Oakwood, one neighborhood at a time

Ask where one Oakwood neighborhood ends and the next begins and you will get a shrug. The city does not draw formal districts. It describes itself instead as a community of interlocking, diverse neighborhoods, with schools, shops, churches, parks and services all within a few blocks. What gives each part its character is when it was built and what was there before, and the Oakwood Historical Society's maps of the old plats are the best key to that.

The simplest division is the one Far Hills Avenue makes as it runs north to south through the middle of the city. East of it the land was once flat farmland; west of it the ground was too rough to farm, so owners dug stone and gravel quarries instead. Those two pasts still shape the streets today.

The north end and Schantz Park

Oakwood began at its northern edge, closest to Dayton. Families built summer homes and then year-round houses along Oakwood Avenue in the 1880s, and when the streetcar line was electrified as far as Five Points in 1895, the north end filled in quickly. At its northern edge, Tastefully Roasted Coffee at 6 Oakwood Avenue has been a neighborhood coffee stop since 2017, with a drive-thru for the morning commute.

The heart of it is Schantz Park, platted in 1907 from Adam Schantz's estate. Its roughly 400 homes are listed together on the National Register of Historic Places, the only such district in the city, and the houses read like a catalogue of early twentieth century styles. The historical society points out that homes from the 1910s and the 1960s stand side by side here, the result of old estates and big lots being divided over time. A marker at the southeast corner of Oakwood and East Schantz avenues tells the district's story, and the society publishes a tour of its homes. Nearby on Walnut Lane, off Oakwood Avenue, is Smith Gardens, a small city garden first planted in the 1930s.

Park Avenue, the civic center

Where Park Avenue meets Far Hills sits the Tudor-style City Building at 30 Park Avenue, home to City Council, the municipal court and the public safety department. Park Avenue is also a small business street of its own. Ashley's Pastry Shop at 21 Park Avenue has been a family bakery since 1982, making custom cakes, donuts and its well-known sand tart cookies. The Little Exchange at 45 Park Avenue sells gifts and keeps wedding and baby registries, with proceeds going to Dayton Children's Hospital; a sidewalk marker out front recalls Oakwood's first free-standing public library. Lula Bell Whimsical Cards and Gifts at 23 Park Avenue sells cards with Amy Gantt's original artwork and boutique clothing, and Kubik Fine Books at 24 Park Avenue is an antiquarian bookseller. Walk a little farther and you reach Hawthorn Hill at Park and Harman avenues, the Wright family home finished in 1914.

The east side boulevards

East of Far Hills, the old farm ground was laid out in plats such as Park Hill in 1913 and Walter Shafor's Park Hill in 1915. Shafor Boulevard, with its landscaped median, is the spine of this side of town, and Far Hills, Triangle and Forrer avenues are boulevards too. This is Oakwood's everyday side: the Oakwood Community Center with its pool and tennis courts, Shafor Park, Mack Hummon Field and the junior and senior high schools, Edwin D. Smith Elementary, and the park on Orchard Drive with its playgrounds and shelter. Each fall the historical society lines Shafor between Corona and Wiltshire with Scarecrow Row.

The west side hills and Ridgeway Road

The west side is hillier and grander. Ridgeway Road was laid out by John Charles Olmsted for NCR president John H. Patterson, and its estates were built in the 1920s and 1930s for the region's business and civic leaders. Coolidge Drive follows the line of the sand and gravel quarries that supplied local building into the 1930s, including the Long-Romspert family's quarry. Near West Dixon Avenue and Runnymede Road stood the Runnymede Playhouse, the Talbott family's party house that became a secret wartime laboratory; houses fill the site now.

Far Hills and the south end

The commercial strip runs along Far Hills between East Drive and Peach Orchard Avenue, and many of its shops were built as houses. Blue Turtle Toys at 2314 Far Hills, between Peach Orchard and Triangle, has sold toys, books, games and puzzles since 1999 and still wraps gifts. The Oakwood Club at 2414 Far Hills has served steaks and seafood since 1962. Along the same stretch, The Oakwood Florist at 2313 has arranged flowers since 1950, the veteran-owned Jaffe Jewelers at 2419 handles new and estate jewelry and repairs, Get Dressed! Boutique at 2501 sells dresses, sweaters and handbags, and The Spicy Olive at 2510 lets shoppers taste olive oils and balsamic vinegars before they are bottled. At the south end, Dorothy Lane Market's Oakwood store at 2710 Far Hills, open since 1953, is the family grocer where much of the city does its weekly shop. On summer Saturdays the Oakwood Farmers' Market sets up on Orchard Drive behind the shops. The Long-Romspert House Museum at 1947 Far Hills, begun in 1863, is a reminder that this was farm country first.

Finding out more

There are no official neighborhood profiles, so the best guides are the City of Oakwood's maps page and its Get to Know Oakwood and New Residents pages, and the Oakwood Historical Society, whose website has the old plat maps, the Schantz Park tour and a printable self-guided tour of the city. Its December Holiday Home Tour opens a few Oakwood houses to visitors. For what is happening on your own street, The Oakwood Register comes out every Wednesday.