Brief history of this subject- In researching for my 2016 post "Hawthorn Street, Dayton, Ohio- Neighborhood of the Wright Brothers", I became aware of address changes along Hawthorn that occurred in the 1873 through 1887 Dayton City Directories, and through evaluation of the Sanborn maps. This confirmed the location of the 1878-1881 Billheimer's home, Reuchlin Wright's In-Laws, and that it was still standing. Again, while researching my 2021 post, "The Wright Brother's Print and Cycle Shop Locations", I was surprised once again to find multiple address changes along West Third Street unknown to previous historians who had based locations of some of the Wright Print and Cycle shops on addresses that had been changed since the time the Wright's occupied those buildings. Further, I discovered the assumed construction date of the Nicholas Block was incorrect, such that the first Wright Cycle Exchange could not have been located in this building. Incorporating these findings, I revised my 2016 post "The Gem City Ice Cream Building and the 1st Wright Cycle Shop". Visiting the Benson Ford Library Wright Brother Archives in August of 2018, I became aware of the edited Orville Wright interview notes. These findings, plus the evidence of Wright Cycle Exchange advertisements of 1893 led me to the obvious conclusions presented again in this post. A decade has already passed since the writing of the Gem City Ice Cream post, and 5 years since the writing of the Wright Cycle Shop locations post. This post provides a summary of the facts related to the Wright's first Cycle Shop, and also the move to the second location.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Wright Cycle Exchange, 1893
Wilbur and Orville Wright's first bicycle shop was located at 1015 West Third Street, and not at 1005 West Third Street as had been believed to be the location since 1938. The 1015 building was demolished around 1950, and remained an empty lot until recently. If the structure no longer exists, does it really matter that we acknowledge the correct address? Yes, for the accuracy of history and for the correct placement of an historical marker, of course it matters. This first site had nothing to do with the Wright's aviation experiments, but it does have much to do with their business experiences and life adventures.
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| 1000 block north side, West Third Street around 1915. The buildings surrounding 1015 shown in this photograph did not exist in 1893. The Nichols Block building shown occupied by Gem City Ice Cream with 1005/1007 address was not built until after 1894. In 1893, the building utilized by Wright Cycle Exchange was a residential/commercial two-story building identified by the yellow arrow with address of 1013/1015. By 1919, the structure was renumbered 1015/1017. West of 1015/1017 was Herter's Feed Store, and The Midget Theater. Only the Theater building still stands today. (1) |
Orville Wright was interviewed by Henry Ford's research team November 20, 1936 and asked about the various shop locations of the Wright's Cycle Shop. The initial typed draft of that interview was as follows, " Mr. Wright stated (11-20-36) that their first bicycle shop was located in the middle of the one thousand block on the north side of Third Street, that they were there in this location only four or five months- November or December, 1892 to May 1893. They moved because there wasn't sufficient room. Their next location was on the south side of Third Street in the same block. In the early part of 1895 they moved again, this time to Williams Street...."
In this interview, Orville did not indicate building numbers. In later drafts of the interview, Ford's team added specific addresses for each Cycle Shop location. These addresses likely were provided through Orville's secretary Mabel Beck at a later date as the notes from the interview were being compiled for use in the 1938 publication of the booklet "Dedication of the Wright Brothers Home and Shop in Greenfield Village, Dearborn Michigan April Sixteen Nineteen Hundred Thirty-Eight". They incorrectly indicated the first Cycle location address as 1005 West Third, and this is the first recording of this incorrect address, and serves as the primary source. (2)
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| 1893 Wright Cycle Exchange locations. 1887 Sanborn map showing location of 1015 toward "the middle of the one thousand block on the north side of Third Street". The Wright's moved to the south side of Third Street to 1034, just a few doors east of their Hoover Block 2nd floor location of Wright & Wright Job Printers. |
Fred C. Fisk, co-author of "The Wright Brothers from Bicycle to Biplane", (co-author Marlin W. Todd), with the assistance of Nancy Horlacher of the Dayton Montgomery County Library, discovered 39 printed ads in the 1893 March through May issues of the "Dayton Evening Press" advertising the Wright Cycle Exchange with address of 1015 West Third Street. At the time of their discovery in 1986, they believed they had discovered an unknown Wright Cycle location, thinking at that time that this address was in addition to the location at 1005 West Third. In fact, what they had discovered was the correct address of the first Wright Cycle shop location. Interpreted at the time by others as a typo in all of the 39 printed ads, the 1015 address was ignored! Nearly every book written on the Wright Brothers since 1986 have failed to even acknowledge the 1015 address and have continued to list the 1005 address as the location of the first Wright Cycle Exchange.
