Dayton | Map, History, Population, & Facts (2024)

Ohio, United States

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Dayton, city, seat (1803) of Montgomery county, southwestern Ohio, U.S., located 54 miles (87 km) northeast of Cincinnati, on a low floodplain of the Great Miami River, at the confluence of the Stillwater and Mad rivers and Wolf Creek. It is the heart of a metropolitan area that includes the cities of Kettering, Miamisburg, Xenia, Fairborn, Oakwood, Centerville, Beavercreek, and Vandalia.

Following the peace treaty with the Shawnee Indians, signed at Greenville (1795), the area was opened to white settlement. The town was laid out by a group of Revolutionary War veterans, including Jonathan Dayton from New Jersey, for whom it was named. It developed as a river port for the shipment of agricultural produce, mainly to New Orleans. The opening of the Miami and Erie Canal, from Dayton to Cincinnati, in 1829, and the arrival in 1851 of a railroad to Springfield stimulated Dayton’s commercial and industrial growth. The town became the home of the cash register after the mechanical money drawer was invented there in 1879 by James Ritty and perfected by John Henry Patterson in the 1880s. In addition, the automobile self-starter was developed there by Charles F. Kettering, who, along with Edward A. Deeds, also produced ignition systems and electric lighting equipment for farms. In 1892 Wilbur and Orville Wright opened their bicycle repair shop in Dayton, where they conducted experiments that led to the first sustained and controlled flight of a powered airplane, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903; a monolith has been erected in memory of the brothers, who are buried in the city’s Woodland Cemetery.

In 1913 the most disastrous of a series of floods occurred in the area. After this, the Miami Conservancy District, a comprehensive flood-control project, was created. Dayton experienced the suburbanization typical of many North American cities after World War II; the central city lost residents and businesses while the metropolitan area grew overall. By the 1990s, efforts to revitalize the city centre had succeeded in bringing new commercial and residential development to the city.

Dayton is now the heart of a large diversified urban complex and a market and distribution centre for a fertile agricultural region. It is also a national aviation centre, stemming from the establishment of experimental aviation laboratories during World Wars I and II and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (1946), with its modern aviation complex, Air Force Institute of Technology (1947), and museum (1935; moved to current site 1971). Manufactures include auto parts and equipment, steel and aluminum products, machine tools, refrigerators, air conditioners, computers, office equipment, printing presses, and plastics.

Within the metropolitan area are the University of Dayton (Roman Catholic; 1850), Wright State University (1967), the United Theological Seminary (United Methodist; 1871), Sinclair Community College (1887), and Miami-Jacobs (junior) Career College (1860). Dayton has an art institute, a museum of natural history, and a symphony orchestra. The Dayton home of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) is preserved as a state memorial and museum; the city’s Greek Revival-style Old Courthouse (1850) now houses the Montgomery County Historical Society museum. Recreational facilities include Carillon Park, noted for concerts and historical exhibits (including a replica of the Wright Brothers bicycle shop). The Miamisburg Mound, one of the largest conical earthworks built by the prehistoric Adena culture (with a height of 65 feet [20 metres] and a circumference of 877 feet [267 metres]), is located just southwest of the city. Inc. town, 1805; city, 1841. Pop. (2010) 141,527; Dayton Metro Area, 841,502; (2020) 137,644; Dayton-Kettering Metro Area, 814,049.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by World Data Editors.

Dayton | Map, History, Population, & Facts (2024)

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What is the history of Dayton? ›

History. Dayton was founded on April 1, 1796, by 12 settlers known as the Thompson Party. They traveled in March from Cincinnati up the Great Miami River by pirogue and landed at what is now St. Clair Street, where they found two small camps of Native Americans.

Is Dayton bigger than Cincinnati? ›

With a population of 799,232, the Dayton metropolitan area is the fourth largest in the nation's 7th most populous state, according to the State of Ohio. It is behind Cleveland (2,077,240), Columbus (1,901,974) and Cincinnati (1,675, 406).

Why is Dayton called the gem city? ›

The 1845 article states: “In a small bend of the Great Miami River, with canals on the east and south, it can be fairly said, without infringing on the rights of others, that Dayton is the gem of all our interior towns. It possesses wealth, refinement, enterprise, and a beautiful country, beautifully developed.”

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Who were the first settlers in Dayton Ohio? ›

Dayton was founded on April 1, 1796, seven years before the admission of Ohio to the Union in early 1803, by a group of 12 settlers known as "The Thompson Party." They traveled in March from Cincinnati up the Great Miami River by pirogue and landed at what is now St.

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Is Dayton, Ohio coming back? ›

Dayton has made great strides in “coming back” after the disaster of the departures of General Motors, Delco, Frigidaire and NCR. The Fuyao plant in Moraine is booming (though management is questionable), and no one can deny thousands of jobs have sprung from it.

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Why was Dayton so susceptible to the opioid crisis? ›

Socioeconomic problems and a pessimism for improvement in life circ*mstances were certainly key factors in drug abuse in Dayton, a high-output manufacturing city, where the economy died fairly quickly starting in the early 1970s,7 leading to high unemployment. This was a fertile environment for drug abuse to increase.

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What is the history of the name Dayton? ›

Dayton is a masculine name of British origin and means “ditch town.” Dayton comes from the Old English monikers Distone and Deighton and is a popular name for towns throughout England. These would usually be settlements with a ditch or moat surrounding them for protection. There's also a city called Dayton in Ohio.

Why is Dayton important? ›

It is a hotbed for fine arts, ranked among the very best in the nation. It is the epicenter of international aviation and aerospace. It is home to bountiful and well-maintained parks and rivers. It is the virtual center of commerce in America.

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Why is Dayton named Dayton? ›

The city of Dayton, Ohio, was named after him. While he never visited the area, he was a signatory to the Constitution and, at the time the city of Dayton was established in 1796, he owned (in partnership with Arthur St. Clair, James Wilkinson and Israel Ludlow) 250,000 acres (1,011 km²) in the Great Miami River basin.

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