Built in 1883 in the Romanesque Revival architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1978. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“Kuhns Building is a historic commercial building on Main Street in downtown Dayton, Ohio, United States. Distinguished by its little-modified late nineteenth-century architecture, it has been named a historic site.”
Wikipedia article Benjamin F. Kuhns Building, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 117 National Register listings in Montgomery County · listed in 1978 · category: Building · built in 1883, Romanesque Revival architecture · one of 4 National Historic Landmarks in Montgomery County.
National Register reference number.78002146- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Dayton city, The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
A Typical Frontier Vavern - Daytou Contained Nine Dwellings in 1799- - Several Roads Opened--Monument Avenue Cleared--Main Street a Narrow Wagon Road - Settlements Few and Far Between - Hardships of Pioneer Life--Tidian War Apprehended - Block House Built - Schooi Opened in the Block House- - First Distillery Started - Cooper's Saw Mill - Corn Cracker - Hogs Introduced - Feed on Mast - Attacked by Wild Animals--First Flat Boat Launched-Sheep Introduced - Cost of Groceries at Cinciunati - Little Money jin Circulation - Business Conducted by Barter - Value of Diffsrent Kinds of Skins--Cut Money - McDougal's Store - Trade with the Indians - First Child Boro in Dayton - Taxation in 1800 - First Wedding - Census in 1801 - First Miuister - - Methodists - Presbyterians--Log Meeting House - First Grave Yard - - Jobn W.
During the winter of 1796-97, Dayton Township and other township, were formed, making eleven in all in the county, viz., Cincinnati, Columbi; Miami, Anderson. Iron Ridge, South Bend, Colerain, Springfield, Fairfiel Deerfield and Dayton. Fairfield Township included the territory east of tl Big Miami, now in Butler County. Deerfield Township included the territoi west of the Little Miami, now in Warren County, and that part of Montgon irj County between the Miami Rivers south of the north line of the fifth range )f" townships. Dayton Township was bounded as follows: Beginning at a point >n the east bank of the Big Miami, where it was intersected by the north line )f the fifth range of townships; thence up that river in all its meanderings to he Indian boundary-lino, at a point where said river crossed the said Indian boundary -line, in Section 18, Township 2, in the fom-teenth range of townships, between the Miamis; thence along said line to Ludlow's line, and down that ine to the southeast corner of Section 5, Township 6, in the eighth range of townships between the Miamis, where was a branch of the Little Miami River; hence down the river to the north line of the fifth range of townships; thence (vest with said line to the place of beginning. The township thus described infiuded within its limits territory that now forms portions of the counties of Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark, Champaign, Logan and Shelby. All of Wayne, Mad River and Van Buren, with parts of Washington, Dayton and Miimi Townships, of Montgomery County, as at present formed, were in Dayton Township.
The Commissioners of Hamilton County, on the 10th of June, 1797, at a neeting held at the Mansion House, of Seth Cutter's, in Cincinnati, appointed Assessors and Collectors for the several townships. James Brady was made Issessor, and John Kitchell, Collector, of Dayton Township. John Kitchell, 'ailing to qualify, Calvin Morrill, was, on the 25th of August, appointed in his lead, and Cyrus Osborn was appointed Constable of Dayton Township. Constables made returns of persons and property to the Assessors, who made the iists and assessments, that were placed in the hands of the Township Collectors for collection. The Commissioners and Assessors jointly controlled the disbursenents, making regular reports to the County Court. The reports of assessments ind collections for Dayton Township for this year, were lost in transit, between Dayton and Cincinnati ; the Clerk was ordered to forward duplicates, and Collector Morrill was directed to make return by the 15th of January, 1798. There vere sixteen delinquents in the township, and the Collector made final return, fight of them non est, seven satisfied and one lost. After the lists were returned each year, the Commissioners and Assessors met as a Court of Appeals, to hear appeals against assessments. The following orders show the amount of fees paid to these first officers.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 998 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Kuhns, Benjamin F., Building between 1835 and
1975: 837 Animalia, 90 Plantae, 59 Fungi, 4 Protozoa, 4 Unrecorded, 4 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A JOHN, A JOHN AND W E DUELLMAN, A. E. Foeerste and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
15 workings within 5 miles of Kuhns, Benjamin F., Building: 10 past producers, 5 producers.
