 18 years: 25.1%
- 18 to 24 years: 14.2%
- 25 to 44 year: 29.0%
- 45 to 64 years: 19.6%
- 65 years of age or older: 12.0%
The median age is 32 years. For every 100 females there were 93.1 males, while for every 100 females age 18 and over, there
were 89.6 males.
Income
The median income for a household in the city was $27,523, and the median income for a family was $34,978. Males had a median
income of $30,816 versus $24,937 for females. The per capita income for the city was
$15,547. About 18.2% of families and 23.0% of the population were below the poverty
line, including 32.0% of those under age 18 and 15.3% of those age 65 or over.
Metropolitan Statistical Area
The former Dayton-Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
included Montgomery, Miami,
Clark, and Greene counties and had a
population of 950,558 in 2000. In 2003, the MSA was split into the Springfield MSA, which includes only Clark County, and the
Dayton MSA, which includes Montgomery, Miami, Greene, and Preble counties.
Political structure
-
Civil War memorial in Dayton, Ohio. Electric trolley bus cables are visible in the photo.
In 1913, Dayton became the first large city in the United States to adopt the council-manager system of city government. In this system, the mayor is merely the
chairperson of the city commission and has one vote on the commission just like the other commissioners. The commission chooses a
city manager, who holds administrative authority over the city government.
- See also: List of mayors of Dayton,
Ohio
The city also encourages participation by residents through the use of neighborhood
associations and priority boards. A total of 65 neighborhoods comprise seven
priority board districts.
- See also: Neighborhoods of Dayton, Ohio
Crime
Like many midwestern cities suffering from a declining manufacturing base, the city has seen a high poverty rate, although
that rate declined during the 1990s.GM and its spinoff Delphi's factories, just to name a few, make up much of the city's employment.
While the past five years have shown a general decrease in crime, Dayton has historically had high crime rates. According to
FBI Uniform Crime Reports, in 2005 the crime rate per capita was more than twice
the national average in the areas of murder, robbery,
motor vehicle theft, rape, and burglary.[7] Dayton also had a the 3rd
highest crime rate per capita in the State, putting Cleveland 1st, Cincinnati in 2nd and Toledo in 4th.
Mayor Rhine McLin is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition[8], a bi-partisan group with a stated goal
of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by Boston, Massachusetts Mayor Thomas Menino and
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Dayton also has a high number of abandoned buildings and structures throughout the city, although the City has increased
funding for demolition in recent years. Residents of Dayton believe that the abandoned buildings and structures are the beds for
crime and drugs in the neighborhoods. One can compare the abandonment of buildings in Dayton to cities such as Detroit, Michigan;
Gary, Indiana; and Flint, Michigan.
Urban design and architecture
Unlike many midwestern cities of its age, Dayton has very broad and straight
downtown streets (generally two full lanes in each direction), facilitating access to the downtown even after the automobile
became popular. The main reason for the broad streets was that Dayton was a marketing and shipping center from its beginning:
streets were broad to enable wagons drawn by teams of three to four pairs of oxen to turn around. In addition, some of today's
streets were once barge canals flanked by draw-paths.
A courthouse building was constructed in downtown Dayton in 1888 to supplement Dayton's original Neoclassical courthouse, which still stands. This second, "new" courthouse has since been
replaced with new facilities as well as a park.
Dayton's nine historic neighborhoods — Oregon District,
Wright Dunbar, Dayton
View, Grafton Hill, McPherson Town, Webster Station,
Huffman, St. Anne's Hill,
and South Park — feature mostly single-family houses and mansions in the
Neoclassical, Jacobethan, Tudor Revival,
English Gothic, Chateauesque,
Craftsman, Queen Anne,
Georgian Revival, Colonial
Revival, Renaissance Revival Architecture, Shingle Style Architecture, Prairie,
Mission Revival, Eastlake/Italianate, American Foursquare, and
Federal styles of architecture.[9]
The two tallest buildings of the Dayton skyline are the Kettering Tower at 408 ft (124 m) and the MeadWestvaco Tower at 385 ft (117 m)[10]. Kettering Tower was originally Winters Tower, the headquarters of Winters Bank. The building was
renamed after Virginia Kettering when Winters was merged into BankOne.
Culture and recreation
Dayton is home to the Dayton Art Institute, a museum of fine arts. The
National Museum of the United States Air Force is at
nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The Dayton Metro Library is a library system consisting of 23 locations across
the metropolitan area, with the Main Library located in downtown Dayton.
The Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical
Park commemorates the lives and achievements of Dayton natives Orville and Wilbur Wright and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park is located on the south end of
Dayton. SunWatch is the location of a 12th century American Indian village that has been partially reconstructed and includes a
museum where visitors can learn about the Indian history of the Miami Valley.
