historybuff
127 posts
Jun 02, 2014
7:37 AM
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The Webster Station Bar is being torn down on East Third Street in Downtown Dayton. Does anyone remember when that was the Greyhound Bus station? It also housed the Dayton and Southeastern Ohio and the Dayton/Xenia bus line. I remember the Dayton/Xenia bus line as I took it as a young person from Xenia to visit Hauer Music, which at that time was on North Main Street.
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Billd1952
197 posts
Jun 02, 2014
9:37 AM
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I remember it well. My dad and I would catch the "Ohio Bus line" to ride from downtown Dayton, to Kettering Blvd. & Ebert. The bus was green with yellow graphics. I also remember spare Greyhound buses being parked inside the old Gentile buldg.
Later the building was a "Color Tile" store and "General Police Supply and Uniforms" in the early 70's.
Last Edited by Billd1952 on Jun 02, 2014 9:42 AM
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historybuff
128 posts
Jun 02, 2014
11:21 AM
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TNX. I had forgotten about the Color Tile store and the Police Uniform store. Who can trace the travels of the Dayton Bus Stations through the years, eventually to the "Transportation Center" in downtown Dayton, which now stands empty after years and has nothing to do with transportation(sigh).
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Billd1952
198 posts
Jun 02, 2014
1:31 PM
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I remember the bus station on W. First and Wilkinson, and I remember my dad telling me about the old bus station on W.Fourth St. There was also a bus station called, "Central Bus Terminal", which was built during the depression, but the location isn't known to me.
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luv my dayton
593 posts
Jun 02, 2014
2:11 PM
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Don't know when the bus station moved but was surprised to learn of it and that it is now in Englewood. Friend of mine here in Dayton used to take it to visit relatives in Columbus and now takes more of their time to make the trip.
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olds88
256 posts
Jun 02, 2014
5:29 PM
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Alittle bit about Webster station. Southeastern was the line fromDayton to charlestonWVA via rt 35.Dayton &West Milton was another line.Iam not sure of the name but I believe Suburban,it ran many trips direct to wpafb during and for a few years up into the 50s.Greyhound stored spare busses there because of space issues at first st.Also used the garage behind thestation on Patterson for service.Ohio bus line operated out of greyhound station and went to Cincinnatti via rt 25.webster station after busses left was Char-burger.Hope that helps.
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historybuff
130 posts
Jun 03, 2014
4:30 AM
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LMD: I had a similar experience with the move of the bus station. I live about 8 blocks from the transportation center and used to take the bus from there to visit my daughter who lives in Chicago. She lives about 15 minutes from the downtown bus station in Chicago, so it made more sense for me to take the bus than to fly. I normally took a 6:00 AM bus to get to Chicago fairly early. The bus trip from Dayton to Chicago was about five hours with a one stop in Indianapolis. On one of my trips, the bus was delayed in Columbus due to snow for about an hour, so I returned home, had breakfast and then back to the bus station in plenty of time to catch the bus when it finally arrived. Could hardly do that with the station now in Trotwood. One of the plans for the original move was to put some type of entertainment venue in the transportation center. Well, guess what? After several years the Transportstion Center remains an empty Downtown Space! Oh well, “The price of progress, I suppose……...
Last Edited by historybuff on Jun 03, 2014 4:33 AM
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Ol'Roy
29 posts
Jun 09, 2014
8:47 AM
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From July, 1947 through August, 1957, Greyhound had two stations in downtown Dayton.
The building that housed Webster Station was built as a bus station for the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Transportation Co. and opened on November 5, 1940. C&LE Transportation was a subsidiary of the Cincinnati & Lake Erie interurban railway. It had routes from Dayton north to Toledo, east to Springfield and Columbus and south to Middletown and Hamilton. As the interurban decined, the bus company replaced it. Eventually, the C&LE bus operation occupied virtually the entire block.
Greyhound took over on July 1, 1947. Most of the former C&LE runs were shifted over to Greyhound's own terminal at First & Wilkinson which had opened just a month after the C&LE station. However, the former C&LE suburban runs up North Dixie to Vandalia and Tipp City and out Springfield Street to Wright-Patt and Fairborn continued to use the Third & Patterson station.
On September 1, 1957, Greyhound moved the local buses to First & Wilkinson and converted the Third & Patterson location to their regional offices. In 1958, Greyhound sold the Tipp City and Fairborn routes to Suburban Transit Corp., owned by a St. Louis company. They used Third & Patterson as offices and maintained their buses in the garage that later became Gentile Produce. Suburban only lasted a year and a half and shut down with St. John Transportation Co. taking over the routes.
When Suburban quit, the various buildings were converted to other uses. In addition to the uses posted by others, Janet's Janitorial Service was located there and it was a CharBurger restaurant for a brief time in the late 50's or early 60's.
The First & Wilkinson terminal was used not only by Greyhound but the other bus companies serving Dayton such as Dayton & Southeastern and Ohio Bus Line. I don't believe that any of these other companies used Third & Patterson as it was small having only about half the loading docks as the First St. location did.
Sorry to get so wordy. Probably more than you ever wanted to know about old Dayton bus stations.
Ol'Roy
Last Edited by Ol'Roy on Jun 09, 2014 9:01 AM
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Billd1952
202 posts
Jun 09, 2014
9:53 AM
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Ol'Roy, I enjoyed reading your post. Thank you.
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historybuff
133 posts
Jun 10, 2014
11:22 PM
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Simply fantastic, Ol’Roy. I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about early Dayton History, but that was all news to me. I just have one question; you must have either been a driver or owned a large part of the operation to have that detailed of information! LOL…...
