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208 Bonner St. — The Joseph Shaman House

South Park Historic District’s central area was owned – but never developed – by merchants James and Johnson Perrine. Their heirs divided and platted the land in 1870. James’ daughter Martha retained this lot until 1902, and it was sold again a year later to Russian immigrant Joseph Shaman for $1,325. Shaman built this house in 1904. Less elaborate than many another Queen Anne residence, it nevertheless shows the styles’ primary characteristics: flat surfaces broken up (recessed front facade and side bay) and decorative elements (gable and porch fish scales, and second-story window mullions).

Shaman was a "huckster," a fruit peddler. He overextended himself building the house and lost it to foreclosure the following year. Jacob Bader, a fellow member of Beth Jacob synagogue on Wyoming Street, purchased it at sheriff’s sale and obligingly sold it back to Shaman. The 1920 census shows five Shaman children: Frieda, Solomon, Shirley, Miriam and Marvin.

The Depression took its toll; 208 Bonner went to foreclosure in 1933. The Shamans remained until the bank sold the house to Harry and Nellie Stewart in 1936. The Stewarts sold it in 1940 to Carl and Edna Davison, who sold it to playground instructor Nina Davison two years later. She rented rooms or divided the house into apartments. City directories list others besides Nina as residents. In 1959, Ruth Nafe purchased it as an investment property. Over the next four decades it went through a succession of owners and tenants. Foreclosure came a third time in 2000 after which it stood vacant. The Home Group purchased it in 2006.

25 Johnson St. — The Jacob Wasserman House

German carpenter Gustavus Himes erected two nearly identical houses at 21 and 25 Johnson St. in 1889. Over the next year he added four more in the same block. He constructed all six in the Italianate style standard in 1880s Dayton, but added Queen Anne embellishments. With only fish scale shingles in its gables and on the porch, 25 Johnson was one of the least elaborate of the six.

Himes sold the brand-new house to Jacob and Sarah Wasserman, Yiddish-speaking Russian immigrants. In the 1900 census, they and their seven children lived in the house, ranging in age from 22 to 4: Benjamin, Nettie, Max, John, Morris, Isaac and Jennie. Jacob worked as a fruit peddler, and the Wassermans were among the numerous Russian Jews in the neighborhood who belonged to Beth Jacob synagogue on Wyoming Street.

After Jacob’s death in 1928, Sarah continued to live here, and rented part of the house to Max and Sarah Greenwalt. The house was sold upon Sarah’s death in 1944 to Esther Holzhauer, and two years later to Italian immigrant Anthony Dando, a Dayton Electric mechanic, and his wife Rose. They occupied it until Anthony’s death in 1979. Troy school teacher Richard Volk and his wife Christine purchased and occupied it. They left Dayton in the late 1980s and rented 25 Johnson to a succession of tenants. In 2006 the Volks, then residents of Alaska, sold it to Full Circle Development.

3 Bradford Street — The Sarah Taylor House

The Perrine heirs (see 208 Bonner) usually sold lots undeveloped. Louisa Perrine and husband Edward Barney built this substantial brick house in 1882 and sold it brand-new to Sarah Burton Taylor for $4300.

Built when Queen Anne architecture was overtaking Italianate, the house shows elements of both. Italianate–narrow facades punctuated by narrow double windows with narrow porches to the side–adapted perfectly to the 34-foot-wide lots common in South Park. Queen Anne facades were wider, and used decorative elements to break up flat surfaces. Three Bradford’s front bay window and the angles transforming its side wing into a large bay are pure Queen Anne. The resultant house required a few feet of the next lot to accommodate its width.

The Taylors – English natives Samuel and Sarah, and Ohio-born daughters Imogene and Lilly – occupied the house for four decades. Samuel was a molder, Sarah a cigar packer, Imogene a schoolteacher, and Lilly a laundress. Sarah outlived them all; Samuel died of "grippe" (influenza) in 1891, Imogene in 1902, and Lilly in 1920. In 1921, 91-year-old Sarah sold the house to Charles and Elizabeth Lamb. That deed is rare in its specific mention of "a brick residence at the corner of James and Bradford Streets."

