The History of the DeWeese-Ridgecrest Neighborhood
DeWeese-Ridgecrest, a wedge of land between the Stillwater River and North Dixie Drive, extending from Triangle Park and the Great Miami River on the south to Wegerzyn community garden land and Needmore Road to the north, is perhaps the most rural section remaining in the City. The paths, rivers and woods used today by citizens were first settled by the Paleo-lndians 14,000 years ago. The lands at the confluence of the Stillwater and Great Miami Rivers were camping and burial grounds of the Miami and Fort Ancient Indians long before white settlers arrived in 1776. The 1880’s levee excavations along the Steele Dam area yielded Indian artifacts dating back to 1500 A.D.
The turn of the twentieth century found the area still rustic and rural. A traction trolley ran from Dayton to Troy, bringing people to the area to enjoy picnicking, swimming and boating. Small cottages dotted the banks of the rivers. At that time, Ridge Avenue was known as Bessie Little Road. Bessie Little was murdered by her boyfriend, Albert Frantz, on the road’s bridge in 1896. Frantz was tried and convicted at the Court House in downtown Dayton in a trial that was a sensation. Denied clemency by Governor Asa B. Bushnell, Frantz died in the electric chair in 1897. As a result, the bridge became known as the "Bessie Little Bridge," and her ghost was said to haunt it. In 2011, actors with Dayton History recreated parts of the murder trial at the Old Court House. The iron bridge that was known as the “Bessie Little Bridge” was replaced in 1927 with a two-span steel girder bridge. This bridge was demolished in 2014 due to serious structural problems and was replaced. The newest Ridge Avenue Bridge opened in 2015.
The Edwin Best estate, Idlewild, occupied the triangle of land where the rivers met. Charles Kettering and Edward Deeds, two well-known Dayton inventors and industrialists, purchased a portion of the estate in 1916 as a recreational park for employees of their three factories. Renamed “Triangle Park,” the field next to Ridge Avenue (Howell Field today) was the home of the employees’ football team, the Dayton Triangles.
National Football League history began in Triangle Park when, on October 3, 1920, the first game of the American Professional Football Association was played there. The Triangles, a semi-pro team, hosted the Columbus Panhandles and the Triangles won 14-0. In 1922, the APFA became the NFL and had grown to 12 member teams. The Triangles traveled the country by train and played teams such as the Chicago Bears, the New York Giants, and the Green Bay Packers. Until 2012, the Triangles locker room remained in Triangle Park. The one-story wooden building was located in the parking lot adjacent to Howell Field and served as one of two locker rooms for games played at Triangle Park between the Dayton Triangles and their opponents. In 2012, the Triangles’ locker room was moved to its new home at Carillon Park where it has been renovated. At Carillon Park, the locker room will be well taken care of and become an important piece of an exhibit devoted to the history of sports in the Dayton region.
In 1917, 1,500 volunteer and 5,000 drafted men reported for WWI duty at Triangle Park. One of the groups was Battery D. The bridge over the Stillwater at Ridge Avenue is now the Battery D Memorial Bridge. Summer cabins and a few homes existed in the early 1900’s. The Stillwater Home Site Company began developing the area south of Siebenthaler as the Garden City Plat in the 1920’s. The land along DeWeese Parkway was home of the Triangle Gun Club. Fields near Drill Avenue were farmed, each turn of the plow unearthing many Indian arrowheads. In 1929 Evelyn DeWeese deeded two parcels of land now comprising DeWeese Park and Parkway to the City of Dayton with the stipulation it always be held for park purposes, and a park was created as a WPA project in 1932.
Our “ridge” starts at Triangle Park and extends to North Dixie Drive. In the early 1920’s Rollin DeWeese began developing the Fieldstone Plat north of Siebenthaler. Each lot carried a guarantee of enough stone to build a house. Spirea bushes and maple trees were placed between sidewalks and curbs. Stone pillars marked street entrances off Ridge Avenue. Wildlife abounded in the area. Birds, deer, and pheasant wandered into yards. Around 1926 the Siebenthaler Bridge was built. Horses and carts moved earth cut from a nearby hillside to build up the east approach. The Leland estate, completed in 1930 and home of the family who founded Leland Electric, later became the headquarters of Five Rivers MetroParks, an independent park system serving Dayton and Montgomery County. The home is once again a private residence. Five Rivers maintains the exceptional Wegerzyn Gardens MetroPark and Children’s Garden which are located in our neighborhood.
Many of the area’s pastoral qualities have been preserved. The Dayton Playhouse and Wegerzyn Gardens MetroPark now occupy the green corridor along the river. Ridgecrest Park, off Pinecrest Drive, offers a quiet neighborhood play area. People were drawn to the natural, rural, secluded area. Garden clubs were formed, winter sledding took place at the Howell Field hill, and summer swimming holes in the Stillwater River flourished. Around 1948 residents made the decision to annex to the City of Dayton. With the clustering of park land all around, including the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery and its adjacent nature preserve, there is little to rival it in the city as a neighborhood filled with green space and recreational facilities. Residents today are determined to retain this important character.
