Dayton () is a city in
Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
.
It is the
sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the
2020 census. The
Dayton metropolitan area
Metro Dayton or the Miami Valley, or more formally the Dayton–Kettering–Beavercreek, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of three counties in the Miami Valley region of Ohio a ...
had 814,049 residents and is the state's fourth-largest metropolitan area.
Dayton is located within Ohio's
Miami Valley region, north of
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
and west-southwest of
Columbus.
Dayton was founded in 1796 along the
Great Miami River and named after
Jonathan Dayton, a
Founding Father who owned a significant amount of land in the area.
It grew in the 19th century as a
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...
town and was home to many
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
s and
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
s, most notably the
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
, who developed the first successful motor-operated
airplane
An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...
.
It later developed an industrialized economy and was home to the
Dayton Project, a branch of the larger
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the ...
, to develop
polonium
Polonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Po and atomic number 84. A rare and highly radioactive metal (although sometimes classified as a metalloid) with no stable isotopes, polonium is a chalcogen and chemically similar to selenium and tel ...
triggers used in early atomic bombs. With the decline of heavy manufacturing in the late 20th century, Dayton's businesses have diversified into a
service economy
Service economy can refer to one or both of two recent economic developments:
* The increased importance of the service sector in industrialized economies. The current list of Fortune 500 companies contains more service companies and fewer m ...
.
Ohio's borders are within of roughly 60 percent of the country's population and manufacturing infrastructure, making Dayton a
logistics
Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...
hub.
The city is home to
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...
, a significant contributor to
research and development
Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...
in the industrial,
aeronautical
Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight-capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere.
While the term originally referred solely to ''ope ...
, and
astronautical engineering fields. Along with defense and aerospace,
healthcare
Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...
accounts for much of the Dayton area's economy.
Significant institutions in Dayton include the
Air Force Institute of Technology
The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is a postgraduate institution and provider of professional and continuing education for the United States Armed Forces and is part of the United States Air Force. It is in Ohio at Wright-Patterson ...
,
Carillon Historical Park,
Dayton Art Institute
The Dayton Art Institute (DAI) is a museum of fine arts in Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio, United States. The Dayton Art Institute has been rated one of the top 10 best art museums in the United States for children. The museum also ranks in the top 3% ...
,
Dayton Performing Arts Alliance,
National Museum of the United States Air Force
The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is ...
, and
University of Dayton
The University of Dayton (UD) is a Private university, private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary (Marianists), Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the U ...
.
History
Dayton was founded on April 1, 1796, by 12 settlers known as the Thompson Party. They traveled in March from
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
up the
Great Miami River by
pirogue and landed at what is now St. Clair Street, where they found two small camps of
Native Americans. Among the Thompson Party was Benjamin Van Cleve, whose memoirs provide insights into the Ohio Valley's history. Two other groups traveling overland arrived several days later. The oldest surviving building is
Newcom Tavern, which was used for various purposes, including housing
Dayton's first church, which is still in existence.
In 1797,
Daniel C. Cooper laid out
Mad River Road, the first overland connection between Cincinnati and Dayton, opening the "Mad River Country" to settlement. Ohio was admitted into the
Union in 1803, and the village of Dayton was incorporated in 1805 and chartered as a city in 1841. The city was named after
Jonathan Dayton, a captain in the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
who signed the
U.S. Constitution and owned a significant amount of land in the area.
In 1827, construction on the Dayton–Cincinnati canal began, which provided a better way to transport goods from Dayton to Cincinnati and contributed significantly to Dayton's economic growth during the 1800s.
Innovation
Innovation led to business growth in the region. In 1884,
John Henry Patterson acquired James Ritty's National Manufacturing Company along with his
cash register
A cash register, sometimes called a till or automated money handling system, is a mechanical or electronic device for registering and calculating transactions at a point of sale. It is usually attached to a Cash register#Cash drawer, drawer fo ...
patents and formed the
National Cash Register Company (NCR). The company manufactured the first mechanical cash registers and played a crucial role in the shaping of Dayton's reputation as an epicenter for manufacturing in the early 1900s. In 1906,
Charles F. Kettering, a leading engineer at the company, helped develop the first electric cash register, which propelled NCR into the national spotlight. NCR also helped develop the
US Navy Bombe, a code-breaking machine that helped crack the
Enigma machine
The Enigma machine is a cipher device developed and used in the early- to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication. It was employed extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II, in all branches of the W ...
cipher during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Dayton has been the home for many patents and inventions since the 1870s.
According to the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
, citing information from the
U.S. Patent Office, Dayton had granted more patents per capita than any other U.S. city in 1890 and ranked fifth in the nation as early as 1870. The
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
, inventors of the airplane, and
Charles F. Kettering, world-renowned for his numerous inventions, hailed from Dayton. The city was also home to
James Ritty
James Jacob Ritty (29 October 1836 – 29 March 1918), Bar (establishment), saloonkeeper and inventor, opened his first saloon in Dayton, Ohio in 1871, billing himself as a "Dealer in Pure Whiskies, Fine Wines, and Cigars." Some of Ritty's ...
's Incorruptible Cashier, the first mechanical cash register, and
Arthur E. Morgan's hydraulic jump, a flood prevention mechanism that helped pioneer
hydraulic engineering
Hydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive use of gravity as the motive force to cause the move ...
.
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...
, an African-American poet and novelist, penned his most famous works in the late 19th century and became an integral part of the city's history.
Birthplace of aviation
Powered aviation began in Dayton. Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first to construct and demonstrate powered flight. Although the first flight was in
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
Kitty Hawk is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States, located on Bodie Island within the state's Outer Banks. The population was 3,708 at the 2020 United States census. It was established in the early 18th century as Chickahawk.
Hi ...
, their Wright Flyer was built in and returned to Dayton for improvements and further flights at
Huffman Field, a cow pasture northeast of Dayton, near the current Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
When the government tried to move development to
Langley Field in southern Virginia, six Dayton businessmen including Edward A. Deeds, formed the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company in Moraine and established a flying field. Deeds also opened a field to the north in the flood plain of the Great Miami River between the confluences of that river, the Stillwater River, and the Mad River (near downtown Dayton). Later named
McCook Field
McCook Field was an airfield and aviation experimentation station in Dayton, Ohio, United States. It was operated by the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps and its successor the United States Army Air Service from 1917 to 1927. It was named f ...
for Alexander McDowell McCook, an American Civil War general, this became the Army Signal Corps' primary aviation research and training location. Wilbur Wright also purchased land near Huffman prairie to continue their research.
During World War I, the Army purchased 40 acres adjacent to Huffman Prairie for the Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot. As airplanes developed more capability, they needed more runway space than McCook could offer, and a new location was sought. The Patterson family formed the Dayton Air Service Committee, Inc which held a campaign that raised $425,000 in two days and purchased northeast of Dayton, including Wilbur Wright Field and the Huffman Prairie Flying Field. Wright Field was "formally dedicated" on October 12, 1927. After World War II, Wright Field and the adjacent Patterson Field, Dayton Army Air Field, and Clinton Army Air Field were merged as the Headquarters, Air Force Technical Base. On January 13, 1948, the facility was renamed
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...
.
Great Dayton Flood

A catastrophic flood in March 1913, known as the
Great Dayton Flood
The Great Dayton Flood of 1913, part of the Great Flood of 1913, resulted from flooding by the Great Miami River reaching Dayton, Ohio, and the surrounding area, causing the greatest natural disaster in Ohio history. In response, the Ohio Gener ...
, led to the creation of the
Miami Conservancy District, a series of dams as well as hydraulic pumps installed around Dayton, in 1914.
Contribution in World War Two
Like other cities across the country, Dayton was heavily involved in the war effort during World War II. Several locations around the city hosted the
Dayton Project, a branch of the larger
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the ...
