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Near this site in Over-The-Rhine was one of the original Kroger Grocery & Baking Company stores, where Bernard H. Kroger began serving the Over-the-Rhine area in 1902. Kroger was 23 years old when he opened his first store, The Great Western Tea Company, at 66 East Pearl Street near the Cincinnati Riverfront in July of 1883. By 1902, when the company was incorporated as the Kroger Grocery & Baking Company, Kroger operated 40 stores. By 1908, the company had grown to a chain of 136 stores in Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Northern Kentucky, and began making deliveries to customers with 200 mule-drawn wagons. Kroger was the first to combine meats and groceries under one roof and the first grocery company to operate its own bakery. Currently called the Kroger Co., the grocer is a major contributor to the local economy.
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First Baptist Church of Dayton organized on May 29, 1824. A council met on the porch of William Huffman’s home at Third and Jefferson and approved 9 members as a congregation. The next day Lydia Huffman was baptized in the Great Miami River, the first recorded Baptist immersion in the city. Their first church building was erected in 1827 on Main Street. In 1829 the congregation suffered a Campbellite schism. Those resolved to remain Baptist incorporated on February 25, 1837, as The First Regular Baptist Church of Dayton, Ohio. The foundations for the Monument Avenue building were begun prior to the 1913 Dayton flood and the cornerstone was laid May 31, 1914. The building was completed, furnished, and ready for worship on June 26, 1915. (Continued on other side)
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A newer use for the airplanes after World War I was mail delivery. Airplanes moved mail faster than trains, but flying only during daylight hours slowed delivery and flying at night was dangerous. The Army Air Service constructed an experimental lighted beacon route for night flying between Columbus and Dayton in 1923. With proof that such a system could work, the U.S. Postal Service developed what later enthusiasts call a “highway of light” to guide air mail pilots on the transcontinental routes between New York to San Francisco and across the nation. (Continued on other side)
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The Rubi Girls originated in 1984 when a group of friends began performing comedy drag routines for Dayton’s LGBTQ+ community. The troupe took their name from Rubicon Street where they first met, lived, and performed. During the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, The Rubi Girls decided to use their talents to raise funds for the community. They began by donating performance proceeds to the Ohio AIDS Coalition and volunteering as performers and facilitators at the Ohio AIDS Coalition Healing Weekend Retreats. By the 1990s, The Rubi Girls expanded their fundraising efforts to include such annual benefit galas as Kweenz with Kause, Masquerage, and The Show Must Go On. For almost four decades, the Rubi Girls have shared their comedy while raising millions of dollars for local and regional HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ+ charities.
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Fout Hall was one of three original buildings on the Bonebrake Theological Seminary campus. Constructed 1920-1923, it was named for Dr. J. E. Fout, who managed campus construction. Bonebrake Seminary was founded in 1871 by Dayton’s United Brethren in Christ Church and became co-educational in 1873. Generous cash and land gifts (1909-1911) enabled the construction of a new campus. Fout Hall, the administration building, and a powerhouse were designed by Dayton architect Frederick J. Hughes in the Jacobethan Revival style. The three-story buff-brick dormitory was the largest of the buildings and cost $250,000. As well as dining hall, laundry, and storage facilities, it featured 12 single rooms, 54 two-room suites, and 6 three-room suites. Fout Hall was an integral part of the National Register listing of the Dayton View Triangle Historic District in 2022.
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Established in 1851 after the addition of the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railway, Glendale incorporated in 1855 as Ohio’s first planned community and one of the nation’s first planned villages. The original planning included forested greenbelts and parks, curvilinear streets meandering around established trees, large lots, and superior building standards. Glendale is designated as a National Historic Landmark community from the Department of Interior and a Certified Local Government through the Ohio Historic Preservation Office, all owed to Glendale’s persistent adherence to the plan and faithful preservation of original infrastructure. Much of today’s preserved infrastructure includes the original 59 pivotal buildings, curvilinear streets, tree canopy, stone gutters, gas streetlights, and railroad depot.
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Nathanial Sackett (1768-1854) and John H. Piatt (1781-1820) platted Monroe in 1817, naming it for President James Monroe. Monroe was a stagecoach stop between Cincinnati and Dayton and grew to be a rural village surrounded by farms and dotted with small factories, incorporating in 1907. Beginning in the mid-1950s and coinciding with the construction of Interstate 75, the village expanded geographically, through the annexation of surrounding farmland, and continued to grow in population. Monroe officially became a city in 1995, when its population exceeded 5,000 people (5,380). As of its bicentennial year of 2017, Monroe was home to more than 13,000.
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Mary Harlan Doherty was born in 1862 in the Dayton Street neighborhood of Cincinnati. She graduated from Woodward High School in 1880 at a time when women were not expected to go to college, but rather to marry, raise children, and take care of household duties. Miss Doherty, as she was known, saw the world differently. She felt strongly that women should not only possess solid social skills, but also be prepared for college. She graduated from Cornell University in 1899. In 1906 she established the College Preparatory School for Girls in the former home of Superior Court Judge and Ohio Governor George Hoadley, with a class of 125 students. Enrollment doubled by 1920, with Miss Doherty guiding her students under the school’s motto, Ad Summum, meaning “To the Highest Point,” or, as she viewed it, to strive for excellence, hard work, and service.