Attorney Pearl Sigler purchased it in 1923 for his mother Carrie. After her death in 1933, Pearl’s son Irvin and his wife Gertrude occupied it. Mrs. Dean Childress rented it about 1940 and sublet rooms; "3½ Bradford" entered the city directory. Pearl’s widow Nora sold it in 1947 to Louis Popovich. He sold it in 1949 to Frigidaire toolmaker Henry Corbaugh, who lived there until 1969. The house went through several foreclosures before Full Circle Development bought it in 2006.

31 Bradford St.— The John Cappel House

This lot of the Perrine plat was purchased by Jacob Schmidt in July 1877 for $500. His widow sold it to their son-in-law William Sherer in 1881. The following year, Sherer, a painter and decorator, built this frame cottage. Though very modest in style, it reflects some features of the Italianate style popular at the time, with a cruciform plan and two tall windows in front.

Sherer sold this cottage in 1886, to John and Catherine Cappel, German immigrants whose family would live in the house for almost eight decades. John died in 1903, and Catherine of "senile dementia" the following year. Son Frank, who worked shoeing horses, purchased his brothers’ interest in the property. In the 1910 census Frank, by then a railroad repairman, his wife Ella, a seamstress, their son John and his wife Lillian lived at 31 Bradford. In 1920, only John and Lillian lived there, but in 1930, Frank and Ella had returned. John, who worked as a janitor, shipping clerk and tool attendant inherited the house after his parents&rsquos deaths, and he and Lillian continued to live there.

After Lillian’s death in 1962, the house was sold to Curtis West, and in 1967 to Boyd Coldiron, who used it as an investment property. During the 1980s, Nettie Smith, an employee of the Salvation Army, lived at 31 Bradford. Later owners included Gary Benbow, Walt Wildenhaus and Jeanette Altman. The house was purchased by Full Circle Development in 2006.

313 Johnson St. — The John Ditzel House

Louisa Perrine and husband Edward E. Barney of the Barney & Smith Car Company sold this lot in 1878 to John F. Ditzel, a German immigrant carpenter, contractor and builder. The house was built over six years (the increases in the tax assessments were spread from 1878 to 1884), probably by Ditzel himself. The Ditzels – John, Catherine and five children – moved into the house in 1884. Catherine died of typhoid fever in 1902. John lived elsewhere at the time of his death in 1911.

In 1911, the property changed hands several times, and was purchased in April by Edward Rieck, secretary-treasurer of the Rieck Sheet Metal Company. The company’s Dayton City Directory advertisement offered "Hot Air Furnaces, Manufacturers of Galvanized Iron Cornices, Roofing, Spouting, Jobbing, all kinds of Furnaces Repaired on Short Notice." This company continues today under the fourth generation of the Rieck family.

The Riecks lived at 313 Johnson until 1917, and in 1919, the house was purchased by Anna Van Meter, a widow who let furnished rooms. The 1930 census listed Anna and three families at 313 Johnson. But the Depression was on: Anna lost the house to foreclosure in 1933. For the next 50 years, the house was an investment property, until being purchased on land contract in 1988 by Sharon Bush, who planned to renovate the house, and return it to a single family home. In 2007, her executor sold the house to The Home Group.

306 Johnson — The John Deis House

Perrine heir Garrett Perrine sold this lot to Charles Harries. In 1887, Harries sold it for $650 to German immigrant John Deis, whose wholesale wine and liquor business was on Wayne Avenue. Deis constructed this substantial brick house in 1889, but chose to remain on Wayne. In 1900, the house was occupied by newspaper agent Frank Ankenburg, his wife, Elizabeth, and their seven children.

In 1908, Deis sold the house to his newly married son Hugo. Hugo worked for the telephone company, but later joined the family business. Prohibition arrived in 1920, and the business turned to "wholesale and retail beverages." This may have been a financial blow; Hugo and Laura moved to a second-floor apartment over the business and rented 306 Johnson first to a law student, and later to a washing machine salesman, a life insurance salesman, and a lathe hand.