, to develop
polonium
Polonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Po and atomic number 84. A rare and highly radioactive metal (although sometimes classified as a metalloid) with no stable isotopes, polonium is a chalcogen and chemically similar to selenium and tel ...
triggers used in early atomic bombs. The war efforts led to a manufacturing boom throughout the city, including high-demand for housing and other services. At one point, emergency housing was put into place due to a housing shortage in the region, much of which is still in use today.
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist. He was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer ...
is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He visited the
National Cash Register
NCR Voyix Corporation, previously known as NCR Corporation and National Cash Register, is a global software, consulting and technology company providing several professional services and electronic products. It manufactured self-service kios ...
(NCR) company in Dayton in December 1942. He was able to show that it was not necessary to build 336
Bombes, so the initial order was scaled down to 96 machines to decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II.
Post-war Dayton
Between the 1940s and the 1970s, the city saw significant growth in suburban areas from population migration. Veterans were returning from military service in large numbers seeking industrial and manufacturing jobs, a part of the local industry that was expanding rapidly. Advancements in architecture also contributed to the suburban boom. New, modernized shopping centers and the
Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Hi ...
allowed workers to commute greater distances and families to live further from the downtown area. More than 127,000 homes were built in Montgomery County during the 1950s.
During this time, the city was the site of several race riots, including one in 1955 following the murder of
Emmett Till
Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African American youth, who was 14 years old when he was abducted and Lynching in the United States, lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman, ...
, the
1966 Dayton race riot, two in 1967 (following a speech by civil rights activist
H. Rap Brown and another following the
police killing of an African American man), and one in 1968 as part of the nationwide
King assassination riots
The King assassination riots, also known as the Holy Week Uprising, were a wave of civil disturbance which swept across the United States following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Some of the biggest riots took p ...
.
Since the 1980s, however, Dayton's population has declined, mainly due to the loss of manufacturing jobs and decentralization of metropolitan areas, as well as the national
housing crisis that began in 2008.
While much of the state has suffered for similar reasons, the impact on Dayton has been greater than most. By 2013, Dayton had the third-greatest percentage loss of population in the state since the 1980s, behind Cleveland and Youngstown.
Despite this, Dayton has begun diversifying its workforce from manufacturing into other growing sectors such as healthcare and education.
Peace accords
In 1995, the
Dayton Agreement
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Dejtonski mirovni sporazum, Дејтонски мировни споразум), and colloquially kn ...
, a peace accord between the parties to the hostilities of the
conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia, was negotiated at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...
, near Fairborn, Ohio, from November 1 to 21. The agreement formally ended the conflict in the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Republika Bosna i Hercegovina, Република Босна и Херцеговина, separator=" / ") was a state in Southeastern Europe, existing from 1992 to 1995. It is the direct lega ...
on December 14, 1995.
Richard Holbrooke wrote about these events in his memoirs:
There was also a real Dayton out there, a charming Ohio city, famous as the birthplace of the Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
. Its citizens energized us from the outset. Unlike the population of, say, New York City, Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
or Washington, which would scarcely notice another conference, Daytonians were proud to be part of history. Large signs at the commercial airport hailed Dayton as the "temporary center of international peace." The local newspapers and television stations covered the story from every angle, drawing the people deeper into the proceedings. When we ventured into a restaurant or a shopping center downtown, people crowded around, saying that they were praying for us. Warren Christopher was given at least one standing ovation in a restaurant. Families on the airbase placed "candles of peace" in their front windows, and people gathered in peace vigils outside the base. One day they formed a "peace chain," although it was not large enough to surround the sprawling eight-thousand-acre base. Ohio's famous ethnic diversity was on display.
2000s initiatives
Downtown expansion that began in the 2000s has helped revitalize the city and encourage growth.
Day Air Ballpark, home of the
Dayton Dragons
The Dayton Dragons are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. They are located in Dayton, Ohio, and play their home games at Day Air Ballpark. In 2011, they broke the record for most ...
, was built in 2000. The highly successful minor league baseball team has been an integral part of Dayton's culture.
In 2001, the city's public park system,
Five Rivers MetroParks, built RiverScape MetroPark, an outdoor entertainment venue that attracts more than 400,000 visitors each year. A new performance arts theater, the
Schuster Center, opened in 2003. A large health network in the region,
Premier Health Partners, expanded its
Miami Valley Hospital with a 12-story tower addition.
In 2010, the Downtown Dayton Partnership, in cooperation with the City of Dayton and community leaders, introduced the Greater Downtown Dayton Plan. It focuses on job creation and retention, infrastructure improvements, housing, recreation, and collaboration. The plan is to be implemented through the year 2020.
Nicknames
Dayton is known as the "Gem City". The nickname's origin is uncertain, but several theories exist. In the early 19th century, a well-known
racehorse
Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...
named Gem hailed from Dayton. In 1845, an article published in the ''Cincinnati Daily Chronicle'' by an author known as T stated:
In the late 1840s, Major William D. Bickham of the ''Dayton Journal'' began a campaign to nickname Dayton the "Gem City." The name was adopted by the city's Board of Trade several years later.
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...
referred to the nickname in his poem, "Toast to Dayton", as noted in the following excerpt:
She shall ever claim our duty,
For she shines—the brightest gem
That has ever decked with beauty
Dear Ohio's diadem.
Dayton also plays a role in a nickname given to the state of Ohio, "Birthplace of Aviation." Dayton is the hometown of the
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
, aviation pioneers who are credited with inventing and building the first practical airplane in history. After their first manned flights in
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
Kitty Hawk is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States, located on Bodie Island within the state's Outer Banks. The population was 3,708 at the 2020 United States census. It was established in the early 18th century as Chickahawk.
Hi ...
, which they had chosen due to its ideal weather and climate conditions, the Wrights returned to Dayton and continued testing at nearby
Huffman Prairie.
Additionally, Dayton is colloquially referred to as "Little Detroit".
This nickname comes from Dayton's prominence as a Midwestern manufacturing center.
Geography
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.
Climate
Dayton's climate features warm, muggy summers and cold, dry winters, and is classified as a
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
''Dfa''). Unless otherwise noted, all normal figures quoted within the text below are from the official climatology station, Dayton International Airport, at an elevation of about to the north of downtown Dayton, which lies within the valley of the
Miami River; thus temperatures there are typically cooler than in downtown.
At the airport, monthly mean temperatures range from in January to in July. The highest temperature ever recorded in Dayton was on July 22, 1901, and the coldest was on February 13 during the
Great Blizzard of 1899. On average, there are 14 days of + highs and 4.5 nights of sub- lows annually. Snow is moderate, with a normal seasonal accumulation of , usually occurring from November to March, occasionally April, and rarely October. Precipitation averages annually, with total rainfall peaking in May.
Dayton is subject to severe weather typical of the
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...
.
Tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
es are possible from the spring to the fall. Floods, blizzards, and severe thunderstorms can also occur.
On Memorial Day of 2019, Dayton suffered extensive property damage and one death during a
tornado outbreak
A tornado outbreak is the occurrence of multiple tornadoes spawned by the same Synoptic scale meteorology, synoptic scale weather system. The number of tornadoes required to qualify as an outbreak typically are at least six to ten, with at least ...
, in which a total of 15 tornadoes touched down in the Dayton area.
Although some of the tornadoes were only
EF0 and remained on the ground for less than a mile,
one
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
was an EF4 measuring a half-mile-wide (805 meters), which tore through the communities of Brookville, Trotwood, Dayton, Northridge, and Riverside. Several streets were closed, including portions of I-75 and North Dixie Drive in Northridge. 64,000 residents lost power and much of the region's water supply was cut off.
Ecology
The Dayton Audubon Society is the
National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...