(Historical research courtesy of Ann Farnlacher, Ethel Hofferbert, Deanna Mellinger, Carl Woessner, and Ann Schenking)
The turn of the twentieth century found the area still rustic and rural. A traction trolley ran from Dayton to Troy, bringing people to the area to enjoy picnicking, swimming and boating. Small cottages dotted the banks of the rivers. At that time, Ridge Avenue was known as Bessie Little Road. Bessie Little was murdered by her boyfriend, Albert Frantz, on the road’s bridge in 1896. Frantz was tried and convicted at the Court House in downtown Dayton in a trial that was a sensation. Denied clemency by Governor Asa B. Bushnell, Frantz died in the electric chair in 1897. As a result, the bridge became known as the "Bessie Little Bridge," and her ghost was said to haunt it. In 2011, actors with Dayton History recreated parts of the murder trial at the Old Court House. The iron bridge that was known as the “Bessie Little Bridge” was replaced in 1927 with a two-span steel girder bridge. This bridge was demolished in 2014 due to serious structural problems and was replaced. The newest Ridge Avenue Bridge opened in 2015.
The Edwin Best estate, Idlewild, occupied the triangle of land where the rivers met. Charles Kettering and Edward Deeds, two well-known Dayton inventors and industrialists, purchased a portion of the estate in 1916 as a recreational park for employees of their three factories. Renamed “Triangle Park,” the field next to Ridge Avenue (Howell Field today) was the home of the employees’ football team, the Dayton Triangles.
National Football League history began in Triangle Park when, on October 3, 1920, the first game of the American Professional Football Association was played there. The Triangles, a semi-pro team, hosted the Columbus Panhandles and the Triangles won 14-0. In 1922, the APFA became the NFL and had grown to 12 member teams. The Triangles traveled the country by train and played teams such as the Chicago Bears, the New York Giants, and the Green Bay Packers. Until 2012, the Triangles locker room remained in Triangle Park. The one-story wooden building was located in the parking lot adjacent to Howell Field and served as one of two locker rooms for games played at Triangle Park between the Dayton Triangles and their opponents. In 2012, the Triangles’ locker room was moved to its new home at Carillon Park where it has been renovated. At Carillon Park, the locker room will be well taken care of and become an important piece of an exhibit devoted to the history of sports in the Dayton region.
In 1917, 1,500 volunteer and 5,000 drafted men reported for WWI duty at Triangle Park. One of the groups was Battery D. The bridge over the Stillwater at Ridge Avenue is now the Battery D Memorial Bridge. Summer cabins and a few homes existed in the early 1900’s. The Stillwater Home Site Company began developing the area south of Siebenthaler as the Garden City Plat in the 1920’s. The land along DeWeese Parkway was home of the Triangle Gun Club. Fields near Drill Avenue were farmed, each turn of the plow unearthing many Indian arrowheads. In 1929 Evelyn DeWeese deeded two parcels of land now comprising DeWeese Park and Parkway to the City of Dayton with the stipulation it always be held for park purposes, and a park was created as a WPA project in 1932.
Our “ridge” starts at Triangle Park and extends to North Dixie Drive. In the early 1920’s Rollin DeWeese began developing the Fieldstone Plat north of Siebenthaler. Each lot carried a guarantee of enough stone to build a house. Spirea bushes and maple trees were placed between sidewalks and curbs. Stone pillars marked street entrances off Ridge Avenue. Wildlife abounded in the area. Birds, deer, and pheasant wandered into yards. Around 1926 the Siebenthaler Bridge was built. Horses and carts moved earth cut from a nearby hillside to build up the east approach. The Leland estate, completed in 1930 and home of the family who founded Leland Electric, later became the headquarters of Five Rivers MetroParks, an independent park system serving Dayton and Montgomery County. The home is once again a private residence. Five Rivers maintains the exceptional Wegerzyn Gardens MetroPark and Children’s Garden which are located in our neighborhood.
Many of the area’s pastoral qualities have been preserved. The Dayton Playhouse and Wegerzyn Gardens MetroPark now occupy the green corridor along the river. Ridgecrest Park, off Pinecrest Drive, offers a quiet neighborhood play area. People were drawn to the natural, rural, secluded area. Garden clubs were formed, winter sledding took place at the Howell Field hill, and summer swimming holes in the Stillwater River flourished. Around 1948 residents made the decision to annex to the City of Dayton. With the clustering of park land all around, including the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery and its adjacent nature preserve, there is little to rival it in the city as a neighborhood filled with green space and recreational facilities. Residents today are determined to retain this important character.
(Historical research courtesy of Ann Farnlacher, Ethel Hofferbert, Deanna Mellinger, Carl Woessner, and Ann Schenking)