Page 57 - A Flood of Memories

Dayton:
Reibold and Kuhns buildings
Above: The Reibold Building, at left, located on the southwest corner of Main and Fourth streets was named for the developer, Louis Napoleon Reibold, and has housed a department store and of ces. The Reibold Building was constructed in three phases: the center section in 1896, the South Annex in 1904 and the North Annex in 1914. Otis Elevator Company installed four escalators in 1934, the rst ones in Dayton. The Reibold Building was Dayton’s tallest from 1896 until 1904, when the Centre City Building, then known as the United Brethren Building, was completed. The Reibold Building façade has been updated several times since the 1960s, including a recent makeover.
The Kuhns Building on the northwest corner of Main and West Fourth streets originally was constructed in 1883 for retail and mercantile operations. It was one of the rst of ce buildings in the U.S. to have a mail chute.
Below: Today the Reibold Building houses many Montgomery County of ces. A major renovation and addition of an 11-level parking structure was completed in late 2002. The Kuhns Building was restored in 1980 as part of the Arcade block renovation and again in the early 2000s.
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