's local chapter. The Dayton chapter manages local activities contributing to the annual, hemisphere-wide
Christmas Bird Count
The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a census of birds in the Western Hemisphere, performed annually in the early Northern-hemisphere winter by volunteer birdwatchers and administered by the National Audubon Society. The purpose is to provide popula ...
. The Chapter began participation in the National Count in 1924. The local Count was initially coordinated by Ben Blincoe, who was succeeded by Jim Hill in 1970. In the mid-1960s, the freezing of Lake Erie and associated marshlands led species of waterfowl to appear in the Dayton-area, where surface waters remained unfrozen. Nine varieties of birds have been observed every year in the Dayton area:
downy woodpecker,
Carolina chickadee,
tufted titmouse,
brown creeper,
northern cardinal
The northern cardinal (''Cardinalis cardinalis''), also commonly known as the common cardinal, red cardinal, or simply cardinal, is a bird in the genus ''Cardinalis''. It can be found in southeastern Canada, through the eastern United States fro ...
,
dark-eyed junco,
American tree sparrow,
song sparrow and
American crow
The American crow (''Corvus brachyrhynchos'') is a large passerine bird species of the family (biology), family Corvidae. It is a common bird found throughout much of North America. American crows are the New World counterpart to the carrion cro ...
.
Cityscape
Architecture
Unlike many Midwestern cities its age, Dayton has very broad and straight downtown streets (generally two or three full lanes in each direction) that improved access to the downtown even after the automobile became popular. The main reason for the broad streets was that Dayton was a marketing and shipping center from its beginning; streets were broad to enable wagons drawn by teams of three to four pairs of oxen to turn around. Also, some of today's streets were once barge canals flanked by draw-paths.
A courthouse building was built in downtown Dayton in 1888 to supplement Dayton's original
Neoclassical courthouse, which still stands. This second, "new" courthouse has since been replaced with new facilities as well as a park. The Old Court House has been a favored political campaign stop. On September 17, 1859,
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
delivered an address on its steps. Eight other presidents have visited the courthouse, either as presidents or during presidential campaigns:
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a South ...
,
James Garfield
James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 1881 until Assassination of James A. Garfield, his death in September that year after being shot two months ea ...
,
John F. Kennedy,
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...
,
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
,
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...
,
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
, and
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
.
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 ...
, which opened on March 3, 1904, was built in the hopes of replacing open-air markets throughout the city. Throughout the decades, the Arcade has gone through many transformations but has retained its charm. Some of its main features include a Flemish facade at the Third Street entrance, a glass dome above the Arcade rotunda, and a chateau roof line above the Third Street facade. The Dayton Arcade is currently under renovations with no official completion date set.
In 2009, the
CareSource Management Group finished construction of a $55 million corporate headquarters in downtown Dayton. The , 10-story building was downtown's first new office tower in more than a decade.
Dayton's two tallest buildings are the
Kettering Tower at and the
KeyBank Tower at . Kettering Tower was originally Winters Tower, the headquarters of Winters Bank. The building was renamed after
Virginia Kettering when Winters was merged into
Bank One
Bank One Corporation was an American bank founded in 1968 and at its peak the sixth-largest bank in the United States. It traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol ONE. The company merged with JPMorgan Chase & Co. on July 1, ...
. KeyBank Tower was known as the
MeadWestvaco
MeadWestvaco Corporation was an American Packaging and labeling, packaging company based in Richmond, Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. It had approximately 23,000 employees. In February 2006, it moved its corporate headquarters to Richmond. In March ...
Tower before
KeyBank gained naming rights to the building in 2008.
Ted Rall said in 2015 that over the last five decades Dayton has been demolishing some of its architecturally significant buildings to reduce the city's
rental vacancy rate and thus increase the occupancy rate.
Neighborhoods

Dayton's ten historic neighborhoods—
Oregon District
The Oregon Historic District is a neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio. The Oregon District includes one of the earliest surviving combinations of commercial and residential architecture in Dayton. Examples of Dayton's architectural history from 1820 ...
,
Wright Dunbar,
Dayton View,
Grafton Hill,
McPherson Town,
Webster Station,
Huffman,
Kenilworth
Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Warwick (district), Warwick District of Warwickshire, England, southwest of Coventry and north of both Warwick and Leamington Spa. Situated at the centre of t ...
,
St. Anne's Hill, and
South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...
—feature mostly single-family houses and mansions in the Neoclassical,
Jacobethan
The Jacobethan ( ) architectural style, also known as Jacobean Revival, is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the Engli ...
,
Tudor Revival
Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in the UK, first manifested 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, in rea ...
,
English Gothic,
Chateauesque,
Craftsman,
Queen Anne,
Georgian Revival
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover, George I, George II, Ge ...
,
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 arch ...
, Renaissance Revival Architecture, Shingle Style Architecture,
Prairie
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
,
Mission Revival
The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...
,
Eastlake/Italianate,
American Foursquare
The American Foursquare (also American Four Square or American 4 Square) is an American house vernacular under the Arts and Crafts style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the ...
, and
Federal styles.
Downtown Dayton
Downtown Dayton is the central business district of Dayton, Ohio, United States. Major reinvestment in the downtown area began heavily in the mid-1990s, and continues today with $2 billion in residential, commercial, health, and transportation de ...
is also a large area that encompasses several neighborhoods itself and has seen a recent uplift and revival.
Suburbs
Dayton's suburbs with a population of 10,000 or more include
Beavercreek,
Centerville,
Clayton,
Englewood,
Fairborn
Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 34,620 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton and part of the Dayton metropolitan area. The city is home to Wright State University, which serves nea ...
,
Harrison Township,
Huber Heights,
Kettering
Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...
,
Miami Township,
Miamisburg,
Oakwood,
Riverside,
Springboro,
Trotwood,
Vandalia,
Washington Township,
West Carrollton, and
Xenia
Xenia may refer to:
People
* Xenia (name), a feminine given name; includes a list of people with this name
Places United States
''listed alphabetically by state''
* Xenia, Illinois, a village in Clay County
** Xenia Township, Clay County, Il ...
.
In the federal government's
, funding was provided for thirteen
"new towns" or planned cities throughout the country. One location was set to become a suburb of Dayton and was known variously as Brookwood or Newfields.
The goal was to have an entirely new suburb that would eventually house about 35,000 residents. The new town was to be located between Trotwood and Brookville, and modeled on the ideas of
Ian McHarg. The project was abandoned in 1978 and most of the land became
Sycamore State Park.
Demographics
Dayton's city proper population declined significantly from a peak of 262,332 residents in 1960 to 137,644 residents in 2020. This was in part due to the slowdown of the region's manufacturing sector. The metropolitan area as a whole has experienced both population growth and decreases since 1960, with the overall trend leaning towards growth for the metro area. The city's most populous ethnic group, white, declined from 78.1% in 1960 to 51.7% by 2010.
2020 census
As of the census of 2020, there were 137,644 people living in the city, for a population density of 2,466.47 people per square mile (952.31/km
2). There were 68,899 housing units. The racial makeup of the city (including Hispanics in the racial counts) was 47.6% White, 40.7% Black or African American, 0.4% Native American, 1.4% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 3.3% from some other race, and 6.6% from two or more races. Separately, 5.7% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 63,308 households, out of which 22.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 24.5% were
married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 30.9% had a male householder with no spouse present, and 38.2% had a female householder with no spouse present. 47.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.6% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.95, and the average family size was 2.83.
18.9% of the city's population were under the age of 18, 65.0% were 18 to 64, and 16.1% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.4. For every 100 females, there were 101.5 males.
According to the U.S. Census
American Community Survey
The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...
, for the period 2016-2020 the estimated median annual income for a household in the city was $43,780, and the median income for a family was $60,408. About 25.4% of the population were living below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 39.5% of those under age 18 and 21.5% of those age 65 or over. About 53.6% of the population were employed, and 24.4% had a bachelor's degree or higher.
