Category: Moraine Historical Markers & Moraine History

The OERC was an interurban system formed in 1907 that ran from Toledo to Cincinnati until 1927. The system provided efficient passenger service to scores of small towns in Western Ohio between these major cities. In the early 1900’s most rural roads were unpaved and primarily traveled by horse drawn buggies and wagons. In wet weather and in winter these roads were often impassable. The electric railroad filled a transportation need.

The Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Traction Company rans its interurban electric railroad lines south from Dayton into Moraine parallel to Dixie Drive, behind Ellery and Fulton Avenues heading south into West Carrollton. Two notable stations were at Blanchard Avenue (then called Edison Avenue) to drop off workers to the Dayton Wright Airplane Company, Delco Light or Frigidaire. A second stop was where today’s Waffle House along Springboro Pike is located. The big red traction cars provided safe, clean, fast and inexpensive transportation. A Cincinnati and Lake Erie servicing and operation building was located next to the Frigidaire plant on Springboro Pike and featured an eight track service yard. A second traction car service barn was located near the intersection of Dorothy Lane and Kettering Blvd. In the 1940’s when motor buses provided more modern transportation, the interurban system traction lines were eventually removed.

The Moraine Historical Marker “Ohio Electric Railway Company” is located at the intersection of Springboro Pike and Dryden Road.

Zion Memorial United Church of Christ and cemetery was established in 1820 and is one of the oldest churches in the entire Dayton area. The church is located at the corner of South Dixie Drive and Stroop Road. The first congregation was 12 people and the church was a crude, hewed-log structure built of pioneer taste and simplicity (Photo #2). The structure was 38 x 46 feet with a stone foundation about 40 feet from the Cincinnati Pike (later the Great Miami Valley Turnpike and then South Dixie Drive).

Between 1820 and 1826, the first ministers were circuit riders on horseback who arrived disarrayed, filthy and unkept. They wore black hip length coats, wide brim hats, dirty shirts and black stings for ties. A decade later a stage line was established from Dayton to Cincinnati that ran right in front of the church.

In 1860 the congregation erected a two story building measuring 45 x 60 feet costing $3,500 including furniture. The new building was dedicated in May 1860 right before the Civil War. When people came to church they came for the entire day. In summer they came via wagons with heavy packed lunch baskets. When winter brought snow and cold, families bundled up and came in sleighs. In 1886 and again in May 1933 the church survived tornado damage to the roof, steeple and structure. In 1886 the Lutheran congregation split from the Reformed Church congregation and they built a separate church across the street (where the gas station is today). You can see both churches in the upper right hand corner of Photo #4 taken in 1917. Through the years Zion Memorial Church was enlarged with additional rooms and additional parking areas. A stroll through the old Zion Cemetery is a trip back in time as many of the elaborate tombstones are the resting place of the areas original pioneers, farmers and landowners.

The Moraine Historical Marker is located between the church and cemetery facing South Dixie Drive.

In 1917, fourteen homes were built on Edison Avenue. Edison Avenue, named for the great Ohio inventor Thomas Edison, was later changed to Blanchard Avenue. Why are these homes famous and noteworthy? The homes are Sears Roebuck and Company mail order homes. That’s right, the houses were ordered from a catalog.

The Sears Roebuck mass-merchandising, mail-order company was founded in 1886 and quickly became one of the largest such operations in the world. While most people know that Sears sold nearly everything in the catalog few realize Sears also sold homes. Between 1908 and 1940 Sears operated a “Modern Homes” division that supplied plans, materials and kit houses shipped by rail to all corners of America.

Orville Wright and the other owners of the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company on Springboro Pike needed workers to built the DeHavilland DH-4, America’s first bomber which was used near the end of World War I. Across the street from the plant on Edison Avenue, gas lines were installed, the dirt street was paved and sidewalks, curbing and gutters were provided. When the Sears home kits arrived they included everything to build a house – numbered pre-cut parts, paint, nails, blueprints and instruction booklets. The homes ranged in price from $650 to $2,500. Nearly 500,000 Sears home kits were ordered between 1908 and WWII. Photo #2 shows some of the homes completed and others are being constructed. Photo #3 shows the entire plat with the Edison Avenue Sears homes at the bottom of the photo. At the top of Photo#4 shows the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company Plant, the Sears homes and at the bottom running right to left is the Great Miami Valley Turnpike aka South Dixie Drive.

