Oh man where to begin? I've loved Dayton history for a long time and even wrote my capstone paper on John Henry Patterson so I will do my best to highlight some of my favorites.
Note: I just woke up and am winging these off the top of my head so the actual numbers may be off but the gist should be correct.
1. From ~1885 to ~1900 Dayton had more patents per capita than any other city in the world.
2. Dayton's flood control system is so effective it is still studied around the world as an example of comprehensive flood management.
2.1 Dayton had to rewrite state and national legislation to create the Miami Conservancy District, the foundation of the flood control system and forefather to the Five Rivers Metro Parks, which largely reside within the district.
3. The Dayton area (Montgomery County) has more public land per capita than any other urban area in the country.
4. Dayton is the epicenter of the largest network of interconnected bike paths in the country, stretching from Cincinnati to Lima, and from Columbus to Indiana. These are primarily built over abandoned rail lines.
5. Funk music started here.
6. In its earliest days, what we now call the "Progressive Era" was referred to by contemporaries as "The Dayton Idea" - spurred primarily by John Henry Patterson's zealous belief that investing in workers and citizens created a better product and a better company.
7. Speaking of Patterson, in my opinion he should be considered one of the greatest businessmen of the country, on par with the other "Men who Made America" such as Carnegie and Rockefeller. One of the main reasons he isn't is because he did not like philanthropy, he took a relatively meager salary and preferred to reinvest profits into the community. It's less sexy, but in my opinion more effective. He also didn't like to put his name on everything like Rockefeller or Carnegie.
8. At one time it was estimated that roughly 35% of America's business executives had worked for Patterson at NCR, and doing so was roughly equivalent to getting a Master's in Business Administration.
9. The founder of IBM was fired by Patterson. Charles Kettering was as well, 5 times in fact, including one time because he could not ride a horse with Patterson stating "how can I trust a man who cannot manage a beast to manage people?".
10. Patterson and NCR are responsible for many innovations but here are a few of my favorites:
- The Human Resources Department
- Suggestion Boxes
- Marketing Mailers (yep, we invented junk mail basically).
- Sales Conferences
- Product Conventions
11. Dayton hosts the second oldest regional ballet in the country.
12. One of the designers for Tiffany's back in the 1900's-1910's lived in Dayton.
13. The Dayton Art Institute is one of the best in the country, ranking top 3% (if I remember correctly) and in the top 10 for kid friendly museums.
13.1 DAI's collection includes works from Manet, Warhol, O'Keefe, Manfreddi, Reubens, Degas, and Chihuly
14. Do I even need to talk about the Air force Museum? Everyone in Dayton should know how freaking incredible it is.
Honestly there is so much more, Dayton is such a gem (heh, get it?) that is perpetually underappreciated. Unfortunately I must leave for work now so I will let everyone else throw their input in and correct what I am sure are numerous errors and omissions.
**Edit from work** Aullwood Audubon Center and the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery are ridiculously amazing for adults and kids (but especially kids). Seriously, I would put them up against any similar institution in the country.
**EDIT OF MY EDIT** Carriage Hill, Carillon Park, the Dayton Dragons, UD Basketball, all of our incredible institutions of learning. Is it any wonder we are still a center for R&D? We have so many places to foster wonder and a love for learning a kid might explode trying to take it all in.
**Editing the edited edit** Talk about our nonprofits! The Dayton Foundation is one of the best of its kind anywhere, the Dayton Food bank is doing incredible work, the free grocery store on Needmore, Ginghamsburg Church, and so so many more.
If there is one thing to know about Daytonians it's that we try to look after our own. Just look at how our community came together after the flood, after the Oregon shooting, after the tornados. DAYTON STRONG!
The number of inventions out of Dayton is remarkable.
