Dayton Dealing With An Arsonist Who Is Burning Historical Monuments!

Dayton's iconic Traxler mansion gone.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was making such a fuss about New York City crime. However, in his state of Ohio, his district which includes parts of Columbus, there is high crime. In Dayton, a rust belt city that is represented by Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) and Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH), two historical buildings were torched. 

Coincidence or nah?

The very fact that two buildings with significant historical value were burned this year means that someone in the area is a serial arsonist. They decided to torch Dayton's historical monuments. 

I heard on the news that the Traxler mansion was burned to the ground. That building has been a staple of the Dayton View neighborhood for over 100 years. The mansion once held the Dayton Philharmonic performances in the past. It was an endangered preservation.

"We're heartbroken it was so close to being saved. For several years, PDI has been monitoring the building, getting it re-boarded, and ushering it through the tax foreclosure process. We had viable buyers lined up, and it was scheduled to be sold at sheriff's sale on May 4th," said Preservation Dayton.

Louis Traxler was born in Austria in 1864. The family moved to the United States in 1883. After a brief residence in Pennsylvania and Indiana, Traxler came to Dayton in 1899. He began his own mercantile business, which prospered and grew. Louis Traxler purchased the property in 1909. In 1911, the Traxler family moved into the large two-story stone house where they remained until 1929.

The house and property were sold to David Pickrell, Jr. in 1929. Pickrell was the owner of the Pickrell Plumbing Company and also the president of the North Dayton Savings Bank.

In 1932, the house was sold to Lillian Baker, whose husband, Frank R. Baker, was a salesman. Frank Baker later opened his own restaurant in downtown Dayton.

Wright Aviation Company was burned down.

During the war, the house was divided into apartments. In 1941, it became a boarding house and divided into 22 apartments. 

When the home was put up for auction in 1977, Dayton attorney Gerald Callahan bought it for $34,000 and restored it at a cost of $150,000. Callahan lived in the house for several years, but sold to Centerville physician Virginia Stull.

Stull then sold the property to Rev. William & Doris Moore in 1990, who have owned the property since that time.

The house was selected as a Dayton Philharmonic Show House in 1991, and was selected as one of Ohio's Most Endangered Properties by Preservation Ohio in 2019 and again in 2022.

This comes a month after an arsonist started fire to the Wright Aviation Factory in Dayton's Westwood neighborhood.

The Wright Company Factory was under development by its owner, the city of Dayton, and other groups that sought to preserve its history. The building complex includes two buildings that the Wright brothers erected in 1910 and 1911, which made up the first factory in the United States built for airplane manufacturing, as well as newer buildings.