Baseball, beer help Wright Brothers’ hometown rise again

DAYTON, OHIO » When I was growing up in greater Dayton, Ohio, in the 1960s and ‘70s, the city already had been to the top of prosperity hill and was coasting down the other side.

Early 20th century Dayton was a metropolis that hummed with innovation and commerce. Population topped out in 1960 at just over 260,000. After that, the city gradually lost families to the suburbs and others left as manufacturing declined and jobs evaporated. Downtown retail moved out as the population shifted.

By the time I left in the early 1980s, Dayton — and downtown especially — was frayed around the edges.

Moving back to Ohio after three decades away, I returned to Dayton and found some good stuff. There was a minor-league ballpark downtown, a lovely riverfront park, people out enjoying themselves and a burgeoning craft-beer culture. Craft beer!

The place had become kind of cool.

Understand, the economy here will never again be what it was when multiple General Motors plants provided thousands of jobs, and National Cash Register stood as proud symbol of grand homegrown commerce (the company took its headquarters and 1,250 jobs to Atlanta in 2009). Some parts of the city still reflect the malaise.

But efforts to diversify Dayton, trumpet its rich history and make it a cleaner, brighter, more interesting place are working.

The city spruced up the Great Miami riverfront, creating a family friendly downtown park. An old railroad freight house was converted into a popular public market. The city scored a minor-league baseball team — the Class-A Dayton Dragons — and put up a fanfriendly, 7,200-seat stadium. Fifth Third Field has sold out every single game since it opened in 2000 — the longest streak in any professional sport. The ballpark draws crowds even though the Cincinnati Reds, a Major League Baseball team, play just 55 miles (88 kilometers) away.

“Certainly this side of downtown wasn’t doing really well, and that started to change around the time of the ballpark opening,” said Alan F. Pippenger, whose venerable family business, the Requarth Lumber Co., is situated just beyond the leftfield foul pole of Fifth Third Field. The Requarth building has been there so long that the Wright Brothers visited to buy lumber for their early flying machines.

When Pippenger came back to Dayton to take over the company in 1985, one of the only places to get lunch was the basement snack bar of the Sear’s store down the street. There are way more choices now. And more people around.

New restaurants and bars have opened up around the ballpark. Closed factories and warehouses have been converted to sleek apartments that are snapped up as fast they’re built. Construction equipment downtown has become a familiar sight.

Dayton also boasts a resident philharmonic orchestra, 2,300-seat downtown performing arts center and a nationally recognized art museum. Not bad for metro area with just around 800,000 people, including 140,000 in the city itself.

Here are five more reasons why Dayton is a happening place:

THE WRIGHT STUFF

The city’s favorite sons are Wilbur and Orville Wright, who built the first airplane in their bicycle shop and, after making the initial powered flight in December 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, came home to Dayton to work the bugs out. A memorial stands at Huffman Prairie, where they made flights in 190405 and really learned to control the plane. Don’t get us started on claims that anywhere else is the “birthplace of flight.”

MORE AIRPLANES

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is one of the greatest museums in the country and a stop on the “Dayton Aviation Trail,” which includes many of the Wright sites. The museum attracts about a million visitors a year and has on display such national treasures as a Wright 1909 Flyer, the Air Force One that brought President John F. Kennedy’s body back from Dallas, and the newly restored World War II bomber “Memphis Belle.”

JOHN MINCHILLO — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Shane Juhl, owner and proprietor of Toxic Brew Co., poses for a photograph at his taproom located in the Oregon District, Tuesday, July 17, 2018, in Dayton, Ohio. After experiencing its best days in the first half of the 20th century, Dayton is reinventing itself with impressive results. Minor-league baseball, a riverside park and a cluster of craft beer pubs are helping revitalize a downtown that had become frayed around the edges.

JOHN MINCHILLO — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Dayton, Ohio, resident Ash Lyn browses records outside Feathers antiques and vintage clothing boutique in the Oregon District, Tuesday, July 17, 2018, in Dayton. After experiencing its best days in the first half of the 20th century, Dayton is reinventing itself with impressive results. Minor-league baseball, a riverside park and a cluster of craft beer pubs are helping revitalize a downtown that had become frayed around the edges.

JOHN MINCHILLO — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A tribute statue commemorating the Wright Brothers stands on Monument Avenue, Tuesday, July 17, 2018, in Dayton, Ohio. After experiencing its best days in the first half of the 20th century, Dayton is reinventing itself with impressive results. Minor-league baseball, a riverside park and a cluster of craft beer pubs are helping revitalize a downtown that had become frayed around the edges.