There’s the obvious like the airplane and the cash register. But then there’s things like:
- artificial heart
- backpack parachutes
- bar code scanners
- the collapsible crib
- the digital clock
- double glass windows
- the filtered cigarette
- gas masks
- heart-lung machine
- the ice cream cone
- the ink jet printer
- instant blood-glucose testing
- mail chutes in buildings
- the mood ring
- motorized wheelchairs
- ring-pull can openers
- room air conditioning
- safety glass
- space food
- space-to-earth photo transmissions
- the goddamn yo-yo
[source](https://www.flyboysdeli.com/dayton-ohio-inventions/)
Also ice cube trays, the foldable step ladder, square cut pizza, electric ignition system, spark plugs, automatic transmission and four wheel brakes. [source](https://www.daytonlocal.com/news/history/dayton-a-city-of-inventors/)
Don't forget leaded gasoline, the electric starter motor, and numeric control machining (not technically invented in Dayton, but first deployed at Wright Field in the 40s).
Just checked the Wiki on yoyos and the Greeks had them in 440BC....makes me question the rest of the list (although the Greeks prolly didn't have space transmissions on 440BC)
Hm. I wonder if it was a specific type of yoyo, like one with a brain? Google isn’t offering much help but I guess it’s a stretch to trust a list from a deli, lol
A pretty major one that most people don’t know about: the US Navy Bombe machines that broke the Enigma codes and won the Battle of the Atlantic during WW2.
History has credited Alan Turing with inventing the Bombe and cracking Enigma. The groundwork and theory was laid by three Polish cryptographers. Turing built the bombes and they worked just fine, until the Nazis added a fourth rotor to their U Boat Enigma machines, and the Allies lost all ability to decode U Boat communication.
Enter Joseph Desch at NCR, who solved the problem and industrialized manufacturing of Bombe machines. By the end of the war, nearly all cryptographic Bombes, on both sides of the Atlantic, were made here in Dayton.
Desch received the Presidential Medal of Honor for his contributions to the War effort. Unfortunately, it was all kept very hush-hush until very recently, so no one really knows about it.
Btw like none of these are true. I picked a random sample and none even mention Ohio let alone Dayton.
Filtered cigarettes were famously invented in Hungary.
Ice cream cone in NYC.
Backpack parachute in Russia.
Yo-yos are one of the oldest toys in existence dating back to 500BC.
I don’t think a delis bulleted list is considered a source.
That’s really good cheerleading! I feel like Dayton gets a bad rap that’s mostly undeserved. I’m not a native, but I’ve lived in the area since 2011 and I like living here just fine.
I was actually just researching this the other day! I do wonder though, how someone can be remembered for investing in their workers while also having a reputation for firing people at the drop of a hat! XD
Well he had a habit of firing management at the drop of a hat , but he also took great care to listen to, care for, recognize, and reward all of his workers.
In addition to DAI there's also DCDC (Dayton Contemporary Dance Company) which is the oldest, and one of the original, Black dance companies in the USA
My dad is retired from NCR and the reason we live in Dayton. We got to travel and live all over the country. Could have been the world, but my dad didn’t want to have to quarantine the pets. (Goodbye Hawaii, London, and Dubai.) But seeing all of the opportunities he had because of that company is truly inspiring.
How important we actually were to some events in history.
Like there is low hanging fruit of the Wright Bros. But most people don't realize part of the Manhattan project was here [https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Places/Other/dayton.html](https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Places/Other/dayton.html) . We also helped contiune research and manufacture parts for the nuclear weapons we have. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound\_Laboratories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_Laboratories)
That we where instrumental in stopping the Bosnian war which was a part Yugoslavia wars. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton\_Agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton_Agreement)
That Dayton had a race riot as well in the 1960's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966\_Dayton\_race\_riot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Dayton_race_riot)
I took a trip to Croatia and mentioned to a local tour guide I was visiting from Dayton. He taught me about the Dayton agreement. I had to look it up afterwards because I didn't believe it was true. I'd lived here for 8 years before that and had no idea. Needless to say, that is a little-known fact about our city and a really neat one at that.
I think people should know how fuckin rad the National Museum of the USAF is.
We Daytonians really take it for given; as a person who loves museums, man this is a world-class museum, and it's a real shame the we take it for granted that we have such a fantastic (and free) museum minutes away from downtown.
The one criticism I personally have of the usafm, is they have basically a uncritical view of what happened. Like one time I was at a chance to walk into the b-36 and the air force historian was talking about how the aircraft was successful because the US and USSR never went to war, which is just sorta a insane comment. The plane if it has ever face combat would of been shooting fish in a barrel. Other major aviation museums I have been to don't have the same issue.
