Oakwood's history, told through the places you can still visit

Oakwood's history is unusually easy to visit. A small city on the hill south of Dayton, it kept many of the buildings that tell its story, and the people who care about that story run tours, put up markers and open their doors each year.

From farms and quarries to a city on the hill

The written record of the land begins in 1804, when Colonel Robert Patterson bought ground along the river south of Dayton and set up a homestead, farm and mill in what is now northern Oakwood. By 1822 ten taxpayers owned land here. The flat east side was farmed; the rougher west side was quarried for stone and gravel.

In 1872 four men platted a settlement called Oakwood with 94 lots, but few homes followed and the plan stalled. Growth came with the streetcar, which reached Five Points in 1895, and with John H. Patterson, the founder of NCR, who shaped much of early Oakwood: he created Hills and Dales Park, opened the Sugar Camp training grounds along today's West Schantz Avenue in 1893, published the first local newspaper and helped found the club that became the Oakwood Community Center. Oakwood incorporated as a village in 1908 with 67 homes. After the 1913 flood swamped low-lying Dayton, its high ground became a selling point, and it was a city by 1931. Many of the more than 3,000 homes standing today went up in the boom of the 1920s and 1930s.

Landmarks you can visit

The Long-Romspert House Museum, 1947 Far Hills Avenue. Henry Long began this farmhouse in 1863 with brick from a kiln on Peach Orchard Avenue, and one family lived in it until Ethel Romspert left it to the Oakwood Historical Society in 1985. Its 17 rooms pair an Italianate farmhouse with a 1920s Arts and Crafts addition, and behind it is a summer kitchen with a working water pump and an open-hearth fireplace. Regular tours run on the second and fourth Sundays from May into November; in winter the house is open by appointment, and the society expects tours to return around May 2027.

Hawthorn Hill, Park and Harman avenues. Orville Wright moved here with his sister Katharine and their father, Bishop Milton Wright, when the house was finished in 1914; Wilbur had helped plan it but died in 1912. Orville lived here until 1948, and the house later became NCR's guesthouse. A National Historic Landmark and part of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, it is owned by Dayton History, which runs guided tours on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tours start at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, with a shuttle to the house, and advance admission is required.

Wright Memorial Public Library, 1776 Far Hills Avenue. Orville sat on the library board in the 1930s and gave to the campaign for the bond issue voters passed in 1937. The Tudor Revival building by the Dayton firm Schenck and Williams opened in February 1939 in Katharine Wright Park, and portraits of Orville, Wilbur and Katharine hang in the south reading room. Its front looks much as it did in 1939, and it joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Schantz Park Historic District. Around 400 homes on the city's north side are listed together on the National Register, the only such district in Oakwood. A marker at the southeast corner of Oakwood and East Schantz avenues introduces it.

Some of the history lives in everyday places too. The Little Exchange, a gift shop at 45 Park Avenue whose proceeds go to Dayton Children's Hospital, stands where a sidewalk marker recalls Oakwood's first free-standing public library. Around the corner at 21 Park Avenue, Ashley's Pastry Shop has been baking as a family business since 1982, and at 24 Park Avenue Kubik Fine Books deals in antiquarian books. Out on Far Hills, The Oakwood Florist at 2313 has been arranging flowers since 1950.

Markers and the history you can't see

The historical society and the city have put up markers where the buildings are gone: at the City Building, 30 Park Avenue, for the first homes of 1872; along Kramer Road for William Kramer's nineteenth century wine and pleasure gardens; and near Far Hills and Hilltop for the Four Mile Tavern, demolished around 1912. Near West Dixon Avenue and Runnymede Road stood the Runnymede Playhouse, a 1927 party house on the Talbott estate that became Unit IV of the Dayton Project during World War II, where nearly 90 people worked on polonium for atomic weapons. It was taken down in 1950, and houses stand there now.

Traditions that carry the story

Oakwood's traditions are mostly neighborly ones. On a Sunday evening in early December the city's Holiday of Lights gathers families at the Shafor Park shelter, and in December the historical society's Holiday Home Tour opens Oakwood houses to visitors. In fall the society lines Shafor Boulevard between Corona and Wiltshire with Scarecrow Row. The annual Ice Cream Social at Shafor Park opens the school year. In 2026 the city added something new: in January City Council made Oakwood an official America 250 community, with a committee drawn from the city, the historical society, the library and Green Oakwood.

Where to learn more

The Oakwood Historical Society's website has a brief history, old plat maps, a list of its markers and a printable self-guided tour that takes in Hawthorn Hill, Smith Gardens, Schantz Park, Ridgeway Road and the Far Hills shops. With the Wright Library it runs the Far Hills Speaker Series of local history talks; the fall 2026 series included a talk on the WAVES, the Navy women who stayed at Sugar Camp during World War II. The city's own history page links to the documentary Oakwood: Our Home on the Hill.