HEREABOUTS virginia burroughs
Belmont’s Lohrey Center, at 2366 Glenarm Ave., has a new display that gives visitors a nostalgic “blast from the past.”
“When we were renovating this building to expand the lobby, a wall had to be torn out and workers found a copper box inside,” said Pamela Harrington, recreation park aid and Lohrey receptionist.
“It turned out to be a time capsule, put in when the center was built in 1957. There were newspapers — a Dayton Daily News and Journal Herald.”
The March 1957 articles included “Si-ings” by the late Si Burick about the Cincinnati Redlegs, and one from the Journal headlined “Temple Beats Dayton 78-66 Knocks Flyers out of NIT” — although it was a “Great Season for Flyers Despite NIT”, according to then coach Tom Blackburn.
“I really like the old newspaper article about the Dayton Flyers,” said Steve Thorpe, who’s at Lohrey at least twice a week for the euchre club. “I grew up in Belmont and still live in the neighborhood.”
Jimmy Hoffa was indicted for bribery. Although the articles clearly show that sports and corruption held the same interest as now, perhaps the most revealing interests of the times are shown by the ads.
Schiff’s Shoes had seven stores in Dayton and Fairborn, and Dayton Reliable Motors touted the DeSoto hardtop. Melody TV offered free home demonstrations of the Zenith 21-inch TV that sold for $188.88, and one great ad announced “It’s Here! The Genuine Freezer-Refrigerator Combination!” Phone numbers began with two letters (KE, OR, TA, AD) followed by just four numbers.
“Letters from the Belmont Civic Association in the box talked about the city’s plan to build the Lohrey Center, named for Louis Lohrey, Dayton’s mayor from 1948-53,” said Harrington, “and there were also letters from the Belmont Evangelical United Lutheran Church and the Belmont Lions Club.
“There was a Little League baseball and charm, City of Dayton annual reports, and a bar of soap — we don’t know why it was placed in the box,” said Harrington, who thinks that the Dayton connection might have been that it was made at the Hewett Soap Factory on Linden Avenue.
“A booklet in the box describes a garden club in Belmont. It was all pretty cool,” said Harrington.
Abner Orick, former city commissioner and life-long resident of Belmont, said, “I knew it was in the wall, and there was some controversy at the time about the center’s name,” he said. There’s no more garden club, but there is another time capsule buried on the property.
Orick’s 43-year-old son, Mark, recalls being part of the burying committee when he was young. “We buried it out by the flagpole one year at summer camp,” he says. His father recalls it was put in for the dedication of the addition of the swimming pool.
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