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| 1893 Dayton Evening Press Wright Cycle Exchange advertisement, 1015 West Third Street, Between Williams and Baxter. |
For all the Brother's other Print / Cycle Shop locations, there is printed documentation in the Dayton City Directories for each location except for their first Cycle Shop. Why is this? It is because of the timing of occupation. The shop location wasn't obtained until December of 1892, too late to be recorded in the 1893 publication of the Dayton City Directory, and they only remained at this location till May of that year. Wilbur and Orville also did not print letterhead stationary for the first location (with address) as they did for other locations.
Wilbur obtained the space in December of 1892, but due to health issues, the space would not open till late March, 1893. Milton's diary entry for December 21, 1892, "...Wilbur sick in evening; Appendicitis."
At the eighth annual meeting of the Annual Club of Ten Dayton Boys (October 14, 1893), Wilbur shared "Soon after our last meeting I was taken very ill and was confined to the house for nearly a month. At length I was well enough to go about again; but a few days before Christmas I had another attack much more severe than the other, from which I did not recover for nearly two months. Indeed I am not sure that I am entirely rid of it yet. About the beginning of April I embarked in the bicycle business and though times have been very hard and prices very unsteady, I have escaped bankruptcy. I spent a few days in August attending bicycle races at Columbus and Springfield, and in September spent a month at the 'Columbian Exposition'. The rest of the year has been spent at home." After suffering with the appendicitis from December into early March, it wasn't until the last week of March 1893 the shop was advertised as opened, with the first ads appearing in The Dayton Evening Press March 25th. Fred Kelly wrote, "Their first interest in bicycles was racing; but as their interest grew, they arranged in December, 1892, to start the Wright Cycle Co., to sell, repair, and manufacture bicycles. They opened for business in the Spring of 1893." (3)
The Wright's were familiar with 1015 West Third, having written articles and advertisement for the building in issues of West Side News. The Fouts family had occupied the residential side 1013 from 1871 through 1904. Josiah Fouts operated a grocer/feed store here from 1871 through 1879, then switching to manufacturing yeast here from 1879 until his death in 1895. Orville mentioned Fouts in the March 16, 1889 issue of West Side News, "The Society of Christian Endeavor of the Broadway M. E. Church held a supper at the residence of Mr. Fouts, on West Third Street....". Fouts' wife continued the business until 1904.
While the Fout's occupied 1013, in 1889, J. H. Casler and eventually successor William U. Shoup occupied 1015 for his natural gas and steam pipe fitting business. Both advertised in Orville's West Side News, August through December of that year. Casler retired and Shoup relocated to 1034 West Third in 1890 and remained there through 1891. After Shoup vacated 1015, Chas. Benz Shoe Store moved in, advertising in the March issues of West Side News, 1890. The Shoe Store did not last long at this location. In 1890 prior to locating to 1015, the Shoe Store had been located at 1250 West Third, and in 1889, at 138 West River. Chas. Benz does not appear in the Dayton Directory for 1891, apparently having left Dayton.
Mrs. Ida Easterbrook was a dress maker, and her husband Wilton a painter. They lived and worked from 1431 W. Monument in 1891. They occupied 1015 in 1892, with Ida running a daily market at that location. They left that location later in 1892, and in 1893, Wilton lived at 14 S. Barnett. 1015 was therefore available for the Wright Cycle Exchange in December of 1892.
After Wright Cycle Exchange occupied 1015 from December 1892 through May 1893, and then vacated to 1034 West Third, 1015 was occupied by Fouts' The Owl Drug Company from 1895 through 1898, run by Josiah and Ellen's son William. William was born the same year as Wilbur Wright (1867), and in 1904, was one of the witnesses to the Wright's October flights at Huffman Prairie. The Owl Drug Company moved to the north west side of 3rd and Williams in 1899.
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Address Changes
Addresses changed along West Third Street a number of times as buildings were constructed or torn down over the decades. Previous historians apparently unaware of these changes misidentified a number of locations of the Wright's Print and Cycle shops based on more recent addresses in lieu of the addresses as assigned during the dates of occupation.
