The Centre City Building (formerly known as the United Brethren Building) is an historic building at 36-44 South Main Street at the corner of East Fourth Street in downtown

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. It was designed by Charles Herby and built in 1904 by the F.A. Requarth Co. for the sum of $305,000 as the

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

of the

Church of the United Brethren in Christ The Church of the United Brethren in Christ is an evangelical Christian denomination with churches in 17 countries. It is Protestant, with an episcopal structure and Arminian theology, with roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities ...

Christian denomination A Christian denomination is a distinct Religion, religious body within Christianity that comprises all Church (congregation), church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadersh ...

. Originally 14 stories, it was the tallest building in Dayton from 1904 until 1931. A seven-story tower portion was completed in 1924, capped by a chapel for the Church, making it 21 stories total. It is considered to have been Dayton's first skyscraper. It housed the general offices of the church, and of the succeeding

Evangelical United Brethren Church The Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) was a North American Protestant denomination from 1946 to 1968 with Arminian theology, roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities, and close ties to Methodism. It was formed by the merg ...

. It also served as headquarters to the United Brethren Publishing House. It was sold in 1975, converted to a personal residence by its owner, then sat vacant by 2012. It was purchased in 2017 by Centre City Partners LP, with plans for a $46 million renovation to include residence apartments, office spaces and retail shops. This building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on December 10, 1993. On Saturday, January 11, 2020, a number of the building's windows were blown out by powerful storm winds, resulting in the temporary closure of the neighboring Wright Stop Plaza, the downtown hub for the

Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority, formerly known as the Miami Valley RTA, is a public transit agency that generally serves the greater Dayton, Ohio area. The GDRTA serves communities within Montgomery County and parts of Greene County ...

. At the time, the building was up for sale for more than four million dollars. On November 10, 2020, a large pane of glass from the building fell onto a nearby sidewalk, forcing barriers to be erected. The building has been vacant since the mid-2000s, changing ownership a couple of times during that period. Dayton city manager Shelley Dickstein expressed that the building may see development following completion of the renovation of the

Dayton Arcade The Dayton Arcade is a collection of nine buildings in Dayton, Ohio. The Arcade is a historic, architecturally elegant complex in the heart of Dayton's central business district. Built between 1902 and 1904, it was conceived by Eugene J. Barney o ...

. On December 13, 2024, a fire was reported inside the building, which was still vacant. The fire was considered suspicious due to the building's being abandoned and Hazmat crews were called as a precautionary measure, as officials could not be sure what was inside.

Historic uses

*Church headquarters *Commerce/trade *Manufacturing

Sources

*Eller, Paul Himmel,These Evangelical United Brethren (Dayton, Ohio: The Otterbein Press, 1950). *listing at Emporis.com (retrieved 22 September 2009)

References

External links

* National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Ohio Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio United Methodist Church History of Methodism Evangelical United Brethren Church Skyscraper office buildings in Dayton, Ohio {{MontgomeryCountyOH-NRHP-stub

Historic uses

See also

Sources

References

External links