After Hugo’s death in 1938, Laura found a long-term tenant for 306 Johnson in Richard Saaler, a Patterson Field millwright, who lived at 306 Johnson from 1944 to the early 1960s. For the following two decades, the house was rented by John Helton, a machine operator at Delco Products, and then by his widow, Deloris.

Laura Deis died in 1979, and her heirs owned the property until 1997. One family had owned it for 110 years, but occupied it less than 20. Over the next decade, the house passed through a number of hands until it was acquired in 2006 by The Home Group.

655 Oak St. — The Sarah and Jacob Hawker House

Nathan Mory acquired east Oak Street from Frederick Meier to settle a lawsuit in 1877. Mory subdivided the land and sold three lots to Henry Darst in 1881 for $1500. Darst sold lot 4 to Sarah Hawker in 1888 for $550. Sarah’s husband Jacob was, according to successive city directories, a laborer, driver, coffee roaster and baking powder maker. When the Hawkers built in 1896, their tax assessment increased from $380 to $930.

The frame house was typical of Dayton for the period: tall and narrow, with a narrow side porch. However, it was wider than those built a decade earlier, and its windows were shorter and wider. Its fish scale decorations in the front gable characterized the increasingly popular Queen Anne style.

The house sold in 1905 to tailor John Herman. In the 1910 census he was a widower, age 49, with daughters, Flora, 23, and Alma, 20. Alma earned her living by folding advertising. Herman sold in 1912 to Joseph Eselafsky, a Russian Jewish immigrant who worked as a fruit peddler and later a butcher. Joseph and Esther, and young children Edna, Gladys and Robert, lived there until they sold the house to another Russian Jewish fruit peddler, Abraham Schendelman and wife Tessie. After Abraham’s death in 1952, Tessie sold the house to Calvin and Verna Jackson, who became the home’s longest-tenured residents. Calvin, an electrician at Delco, died in 1979; Verna remained until her death in 1992. The house sold in 1995, and then again on land contract to Kiffin Perry in 2000. It was purchased by The Home Group in 2006.

623 Oak St. — The George Steimle House

Samuel Brown, of the family for whom Brown Street was named, platted this corner of Oak and Clover Streets in 1868. Hiram Williams purchased this lot in 1870 for $700, and built this cottage in 1877. Williams was captain of the state canal boat for several decades, and later in charge of canal repairs.

In 1899, he sold the house to Joseph and Victor Joly. Joseph, a machinist, and his wife Clara lived at 623 Oak until 1903, when they sold to baker Herman Hurst and his wife Amelia, both German immigrants. Herman died at the Dayton State Hospital in 1908, leaving Amelia a 30-year-old widow with three young daughters. In 1910 she was working as a private nurse. In 1920, she sold the house to Wright Field employee George Steimle.

George and his wife Agnes had two children, Genevieve and George. George Jr. inherited the house in 1935 at age 14, after the deaths of his parents and sister. He joined the Navy during World War II, coming back in 1943 to marry Virginia, whom he had met at the water fountain on Park Drive while roller skating with friends.

After the war George and Virginia returned to 623 Oak Street, and their two children were born there. In the late 1950s they moved to East Dayton, and leased 623 Oak Street, selling it in 1969 to Roscoe and June Smith. After Roscoe’s death in 1983, the house was a rental until sold to Full Circle Development in 2007.

624 Oak St. — The Clement Baumann House

In 1885 Clement L. Baumann, an attorney and former mayor of Dayton, purchased this lot as an investment, and three years later built this brick cottage. Though a successful lawyer, Baumann was apparently a difficult man – his sons thrice attempted (unsuccessfully) to have him declared insane. Upon his legal separation from his wife, she received 624 Oak as part of the settlement. After her death in 1922, their son Otto Baumann, also an attorney, inherited the house. Tenants during this period included a stenographer, an inspector at NCR, an electrician, a machinist and a laborer at DP&L. While most were German immigrants or their descendents, the 1930 census listed Archibald Grant, an immigrant from Scotland as the resident of 624 Oak St.

