Century-old architectural photographs of Dayton made available to public by Wright State’s Special Collections and Archives

This bird’s eye view of Third and Main streets in downtown Dayton is part of a digitized collection of historical architectural photographs taken by prominent Dayton architect Louis J. P. Lott. The collection was digitized by Wright State University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives. (Photo courtesy of Special Collections and Archives)

Wright State University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives has made a digitized collection of hundreds of historical architectural photographs around Dayton available to the public.

The century-old collection of photographs was created by prominent Dayton architect Louis J. P Lott and donated to Wright State by the Dayton Art Institute in 2022.

Lott was born July 9, 1872, in Dayton to George and Louisa Lott. He studied architecture in Cologne, Germany, Munich Polytechnicum and Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris.

Lott practiced architecture in Dayton from 1901 to 1904 and in New York City from 1904 to 1909 before returning to Dayton in 1911. He is best remembered as the “master architect” of the Schantz Park neighborhood in Oakwood, where he designed no less than 16 homes.

An active member of the Dayton community, Lott taught at the Dayton Art Institute, served on the city planning board from 1914 to 1921, and was a member of the American Institute of Architects, Nomad Club, Torch Club, Civic Music League, Engineers Club of Dayton and Westminster Presbyterian Church.

When he died on Nov. 5, 1934, at his home in Dayton, Lott donated his entire architectural library to the Dayton Art Institute Library. Around 2016, the Dayton Art Institute was planning to downsize its research library and Wright State began negotiations to preserve 632 film negatives from the Lott collection.

Negatives were digitized for preservation, and about 200 are available on Wright State’s CORE Scholar at corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/sc381.

“All of the photographs believed to have been taken anywhere in the Dayton area, whether identified or not, were chosen for online access,” said Lisa P. Rickey, archivist and collections manager in the Special Collections and Archives. “Selected photos from Lott’s travels in Europe — mainly those that were able to be positively identified — were also chosen for online access.”

Images in the online gallery, including the downloadable files, have been reduced in size for online display purposes. Viewers interested in seeing the original high-resolution image file should email Special Collections and Archives at library-archives-ref@wright.edu and include the item identifier number listed underneath the photo.

Hundreds of century-old architectural negatives were preserved by Wright State University’s Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives and are now available to the public. (Photo courtesy of Special Collections and Archives)

The original negatives have been packed in sealed plastic enclosures and placed in freezers for long-term storage. The freezers are equipped with online monitoring so staff can be alerted if the freezer needs attention and are hooked up to the university’s backup generators in case of a power outage.

Special Collections and Archives collects, preserves, and provides access to primary sources that document the history of aviation, aviation technology, the legacy of the Wright brothers, local and regional history, and the history of Wright State.

The archives’ local history materials focus geographically on people, places, businesses and organizations in Auglaize, Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, Logan, Mercer, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Shelby counties.