This Moraine Historical Marker, “Famous Historical Street Names” was dedicated in late October 2017. The historical marker is located on Marconi Avenue across from Pizza Express.
The Dayton-Wright Airplane Company was located on Springboro Pike and made, among other planes, the nation’s first bomber called the DeHavilland DH-4 which was used in World War I. Workers were needed for the plant and it was decided to lay out a plat (Photo#4) near the company to attract houses where workers could live.
Around 1916, Charles Kettering and Col. Edward Deeds, Dayton-Wright Airplane Company partners, named Steinmetz, Marconi, Fulton and Edison Avenues after famous scientists/inventors. Over a dozen houses were built in 1917 on Edison Avenue all of which were ordered from the Sears Roebuck & Company catalog as mail-order homes.
Charles Steinmetz (1865-1923) fostered the development of alternating current that made possible the expansion of the electric power industry in the US. Steinmetz is shown with Thomas Edison (Photo#2).
Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) was an electrical engineer known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission.
Robert Fulton (1765-1815) developed a commercially successful steamboat, the first practical submarine and early naval torpedoes.
Thomas Edison (1847-1931), America’s greatest inventor, held 1,093 US patents including the phonograph, the motion picture camera and the practical light bulb. Edison Avenue was eventually renamed Blanchard Avenue after inventor Thomas Blanchard, the “Father of the Assembly Line”.