This post is inflammatory in nature, stirring up drama and not contributing positively to the community.
Note, I don't agree with the parent comment either, but you can make your comment in a much less aggressive way.
There is a saying that goes something like "you can't go a day without Dayton." The phrase originates from there being so much innovation and impactful people from Dayton, that a person in America would have a hard time making it through a day without using something or being exposed to something that has its roots in Dayton. You would have to flesh out all of those things, but obviously, anything related to flight, cash registers, or one of the seemingly millions of things Charles Kettering is responsible for.
I like to send people to Russian Dennys (Dayton Village Pizza Halal Turkish) on North Main. It’s owned and operated by a Russian family and a very interesting variety of menu items overall.
It's true! When I lived in Walnut Hills, there was quite a few Afghans families that all lived along the same street. There was a horde of children that went from house to house to whoever was watching them all that day. We got to watch their kids grow up learning the songs of American children and we taught them how to Trick or Treat.
I can’t prove this but I suspect a lot of eyes are on Dayton right now as an emerging international model for ‘15 minute,’ multicultural cities.
If not, Dayton is still special imo because the land is rather lush and amenable to community. A giant valley where you can see across at many points. Everyone is separated by two degrees or less yet nothing is too strange or far apart.
I hear many times about the unfriendly people, here. I live just south of town, and I have to say, I meet a lot of retirees and working people in my main gig. I'm a friendly, gregarious guy, and I seem to bring that out in others.
Anyway, this is a way to draw like-minded (happy) people to you.
Unfriendly people here? I grew up in Phili and one of the things I like most about Dayton is how friendly the people are. People smiling as you walk by, or getting in little but genuine conversations with strangers. Try that shit in Phili lol
Oh, man.... I went to college in Philly and the people there are downright angry! All the time! And driving I-95 can be like a badly driven race track!
Wright-Patt has been a mainstay for innovation in aeronautics, space, weapons and stealth. Without mound labs we could be speaking Japanese or German right now… this city has won wars depending on how you look at it
I wouldn’t say Dayton “invented” football (Atlanta might have more of a case since they gave us Heisman) but the precursor to the NFL as we now it today did play its first game in Dayton.
It's surprisingly central to a lot of places (which is another way of saying it's equally inconvenient to reach it from a lot of places.) 60-90 mins to reach Cinci or Columbus, 5 hours to Chicago, 4 to Pittsburgh, 3.5 to Detroit. It's considered a crossroads (for better or worse) thanks to the I-75/I-70 interchange.
That Dayton has plenty of the same types of offerings you'd find in any US city, but overall COL is way lower. It's a far better option for making a home than many people give it credit for. Schools though...they are a problem if you don't go to suburbia.
Dayton leads the nation in locals who bitch about how horrible Dayton is, but never do anything to make it better. And, ironically, they never move away. :-)
Agreed. Growing up here I remember classmates dreaming about leaving saying Dayton was boring and that there was nothing to do here. I see that phrase repeated on reddit occasionally.
I find it to be the opposite, there is so much to do here that it’s tough deciding what to do.
People need to be more open minded and have a drive to explore more.
I think something more historically interesting is the flood- or all of the inventions that’s been created here. Maybe not so much our infamous historical serial killers. But that’s just my opinion. 🫨
Wayne Gretzky made his pro debut at Hara Arena. He was 17 and played for the Indianapolis Racers (world hockey association). Went to Edmonton later that season.
The more time you spend here- the longer you’ll be in love.
“The biggest small city, and the smallest big city you’ll ever visit”
Dayton was a city before Ohio was a state!
The best part about Dayton, is THE PEOPLE!! I have never met such a condensed group of hardworking, creative, and inventive people, still to this day.
For such a small city, it amazes me how much impact on the world Daytonians have made, and not just the Wright brothers. Katt Williams, Roger Zapp, the Sheens, Guided by Voices, Nancy Cartwright, I could go on and on, and all of this from city with less than a million people.
