The Kossuth Colony Historic District, named for

Lajos Kossuth Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (; ; ; ; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, politician, statesman and governor-president of the Kingdom of Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, r ...

, is a nationally recognized

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

bounded by Baltimore Street, Mack Avenue and Notre Dame Avenue in

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

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

. The Kossuth Colony was built in 1906 to house Hungarian immigrant workers for the

Barney and Smith Car Company Barney and Smith Car Company was a railroad car manufacturer in Dayton, Ohio. {{coord, 39.767096, -84.175273, display=title Founded in 1849 by Eliam Eliakim Barney and Ebenezer Thresher as Thresher, Packard & Company, it changed names as partne ...

, a rail car manufacturer that ranked among Dayton's largest and most venerable firms. Comparatively few changes have been made to the forty houses in the colony, although the houses' white

picket fence Picket fences are a type of fence often used decoratively for domestic boundaries, distinguished by their evenly spaced vertical boards, the ''pickets'', attached to horizontal rails. Picket fences are particularly popular in the United States, ...

s have been removed.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 2. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 1047. Many houses in the district are simple

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

-front residences with minimal setbacks, and

asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...

siding covers many exterior walls in the district.,

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

, 2007. Accessed 2013-11-10. On December 21, 1979, Kossuth Colony was added to the

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

; it qualified both as an important example of architecture and because of its connection to Jacob Doffee Moskowitz, the labor contractor who was responsible for bringing the Hungarians and constructing the complex. The colony has also been named a historic district by the city of Dayton; one of eighteen districts citywide, it is the only one located northeast of

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 ...

References

{{Neighborhoods of Dayton OH Hungarian-American history Hungarian-American culture in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Ohio Neighborhoods in Dayton, Ohio Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Company housing Barney and Smith Car Company

See also

References