5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Dayton, the town this property stands in, in 74 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 41 thunderstorm wind, 15 hail, 8 flash flood, 7 flood.
The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
A University of Dayton student, Sean Ferguson, 23 of Pittsburgh, was struck by lightning as he ran across university parking lot C. The student was hospitalized with serious burns and a broken jaw.
Thunderstorms winds measured by spotters as high as 72 mph downed numerous trees, many of which fell on cars and blew on to and into homes. A construction trailer was severely damaged and some businesses received damage.
A roof was blown off of a residence in East Dayton as well as several utility poles that were snapped in half. Numerous trees were down in the vicinity of Glenrock Road and East Fifth Street. Several trees landed on parked automobiles and garages.
Large limbs were reported broken. A large tree was uprooted. Numerous large tree limbs were down in the road. These occurrences were due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
A car was stranded on Keowee Street under State Route 4 due to high water. Three feet of water was also reported on Webster Street at the underpass of State Route 4.
Numerous roads were flooded throughout the Dayton metropolitan area. A man had to be rescued when he drove his car into a flooded retention pond near the Dayton Mall.
8 papers published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 0 issues,
0 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
2,094 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
of the Fourth Street facade(south), while violated, has major components pre- served and more may be hidden behind modern facings. The upper levels, above the stone commercial cornice, are in an excellent state of preservation. A tower above the facade was destroyed by fire in 1945. The building is constructed of pressed brick with a profusion of terra cotta ornamentation. The five bay Main Street facade has a slightly advancing central bay, the second level of which frames a stone trimmed mullion window on the second floor and an 1883 date cartouche overhead. An arch above contains a complexity of windowsthat paired brackets, dentils and a brick frieze with texture panels. bays are surmounted dith a one bay tower with two story arch, ailerons over decorated tympanum.
bays and a stone cornice which bands the ground level. The arcaded bays match the brackets and has a foliated tympanum.
CONDITION UNEXPOSED EXCELLENT DETERIORATED RUINS DESCRIPTION UNALTERED GOOD The Kuhns Building is a commercial Romanesque structure sitting on a rectangular XORIGINAL SITE CHECK ONE access facing east on Main Street in the commercial core of Dayton.The commer- cial front below the stone cornice has been totally renovated.The ground level gable and shed.The large gable wall dormer hasa raking dentiled boxed cornice windows are flanked by arched windows in lesser scale that have textured panels levelsof paired mullion windows with decorated spandrel and a third of triple site at the northwest corner of Fourth and Main Streets with the principle the right (east), two bays under a decorative gable dormer and three arcaded bays Main Street facade.
The gabled segment has two parts defined by piers with two mullions. Below the upper belt course are foliated panels. The dormers alternate have piers supporting terra cotta imposts. Each arch has a scrolled keystone spandrels.
The Kuhns Building is an outstanding example of:late nineteenth century brick commercial architecture. It is a distinguished building with strong popular. emotional attachments aa part of the downtown scene. The Dayton architectural firm of Peters and Burns designed the building. It is believed that partner Luther Peters was the principal designer. The contracting firm, Beaver and Butt, was a major contractor in Dayton throughout the second half Benjamin Kuhns was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1825 and died in Dayton in He entered into the farm implement business at Delaware City, Delaware era Dayton was second only to Chicago as a center of farm implements. Mr. Kuhns was noted for his public spirit. He was a prime mover in securing the site of the Soldier's Home for Dayton.
He was a founder of Miami Valley Hospital 1600-1699 1700-1799 LAW EDUCATION COMMERCE PERIOD MILITARY ART TRANSPORTATION AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY LITERATURE INVENTION _COMMUNICATIONS _EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT _PREHISTORIC ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC _PHILOSOPHY XARCHITECTURE _POLITICS/GOVERNMENT _ENGINEERING _RELIGION and was considered a philanthropist. of the nineteenth century.Two well-remembered businesses located on the main -SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN _1400-1499 THEATER _1900- - MUSIC floor of this building were Cohen's "Manhattan Clothing Store" in the 1890's, and reported to be the first major American office building to install a mail chute. Wensthoff and Gat into one of Dayton's most noted implement manufacturers, The Farmer's Friend Mfg.Co.,which specialized in grain drills and harrows.In this 9
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 78002146, 19 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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