FINAL LANDING OH IO
Wright Brothers’ First Bicycle Shop Building to Be Demolished By Michael Sakal
CI T Y ZON I NG BOA R D ’ S
34 I N S I G H T December 3 – 9, 2021
The two-story storefront building later housed the Gem City Ice Cream Co., which was a household name in the city for more than seven decades, from 1901 to 1975. Similar to a winning lottery ticket on a smaller scale, many of the Hungarian children living in the West Side neighborhood during the Great Depression savored winning a “free ice cream treat” if they were lucky to have the reward on their wooden popsicle stick. The winning stick could be traded in for an ice cream treat. Neighbors living around the building have considered it an eyesore and have said they would like to see it gone. The back of the building has been in a deteriorated state for a number of years and has been left open to the elements. On occasion, homeless people have started fires in the building to stay warm. The city has performed two inspections on the building with unfavorable results. In 2007, an inspection concluded that it could cost as much as $2.8 million to have the building repaired to be “developer ready.” An inspection done in
The site of the Wright Brothers' first bicycle shop, in Dayton, Ohio, is set to be torn down. The city says that it's in a state of disrepair and needs to be removed.
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF PRESERVATION DAYTON, INC., SHUTTERSTOCK LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/GETTY IMAGES
decision to demolish an iconic building that has been part of the aviation heritage of Dayton, Ohio, has upset history buffs hoping that it would be saved. The Dayton Board of Zoning Appeals, during its Nov. 23 meeting, voted 5–1 against Preservation Dayton Inc.’s wishes to block the city’s demolition of the 129-year-old brick building at 1005 West Third Street on the city’s West Side. The structure is included on the National Aviation Heritage Trail overseen by the National Parks Service in a historic district known as the Wright-Dunbar Village in Dayton, the birthplace of aviation. Part of the building’s interior was where the Wright Brothers decided to start repairing and selling bicycles when Wilbur Wright was 25 and Orville Wright was 21. They called it the Wright Cycle Exchange. It was the first of six locations for their bicycle shops, where they sold as many as 11 different brands of bicycles, including their own.
