Central Avenue Historic District

Central Avenue Historic District is a short residential street in the Dayton View area, northwest of the Miami River and downtown Dayton, Ohio. It holds fifteen historic houses from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, plus one apartment building counted as an intrusion. Styles include Queen Anne, Neoclassical, Italianate, and Jacobethan Revival, and many lots retain carriage houses at the rear, some of them elaborate. Large old maple trees shade the street. The district was nominated for its architecture and its role in social history. It represents Dayton's earliest suburban development, as population moved outward from the city center during a period of rapid growth and new urban amenities. Early residents included attorneys, company officers, and a school principal, part of a rising professional and business class. Two pivotal Queen Anne houses, at 338 and 240 Central Avenue, are called among the finest of their style in the city. Condition today ranges from excellent to deteriorated.