Dayton is also home to a variety of performing arts venues. The Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center at the corner of
Second and Main, is the home performance venue of the Dayton Philharmonic
Orchestra and the Dayton Opera. In addition to Philharmonic and Opera performances,
the Schuster Center hosts concerts, lectures, traveling Broadway shows, and is a popular spot for weddings and other events. The
historic Victoria Theatre, located at the corner of First and Main,
hosts concerts, traveling Broadway shows, ballet, a
summertime classic film series, and much more. The Loft Theatre, also on Main Street, is the home of the Human Race Theatre
Company.
South of Dayton in Kettering is the Fraze
Pavilion which hosts many nationally and internationally known musicians for concerts. Also south of downtown, on the
banks of the Great Miami River, is the University of Dayton Arena, home venue for the University of Dayton Flyers basketball teams and the location of various other events and concerts.
North of Dayton is the Hara Arena and the Nutter
Center, venues that frequently host sporting events and concerts. The Nutter Center is the home arena for athletics of
Wright State University and the Dayton
Bombers.
From 1996 to 1998, Dayton hosted the National Folk Festival.
The Dayton Amateur Radio Association annually hosts North America's largest hamfest at
Hara Arena in Trotwood[11], a neighboring suburb. Amateur radio
operators are commonly referred to as "hams" with as many as 25,000 traveling from around the world to attend this
convention.
Sports
Dayton also has an amateur women's ice hockey team, the
Dayton Fangs, established in August 2005. The Gem City Rollergirls, a women's roller derby league, began forming in early 2006, women's rugby,
the Flying Pigs, a professional and
amateur mixed martial arts circuit Ohio Xtreme
Fightingestablished in 2006,
Media
The sculpture
Flyover (David Evans Black, 1996) on Main Street downtown. The sculpture tracks the path of the Wright
Brothers' first powered aircraft flight.
Newspapers
The principal general-circulation daily newspaper in the region is the Dayton Daily
News, which is owned by Cox Enterprises. Christian Citizen USA (currently doing business as
Citizen USA), which claims to uphold "traditional values" and distances itself from secular media,[12] is a newspaper with circulation in greater Dayton and its surrounding
suburban communities. The Dayton City Paper is a free weekly circulation newspaper
formerly known as the Impact Weekly. The Kettering-Oakwood Times, part of the Brown Publishing family, is a weekly with circulation
primarily in the south suburban communities. Brown weeklies have a circulation of over 100,000 in the Metro-Dayton area.
Flyer News is the semiweekly student newspaper at the University of Dayton and serves the campus community. The Guardian is the weekly student newspaper at
Wright State University. And, the Clarion is the student newspaper of Sinclair
Community College.
Television
The Dayton metro area's broadcast television stations are as follows:
- WDTN, Channel 2 – NBC, operated by LIN
TV
- WHIO-TV, Channel 7 – CBS, operated by Cox Communications
- WPTD, Channel 16 – PBS, operated by
ThinkTV (formerly known as Greater Dayton Public Television), which also operates
WPTO, assigned to Oxford, Ohio
- WKEF, Channel 22 – ABC, operated by
Sinclair Broadcasting
- WBDT, Channel 26 – The CW/i, operated by Acme Television
- WRGT-TV, Channel 45 – Fox/My Network TV, operated under a local marketing agreement by Sinclair Broadcasting
The Dayton television market is ranked the #59 Nielsen DMA in the United States.
Nationally syndicated morning talk show The Daily Buzz originated from WBDT-TV, the
Acme property in Miamisburg, Ohio before moving to its current home in Florida.
Radio
AM format
FM format
Some Cincinnati and other southwest Ohio radio and television stations can be received in parts of Dayton, as well.
Transportation
The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority (RTA)
operates public bus routes in the Dayton metro area. In addition to routes covered by traditional diesel-powered buses, RTA has a number of electric trolley bus routes.
In continuous operation since 1888, Dayton's is the longest-running of the five remaining trolley bus systems in the U.S. There
is currently no RTA bus route serving the Dayton International Airport.
Air transportation is available via the James M. Cox Dayton International
Airport, located in nearby Vandalia, just north of Dayton proper. People from
nearby cities such as Cincinnati, Columbus, and Indianapolis travel and fly out of Dayton due to lower costs.
Liberty Cab (in operation since 1929), Checker Cab and
Airport Checker Cab all provide taxicab service throughout the
Dayton metro area.
Dayton is located on Interstate 75, which intersects Interstate 70 just north of the city. This intersection is also known as "Freedom Veterans
Crossroads."
The intersection of Route 4 and Interstate 75 is also known to locals as
Malfunction Junction, because of the sharp turn in the Northbound lanes of I-75
that causes heavy traffic delays during Rush Hour. That section of interstate is also known for traffic accidents.
Starting in October 2007, a multi-year project to upgrade Interstate 75 through downtown gets under way. There will be three
continuous through lanes on Interstate 75, when the project is two-thirds complete in 2011.
US 35 is also a major east-west highway passing through downtown Dayton, carrying
commuters east to Xenia, Ohio or west to the Ohio-Indiana border. The stretch of US 35 through downtown is currently under major
reconstruction.
Education
Dayton is home to two major universities: the University of Dayton, a private,