Prior to around 1884, the address of the structure utilized for the first Wright Cycle Exchange was 1011/1013. After that date, the address changed to 1013/1015. Then, by 1919, the address had changed yet again to 1015/1017. The reason for the address changes was due to additional building construction to the east, necessitating address numbers to shift. Matching the correct address to the time period, in 1893, the address of 1013/1015 applies, which places the Wright Cycle Exchange in the west side of the building, with the Fouts living in the residential east side of the building.
The building just east of the Wright Cycle Exchange in 1893 had the address of 1009 West Third. This can be seen on the 1887 and 1897 Sanborn maps. Prior to 1884, in lieu of 1009, this building had the address of 1005. The Samuel Troy family lived at residence 1005 West Third from 1880 through 1885. From 1880 through 1883, the Dayton Directories listed their home as 1005. Then, in 1884 and 1885, the directories listed their home as 1009 due to an address change. This change corresponds with the change of Fouts 1011/1013 to 1013/1015 the same year. This change was likely made in anticipation of a new structure to be built between 1003 and 1009, the small single story 1005 building that appears on the 1897 map.
Address changes also occurred on the south side of West Third Street. These changes again, apparently unknown to previous historians, resulted in misidentifying the location of the 1034 building occupied by the Wright Cycle Exchange in later 1893. A historical marker for the second location of Wright Cycle Exchange is currently located at an empty lot where the Orth Building once stood, just east of the Pekin Theater Building. The correct location is actually immediately west of the Fish Market Building which is just west of the Pekin Theater, in the footprint of the east end of the Setzer Building.
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| Compilation of Sanborn maps from 1887, 1897, 1919, and 1950 is shown here, assembled by this author. The location of 1034 West Third is identified in each with a yellow star. This marks the building where the Wright Cycle Exchange/Wright Cycle Company was located in 1893-1894. The numbering of the addresses changed in 1939, with old and new numbering depicted on the 1950 plan. 1034 was changed to 1048. Also note that 1022/1024 was changed to 1030/1034, leading previous historians to mistakenly identify this building (The Orth Building) as the location of the 1893/94 Wright Cycle Company. |
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| When Wright Cycle Exchange occupied 1034 West Third, the building was a single story structure as identified on the 1887 and 1897 Sanborn maps. By 1915, this photo shows that building had been replaced by a 2-story building, maintaining the 1034 address. The Orth Building shown further east, was a smaller structure with address of 1024 in 1893. |
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From 1902-1908, George W. M. Bookwalter, Real Estate, occupied 1015. Then from July 15th of 1912 through 1918, S. E. Bookwalter Electric Company occupied the space.
Louis F Korte Lighting Fixtures moved in late 1918 and stayed through 1932. Liberty Electric is listed at this address from 1934 through 1937. In 1937, the adjacent Feed Store building to the west was demolished and a new building constructed in its place, financed by the Gem City Ice Cream Company and leased to Liberty Electric, with address now as 1017. The address of 1015/1017 at this time became just 1015. H.P. Morris & Co moved in to 1015 to take Liberty's place in 1937. Ed John's Appliance Shop was located in 1015 from 1940 through 1942. 1015 was listed as vacant in 1944 and 1946. The Hagar family lived at 1015 1/2 from 1944 through at least 1948. The Gem City Ice Cream Company was using 1015 as warehouse space in 1948. 1015 was demolished prior to 1951, no longer listed as an address in that year's directory, and no longer depicted on the 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance map.