2010 census
As of the 2010 census,
there were 141,759 people, 58,404 households, and 31,064 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 74,065 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 51.7% White, 42.9% African American, 0.3% Native American, 0.9% Asian, 1.3% from other races, and 2.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 3.0% of the population.
There were 58,404 households, of which 28.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 25.9% were married couples living together, 21.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.9% had a male householder with no wife present, and 46.8% were non-families. 38.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26, and the average family size was 3.03.
The median age in the city was 34.4 years. 22.9% of residents were under the age of 18; 14.2% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 25.3% were from 25 to 44; 25.8% were from 45 to 64, and 11.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.7% male and 51.3% female.
Crime
Dayton's crime declined between 2003 and 2008 in key categories according to FBI
Uniform Crime Reports
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program compiles official data on crime in the United States, published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). UCR is "a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of nearly 18,000 city, university and co ...
and Dayton Police Department data. In 2009, crime continued to fall in the city of Dayton. Crime in the categories of forcible rape, aggravated assault, property crime, motor vehicle theft, robbery, burglary, theft and arson all showed declines for 2009. Overall, crime in Dayton dropped 40% over the previous year. The Dayton Police Department reported a total of 39 murders in 2016, which marked a 39.3% increase in homicides from 2015.
John Dillinger, a
bank robber during the early 1930s, was captured and arrested by Dayton city police while visiting his girlfriend at a high-class
boarding house
A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...
in downtown Dayton.
On August 4, 2019,
a mass shooting took place in Dayton. Ten people were killed, including the perpetrator, and twenty-seven were injured.
Economy

Dayton's economy is relatively diversified and vital to the overall economy of the state of Ohio. In 2008 and 2009, ''
Site Selection Site selection indicates the practice of new facility location, both for business and government. Site selection involves measuring the needs of a new project against the merits of potential locations. The practice came of age during the 20th centur ...
'' magazine ranked Dayton the #1 medium-sized metropolitan area in the U.S. for economic development.
Dayton is also among the top 100 metropolitan areas in both exports and export-related jobs, ranked 16 and 14 respectively by the
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...
. The 2010 report placed the value of exports at $4.7 billion and the number of export-related jobs at 44,133. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area ranks 4th in Ohio's Gross Domestic Product with a 2008 industry total of $33.78 billion. Additionally, Dayton ranks third among 11 major metropolitan areas in Ohio for exports to foreign countries. The Dayton Development Coalition is attempting to leverage the region's large water capacity, estimated to be 1.5 trillion gallons of
renewable water aquifers, to attract new businesses. Moody's Investment Services revised Dayton's bond rating from A1 to the stronger rating of Aa2 as part of its global recalibration process.
Standard & Poor's
S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is co ...
upgraded Dayton's rating from A+ to AA− in the summer of 2009.
''
Bloomberg Businessweek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...
'' ranked Dayton in 2010 as one of the best places in the U.S. for college graduates looking for a job.
Companies such as
Reynolds and Reynolds,
Stratacache,
CareSource,
DP&L (soon AES inc),
LexisNexis
LexisNexis is an American data analytics company headquartered in New York, New York. Its products are various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper searc ...
,
Kettering Health Network,
Premier Health Partners, and
Standard Register have their headquarters in Dayton. It is also the former home of the
Speedwell Motor Car Company
The Speedwell Motor Car Company was a Brass Era car, Brass Era American automobile manufacturing company established by Pierce Schenck, Pierce Davies Schenck that produced cars from 1907 to 1914. The Great Dayton Flood of 1913 greatly damaged th ...
,
MeadWestvaco
MeadWestvaco Corporation was an American Packaging and labeling, packaging company based in Richmond, Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. It had approximately 23,000 employees. In February 2006, it moved its corporate headquarters to Richmond. In March ...
(formerly known as the
Mead Paper Company), and
NCR. NCR was headquartered in Dayton for over 125 years and was a major innovator in computer technology.
Research and development

The Dayton region gave birth to aviation and is known for its high concentration of
aerospace
Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astron ...
and aviation technology. In 2009, Governor
Ted Strickland designated Dayton as Ohio's aerospace innovation hub, the state's first such technology hub. Two major United States research and development organizations have leveraged Dayton's historical leadership in aviation and maintain their headquarters in the area: The
National Air and Space Intelligence Center
The National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) is the United States Air Force unit for analyzing military intelligence on foreign air forces, weapons, and systems. NASIC assessments of aerospace performance characteristics, capabiliti ...
(NASIC) and the
Air Force Research Laboratory
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research and development detachment of the United States Air Force Air Force Materiel Command, Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of direct- ...
(AFRL). Both have their headquarters at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...
.
Several research organizations support NASIC, AFRL, and the Dayton community. The
Advanced Technical Intelligence Center is a confederation of government, academic, and industry partners. The
University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) is led by the University of Dayton. The Cognitive Technologies Division (CTD) of Applied Research Associates, Inc., which carries out human-centered research and design, is headquartered in the Dayton suburb of Fairborn. The city of Dayton has started
Tech Town, a development project to attract technology-based firms and revitalize the downtown area. Tech Town is home to the world's first
RFID
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...
business incubator
A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with venture ...
. The University of Dayton–led Institute for Development & Commercialization of Sensor Technologies (IDCAST) at TechTown is a center for remote sensing and sensing technology. It is one of Dayton's technology business incubators housed in The Entrepreneurs Center building.
Healthcare

The
Kettering Health Network and
Premier Health Partners have a major role on the Dayton area's economy.
Hospital
A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...
s in the Greater Dayton area have an estimated combined employment of nearly 32,000 and a yearly economic impact of $6.8 billion.
In addition, several Dayton area hospitals consistently earn top national ranking and recognition including the ''
U.S. News & World Report''s list of "America's Best Hospitals" as well as many of HealthGrades top ratings. The most notable hospitals are
Miami Valley Hospital and
Kettering Medical Center.
The Dayton region has several key institutes and centers for health care. The
Center for Tissue Regeneration and Engineering at Dayton focuses on the science and development of human tissue regeneration. The
National Center for Medical Readiness (NCMR) is also in the Dayton area. The center includes Calamityville, which is a disaster training facility. Over five years, Calamityville is estimated to have a regional economic impact of $374 million. Also, the Neurological Institute at Miami Valley Hospital is an institute focused on the diagnosis, treatment, and research of neurological disorders.
Top employers
According to the city's 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the
city proper
A city proper is the geographical area contained within city limits. The term ''proper'' is not exclusive to city, cities; it can describe the geographical area within the boundaries of any given locality. The United Nations defines the term as " ...
are:
Arts and culture
Fine arts

The Dayton Region ranked within the top 10% in the nation in
arts
The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...
and culture. In a 2012 readers' poll by ''American Style'' magazine, Dayton ranked #2 in the country among mid-size cities as an arts destination, ranking higher than larger cities such as Atlanta, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. Dayton is the home of the
Dayton Art Institute
The Dayton Art Institute (DAI) is a museum of fine arts in Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio, United States. The Dayton Art Institute has been rated one of the top 10 best art museums in the United States for children. The museum also ranks in the top 3% ...
.
The
Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in downtown Dayton is a world-class performing arts center and the home venue of the
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra,
Dayton Opera, and the
Dayton Ballet. In addition to
philharmonic
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...
and opera performances, the Schuster Center hosts concerts, lectures, and traveling Broadway shows, and is a popular spot for
wedding
A wedding is a ceremony in which two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnicity, ethnicities, Race (human categorization), races, religions, Religious denomination, denominations, Cou ...
s and other events. The historic
Victoria Theatre in downtown Dayton hosts
concert
A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...
s, traveling Broadway shows, ballet, a summertime classic film series, and more. The Loft Theatre, also downtown, is the home of the Human Race Theatre Company. The Dayton Playhouse, in West Dayton, is the site of numerous plays and theatrical productions. Between 1957 and 1995, the
Kenley Players
The Kenley Players was an Actors' Equity Association, Equity summer stock theatre company which presented hundreds of productions featuring Broadway theatre, Broadway, film, and television stars in Midwestern cities between 1940 and 1995. ''Variet ...
presented live theater productions in Dayton.
