Kossuth Colony Historic District

Forty of the original houses from the Kossuth Colony still line Baltimore Street, Mack Avenue and Notre Dame Avenue in northeast Dayton. Thirty are two-story frame double houses with four-bay facades and two entries; ten one-story versions stand on Baltimore Street. The colony was founded in 1906 by labor contractor Jacob D. Moskowitz to house Hungarian immigrant workers for the Barney and Smith Car Works, which was expanding into steel railroad cars. Each house held two families, and attics served as dormitories for unmarried boarders. A tall wooden fence surrounded the settlement, a watchman guarded the gate, and residents were paid partly in brass script spendable at Moskowitz's store. Despite these conditions, families kept their customs, foods and celebrations. After the 1913 flood, the fence decayed, the car works fell into receivership, and workers moved on. The company was sold in 1921, and Moskowitz sold his properties. The surviving houses record a distinctive chapter in Dayton's immigrant history.