Old meeting hall in Ohio

Eagles Building - The City Mission, Dayton Ohio

Date added: June 12, 2023 Categories:

Facade & north side from northwest (1982)

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The building which served as a lodge hall and subsequently a city mission gives the distinct, if incorrect, impression of being a theater. The building is unique in the way the styles are so successfully melded within Pretzinger's distinctive design.

Pretzinger's 1914 interior design for the auditorium was modified and simplified by the firm of Gebhart and Schaefer in June 1926. A Wurlitzer Organ (removed) was installed in 1926 giving us the occupation date for that part of the structure.

The building served as the City Mission after being purchased from the Eagles in 1968. The City Mission moved in 1981. The Eagles Building will be revitalized as the "Union Station Music Palace", a restaurant. A historic Wurlitzer theater organ has been purchased for installation.

Building Description

The Eagles Building (1916) is essentially a movie palace type in a Renaissance Revival design with Prairie-style elements. The design has a large rectangular block containing an auditorium over ground-level recreational and service spaces. This is actually a c.1925 addition (phased construction) to the original building. The original building juts forward as a narrower block to a west facade on Main Street. It has reception, lodge and service spaces. On each side of the advancing block are two-story wings in lesser scale with service atriums and small service spaces over the gate. Originally the atrium wall extended back to protect a garden court in the rear of the 1916 construction. The materials are wood, brick, reinforced concrete and cast stone detailing. Architectural decoration is restricted to the front portion in cream brick and a limestone slab foundation on the ground level, dark red brick with a diaperwork pattern of projecting glazed headers above and cast stone renaissance detailing.

The central five-bay facade elevation has a renaissance rusticated ground floor with limestone slab foundation, piano nobile with arcaded loggia and a third attic range with Prairie Style recessed ribbon windows crowned by a tile roof. The ground level has entrances on the ends with heavy classic surrounds. The three center bays are segmental three-part mullion windows with rusticated fan-shaped arch of brick with stone keystone. The ground floor is crowned by a stone watertable that binds the central block and wings.

The principle feature of the piano nobile is a tall three-bay arcaded loggia with pilasters, two engaged fluted Ionic columns on alette, archivolt and sculptured eagles perched on the sculptured keystone. The porch has three bays of arcaded glazed doorways. Each bay has a stone frame, wood-framed rectangular French doors, transom bar, pediment and mullioned lights. The side bays are rectangular transomed mullion sash windows capped by a decorated stone hood crowned with a cartouche and resting on brackets. The piano nobile is terminated with a cornice.

The third level is a recessed wrap-around range of two and three-part mullion windows. The windows have a shouldered architraval stone frame and four and six lights fixed over two and three vertical light sash. The three divisions of the facade and the terminals are set off by strong ancones faced with an ambossed belly, paneled block, festoon and paired brackets with pendant at the eave. A broad eave with exposed shaped rafters supports a tile pent roof.

The side wings are symmetrical with segmental wrought iron gate ways in the high foundation. The upper level of each has a rectangular mullioned and transomed window with stone lintel in voussoirs. The crown is a heavy stone cornice with parapet. The second level is a suspended block preceding an open court with side walls extending back to the auditorium, block.

The main entrance on the left leads to a stairway to the piano nobile. The stair terminates in a foyer (hall) between the large "club room" to the front and reception hall and secretary's office to the rear. The stairway and foyer are essentially functional except that the stairway ceiling panels have classic molding and the foyer has coffering. The spaces to the rear are functional with typical varnished case work of the early 20^th century. At the ends of the foyer in the suspended blocks were a barber shop on the south end and a "ladies retiring room" on the north. The ground and upper story are reached by a secondary stairway in the south end of the foyer.

The club room has a broad entrance with varnished wood Doric columns in antis. On the south end is a stylized renaissance fireplace with wood mantel of tapered pilasters, paneling and tile chimney face. The chimney breast is battered and paneled. The front wall has a tripartite arcade with French doors, pediment on the transom bar and mullioned glass lights. There is a dentiled cornice, dado and molded wall panels all badly abused in the past.

We take the secondary stairs to a third-floor hall. On the front side is a large meeting room over the club room. This room has large double doors off the hall. The only notable feature is a hipped camping ceiling with classic molding at the join of each panel and a central ceiling rose grill for a ventilator. The facade has the ribbon windows described above. To the rear of the hall are four committee rooms and access to the auditorium balcony.

The lower level entrance on the right leads down to a barrel columned "ratskeller" which has been badly mangled in old renovations. The lower level rooms are purely functional brutalistic spaces with no decorative features of note.

Access to the auditorium is positioned to the right rear through halls on the piano nobile. The auditorium is a gymnasium-like space with large stage, seated balconies on three sides and a projection booth. The proscenium facade is conservatively decorated with eclectically proportioned Ionic pilasters and dentiled entablature. There is a frame with ribbon-bound reeded molding. The ceiling is paneled. There are hanging vintage light fixtures of bulbs on a corona lucis. Under the auditorium are large functional spaces now bare but once included a bar, card room and bowling alley.

The building is situated on the fringe of the center city core. It is in a block between the elevated railroad approach to the Union Station and the elevated limited access U.S. 35 highway. A large parking lot is on the south side and in the rear. Surrounding buildings are dominantly office and warehouse use with some service and multiple residence. The Dayton Convention Center and Stouffer's Hotel are directly on the other side of the railroad with access through underpasses.