Grafton Hill Historic District
(Bounded roughly by Grand, Plymouth, Forest, and Salem in North Dayton)
Grafton Hill Association
| President: | David Dickenson |
| Meeting | To be Announced. |
Grafton Hill, a relatively small area of some 18 blocks, constitutes an excellent grouping of high style residences which date roughly from the 1880's to the early twentieth century and which display a remarkable degree of integrity. The Jacobeathan style dominates the district which also Includes Victorian Eclectic and Queen Anne. The district is also significant as the representation of Dayton's earliest development and the movement of population from the center of the city outward, north of the Miami ever, This district is part of the much larger area generally known as Dayton View and, while similar to its western counterpart in development pattern and architectural style, has always been considered a separate entity. Like Dayton View, Grafton Hill was a residential area created by and for a generation of rising professionals and businessmen who were the leaders of their rapidly growing industrial city.
About 1819, a small community known as Pierceton existed in the vicinity of the Riverview, Salem, and Central avenue area but had failed and was vacated. This land eventually passed to Judge James Steele and his brother Samuel, early Dayton residents who were interested in development on the north side of the Miami River. In 1817, another brother, Dr. John Steele a Dayton physician submitted his plat for Dayton View near Central Avenue and eastward. Eventually known as Steeled Hill or Steele's Woods, it was a favorite picnicking area for pre-Civil War Daytonians.
In 1869, J. O. Arnold, the "father of Dayton View," set the final pattern for this section by his plat extension along Central Avenue. After this date, a series of subsequent plats led to the rapid development of Dayton View. Finally, in 1875, John Stoddard, a wealthy and prominent farm implement manufacturer, platted an exclusive residential area east of Arnold's plat on Steele's Hill, naming it Bellmonte Park, Envisioned was a plat filled with pretentious homes in a beautiful woodland setting. Bellmonte Park was considered one of the finest residential sections of Dayton well into the twentieth century. The districts dominance was further enhanced by the construction of the Dayton Art Institute (DAI) and the Masonic Temple.
Grafton Hill represents Dayton's most recent and seventh local historic district, having been so designated in 1988.
( Source City of Dayton, Department of Planning)
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