Sculpture welcomes people to Vinegar Hill

Artwork a reminder of neighborhood’s history.

Pam Dillon The new Vinegar Hill Sculpture at Fifth and Henry Street. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

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By Pamela Dillon, Contributing Columnist 4:15 PM Saturday, July 2, 2011

DAYTON — It’s appropriate that the embellished bracket, part of the new “Vinegar Hill” sculpture near the southeast corner of Fifth and Henry streets, is a bright apple red. Also fitting, the bracket is attached to a dark-green pole that matches a newly painted building behind.

The orchards that were part of the Fifth Street landscape in 1834 were covered with green trees dotted with red apples.

There used to be a very strong vinegar odor from those orchards just east of Keowee Street. The new “Vinegar Hill” sculpture, about 160 pounds of steel, serves to remind visitors to the St. Anne’s Historic District of that fact.

Nationally known sculptor Hamilton Dixon created the eye-catching marker with the help of 19-year-old Bakumba “BK” Elias and K12 Gallery for Young People students Tom Brotherton, Edward Finnicum and Cleveland Sumerlin.

“Wow, the sculpture looks great. It’s a good feeling that people will see my artwork,” said Elias, a Stivers School for the Arts grad who will attend Cowan University in Australia.

It’s sculpted in a recognizable Ham Dixon style with bold geometrics and curved flourishes. The bracket itself holds five gradually larger steel disks; the biggest one is embellished with a round decal. The white vinyl decal sports an apple tree design created by Elias and produced by Digital Fringe.

“It was awesome to work with the teens. They were very interested in learning what we had to do. They did the texturing of the stainless steel disks,” Dixon said. “There’s no real symbolism in the sculpture; it’s just a nice design in a flowing, arborlike way.”

The green building next to the sculpture was an operating bar seven years ago called the American Saloon. It closed down, and through the years the abandoned building had become an eyesore in the neighborhood. Brian Young put together an investment group, 1600 Group LLC, to purchase the neglected building with the land and smaller structure beside it.

“We bought the building at the end of October last year and hired a painting crew. We are looking for more investors to finish the inside,” said 1600 Group member Joe Dierkers, who is restoring an 1853 house the next street over. “We’re hoping someone will start a restaurant or a tavern for a neighborhood gathering place.”

The “Vinegar Hill” sculpture was sponsored by the Dayton Foundation, Vectren Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council.

“We started with the Neighborhood Association trying to clean up this Fifth Street entry point,” K12 Gallery founder Jerri Stanard said. “So many of the houses are beautiful and historic, it’s been a real concentrated effort to clean up this main artery into our neighborhood.”

Contact contributing arts writer Pamela Dillon at pamdillon@woh.rr.com.

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