Oregon Historic District

Oregon is a compact Dayton neighborhood east of the old Miami and Erie Canal, laid out beginning with a plat recorded in 1829. Its streets hold two-story brick houses with stone foundations, set close to the sidewalk on deep, narrow lots, and they show Dayton's architecture from about 1830 to 1908. Tecumseh Street has some of the city's earliest surviving buildings, including the 1842 Greek Revival Schaeffer House. Near Jackson Street stand grander homes, such as contractor John Butt's Italianate house of about 1864 and the 1877 Balsley mansion on Sixth Street. The district also records waves of settlement: Anglo-American founders, German artisans and merchants arriving from 1832, later Appalachian migrants, and more recent preservation-minded residents. After the 1913 flood and postwar decline, highway construction and urban renewal cut away nearly half the original area. Local support for preservation and a city architectural preservation designation halted planned demolition and encouraged restoration of the remaining blocks.