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Urban League facility brings area
'back to life'
By Joanne Huist Smith
Dayton Daily News, June 9, 2005
DAYTON | Reminiscent of an earlier
time on the Nickel, men in suits and women in summer
dresses gathered in front of the former West Fifth
Street YMCA on Wednesday, to celebrate the homecoming of
the Dayton Urban League to the neighborhood once
heralded as the heart of the black community.
As the crowd of at least 200 hushed
for a dedication prayer, a melody of new construction
sounds and the laughter of children heading for the
nearby Linden Recreation Center added background music.
"This neighborhood has awakened, been
brought back to life" said Carol Sampson, superintendent
of cultural affairs for Dayton's Department of Parks,
Recreation and Culture.
It's a revival in progress on the
Nickel — the nickname for West Fifth Street — and part
of a transition that's more than a decade old. The
Dayton Urban League's purchase of the YMCA building at
907 W. Fifth St. is the latest of many projects slowly
erasing empty buildings and blight from the
Wright-Dunbar neighborhood.
When the cornerstone of the Fifth
Street YMCA was laid in 1927, blacks weren't allowed in
the downtown YMCA. Dayton's black population raised the
funds for the building that once housed a gym, pool and
50 rooms for men.
In 1947, founding members of the
Dayton Chapter of the Urban League signed their charter
there, giving birth to the organization. By the 1970s,
the building that had been the after-school haunt for
neighborhood children had closed.
"Old and new. We have to know where
we've been to know where we're going. This neighborhood
has been through a cycle. This was an active
neighborhood when I grew up here, then things changed.
Now it's been reactivated," Trotwood resident Raymond
Garner, Sr. said.
At the gateway to the neighborhood on
the former Sprague Street, the city's oldest black
Baptist church building will reopen in October as the
Dayton Cultural and RTA Transit Center.
The $1.7 million makeover has been
one the community anticipated for more than 30 years.
The congregation of Zion Baptist was
forced to vacate the building in 1984 because of highway
construction. Now the building, plus a 100-by-50 foot
addition, will house the Zion Theater, including a
performance stage and seating for 95, a small store with
bus merchandise and an exhibit hall.
Progress and blight collide at
Williams and Mercer streets. On Williams, manicured
lawns of new or renovated homes showcased in Citirama
2003 offer stark contrast to those on Mercer with
boarded or broken windows.
But even there, signs of renewal are
sprouting. New gutters, sidewalks and light standards
already line one side of Mercer and ditches have been
dug on the opposite side for similar treatment as part
of the city's 1995 urban renewal plan.
"We're making the street development
ready," said Amy Walbridge, community development
specialist for the city. Infrastructure improvement will
be done by Sept. 1.
A sign on the door of 105 Williams
St., the former home of publisher Daniel Grant Fitch,
states the house is "unsafe for human habitation." The
house was built in 1852.
The city renovated the exterior in
2003. Now the Home Builders' Association of Dayton and
the Miami Valley, Preservation Dayton, Habitat for
Humanity and the city have teamed up to repair the
interior.
The home will be sold, with proceeds
going to Habitat for Humanity, and the restoration will
be featured during the Heritage House Designer Showcase
tentatively set for Oct. 21-30.
The boom in Wright-Dunbar also
includes several medical facilities. Jeanette Ishman of
Dayton said she's glad to see more essential health
services available close to home. Wednesday, she and
about 20 others waited for medical appointments at the
Victor J. Cassano Sr. Health Center, 165 Edwin C. Moses
Blvd., part of the Kettering Medical Center Network.
"We needed this in the neighborhood,"
she said.
PriMed Physicians also is moving two
of its Dayton medical offices to the Wright-Dunbar
business district. Renovations are under way at 1152 W.
Third St. for the independent physician group.
Walbridge believes the next pinnacle
for Wright-Dunbar will be demolition, then
reconstruction of Edison Elementary School by Dayton
Public Schools. That project is scheduled for completion
in five to 10 years.
"The school will serve as the nucleus
for all of the neighborhood. It will bring all the
development that has happened since the mid 1990s
together," she said.
Still, there are challenges. About
140 children weekly play basketball at the Linden
Center, at 334 Norwood Ave., but the center is to close
in about three years, according to the Dayton Parks,
Recreation and Culture 2004 Master Plan.
Contact Joanne Smith at 225-2362.
Urban
League
Several hundred people attended the
grand opening of the Dayton Urban League's new location
on Wednesday morning. The Dayton Urban League is now
located in the former YMCA building on West Fifth
Street. |
