Breakfast Club returns... sort of

It has just been announced that the owners of the Fairway Inn Restaurant at Kitty Hawk Golf Course have plans to reopen the Breakfast Club - the very popular breakfast joint on South Main just south of Downtown Dayton.  According to WDTN, the new owners plan to keep things close to the same, with some added signature items.  Unfortunately because the previous owners still own the name (and another restaurant by the same name in Lebanon), this downtown staple will have a new name.  Don't worry, Tanks - we won't be replacing you as our favorite spot for Sunday breakfast - there is room for more than one!

Great News for Old North Dayton!

Here is some good news for the Old North Dayton community and historic preservation folks who would like to see the Duncarrick Mansion be brought back to its original glory... not to mention a huge win for the Dayton Corps of the Salvation Army - who will be receiving about $66 million from the Ray & Joan Kroc foundation to build a new community center and completely rehab this spectacular piece of Dayton's architectural history.

 

Dayton Daily News

By Margo Rutledge Kissell

Link: Salvation Army nears $7.5 million goal for community center.

The Dayton Corps of the Salvation Army is trying to raise the final $200,000 in its $7.5 million fundraising campaign for a Kroc Community Center.

...Duperree said an Oct. 7 ground-breaking ceremony has been set and the campus is slated to open in May 2009.

The center will have a strong educational component including an early childhood center and a technology cafe. It also will feature a worship center, food pantry, movie theater, dance studio, piano lab, athletic fields and banquet center. It will be open to everyone and no membership will be charged, Duperree said.

UPDATE: Jerry Bowling from the McCook Field neighborhood contacted us to let us know that the Kroc Community Center is in fact in the McCook Field neighborhood, not Old North Dayton.  Sorry for the mixup (I was close but no cigar!)

Oregon Stories - Tonight on ThinkTV

If you haven't had a chance to see the local documentary "Oregon Stories", you'll have a chance to see it at home tonight (8/2/2007) on ThinkTV Channel 16 at 8pm.  This inspirational story about the history of Dayton's first historic district shows what it looked like in the late 1800's when it was first built, the steady decline in the first half of the 1900's, and finally the revival of this unique neighborhood from a desolate no-man's land (that came close to being bulldozed) to a charming and eclectic urban neighborhood that stands today.  Even if you have heard stories about the enormous work that was put into saving this neighborhood by the city's first "urban pioneers", you will still be shocked when you see exactly how enormous the challenge was. 
As a new "urban pioneer" (will they still be calling us that 30 years from now?), I was reminded by this film of the value that a true community brings.  And at least for me, it is that feeling of community that I find the most appealing about living in an urban neighborhood.  Check out the film tonight if you can, and if not then be sure to visit Gem City Records and pick up the DVD.