In 2013,
John Kenley was inducted into the Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame.
Dayton is also home to the
Winter Guard International
Winter Guard International (WGI) is an American governing body that sanctions championship events for three competitive performing arts activities: winter guard, percussion ensembles, and indoor wind ensembles. WGI was founded in 1977 in respon ...
world finals, hosting finals for
winter guard
Winter guard (sometimes spelled "winterguard") is an indoor Color guard (flag spinning), color guard sport and performance art derived from military ceremonies. Modern winter guard is a competitive, performance-based activity which incorporates c ...
,
indoor percussion, and indoor winds.
Dayton is the home to several ballet companies including:
* The
Dayton Ballet, one of the oldest professional dance companies in the United States. The Dayton Ballet runs the
Dayton Ballet School, the oldest
dance school in Dayton and one of the oldest in the country. It is the only ballet school in the
Miami Valley associated with a professional
dance company.
* The
Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (established in 1968), which hosts the largest repertory of African-American-based contemporary dance in the world. The company travels nationally and internationally and has been recognized by critics worldwide.
Front Street, the largest artists' collective in Dayton, is housed in three industrial buildings on East Second Street.
Entertainment

The
Vectren Dayton Air Show is an annual
air show
An air show (or airshow, air fair, air tattoo) is a public event where aircraft are trade fair, exhibited. They often include aerobatics demonstrations, without which they are called "static air shows" with aircraft parked on the ground.
The ...
that takes place at the
Dayton International Airport. The Vectren Dayton Airshow is one of the largest air shows in the United States.
The Dayton area is served by
Five Rivers MetroParks, encompassing over 23 facilities for year-round recreation, education, and conservation. In cooperation with the
Miami Conservancy District, the MetroParks maintains over of paved, multi-use scenic trails that connect Montgomery County with Greene, Miami, Warren, and Butler counties.
Dayton was home to a thriving
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...
music scene from the 1970s to the early 1980s, that included bands such as
Ohio Players
Ohio Players are an American funk band, most popular in the 1970s. They are best known for their songs "Fire" and " Love Rollercoaster", and for their erotic album covers that featured nude or nearly nude women. Many of the women were models f ...
,
Roger Troutman
Roger Lynch Troutman Jr. (November 29, 1951 – April 25, 1999), also known simply as Roger, was an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the founder of the band Zapp who helped spearhead the funk movement and infl ...
&
Zapp,
Lakeside,
Sun
The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
,
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 ...
,
Heatwave, and
Slave
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
.
Dayton was also the birthplace to several influential indie and punk bands such as
The Breeders
The Breeders are an American alternative rock band based in Dayton, Ohio, consisting of members Kim Deal (rhythm guitar, lead vocals), her twin sister Kelley Deal (lead guitar, vocals), Josephine Wiggs (bass guitar, vocals) and Jim Macpherson ( ...
,
Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band formed in 1983 in Dayton, Ohio. It has made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard. The most well-known lineup of the band consisted o ...
, and
Brainiac.
From 1996 to 1998, Dayton hosted the
National Folk Festival. Since then, the annual Cityfolk Festival has continued to bring folk, ethnic, and world music and arts to Dayton. The Five Rivers MetroParks also owns and operates the
PNC Second Street Market near downtown Dayton.
The Dayton area hosts several arenas and venues. South of Dayton in
Kettering
Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...
is the
Fraze Pavilion, whose notable performances have included the
Backstreet Boys
Backstreet Boys (often abbreviated as BSB) are an American vocal group consisting of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson (musician), Kevin Richardson. The band formed in 1993 in Orlando, Flori ...
,
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, and
Steve Miller Band
The Steve Miller Band is an American rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1966. The band is led by Steve Miller (musician), Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals. The group had a string of mid- to late-1970s hit singles ...
. South of downtown, on the banks of the
Great Miami River, is the
University of Dayton Arena
University of Dayton Arena (commonly known as UD Arena) is a 13,409-seat multi-purpose arena located in Dayton, Ohio. The arena opened in 1969. It is home to the University of Dayton Flyers basketball teams. From 2001 to 2010, the facility hoste ...
, home venue for the
University of Dayton
The University of Dayton (UD) is a Private university, private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary (Marianists), Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the U ...
Flyers basketball teams and the location of various other events and
concert
A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...
s. It also hosts the
Winter Guard International
Winter Guard International (WGI) is an American governing body that sanctions championship events for three competitive performing arts activities: winter guard, percussion ensembles, and indoor wind ensembles. WGI was founded in 1977 in respon ...
championships, at which hundreds of percussion and color guard ensembles from around the world compete. In addition, the Dayton Amateur Radio Association hosts the annual
Dayton Hamvention, North America's largest
hamfest, at the Greene County Fairgrounds in nearby
Xenia
Xenia may refer to:
People
* Xenia (name), a feminine given name; includes a list of people with this name
Places United States
''listed alphabetically by state''
* Xenia, Illinois, a village in Clay County
** Xenia Township, Clay County, Il ...
. The
Nutter Center, which is just east of Dayton in the suburb of
Fairborn
Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 34,620 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton and part of the Dayton metropolitan area. The city is home to Wright State University, which serves nea ...
, is the home arena for athletics of
Wright State University
Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio, United States. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in ...
and the former
Dayton Bombers
The Dayton Bombers were an ECHL ice hockey team located in Dayton, Ohio. The team most recently was in the North Division of the ECHL's American Conference. The Bombers originally played at Hara Arena from 1991 to 1996. The team moved to the Erv ...
hockey team. This venue is used for many concerts, community events, and various national traveling shows and performances.
The
Oregon District
The Oregon Historic District is a neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio. The Oregon District includes one of the earliest surviving combinations of commercial and residential architecture in Dayton. Examples of Dayton's architectural history from 1820 ...
is a historic residential and commercial district in southeast downtown Dayton. The district is populated with
art galleries
An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...
,
specialty shops,
pubs
A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
,
nightclubs
A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and ...
, and
coffee houses
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargile ...
.
The city of Dayton is also host to yearly
festivals
A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...
, such as the Dayton Celtic Festival, the Dayton Blues Festival, Dayton Music Fest, Urban Nights, Women in Jazz, the African American and Cultural Festival, the Dayton Reggae Fest, and the Dayton Hispanic Heritage Festival.
Cuisine
The city's fine dining restaurants include
The Pine Club, a nationally known steakhouse.
Dayton is home to a variety of
pizza chains that have become woven into local culture, the most notable of which are
Cassano's and
Marion's Piazza, both of which produce
Dayton-style pizza, which has a thin, crisp, salty crust dusted on the bottom with
cornmeal
Maize meal is a meal (coarse flour) ground from dried maize. It is a common staple food and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but it is not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', Third Editi ...
and topped with a thin layer of thick unsweetened sauce. Cheese and other topping ingredients are heavily distributed and spread edge-to-edge with no outer rim of crust, and the finished pizza is cut into bite-size squares.
Notable Dayton-based restaurant chains include
Hot Head Burritos.
In addition to restaurants, the city is also home to
Esther Price Candies, a candy and chocolate company, and
Mike-sells, the oldest potato chip company in the United States.
The city began developing a reputation for its number of
breweries
A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...
and
craft beer
Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, ne ...
venues by the late 2010s.
Religion
Many major religions are represented in Dayton. Christianity is represented in Dayton by dozens of denominations and their respective churches. Notable Dayton churches include the
First Lutheran Church,
Sacred Heart Church, and
Ginghamsburg Church
Ginghamsburg Church is a United Methodist Church located in Tipp City, Ohio, thirteen miles north of Dayton, Ohio.
