The University of Dayton has begun work on the demolition of NCR Building 26 (click here), a site with a unique and powerful connection to the Allied cause during World War II. There, in the middle of Ohio, a codebreaking machine was developed that broke Nazi ciphers and expedited the end of the war.

Despite efforts from a wide range of supporters, including Congressman Michael Turner and Preservation Dayton, the University is nevertheless proceeding with demolition. Key in that decision was a finding by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office that the building would not qualify for the National Register of Historic Places due to extensive and incompatible alterations in the intervening years. A letter from the OHPO, however, as well as from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and others, encouraged preservation of the landmark, stating that the importance of the building to national history outweighed the possible lack of remaining architectural features.

Ironically, a university based that claims to be dedicated to honoring that history will instead be depriving its students and others from experiencing it first-hand, and instead relegating it to an “interactive display” elsewhere in Dayton. Click here for various comments on this loss, and here for the official University of Dayton explanation.

Pictures from the demolition are included in the Feature Box on the left, as long as they remain in the Clipmarks loop.

Photo: Enigma machine, code machine used by German forces during World War II - tim_flickr/Creative Commons License