The Kenilworth Avenue Historic District is a historic district in the northwestern portion of

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

, United States. Composed largely of houses constructed after the

Great Flood of 1913 The Great Flood of 1913 occurred between March 23 and March 26, after major rivers in the central and eastern United States flooded from runoff and several days of heavy rain. Related deaths and damage in the United States were widespread and ext ...

, the district features examples of several prominent

architectural style An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...

s, and it has received both local and federal recognition. Following the 1913 flood, many wealthy residents decided to flee the older parts of the city, located in the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

along the

Great Miami River The Great Miami River (also called the Miami River) (Shawnee: ''Msimiyamithiipi'') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accesse ...

. The result was the development of Kenilworth Avenue, whose houses feature a range of design modes, including the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...

,Smith, Joanne Huist. "Distinct Homes Date to Dayton's Post-1913 Flood Era". ''

Dayton Daily News The ''Dayton Daily News'' (''DDN'') is a daily newspaper published in Dayton, Ohio, United States. It is owned by Cox Enterprises, Inc., a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately ...

'' 2006-03-01: B1. and Neoclassical styles. Also known as "Dayton View Heights" (the district is just three blocks north of the larger Dayton View Historic District),National Register Districts
, City of Dayton, 2011-02. Accessed 2013-11-11. the Kenilworth Avenue development includes twenty separate buildings, located on both sides of the street from Redfern Avenue west to its end at Salem Avenue. Seventeen of these buildings qualified as contributing properties to the district, while three were considered non-contributing: the district's period of significance was held to have ended in 1949, and some of the buildings were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s. Among the oldest properties in the district is the house at the corner of Kenilworth and Salem, which was constructed in 1906. When the street was developed, many of the new residents desired to live in a park-like setting, and as a result, the street's well-preserved landscaping is itself a significant part of the historic district. On March 1, 2006, Dayton City Commission modified the neighborhood's zoning classification by designating the area a local historic district,Smith, Joanne Huist. "Dayton Homes Receive Historic Zoning Designation; Kenilworth Avenue Is 12th District to Earn Designation". ''

'' 2006-03-16: Z2-Z8. and it was subsequently added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

five months later. Federal designation places no restrictions on the residents' abilities to modify or destroy buildings in the district,National Register of Historic Places Program: Fundamentals

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

, 2011-06-13. Accessed 2013-11-12. but local designation means that local authorities must approve changes to the district's properties. When designated, Kenilworth Avenue was the city's twelfth official historic district, and its eighteenth National Register district. It is one of six northwest-side historic districts, along with Dayton View, Grafton-Rockwood, Squirrel-Forest, McPherson Town, and Steele's Hill-Grafton Hill.

References

External links

Neighborhood website

Video tour of the district
{{Neighborhoods of Dayton OH National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Ohio Neighborhoods in Dayton, Ohio Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio

See also

References

External links