History & Community
Initial Focus
Recognizing that the construction of US 35 significantly reshaped historic neighborhoods, we are prioritizing community storytelling. We invite residents to participate in "Community Conversations" and voluntary oral history interviews.
Do you have a story to share? Please contact us by emailing Revive35Dayton@daytonohio.gov
A Look Back
How U.S. 35 Divided Dayton, and What Comes Next
In 1956, Congress created the Interstate Highway System, which led to the construction of highways across the United States. The new highway systems reshaped cities, and in many instances resulted in the displacement of families and businesses, while also creating physical barriers that visually, socially and economically disconnected neighborhoods. The construction of U.S. 35 through Dayton, Ohio was no exception.
It is within this broader local and national context that the state of Ohio identified a route for U.S. 35 through the heart of Dayton in 1961. The construction of U.S. 35 damaged Dayton on both sides of the city, though in different ways. The eastern portion of U.S. 35 was built first and was finished by the early 1970s. This portion cut through mostly white East Dayton, splitting neighborhoods and forcing out several thousand families. "We've pretty well torn up the East Side," City Commissioner James H. McGee said in 1969.
West Dayton was different. The original 1961 route would have run through the heart of the mostly Black west side, and residents packed public hearings to protest it. Construction stalled for decades. During that wait, Interstate 75 had already driven what one newspaper called a ‘concrete and steel wedge’ between West Dayton and Downtown. As a result, many West Dayton leaders came out to support U.S. 35, hoping it would finally bring jobs, investment, and connection to the area.
A Divided City
By the 1960s, Dayton was the second most segregated city in Ohio. Due to discriminatory housing policies such as redlining, the great Miami River became a dividing line between the mostly Black West Dayton and mostly White East Dayton. This tension created a deep distrust between West Dayton and City Hall, and it boiled over on September 1, 1966, when a Black man named Lester Mitchell was shot and killed outside his home. The resulting riot lasted through the night, and the governor sent in the National Guard. More unrest followed in 1967 and 1968, and many West Dayton businesses closed for good.
During this period, the five West Dayton neighborhoods in the planned path of U.S. 35 were in limbo – the population of West Dayton shrunk 45.7% between 1970 and 1980, more than twice the decline citywide.
In 1980, State Representative C.J. McLin Jr. said the uncertainty had led to a modern form of redlining, in which banks and insurers refused to serve West Dayton. After decades of delays, the western section of U.S. 35 opened in 1996 as an at-grade highway that followed the proposed 1961 route.
The Legacy Today
The impacts of the highway construction are still visible today, on both sides of the city. In East Dayton, the neighborhoods split apart by U.S. 35 in the 1960s are still profoundly divided, both economically and physically. In West Dayton, the decline of thriving residential and business districts, spurred on by years of delay, have never fully rebounded.
On both sides, the highway destroyed neighborhoods and cut people off from parts of their own established communities. Recently, the Congress for New Urbanism, a national group that studies highway removal across the United States, identified seven schools, two parks, and one library within a five-mile stretch of the U.S. 35 corridor that residents can only access by crossing narrow overpasses or underpasses and dodging vehicles using on-ramps or off-ramps. Dangers are amplified for those walking, biking, or using a wheelchair or other mobility device, as well as other vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly.
Why Revive35 Is More Than a Transportation Project
Revive35 will examine alternatives to reconnect the neighborhoods that U.S. 35 split apart and honor the advocacy and resilience of the residents who have worked to advance this effort over the years. It will explore how to revive and reimagine the corridor by identifying opportunities to attract new investment that can support the people who live there now, while avoiding any further displacement.
Oral History
The voices of residents and the broader community will be central to shaping a vision for the corridor’s future.
As part of the project, interviews will be conducted with people who experienced the damage of U.S. 35 in their neighborhoods. These interviews will become a lasting record of what the community remembers, honoring the rich and vibrant past, and helping guide plans for the future. If you or someone you know remembers the construction of U.S. 35, or life in these neighborhoods –before or after it was built– the project team wants to hear from you!