Friends to Save the Arcade, the grassroots organization that is working feverishly to identify and promote a future for the landmark Dayton Arcade, has announced plans for two important events in the coming weeks.

On August 30, the group plans to lead a public rally of support on Dayton’s Courthouse Square. The event will feature entertainment and speakers explaining the importance of the Arcade to Downtown Dayton and its redevelopment potential. Then, on September 14, the group has secured permission to actually offer guided tours of the site, including the Arcade’s famed soaring glass-ceilinged atrium – an event identified on the group’s website as “…an extremely rare occurrence.” Click here to access the Friends to Save the Arcade website and for details on these events.

The Dayton Arcade, which closed in the 1980s and has been vacant since 1991, is one of the most important examples of a shopping venue constructed in many Ohio communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is actually composed of several interlocking structures built between 1902 and 1908. Like its well-known cousin in Cleveland, the Arcade was an early “mixed-use” development, and included retail, office and residential components. Click here to view an amazingly detailed chronicle of the history of the Arcade Buildings.

The Dayton Arcade has been included on the List of Ohio’s Most Endangered Historic Sites since 2005.

Photo: Third Street Arcade entrance, Downtown Dayton - OZinOH/Creative Commons License