When the houses were completed, many workers at the Dayton Wright Airplane Company lived or bunked in these Sears houses where all they had to do was walk across the street to work. Today, these Sears homes are still standing and are all single family residences. The Moraine Historical Marker “Historic Blanchard Avenue Homes” is located on the western end of Blanchard Avenue near the intersection of Blanchard and Springboro Pike.

The Dayton-Wright Airplane Company was formed in 1917 by a group of Ohio investors including Charles Kettering and Edward Deeds of the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO). Orville Wright lent his name and served as consultant. The company received two government contracts to produce two types of planes for the World War I conflict: DeHavilland DH-4’s and the Jenny Standard SJ-1.

The main plant on the west side of Springboro Pike in Moraine manufactured 3,106 out of 4,846 DH-4 bombers, the only American built airplane to see action in WWI and was America’s first bomber. The DH-4 was powered by the famous Liberty Engine. Many of the DH-4’s were detained b y the government after the war and served as the mainstay for the fledgling U.S. Army Air Service during the 1920’s.

The Wright Seaplane Base is one of the first seaplane bases in the world. It is located at the bend of the Miami River between Moraine and West Carrollton.

After their famous 1902 flight, as Orville and Wilbur Wright developed their airplanes through the years, they began adding pontoons to their aircraft and created a hydro-aeroplane or seaplane. After Wilbur died in 1912, Orville continued to develop and fly airplanes. Orville would tow the seaplane in two separate sections and assemble them on the banks of the river in the Miami Shores area of Moraine. Orville can be seen in Photo #3 standing knee deep in the river making final adjustments to the seaplane. Orville made over 100 flights in 1913 and 1914 often with passengers in the Wright Model C-H hydro-aeroplane. This area of the river had three advantages: (1) deep water (2) freedom from man-made obstructions (3) ability to take off and land east-west or north-south depending on the prevailing winds.

In 1914, the improved Model G Aeroboat had a solid hull or fuselage with a semi-enclosed cockpit. The aircraft was 28 feet long, a wingspan of 38 feet and weighed 1,250 pounds. Powered by two rear-mounted engines and propelled by twin pusher propellers, the seaplane had a top speed of 60 miles per hour.

A Moraine Historical Marker for the “Wright Seaplane Base” is located at the eastbound side of the Main Street Bridge and an Ohio Historical Marker is erected along the Miami Valley Recreational Trail bikepath just south of the bridge.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Matt Miller

There were six photos taken in Moraine by the Wright Brothers in 1898 at the Pinnacles. The Pinnacles is a cliff where the Wright Brothers observed birds soaring in the updrafts and they determined their wing warp theory for the airplane based upon the birds wing movement during flight. One of the 1898 photos was titled “Bridge Behind the Pinnacles” (Photo #1). After many hikes through the Pinnacles and surrounding woods, the bridge was located in 2015 by Moraine resident Matt Miller (Photo #2). The bridge still stands intact today. There is some deterioration on the southwest side but overall the bridge is solid and supports hikers and mountain bikers who cross the bridge using the trail.

If you look real close at the photo, is it an optical illusion or is there a person standing on the bridge? At first, I thought it could be one of the Wright Brothers but upon closer exam it could be a woman wearing a black skirt, white blouse, black bow and dark hair or hat. Could this be Katherine Wright their sister?

A loose brick from the north side of the bridge (Photo #3) shows it was manufactured ay Peebles Brick in Portsmouth, Ohio probably between 1905 and 1918. The bridge though is much older than that.

The bridge is located .1 mile from the Pinnacle Road Bike Trail, one mile north of the Pinnacles and just east of the closed Pinnacle Road Landfill. During heavy rain the stream will create a five foot waterfall about 50 yards downstream (Photo#4). Volunteers and I are developing the 1.1 mile “Wright Brothers Pinnacles Hiking Trail” with access trailheads at both the Pinnacle Road Bike Trail and at the Main Street Bike Trail. We hope to have the trail open in 2022.