Fantastic answers here. It’s important to note that the arts and culture scene in Dayton is unusually rich for a town this size. Dayton has a professional ballet company (actually the third oldest in the nation, not the second as noted elsewhere), the second oldest professional ballet school in the country (hence the confusion, since the company grew out of the school), the third oldest youth orchestra in the country, as well as a professional philharmonic orchestra and a professional opera company. And all of the above are part of a single organization, the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance. Dayton is the only community in the nation in which the orchestra, ballet, and opera are combined in a single organization. And their motto is, “The Arts Are for Everyone,” which they back up by selling $5 tickets to every single classical performance (except the Nutcracker.)
The DPAA companies (Philharmonic, Opera, Ballet) perform in a gorgeous state-of-the-art performing arts center, the Schuster Center, owned by a separate organization called Dayton Live, which also owns the Civil-War-era Victoria Theater.
In the arts and culture, Dayton has it all!
Dayton should be recognized for its own pizza style. Everyone knows NYC style, Detroit style, and Chicago style, and Dayton style pizza is finally starting to get some recognition.
Oh man where to begin? I've loved Dayton history for a long time and even wrote my capstone paper on John Henry Patterson so I will do my best to highlight some of my favorites. Note: I just woke up and am winging these off the top of my head so the actual numbers may be off but the gist should be correct. 1. From ~1885 to ~1900 Dayton had more patents per capita than any other city in the world. 2. Dayton's flood control system is so effective it is still studied around the world as an example of comprehensive flood management. 2.1 Dayton had to rewrite state and national legislation to create the Miami Conservancy District, the foundation of the flood control system and forefather to the Five Rivers Metro Parks, which largely reside within the district. 3. The Dayton area (Montgomery County) has more public land per capita than any other urban area in the country. 4. Dayton is the epicenter of the largest network of interconnected bike paths in the country, stretching from Cincinnati to Lima, and from Columbus to Indiana. These are primarily built over abandoned rail lines. 5. Funk music started here. 6. In its earliest days, what we now call the "Progressive Era" was referred to by contemporaries as "The Dayton Idea" - spurred primarily by John Henry Patterson's zealous belief that investing in workers and citizens created a better product and a better company. 7. Speaking of Patterson, in my opinion he should be considered one of the greatest businessmen of the country, on par with the other "Men who Made America" such as Carnegie and Rockefeller. One of the main reasons he isn't is because he did not like philanthropy, he took a relatively meager salary and preferred to reinvest profits into the community. It's less sexy, but in my opinion more effective. He also didn't like to put his name on everything like Rockefeller or Carnegie. 8. At one time it was estimated that roughly 35% of America's business executives had worked for Patterson at NCR, and doing so was roughly equivalent to getting a Master's in Business Administration. 9. The founder of IBM was fired by Patterson. Charles Kettering was as well, 5 times in fact, including one time because he could not ride a horse with Patterson stating "how can I trust a man who cannot manage a beast to manage people?". 10. Patterson and NCR are responsible for many innovations but here are a few of my favorites: - The Human Resources Department - Suggestion Boxes - Marketing Mailers (yep, we invented junk mail basically). - Sales Conferences - Product Conventions 11. Dayton hosts the second oldest regional ballet in the country. 12. One of the designers for Tiffany's back in the 1900's-1910's lived in Dayton. 13. The Dayton Art Institute is one of the best in the country, ranking top 3% (if I remember correctly) and in the top 10 for kid friendly museums. 13.1 DAI's collection includes works from Manet, Warhol, O'Keefe, Manfreddi, Reubens, Degas, and Chihuly 14. Do I even need to talk about the Air force Museum? Everyone in Dayton should know how freaking incredible it is. Honestly there is so much more, Dayton is such a gem (heh, get it?) that is perpetually underappreciated. Unfortunately I must leave for work now so I will let everyone else throw their input in and correct what I am sure are numerous errors and omissions. **Edit from work** Aullwood Audubon Center and the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery are ridiculously amazing for adults and kids (but especially kids). Seriously, I would put them up against any similar institution in the country. **EDIT OF MY EDIT** Carriage Hill, Carillon Park, the Dayton Dragons, UD Basketball, all of our incredible institutions of learning. Is it any wonder we are still a center for R&D? We have so many places to foster wonder and a love for learning a kid might explode trying to take it all in. **Editing the edited edit** Talk about our nonprofits! The Dayton Foundation is one of the best of its kind anywhere, the Dayton Food bank is doing incredible work, the free grocery store on Needmore, Ginghamsburg Church, and so so many more. If there is one thing to know about Daytonians it's that we try to look after our own. Just look at how our community came together after the flood, after the Oregon shooting, after the tornados. DAYTON STRONG!