Dennis Miller became the Senior Pastor in August 2022.
History
Ginghamsburg Church was founded by a Methodist Circuit rider ( ...
. Dayton's
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
community is largely represented by the
Islamic Society of Greater Dayton (ISGD), a Muslim community that includes a mosque on Josie Street. Dayton is also home to the
United Theological Seminary, one of 13 seminaries affiliated with the
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was ...
.
Judaism
Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...
is represented by
Temple Israel. Hinduism is represented by the
Hindu Temple of Dayton.
Old North Dayton also has a number of Catholic churches built by immigrants from Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, and Germany.
Tourism

Tourism also accounts for one out of every 14 private sector jobs in the county. Tourism in the Dayton region is led by the
National Museum of the United States Air Force
The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is ...
at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...
, the largest and oldest military aviation museum in the world. The museum draws over 1.3 million visitors per year and is one of the most-visited tourist attractions in Ohio. The museum houses the
National Aviation Hall of Fame
The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) is a museum, annual awards ceremony and learning and research center that was founded in 1962 as an Ohio non-profit corporation in Dayton, Ohio, United States, known as the "Birthplace of Aviation" with ...
.
Other museums also play significant roles in the tourism and economy of the Dayton area. The
Dayton Art Institute
The Dayton Art Institute (DAI) is a museum of fine arts in Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio, United States. The Dayton Art Institute has been rated one of the top 10 best art museums in the United States for children. The museum also ranks in the top 3% ...
, a museum of fine arts, owns collections containing more than 20,000 objects spanning 5,000 years of art and archaeological history. The Dayton Art Institute was rated one of the top 10 best art museums in the United States for children. The
Boonshoft Museum of Discovery is a
children's museum
Children's museums are institutions that provide exhibits and programs to stimulate informal learning experiences for children. In contrast with traditional museums that typically have a hands-off policy regarding exhibits, children's museums fea ...
of science with numerous exhibits, one of which includes an indoor
zoo with nearly 100 different animals.
There are also some notable historical museums in the region. The
Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, operated by the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
, commemorates the lives and achievements of Dayton natives
Orville and
Wilbur Wright
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
and
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...
. The Wright brothers' famous
Wright Flyer III aircraft is housed in a museum at
Carillon Historical Park. Dayton is also home to
America's Packard Museum, which contains many restored historical
Packard
Packard (formerly the Packard Motor Car Company) was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana, in 1958.
One ...
vehicles.
SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park, a partially reconstructed 12th-century prehistoric
American Indian village, is on the south end of Dayton; it is organized around a central plaza dominated by wood posts forming an astronomical calendar. The park includes a museum where visitors can learn about the Indian history of the Miami Valley.
Parks and recreation
Dayton was named National Geographic's outdoor adventure capital of the Midwest in 2019 due in large part to the metropolitan area's revitalized Five Rivers MetroPark, extensive bicycle and jogging trail system, urban green spaces, lakes and camping areas.
In cooperation with the
Miami Conservancy District,
Five Rivers MetroParks hosts 340 miles of paved trails, the largest network of paved off-street trails in the United States.
The regional trail system represents over 35% of the 900 miles in Ohio's off-street trail network. In 2010, the city of
Troy
Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
was named "
bike friendly" by the
League of American Bicyclists
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
* ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...
, which gave the city the organization's bronze designation.
The honorable mention made Dayton one of two cities in Ohio to receive the award, the other being Columbus, and one of 15 cities nationwide.
Sports
The Dayton area is home to several minor league and semi pro teams, as well as NCAA Division I sports programs.
The
Dayton Dragons
The Dayton Dragons are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. They are located in Dayton, Ohio, and play their home games at Day Air Ballpark. In 2011, they broke the record for most ...
professional baseball team is a Class A minor league affiliate for the
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...
. The Dayton Dragons are the first (and only) team in
minor league baseball
Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...
history to sell out an entire season before it began and was voted as one of the top 10 hottest tickets to get in all of professional sports by
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
. The Dayton Dragons 815 consecutive sellouts surpassed the NBA's
Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (N ...
for the longest sellout streak across all professional sports in the U.S.

The
University of Dayton
The University of Dayton (UD) is a Private university, private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary (Marianists), Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the U ...
and
Wright State University
Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio, United States. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in ...
both host
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
basketball. The
University of Dayton Arena
University of Dayton Arena (commonly known as UD Arena) is a 13,409-seat multi-purpose arena located in Dayton, Ohio. The arena opened in 1969. It is home to the University of Dayton Flyers basketball teams. From 2001 to 2010, the facility hoste ...
has hosted more games in the
NCAA men's basketball tournament over its history than any other venue. UD Arena is also the site of the First Round games of the NCAA Tournament. In 2012, eight teams competed for the final four spots in the NCAA basketball tournament. Wright State University's NCAA men's basketball is the
Wright State Raiders and the University of Dayton's NCAA men's basketball team is the
Dayton Flyers
The Dayton Flyers are the intercollegiate athletic teams of the University of Dayton of Dayton, Ohio. All Flyers intercollegiate sports teams participate at the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I level. The football team ...
.
The Dayton Gems were a minor league
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
team in the
International Hockey League from 1964 to 1977, 1979 to 1980, and most recently 2009 to 2012. The
Dayton Bombers
The Dayton Bombers were an ECHL ice hockey team located in Dayton, Ohio. The team most recently was in the North Division of the ECHL's American Conference. The Bombers originally played at Hara Arena from 1991 to 1996. The team moved to the Erv ...
were an
ECHL
The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
team from 1991 to 2009. They most recently played the North Division of the ECHL's American Conference. In June 2009, it was announced the Bombers would turn in their membership back to the league.
Despite the folding of the Bombers, hockey remained in Dayton as the
Dayton Gems of the
International Hockey League were formed in the fall of 2009 at
Hara Arena. The Gems folded after the 2011–12 season. Shortly after the Gems folded, it was announced a new team, the
Dayton Demonz, would begin play in 2012 in the
Federal Hockey League (FHL). The Demonz folded in 2015 and were immediately replaced by the
Dayton Demolition, also in the FHL. However, the Demolition would cease operations after only one season
when
Hara Arena decided to close due to financial difficulties.
Dayton hosted the first American Professional Football Association game (precursor to the
NFL). The game was played at Triangle Park between the
Dayton Triangles and the
Columbus Panhandles
The Columbus Panhandles were a professional American football team based in Columbus, Ohio. The club was founded in 1901 by workers at the Panhandle shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad. They were a part of the Ohio League from 1904 before foldi ...
on October 3, 1920, and is considered one of the first professional football games ever played. Football teams in the Dayton area include the
Dayton Flyers
The Dayton Flyers are the intercollegiate athletic teams of the University of Dayton of Dayton, Ohio. All Flyers intercollegiate sports teams participate at the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I level. The football team ...
and the
Dayton Sharks.
The Dayton region is also known for the many golf courses and clubs that it hosts. The
Miami Valley Golf Club,
Moraine Country Club,
NCR Country Club, and the
Pipestone Golf Course are some of the more notable courses. Also, several PGA Championships have been held at area golf courses. The Miami Valley Golf Club hosted the
1957 PGA Championship, the Moraine Country Club hosted the
1945 PGA Championship, and the NCR Country club hosted the
1969 PGA Championship. Additionally, NCR CC hosted the 1986 U.S. Women's Open, the 2005 U.S. Senior Open, the 2013 State Team Championships and most recently the 2022 Senior Women's Open. Other notable courses include the Yankee Trace Golf Club, the Beavercreek Golf Club, Dayton Meadowbrook Country Club, Sycamore Creek Country Club, Heatherwoode Golf Club, Community Golf Course, and Kitty Hawk Golf Course.
