University of Dayton Ghetto - History and Geography

History and Geography

The Ghetto is south of downtown Dayton but north of the city of Oakwood. The Great Miami River is just more than half a mile to the west, and Interstate 75 is just more than a mile to the west. In its current form, it is bounded by Brown Street to the west, Irving Avenue to the south, Trinity Avenue and Evanston Avenue to the east, and Caldwell Street and Stonemill Road to the north. This gives the area a roughly triangular shape.

The land on which the Ghetto now sits was owned by John Henry Patterson until the mid 1870s. The land was then divided between suburban housing lots to the east and the NCR factory to the west. The original proprietors of the neighborhood were Thomas S. Babbitt, Dr. Joseph E. Lowes, R. D. Hughes and Harry Kiefaber. The area was known as the town of Babbitt, and in its original form included only four streets: Lowes Street, Kiefaber Street, Hughes (now Stonemill Road) and Wead (now Lawnview Avenue). This core area was measured at 47 acres (190,000 m2).

The NCR Corporation used Babbitt as housing for its workers. In 1906, the area was annexed by the city of Dayton and continued on as a middle-class neighborhood. The University of Dayton, Babbitt's neighbor to the northeast, began to buy available houses in the neighborhood in the 1950s as an experiment in off-campus housing. By the 1970s, the student population of the area was growing rapidly.

While it is unknown when the area began its life as the Ghetto, there have been several efforts to rename it. In the 1960s, Rev. Norbert Burns, who taught at the university for 62 years before retiring in 2007 at the age of 82, was part of one such effort. His committee attempted to change the name to the "Village," an effort which ultimately failed. University administrators now refer to the area as the "South Student Neighborhood," though the phrase sees little use by the student population.