DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — After a dozen years of looking and shopping, the Dayton Theatre Guild has found a new home.

The region's oldest community theater is buying the Dayton Gym Club, 430 Wayne Ave. at Hugo Street, in the Oregon District.

Theater board members and officials of the private club, one of the oldest fraternal organizations in southwest Ohio, said they wouldn't disclose the purchase price until the deal becomes final Aug. 14.

But Guild president Carol Finley said the theater would be able to acquire and renovate the 20,000-square-foot brick building for less than the $1.3 million it would have cost to complete a previously planned new structure on a lot at Fourth and Jefferson streets the nonprofit organization purchased five years ago.

As of Wednesday, Aug. 6, a sign posted there still read, "Future Home of the Dayton Theatre Guild."

During a walk-through of the Gym Club, Finley said, "This has everything we need, including a parking lot and rest rooms."

The Gym Club was built in 1952 for a club that has been in the neighborhood since 1887. Its membership has dwindled from 1,700 to 116.

Club representative Tim Harker said members will vote Sunday, Aug. 10, on whether to keep the club going and whether to seek a new location. He said the sale to the Theatre Guild had wide support as "a good match for the neighborhood."

Word was already out there when Guild officers arrived to announce their plans during a lunch at Coco's Restaurant across Wayne Avenue from the club. The server who led them to their table told them, "Congratulations on your new home!"

Founded in 1945, the Theatre Guild has produced plays in a 2,700-square-foot former post office on Salem Avenue since 1963. It began looking for a larger and more central location more than a decade ago. In 1997, it bid on the former Junior Achievement headquarters on Second Street in downtown Dayton, but rescinded that offer after learning it would cost an additional $235,000 to remove a pillar in the middle of the main floor.

Since then, Finley, outgoing president Greg Smith and board member Debra Kent said the group has looked at more than 50 buildings and tried to buy at least two: a structure on South Ludlow Street that Chaminade-Julienne High School acquired with a higher bid and turned into a parking lot and the former Foundry nightclub on Wyandot Street.

Plans to build at Fourth and Jefferson were stalled by rising construction costs. Fund raisers collected $730,000 over several years. "In the meantime, we kept looking," Finley said. "We walked through the Dayton Gym Club for the first time on July 4 and knew right away it had everything."

"We'll be able to build, rehearse and mount a show at the same time on one level here," Smith said. "There's parking, air conditioning, plenty of storage space and the potential to rent the facility for meetings and other uses. We'll still need to raise $200,000 to $300,000 to convert it for our uses. First priority will be to make it accessible for the handicapped."

A basketball court with 20-foot ceilings dominates the main floor. Frescoes of athletes adorn the front of the building. The basement has a bar, kitchen facilities and locker rooms.

The Guild hopes to begin producing shows there as early as January 2009, but no later than the start of the 2009-10 season next fall.

There will a season preview and open house in the new location Aug. 23. For more information, call the Guild at (937) 278-5993.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2377 or tmorris@DaytonDailyNews.com.