The city of Dayton is the home to the
Dayton Area Rugby Club which hosts their home games at th
Dayton Rugby Grounds As of 2018, the club fields two men's and one women's side for
Rugby Union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
and several
Rugby Sevens
Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...
sides. The club also hosts the annual Gem City 7's tournament.
Government
The Dayton City Commission is composed of the mayor and four city commissioners. Each city commission member is elected at-large on a non-partisan basis for four-year, overlapping terms. All policy items are decided by the city commission, which is empowered by the City Charter to pass ordinances and resolutions, adopt regulations, and appoint the city manager. The city manager is responsible for budgeting and implementing policies and initiatives. Dayton was the first large American city to adopt the city manager (
Henry Matson Waite) form of municipal government, in 1913.
Education
Public schools
Dayton Public Schools operates 34 schools that serve 16,855 students, including:
*
Belmont High
*
Meadowdale High
*
Paul Laurence Dunbar High
*
Ponitz Career Technology Center
*
Stivers School for the Arts
Stivers School for the Arts is a magnet school in the Dayton Public Schools, Dayton City Schools in Dayton, Ohio, USA, in the St. Anne's Hill, Dayton, Ohio, St. Anne's Hill Historic District neighborhood. It is a public middle school, middle and h ...
*
Thurgood Marshall High
Private schools
The city of Dayton has more than 35 private schools within the city, including:
*
Archbishop Alter High School
*
Carroll High School Carroll High School can refer to:
In the United States
*Carroll High School (Alabama), Ozark, Alabama
*Carroll High School (Flora, Indiana), Flora, Indiana
*Carroll High School (Fort Wayne, Indiana), Fort Wayne, Indiana
*Carroll High School (Iowa) ...
*
Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School
*
Dayton Christian School
*
Dominion Academy of Dayton
Dominion Academy of Dayton is a college preparatory school for grades K-12 providing a classical education based on the Bible, reason, and Tradition. It was founded in 1998 by Fr. Wayne and Sandy McNamara as a ministry of Christ the King Angli ...
*
The Miami Valley School
*
Spring Valley Academy
Charter schools
Dayton has 33
charter school
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...
s. Three of the top five charter schools named in 2011 are K–8 schools managed by
National Heritage Academies. Notable charter schools include:
*
Dayton Early College Academy
*
Emerson Academy
*
North Dayton School of Discovery
*
Pathway School of Discovery
*
Richard Allen Schools
Colleges and universities

The Dayton area was ranked tenth for higher education among
metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...
s in the United States by ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' in 2009. The city is home to two major universities. The
University of Dayton
The University of Dayton (UD) is a Private university, private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary (Marianists), Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the U ...
is a private,
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
institution founded in 1850 by the
Marianist order. It has the only
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...
(ABA)-approved
law school
A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...
in the Dayton area. The University of Dayton is Ohio's largest
private university
Private universities and private colleges are higher education institutions not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. However, they often receive tax breaks, public student loans, and government grants. Depending on the count ...
and is also home to the
University of Dayton Research Institute, which ranks third in the nation for sponsored materials research, and the
Center for Tissue Regeneration and Engineering at Dayton, which focuses on human tissue regeneration.
The public
Wright State University
Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio, United States. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in ...
became a state university in 1967. Wright State University established the
National Center for Medical Readiness, a national training program for disaster preparedness and relief. Wright State's
Boonshoft School of Medicine is the Dayton area's only medical school and is a leader in
biomedical research
Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as health research, refers to the process of using scientific methods with the aim to produce knowledge about human diseases, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the promotion of ...
.
Dayton is also home to
Sinclair Community College, the largest
community college
A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...
at a single location in Ohio and one of the nation's largest community colleges. Sinclair is acclaimed as one of the country's best community colleges. Sinclair was founded as the YMCA college in 1887.
Other schools just outside Dayton that shape the educational landscape are
Antioch College
Antioch College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection and began operating in 1852 as a non-secta ...
and
Antioch University
Antioch University is a private university with multiple campuses in the United States and online programs. It is the continuation of Antioch College, which was founded in 1852. Antioch College's first president was politician, abolitionist, and ...
, both in
Yellow Springs,
Central State University in
Wilberforce,
Kettering College of Medical Arts and
School of Advertising Art in
Kettering
Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...
,
DeVry University in
Beavercreek,
Cedarville University,
Clark State Community College and
Wittenberg University in
Springfield. The
Air Force Institute of Technology
The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is a postgraduate institution and provider of professional and continuing education for the United States Armed Forces and is part of the United States Air Force. It is in Ohio at Wright-Patterson ...
, which was founded in 1919 and serves as a graduate school for the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
, is at the nearby
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...
.
Institutions
*
Boonshoft School of Medicine
*
Dayton Art Institute
The Dayton Art Institute (DAI) is a museum of fine arts in Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio, United States. The Dayton Art Institute has been rated one of the top 10 best art museums in the United States for children. The museum also ranks in the top 3% ...
*
Ohio Institute of Photography and Technology
*
School of Advertising Art
*
Wright State University
Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio, United States. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in ...
Media
Print
Dayton is served in print by ''
The Dayton Daily News'', the city's sole remaining daily newspaper. The ''Dayton Daily News'' is owned by
Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises, Inc. is an American private company, privately held global conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major ope ...
. The Dayton region's main business newspaper is the ''
Dayton Business Journal''. The ''Dayton City Paper,'' a
community paper
Community paper is a term used by publishers, advertisers and readers to describe a range of publications that share a common service to their local community and commerce. Their predominant medium being newsprint, often free and published at regu ...
focused on music, art, and independent thought ceased operation in 2018. ''The Dayton Weekly News'' has been published since 1993, providing news and information to Dayton's African-American community.
There are numerous magazines produced in and for the Dayton region. ''The Dayton Magazine'' provides insight into arts, food, and events. ''Focus on Business'' is published by the Chamber of Commerce to provide awareness of companies and initiatives affecting the regional economy
Television
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
ranked the 11-county Dayton
television market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
as the No. 62 market in the United States. The market is served by stations affiliated with major American networks including:
WDTN
WDTN (channel 2) is a television station in Dayton, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to Springfield, Ohio–licensed WBDT (channel 26), a ''de facto'' owned-and-oper ...
, channel 2 –
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
, operated by
Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...
;
WHIO-TV
WHIO-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Dayton, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It has been owned by Cox Media Group since its inception, making it one of two stations that have been built and signed on by Cox (alongside company ...
, channel 7 –
CBS, operated by
Cox Media Group
CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company p ...
;
WPTD, channel 16 –
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
, operated by
ThinkTV, which also operates
WPTO, assigned to
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
;
WKEF, channel 22 –
ABC/
Fox, operated by
Sinclair Broadcasting;
WBDT
WBDT (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Springfield, Ohio, United States, serving the Dayton area as a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station of The CW. It is owned by Vaughan Media, which maintains a local marketing agreement (L ...
, channel 26 –
The CW
The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
, operated by
Vaughan Media (a
shell corporation
A shell corporation is a company or corporation with no significant assets or operations often formed to obtain financing before beginning business. Shell companies were primarily vehicles for lawfully hiding the identity of their beneficial ...
of Nexstar), assigned to
Springfield;
WKOI-TV
WKOI-TV (channel 43) is a television station licensed to Richmond, Indiana, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Dayton, Ohio, area. The station is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E.W. Scripps ...
, channel 43 –
Ion Television
Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August ...
, assigned to
Richmond, Indiana
Richmond () is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana, United States. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 35,720. It is the principal c ...
; and
WRGT-TV, channel 45 –
My Network TV, operated under a local marketing agreement by
Sinclair Broadcasting. The nationally syndicated morning talk show ''
The Daily Buzz'' originated from WBDT, the former
ACME Communications
ACME Communications Inc. was a U.S.-based broadcasting company that was involved in operations of television stations and programming from the late 1990s to 2013.