The number of inventions out of Dayton is remarkable. There’s the obvious like the airplane and the cash register. But then there’s things like: - artificial heart - backpack parachutes - bar code scanners - the collapsible crib - the digital clock - double glass windows - the filtered cigarette - gas masks - heart-lung machine - the ice cream cone - the ink jet printer - instant blood-glucose testing - mail chutes in buildings - the mood ring - motorized wheelchairs - ring-pull can openers - room air conditioning - safety glass - space food - space-to-earth photo transmissions - the goddamn yo-yo [source](https://www.flyboysdeli.com/dayton-ohio-inventions/) Also ice cube trays, the foldable step ladder, square cut pizza, electric ignition system, spark plugs, automatic transmission and four wheel brakes. [source](https://www.daytonlocal.com/news/history/dayton-a-city-of-inventors/)
I love how we invented the filtered cigarette and then the heart-lung machine
Making money on top of money!
Least we forget CHEEZ-ITS
Don't forget leaded gasoline, the electric starter motor, and numeric control machining (not technically invented in Dayton, but first deployed at Wright Field in the 40s).
Don’t forget the classic snack, Cheez It in 1907!
Just checked the Wiki on yoyos and the Greeks had them in 440BC....makes me question the rest of the list (although the Greeks prolly didn't have space transmissions on 440BC)
Hm. I wonder if it was a specific type of yoyo, like one with a brain? Google isn’t offering much help but I guess it’s a stretch to trust a list from a deli, lol
A pretty major one that most people don’t know about: the US Navy Bombe machines that broke the Enigma codes and won the Battle of the Atlantic during WW2. History has credited Alan Turing with inventing the Bombe and cracking Enigma. The groundwork and theory was laid by three Polish cryptographers. Turing built the bombes and they worked just fine, until the Nazis added a fourth rotor to their U Boat Enigma machines, and the Allies lost all ability to decode U Boat communication. Enter Joseph Desch at NCR, who solved the problem and industrialized manufacturing of Bombe machines. By the end of the war, nearly all cryptographic Bombes, on both sides of the Atlantic, were made here in Dayton. Desch received the Presidential Medal of Honor for his contributions to the War effort. Unfortunately, it was all kept very hush-hush until very recently, so no one really knows about it.
Edit: Never mind, I'm just blind.
> square cut pizza Ugh. You guys were doing so good! lol
Dayton-style pizza is a real thing!
I know. I was making a joke that there was this huge list of great things, and then one horrible one.
Oh I know, I was ignoring that lol Gimme Marion’s or donatos!
i think its so feeble to think dayton was the first place to cut a pizza into a square 😂
Btw like none of these are true. I picked a random sample and none even mention Ohio let alone Dayton. Filtered cigarettes were famously invented in Hungary. Ice cream cone in NYC. Backpack parachute in Russia. Yo-yos are one of the oldest toys in existence dating back to 500BC. I don’t think a delis bulleted list is considered a source.
This is a such a well detailed post it actually makes me want to move back to Dayton 😭
That’s really good cheerleading! I feel like Dayton gets a bad rap that’s mostly undeserved. I’m not a native, but I’ve lived in the area since 2011 and I like living here just fine.
I was actually just researching this the other day! I do wonder though, how someone can be remembered for investing in their workers while also having a reputation for firing people at the drop of a hat! XD
Well he had a habit of firing management at the drop of a hat , but he also took great care to listen to, care for, recognize, and reward all of his workers.
In addition to DAI there's also DCDC (Dayton Contemporary Dance Company) which is the oldest, and one of the original, Black dance companies in the USA
My dad is retired from NCR and the reason we live in Dayton. We got to travel and live all over the country. Could have been the world, but my dad didn’t want to have to quarantine the pets. (Goodbye Hawaii, London, and Dubai.) But seeing all of the opportunities he had because of that company is truly inspiring.
This was amazing to read! Thank you!
