'A fearfully grand spectacle’: The night an entire Dayton city block was consumed in flames

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The fire, on May 16, 1869, brought down the Turner Opera House, built in 1861 by brothers Joseph and William Turner,

The Opera House was the cultural center of Dayton, showcasing the entertainment of the day. Shakespearean plays, dramatic readings and shows filled with singing and dancing took center stage.

Credit: Lisa Powell

Credit: Lisa Powell

The Victorian structure housed an elegant auditorium and numerous retail shops with storefronts along Main Street. In the building’s basement was Lange’s billiard parlor and restaurant, known for its canned oysters.

A “tardy citizen,” up past midnight, spotted “a bright light shining through the oval-third floor window” and sounded an alarm just before the window exploded, according to Bruce and Virginia Ronald’s book, “Now Playing, An Informal History of the Victoria Theatre.”

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The fire was raging by the time firefighting apparatus arrived. A crowd gathered and volunteers stepped up to assist the firemen and residents of the building.

Henry Kette used a ladder to climb to the second floor and rouse a sleeping family while others awoken by smoke used decorative ironwork on the outside of the building to climb down to safety.

The roof collapsed sending flames “several hundred feet above the monster building, a fearfully grand spectacle, and the whole city was illuminated as if by sunlight,” according to a depiction in The Dayton Journal.

The elegant 1,300-seat theater, decorated in blue and gold with a 40 foot tall frescoed ceiling, was gone along with the underground restaurant.

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The fire continued to spread down the block. Sandmeier, the grocer, was pinned by a falling timber as he attempted to save goods from his store.

Two Dayton firefighters rushed in and unsuccessfully attempted to rescue him but barely escaped with their own lives before the walls caved in.

When the inferno was over only a portion of the facade was left standing. The final estimate of loss came in at $550,000. The Turner’s only had $125,000 in insurance coverage.

The following year a group of citizens and investors began to formulate plans for a new, fire-safe theater.

In 1871 the Music Hall, established by Dayton businessmen Col. Daniel E. Mead, his brother Charles and Thomas Babbitt, opened and returned the arts to downtown Dayton.