This new Moraine Historical Marker was dedicated in late October 2017.  Several turnpike companies were chartered to build macadamized (compacted broken stone) roads connecting Cincinnati to Dayton.  One of these was the Great Miami Turnpike, constructed in 1840, which was later known as Cincinnati-Dayton Pike, Dixie Highway, U.S. Route 25 and South Dixie Drive.  The dirt road traveled by foot, horse, wagon or stagecoach was eventually paved with macadam, concrete or brick.  The road has always been one of southwest Ohio’s major north-south roads.

A stage line was established between Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati, making travel to Cincinnati from Dayton by passenger coach available.  The service was weekly, and the trip took a mere 24 hours, with an overnight stay in Hamilton, Ohio.  The fare: 8 cents a mile including a 14-pound luggage allowance.

A famous photo taken in 1914 just south of West Carrolton features the turnpike as it shows the five forms of transportation at one time – Miami-Erie Canal, Great Miami River, interurban traction line, railroad line and a Model T auto on the turnpike.
The 1922 AAA Automobile Blue Book claims “the shortest and best route from Dayton to Cincinnati is via the Dixie Highway”. The Cincinnati-Dayton Pike was two-way traffic for almost one hundred years as Kettering Blvd from Dorothy Lane to southern Moraine was not built until 1928.  During World War II when Frigidaire switched from producing refrigerators and began wartime production of airplane parts, bullets and machine guns, Dixie Highway in Moraine received additional lanes and an extension due the heavy volume of truck traffic shipping war supplies.

Traces of the original turnpike have surfaced from time to time.  The old brick pavement was uncovered under southbound Central Avenue in West Carrollton near the former Roberds Appliance Store and again while the new I-75 Exit 48 ramps were being excavated.  Additional remains of the original brick paved highway were uncovered by Dave Miller under the railroad overpass in December 2015 . The original brick road is solid and measures 16’11” wide, large enough for horse & buggy and eventually automobiles to pass safely in each direction.
The Great Miami Turnpike Historical Marker is located at 4100 South Dixie Drive at the park just south of C.F. Holliday Elementary School.

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”.   

 

Another Moraine Historical Marker dedicated was for the Laughead Log Cabin. It is located near the intersection of West Carrollton Soldiers Home Road and Pinnacle Road. I researched and wrote the language for the sign and the Moraine Street Division built and installed the sign.

This is the former site of a log cabin built in 1803 by former Revolutionary War soldier David Laughead. Laughead came to Ohio with an expedition led by Gen. George Rogers Clark and received the land as a grant from the act of Congress. David was the great-grandfather of William Laughead, author of the Paul Bunyan stories. The 1 ½ story log cabin, located on the east side of Possum Creek, featured a winding, narrow ladder stairway to the second floor. The 18 foot structure was made from 56 logs. Laughead later sold the cabin to David Davis who married Mary Noffsinger of Jefferson Twnsp. David walked 40 miles from Richmond, Ind. to court Mary. He was a farmer and blacksmith. All of their 10 children (see photo) were born in the log cabin. The blacksmith shop was across the street from the log cabin but was destroyed by fire around 1960.

When the Quillen family purchased the property in 1986, they discovered the log cabin beneath the outer siding of the structure. The siding was removed and the log cabin donated to the Kettering-Moraine Museum in 1987 where it was on display.

Expedition Team:  Dave Miller

Expedition Date:  December 2014

Below are a few pictures of Expedition #1 to find the original South Dixie Highway. It was built in sections, some dirt and some brick in the 1840’s and originally called the Cincinnati-Dayton Pike, Great Miami Turnpike and old State Route 25. Through written reports and through old photo’s (like the 1918 photo #3 below showing the area before Frisch’s Restaurant was built), I determined that the original highway still may exist in sections underground. Using old maps, I guessed that it ran parallel to the existing overpass (where Dryden Road dead ends to Central/Dixie). On my 14th ground probe about twenty yards north of the railroad underpass, I hit more than dirt and small rocks. It was solid. I dug down about three inches, found a brick and then cleared out a section. Like magic, there it was. The original road was a ground crossing over the Big 4 Railroad (no bridge then) although there was bridges just south of here crossing over the Miami-Erie Canal and the old interurban ROV transit/trolley line.