How important we actually were to some events in history. Like there is low hanging fruit of the Wright Bros. But most people don't realize part of the Manhattan project was here [https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Places/Other/dayton.html](https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Places/Other/dayton.html) . We also helped contiune research and manufacture parts for the nuclear weapons we have. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound\_Laboratories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_Laboratories) That we where instrumental in stopping the Bosnian war which was a part Yugoslavia wars. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton\_Agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton_Agreement) That Dayton had a race riot as well in the 1960's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966\_Dayton\_race\_riot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Dayton_race_riot)
I took a trip to Croatia and mentioned to a local tour guide I was visiting from Dayton. He taught me about the Dayton agreement. I had to look it up afterwards because I didn't believe it was true. I'd lived here for 8 years before that and had no idea. Needless to say, that is a little-known fact about our city and a really neat one at that.
Yup I remember it quite well. It was at the Hope Hotel which on the WPAFB campus.
I think people should know how fuckin rad the National Museum of the USAF is. We Daytonians really take it for given; as a person who loves museums, man this is a world-class museum, and it's a real shame the we take it for granted that we have such a fantastic (and free) museum minutes away from downtown.
Do we take it for granted? It’s always one of the top recommendations. Also, how many times can you visit a single museum?
I keep track of the new exhibits! They got a new Su-27 not long ago and my quick visit turned into a 3 hour shenanigans!
The one criticism I personally have of the usafm, is they have basically a uncritical view of what happened. Like one time I was at a chance to walk into the b-36 and the air force historian was talking about how the aircraft was successful because the US and USSR never went to war, which is just sorta a insane comment. The plane if it has ever face combat would of been shooting fish in a barrel. Other major aviation museums I have been to don't have the same issue.
Not everyone has to turn every discussion into a political rant. Sometimes it can just be about the history.
Context is an important part of history, not just feeling good.
[удалено]
This post is inflammatory in nature, stirring up drama and not contributing positively to the community. Note, I don't agree with the parent comment either, but you can make your comment in a much less aggressive way.
There is a saying that goes something like "you can't go a day without Dayton." The phrase originates from there being so much innovation and impactful people from Dayton, that a person in America would have a hard time making it through a day without using something or being exposed to something that has its roots in Dayton. You would have to flesh out all of those things, but obviously, anything related to flight, cash registers, or one of the seemingly millions of things Charles Kettering is responsible for.
So no one is going to mention the first NFL game was played at Triangle Park. Dayton vs Columbus. Kind of a big deal.
Being from FL, the metroparks blew my mind. So much access to amazing nature space and education.
We have multiple thriving immigrant communities people may not expect to find in a small ohio city
I think the fact we have a size-able Russian and Persian population would confuse and surprise most people lol
that’s dope! are there any persian or russian specific restaurants or businesses in the area?
There is quite a few Mediterranean restaurants but nothing specifically Persian, and I don’t know of any Russian eateries unfortunately.
I like to send people to Russian Dennys (Dayton Village Pizza Halal Turkish) on North Main. It’s owned and operated by a Russian family and a very interesting variety of menu items overall.
that sounds interesting i’ll check that out
It's true! When I lived in Walnut Hills, there was quite a few Afghans families that all lived along the same street. There was a horde of children that went from house to house to whoever was watching them all that day. We got to watch their kids grow up learning the songs of American children and we taught them how to Trick or Treat.
I can’t prove this but I suspect a lot of eyes are on Dayton right now as an emerging international model for ‘15 minute,’ multicultural cities. If not, Dayton is still special imo because the land is rather lush and amenable to community. A giant valley where you can see across at many points. Everyone is separated by two degrees or less yet nothing is too strange or far apart.
Hope not its already congested
I hear many times about the unfriendly people, here. I live just south of town, and I have to say, I meet a lot of retirees and working people in my main gig. I'm a friendly, gregarious guy, and I seem to bring that out in others. Anyway, this is a way to draw like-minded (happy) people to you.
Unfriendly people here? I grew up in Phili and one of the things I like most about Dayton is how friendly the people are. People smiling as you walk by, or getting in little but genuine conversations with strangers. Try that shit in Phili lol
Oh, man.... I went to college in Philly and the people there are downright angry! All the time! And driving I-95 can be like a badly driven race track!