History
ACME Communications was co-founded by chairman and original CEO Jamie Ke ...
property in
Miamisburg, before moving to its current home in Florida.
Radio
Dayton is also served by 42
AM and
FM radio stations directly, and numerous other stations are heard from elsewhere in southwest Ohio, which serve outlying suburbs and adjoining counties.
Transportation
Public transit
The
Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority (RTA) operates public bus routes in the Dayton metro area. In addition to routes covered by traditional
diesel-powered buses, RTA has several
electric trolley bus routes. The
Dayton trolleybus system is the second longest-running of the four remaining trolleybus systems in the U.S., having entered service in 1933. It is the present manifestation of an electric transit service that has operated continuously in Dayton since 1888.
Dayton operates a
Greyhound Station which provides inter-city bus transportation to and from Dayton. The hub is in the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority North-West hub in
Trotwood.
Airports
Dayton International Airport lies in a northern exclave of the city and offers service to 21 markets through 10 airlines. In 2008, it served 2.9 million passengers. The Dayton International Airport is also a significant regional air freight hub hosting
FedEx Express
FedEx Express is a major American cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. As of 2023, it is the world's List of largest airlines, largest cargo airline in terms of fleet size and freight tons flown. It is the namesake and leadi ...
,
UPS Airlines
UPS Airlines is a major American cargo airline based in Louisville, Kentucky, US. One of the largest cargo airlines worldwide World's largest airlines#Scheduled freight tonne-kilometers (millions), in terms of freight volume flown, UPS Airlines f ...
,
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...
, and major commercial freight carriers.
The Dayton area also has several regional airports. The
Dayton–Wright Brothers Airport is a general aviation airport owned by the City of Dayton south of the central business district of Dayton on
Springboro Pike in
Miami Township. It serves as the
reliever airport for Dayton International Airport. The airport primarily serves corporate and personal aircraft users. The
Dahio Trotwood Airport, also known as Dayton-New Lebanon Airport, is a privately owned, public-use airport west of the central business district of Dayton. The
Moraine Airpark is a privately owned, public-use airport southwest of the city of Dayton.
Major highways
The Dayton region is primarily served by three interstates:
*
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...
runs north to south through the city of Dayton and many of Dayton's north and south suburbs, including Kettering and Centerville south of Dayton and Vandalia, Tipp City, and Troy north of Dayton.
*
Interstate 70
Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimo ...
is a major east–west interstate that runs through many of Dayton's east and west suburbs, including Huber Heights, Butler Township, Englewood, and Brookville, and intersects with I-75 in Vandalia, Ohio, just north of the city. This intersection of I-70 and I-75 is also known as "Freedom Veterans Crossroads", which was officially named by the
U.S. Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States a ...
in 2004. I-70 is the major route to the airport.
*
Interstate 675 is a partial interstate ring on the southeastern and eastern suburbs of Dayton. It runs northeast to south and connects to I-70 to the northeast and I-75 to the south.
Other major routes for the region include:
*
US 35 is a major limited access east–west highway that bisects the city. It is most widely used between
Drexel and
Xenia
Xenia may refer to:
People
* Xenia (name), a feminine given name; includes a list of people with this name
Places United States
''listed alphabetically by state''
* Xenia, Illinois, a village in Clay County
** Xenia Township, Clay County, Il ...
.
*
Route 40 is a major east–west highway that runs parallel to (and 2 miles north of) I-70
*
State Route 4 is a freeway that is most heavily traveled between I-75 and I-70.
*
State Route 444 is north–south
state highway
A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...
. Its southern terminus is at its interchange with Route 4, and its northern terminus is at
Interstate 675. This
limited-access road
A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, partial controlled-access highway, and expressway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which has many or most characteristics of a contro ...
serves Dayton and Fairborn and is a significant route to access points serving
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...
.
From 2010 through 2017, the
Ohio Department of Transportation
The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT; ) is the administrative department of the government of Ohio, Ohio state government responsible for developing and maintaining all state and U.S. roadways outside of municipalities and all List of In ...
(ODOT) performed a $533 million construction project to modify, reconstruct and widen I-75 through downtown Dayton, from Edwin C Moses Blvd. to Stanley Avenue.
Rail
Dayton hosts several inter-modal freight railroad terminals. Two
Class I railroads,
CSX
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...
and
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...
, operate switching yards in the city.
Formerly the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...
,
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...
and the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...
, and afterward,
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
made long-distance passenger train stops at
Dayton Union Station on S. Sixth Street. The last train leaving there was the ''
National Limited
The ''National Limited'' was the premier train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on its route between Jersey City, New Jersey, and St. Louis, Missouri, with major station stops in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, Ohio. (Buses took passeng ...
'' in October 1979.
Sister cities

Dayton's
sister cities
A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties.
While there ar ...
are:
*
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...
,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
*
Augsburg
Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
*
Holon
Holon (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. In , it had a population of , making it the List of cities in Israel, tenth most populous city in Isra ...
,
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
*
Monrovia
Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...
,
Liberia
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...
*
Ōiso
file:OISO.jpg, 260px, Ōiso Long Beach resort
is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 31,262 and a population density of 1820 persons per km². The total area of the town ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
*
Rushmoor
Rushmoor is a local government district with borough status in Hampshire, England. It covers the towns of Farnborough and Aldershot, the former of which is the location of the council.
The neighbouring districts are Hart, Surrey Heath, Guil ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
Notable people
See also
*
List of mayors of Dayton, Ohio
*
List of people from Dayton, Ohio
*
List of U.S. cities with large Black populations
This list of U.S. cities by black population covers all incorporated cities and Census-designated places with a population over 100,000 and a proportion of black residents over 30% in the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the te ...
*
National Aviation Hall of Fame
The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) is a museum, annual awards ceremony and learning and research center that was founded in 1962 as an Ohio non-profit corporation in Dayton, Ohio, United States, known as the "Birthplace of Aviation" with ...
*
Politics of Dayton, Ohio
*
USS ''Dayton'', 2 ships
*
''Delco Electronics'' Corporation
*
''National Cash Register'' Corporation
Explanatory notes
References
Further reading
* Conover, Charlotte Reeve. ''Dayton, Ohio : an intimate history'' (1995
online* Drury, Augustus Waldo. ''History of the City of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio'' (S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1909)
online* Funk, Nellis R. ''A Pictorial History of the Great Dayton Flood, March 25, 26, 27, 1913'' (1913
online a primary source
* Millsap, Adam. "How the Gem city lost its luster and how it can get it back: A case study of Dayton, Ohio." ''Mercatus Research Paper'' (2017)
online* Pocock, Emil. "Popular Roots of Jacksonian Democracy: The Case of Dayton, Ohio, 1815-1830." ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 9.4 (1989): 489–515
online* Sealander, Judith. ''Grand Plans: Business Progressivism and Social Change in Ohio's Miami Valley, 1890-1929'' (1988) on Dayton and surrounding region.
* Sharts, Joseph W. ''Biography Of Dayton - An Economic Interpretation of Local History'' (1922
online* Walker, John T. "Socialism in Dayton, Ohio, 1912 to 1925: Its membership, organization, and demise." ''Labor History'' 26.3 (1985): 384–404.
* Watras, Joseph. "The Racial Desegregation of Dayton, Ohio, Public Schools, 1966–2008." ''Ohio History'' 117.1 (2010): 93–107
online
External links
City websiteDayton Area Chamber of CommerceGreater Dayton CVB
{{Good article
1796 establishments in the Northwest Territory
Cities in Greene County, Ohio
Cities in Montgomery County, Ohio
Cities in Ohio
County seats in Ohio
Jonathan Dayton
Populated places established in 1796
Wright brothers
World War II Heritage Cities