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| The changing building construction and address changes can be viewed in the Sanborn maps of the north side of the 1000 block of West Third Street. Note how 1013/1015 becomes 1015/1017 on the 1919 map, and 1017a becomes 1017. 1015/1017 had become just 1015 prior to 1950, and the outline of 1015 can be seen covered on the 1950 map, the building having been demolished by this date. |
Why the resistance to accept the 1015 address as the location for the Wright Cycle Exchange in lieu of 1005 West Third? It has been due to the misinformation that the Wright's first Cycle shop had been located in 1005 of the Nicholas Block, later to be occupied by The Gem City Ice Cream Company. The misinformation was due to the incorrect understanding of the construction date of the Nicholas Block, with historians assuming the building existed in 1892/93, but it did not. The residence at 1003 West Third, clearly shown on the 1897 Sanborn map, would have required removal prior to the construction of the Nicholas Block, as it shared its footprint. This property was not sold to Abraham Nicholas, the builder of the Nicholas Block, until January of 1894. The 1003 residence was occupied during these years as is clearly documented in the Dayton City Directories. It is not open to debate, the building did not exist in 1892/3, and the Wright's could not have occupied it. (4)
So, what of 1005 West Third? The 1897 Sanborn map shows a small single story wood structure at 1005, much too small to have been considered for a Cycle Shop location. The building was constructed likely sometime between 1886 (too late to appear on the 1897 Sanborn map) and 1893 (demolished by 1896 to clear the land for construction of the Nicholas Block). There is no record of any business occupying this building. When Orville Wright was interviewed November 20, 1936, he mentioned only one location for the first Cycle Shop location. He did not indicate two. Wilbur Wright did not first obtain 1005, found it too small, then moved to 1015, and found it too small, and then moved to 1034. Based on the sizes of other Cycle shops in existence in Dayton, he would not have made the mistake of thinking the small 1005 single story structure that may or may not have existed in 1892 would have been adequate for a Cycle Shop. Even if Wilbur had first stored supplies at 1005 (he didn't), that location was never opened to customers, as the Wright Cycle Exchange did not open until the Spring of 1893, clearly at 1015 West Third Street as advertised in 39 separate ads from March through April.
Copyright 2025-Getting the Story Wright
Related Posts:
The Wright Brother's Print and Cycle Shop Locations
The Gem City Ice Cream Building and the 1st Wright Cycle Shop
Similar Posts:
1127 West Third Street- The Wright Cycle Company
Hawthorn Street, Dayton, Ohio- Neighborhood of the Wright Brothers
West Third Street, Dayton Ohio Wright Brother Connection
15 North Broadway- The Wright Aeronautical Laboratory
The Miami Wood Specialty and Wright-Dayton Companies
Notes:
1. Herter's Feed Store had been across the street at 1018, but moved to 1017 West Third, appearing in the 1908 Dayton City Directory. The Midget Theater grand opening was in September of 1913. The Gem City Ice Cream Company expanded it's storefront in 1921. These facts place the photo between 1913 and 1920. The number of horse drawn carriages would date the photo closer to 1913 than 1920, so 1915 seemed a good estimate.
2. Initial typed interview of 11/20/1936 with Orville Wright concerning Cycle Shop locations, with marks and revisions made in later drafts leading to a final version with added address numbers. The Ford team maintained the verbiage, "their first bicycle shop was located in the middle of the one thousand block..." but deleted this wording in the 1938 publication of the Dedication booklet.
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| Orville Wright makes it clear in this July 20, 1942 letter to Fred Kelly "This preface would make it appear that the book represents my idea of a proper presentation of the subject, and that the book has been corrected to the last dot. Of course you know that I have repeatedly stated that this is not so. This book was written without previous consultation with me to save me time and labor, as you have said. But after the book was once in writing it was practically impossible to change it to what I thought it ought to be without an entire rewriting." |
In John McMahon's book "The Wright Brothers Fathers of Flight", 1930, he wrote, "The job printers branched out in 1892 with the addition of a bicycle repair shop to their line. No doubt they saw profit and were also lured by the idea of playing with a new machine, the ball-bearing 'safety' with compressed air within rubber tires. 'Wright Cycle Co.' was the legend put above the modest shop in a two-story brick building at Number 1127 West Third Street.....Despite the two enterprises they found leisure in the fall of 1892 to repair and improve the homestead on Hawthorn Street..." McMahon was apparently unaware that the Wrights Cycle business was not located at 1127 West Third Street until 1897. Clearly, McMahon had been completely unaware that the Brothers cycle business occupied a number of other locations other than just 1127 West Third.
From another early book from this time period, in Mitchell Charnley's "Boys' Life of the Wright Brothers", 1928, Charnley wrote, "The business started in 1893 as a simple bicycle-repair shop..." As he continues providing details of the business, no mention of multiple shop locations is made, and no specific addresses are indicated.
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| Lot 6308 purchased by Abraham Nicholas in 1894. The Kelly residence at 1003 and the small structure at 1005 (if it still existed by this date), would require demolition prior to construction of the Nicholas Block (future home of Gem City Ice Cream) by 1896. Comparison of 1897 Sanborn map buildings to plot map of north side of West Third Street 1000 block. |
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