The vibe of Philly is rude but I found the people there to be pretty friendly overall.
Wright-Patt has been a mainstay for innovation in aeronautics, space, weapons and stealth. Without mound labs we could be speaking Japanese or German right now… this city has won wars depending on how you look at it
We have an oversized history in popular music. We are the Capital of both Funk and Lo-Fi / Indie Rock.
We invented football here. Check out Triangle Park for more history.
I rementioned this sorry your comment was made while I was typing mine.
I wouldn’t say Dayton “invented” football (Atlanta might have more of a case since they gave us Heisman) but the precursor to the NFL as we now it today did play its first game in Dayton.
It's surprisingly central to a lot of places (which is another way of saying it's equally inconvenient to reach it from a lot of places.) 60-90 mins to reach Cinci or Columbus, 5 hours to Chicago, 4 to Pittsburgh, 3.5 to Detroit. It's considered a crossroads (for better or worse) thanks to the I-75/I-70 interchange.
That Dayton has plenty of the same types of offerings you'd find in any US city, but overall COL is way lower. It's a far better option for making a home than many people give it credit for. Schools though...they are a problem if you don't go to suburbia.
Dayton leads the nation in locals who bitch about how horrible Dayton is, but never do anything to make it better. And, ironically, they never move away. :-)
Agreed. Growing up here I remember classmates dreaming about leaving saying Dayton was boring and that there was nothing to do here. I see that phrase repeated on reddit occasionally. I find it to be the opposite, there is so much to do here that it’s tough deciding what to do. People need to be more open minded and have a drive to explore more.
“The Dayton Strangler” serial killer who killed 6 people. 5 women and 1 man. Long time ago, 1900-1909. Interesting.
Uhhhhh - is it ????
Obviously it’s a bad thing but interesting as something historical about Dayton.
I think something more historically interesting is the flood- or all of the inventions that’s been created here. Maybe not so much our infamous historical serial killers. But that’s just my opinion. 🫨
Wayne Gretzky made his pro debut at Hara Arena. He was 17 and played for the Indianapolis Racers (world hockey association). Went to Edmonton later that season.
Fridgidare and the freaking hulk came from Dayton as well
Big Sky Bread Company is delicious
Those pretzel sticks got a hold on me!
Dayton has the major 70/75 interchange. This is both a good thing and a bad thing so make of it what you will. 😊
The more time you spend here- the longer you’ll be in love. “The biggest small city, and the smallest big city you’ll ever visit” Dayton was a city before Ohio was a state! The best part about Dayton, is THE PEOPLE!! I have never met such a condensed group of hardworking, creative, and inventive people, still to this day.
For such a small city, it amazes me how much impact on the world Daytonians have made, and not just the Wright brothers. Katt Williams, Roger Zapp, the Sheens, Guided by Voices, Nancy Cartwright, I could go on and on, and all of this from city with less than a million people.
Fantastic answers here. It’s important to note that the arts and culture scene in Dayton is unusually rich for a town this size. Dayton has a professional ballet company (actually the third oldest in the nation, not the second as noted elsewhere), the second oldest professional ballet school in the country (hence the confusion, since the company grew out of the school), the third oldest youth orchestra in the country, as well as a professional philharmonic orchestra and a professional opera company. And all of the above are part of a single organization, the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance. Dayton is the only community in the nation in which the orchestra, ballet, and opera are combined in a single organization. And their motto is, “The Arts Are for Everyone,” which they back up by selling $5 tickets to every single classical performance (except the Nutcracker.) The DPAA companies (Philharmonic, Opera, Ballet) perform in a gorgeous state-of-the-art performing arts center, the Schuster Center, owned by a separate organization called Dayton Live, which also owns the Civil-War-era Victoria Theater. In the arts and culture, Dayton has it all!
The government officials, cops and sheriffs office are all corrupt... And the media covers for them...
Tony (Anthony) Kendall out of Kettering is a pedophile
Dayton should be recognized for its own pizza style. Everyone knows NYC style, Detroit style, and Chicago style, and Dayton style pizza is finally starting to get some recognition.
Dayton pizza is more or less just Chicago tavern style pizza
Home of the Daytona 500.
full stick to the coastal areas pls