This house left the Baumann family after Otto’s death in 1935 but continued as a rental property. Its first resident owner was Emerson School janitor Etta Holmes, who purchased it in 1945. She died in 1953, and the house was sold to Dorothy Bussinger of Oakwood. The next owner, the widowed Lillian Merrill, lived at 624 Oak for several years until her remarriage. Andy Nickell occupied the house from 1974 to 1988 when his declining health required that the house be sold. It was then purchased by the Tharp family, who owned a number of Oak Street properties, and they sold it to Full Circle Development in 2007.

260 Park Drive — The Louis Ginstie House

Florist Ernst Seitner lived at 248 Park and owned the land east to Cross Street. After his death in 1895, his heirs retained a large greenhouse at 250 Park and platted the rest into building lots. Ernst Jr. sold this lot in 1900 to recently married post office letter carrier Louis Ginstie. In 1902, Ginstie constructed a large double, 258 and 260 Park, in the Queen Anne style, with a spacious wrap-around porch. Louis and Bessie Ginstie lived at 260 with young children Charles, Lillian, Alberta and Virginia in 1910, and rented 258 to the Brown family: widowed Rose, adult children Daisy, Nellie, Franklin, and Daniel, and teenage son Clifford.

Ten years later, in 1920, the Ginsties and Browns remained. Only two Brown children still lived with Rose – Nellie, and Daisy, an employee of NCR. The Ginsties had added another child, Betty Jane, in 1919. In 1923 Lillian Ginstie married Everett Hawker. They moved in to 258 Park Drive, and were listed there with daughters Beth and Lois in the 1930 census.

Earl McMahan, a Frigidaire employee, purchased the house from the Ginsties in 1943. He died in 1950, and his widow Gladys lived there until she sold the house in 1959 to Henry Ochs, who owned it for three years. It was purchased by two couples as an investment property. In 1985, it was acquired by Parkview Manor, the nursing home now built in place of the greenhouses next door. It continued to be owned with the nursing home, often with employees as tenants, until Lisa and Robert Shine bought it in 2006 and restored it as a single-family home.

301 Morton St (Old Brown) — Joseph and Theresa Wellmeier House

in 1959, Joseph and Theresa Wellmeier bought this property at the corner of Old Brown St. (Morton Ave.) and Adams St. from Brady's estate for $350. In 1871, the Wellmeier family, consisting of Clement and Henry, who were tailors, and Joseph, a carpenter, was living on Old Brown St. between Adams and Oak. Two years later, the listing shows Joseph at 303 Old Brown St. The address at 301 Morton was 301/303 until recent renovation.

In 1900, the Wellmeiers leased a cottage at the rear portion of their lot—probably 118 Adams St.—to John and Ella Schuster for $12.50 per month. This lease was cut short the next year when the Wellmeiers accepted an Offer from the Schantz and Schwind Brewing Company and sold the entire property for $2,900. By this time, the front building must have consisted of both a storefront and a residence. The brewery leased the building to a succession of tenants including the Dayton Breweries Compnay, Hester & Westerfield Grocers, and a small barbershop. Even the side of the building was leased to a sign company to advertise “Pills Burry” for $20 per year.

Geaorge Schantz and Louis Schwind founded the Schantz and Schwind Brewing Company in 1888. They operated the Gem City Brewery at 807 S. Perry St. In response to the growing temperance movement, Schantz and Schwind merged with six other local brewers to become the Dayton Breweries Company in 1901. According to company president, Adam Schantz, Jr., “It is our intention to keep the saloons out of sections of the city where they are not desired.”

Despite their public relations efforts, prohibition was passed in 1918 and the breweries began to sell off their properties. In 1918, Schantz and Schwind sold the Adams St. cottage to Jeanette Fowler. In 1921, they sold the Morton St. storefront to Aaron Anderson. The Anderson family owned the property until 1944.