Dayton (7/25/2016)

Monday, July 25, 2016
Drove to Dayton to visit friends I met in Buffalo, NY in eighth grade. Kathy J lives just outside Dayton with her husband, and has three of her five daughters in the area. She has a total of nine grandchildren! Also visiting was her twin sister, Karen H.
In the afternoon, we drove into the city, first to see her daughter Danielle and family, to pick up the key to their artist space. Then to the Front Street buildings of a former envelope manufacturer, which now houses a variety of small businesses and artists. Here Danielle and Kathy share rent of a large space with Toya, where they can work on their artistic creations and sell them. They have repainted their space, plus painted the corridor to their space and spruced it up with decorative and functional touches (like "bumpers" made from weathered wood). Danielle and Kathy call their "company," Good Bones, and much of what they do is to re-finish "mid-century" furniture. Also, Danielle will paint panes of an old window, or paint simple designs on coffee cups and saucers, or coffee mugs. Plus much more!

Good Bones (and Rascal 7) ground floor space left

Good Bones (and Rascal 7) ground floor right

Stairs to the loft

Window over the stairs to the loft

Some of Toya's work

Kathy took us through the whole complex of three buildings.
Next we drove to park in the Oregon historic district, the oldest surviving neighborhood in Dayton. The Miami Canal opened in January 1839, and by July platted lots were being sold. The flood of 1913 caused the demise of the area as people moved to higher ground. Subject to being razed in the 1960s, interest was generated in the historic value, and in 1974 it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Federal-style houses in the Oregon District at
#12 (1845) & #8 (1849) Van Buren Street;
also note the stone hitching post and
the mounting block for carriages

#139 Jackson Street (1860, Italianate style),
on a street of homes mostly built
after the Civil War by professionals

#37 Hess Street (1919)

Old fence posts and wrought-iron gate

#19 Hess Street (1856) door

#53 Green Street (1877) door,
with a custom storm door

#19 Green Street driveway gate

#26 Green Street (1884), sort of Queen Anne style

Karen & Kathy; the Oregon logo is a lion taken from
the emblem  of a local 19th century company:
McHose and Lyon Dayton Architectural Iron Works

#232 East Sixth Street (1900) door

#22 Brown Street (1900)

Karen "popping the tab" on the Warped Wing Brewing Co. bike rack

A former Wympee diner (1938), now Arepas & Co,
offering Colombian comfort food, where we had dinner

All three of us each ordered the Mazorca Desgranada,
aka "party in your mouth," had steamed corn off the cob
topped with your choice of fillings (three different meats, two
cheeses, and or two beans), cotija cheese, crushed potato chips,
and three sauces of your choice; between us we had five
different sauces, and Karen had them all on her dish!
¡Muy deliciosa!

Karen & Kathy at the entrance to Garden Station (est. 2008),
an art park and community garden emphasizing creative re-use
and permaculture, having taken over an empty railroad yard
that had become a homeless camp and dumping ground

Wall mosaics

Butternut squash

Hoop-house tomatoes

Community chalk board

Returned to Kathy's house to reminisce, and somehow ended up researching netball and rugby!
Next: Cincinnati.