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olds88
259 posts
Jun 12, 2014
11:47 AM
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Very good olroy.I knew bits and pieces but mostly from memory.I rode the Dayton Southeastern from Charleston to Dayton while in school in Lewisburg WVA.
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RIVERDALE RAT
553 posts
Jun 13, 2014
9:58 PM
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I could be mistaken because it was before my time, but I don't believe that old station (Color Tile Charburger) was a Greyhound. I seem to recall my Dad calling that the old Miami Bus Depot (or something similar to that) My earliest bus depot recollection was the old Greyhound at First and Wilkinson streets. There were numerous lines that ran out of that depot. Dayton Southeastern Lines, Miami Valley Bus Lines ran two of their routes from there (Xenia and Brookville) St. Johns ran their West Milton, Fairborn and Tipp City routes out of there, Ohio Bus Lines ran all points south between Dayton and Cincinnati as well as their Dayton, Eaton, Richmond Indiana route. There was also a couple of smaller lines that ran 2-3 schedules a day from there they were Dayton/Greenville lines and Dayton Van Wert Transportation company. Ol'Roy, Hit me up with anything bus related, I can usually answer most questions. If you want to go to my Semi-Private facebook page (that is still a work in progress) just search facebook for 'Bus Buzz' and you will see I have a shot of some of the old Ohio Bus Line coaches lined up at a garage, it's a black and white so you cant see all of the weird colors but I can pull them from memory. I also have a color shot of one of their older coaches traveling south on Main Street close to Rikes....Later!
Last Edited by RIVERDALE RAT on Jun 13, 2014 11:19 PM
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historybuff
134 posts
Jun 14, 2014
8:08 AM
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RR, With your knowledge of bus lines I had mentioned in an earlier post about traveling to Dayton from Xenia in my early teens. Wasn’t there a Dayton-Xenia bus line company? In my memory I thought there was. It traveled via Old Route 35 from Xenia and came in on Linden Avenue to downtown and ended at the Webster Street Station. The trip took at least from 45 min. to an hour depending on traffic. You could also catch the bus at several points between Xenia and Dayton...
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mpup
25 posts
Jun 14, 2014
12:16 PM
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I used to catch the Ohio Bus Lines Bus in Miamisburg. The bus station is long gone, but whenever I drive by where it used to be I can't help but think about Ohio Bus Lines. It was 1965/66 and I was 14 or 15. The fare was .50 and my friends and I would ride the bus to downtown Dayton just about every Saturday. Hanging out on the old Courthouse steps in Downtown Dayton was the place to be on Saturdays as a teenager.
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RIVERDALE RAT
557 posts
Jun 14, 2014
4:03 PM
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historybuff.. I'M almost sure there was a Dayton-Xenia bus line company at one time, but that route was taken over by the old Red and White Miami Valley Bus lines in my day. The route you described was the exact route that the old MVBL took to Xenia. If memory serves, the tiny old Xenia Bus Terminal was situated downtown right behind the old courthouse and the busses used to have to enter through an alleyway. Miami Valley Bus lines didn't have too many routes. Brookville/Trotwood
Spinning Hills--Page Manor and Xenia are the only 4 that come to mind.
mpup.. I also remember that little Miamisburg Station.Ohio Bus Lines used to serve a ton of little towns between Dayton and Cincy. Moraine City, Franklin, Miamisburg, Oxford, Lebanon, Middletown, Hamilton, Blue Ball, Gano, Maud and probably a bunch more that escapes my antique memory. I remember they had a bus yard that used to butt up to Franklin Street almost directly across from Emanuel Catholic Church (next door to Chaminade)You couldn't enter it from Franklin though, you had to enter off of Perry or Washington Street.
I also remember hanging out with the hippies at the old courthouse, don't remember many names though, Dog, Dirty Bill and Big Jim are the only 3 I can pull up right now. Rike's Mezzanine lunch room (free jukebox) and the coffee shop at the Biltmore were also hangouts..Good Memories.
Last Edited by RIVERDALE RAT on Jun 14, 2014 4:04 PM
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historybuff
136 posts
Jun 14, 2014
4:10 PM
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RR, TNX for the memory of that bus line. My memory of the Xenia station was a couple of the blocks west of the Xenia courthouse and a very small station, but of course that location and the whole area was probably wiped out by the Xenia tornado in 1974….
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Ol'Roy
33 posts
Jun 16, 2014
10:03 AM
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The building at Third & Patterson was a Greyhound station from July 1, 1947 through August 31, 1957. It only served the Greyhound local routes that went out Springfield St. to WPAFB and Fairborn and up N. Dixie to Northridge, Vandalia and Tipp City. These, along with the station, were inherited from Cincinnati & Lake Erie Transportation Co., which Greyhound had purchased.
As for bus service between Dayton and Xenia, it was operated for many years by the Dayton & Xenia Motor Bus Co., a subsidiary of the Dayton & Xenia Railway. The bus route to Xenia was started in April, 1923.
St. John bought the Dayton-Xenia route (as well a line from Belmont to WPAFB) in November, 1956. They passed these on to Miami Valley Bus Lines shortly afterward. Miami Valley was owned by Olin Wichael of Trotwood who was a former St. John employee. Miami Valley always had a close association with St. John.
Ol'Roy
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RIVERDALE RAT
578 posts
Jun 16, 2014
1:45 PM
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Ol'Roy.... Back in the day when the eastern Star Lodge used to be in the 300 block of W Monument Avenue, my Mother had a good friend that belonged to that lodge, she and my Mother used to meet a couple of times a month in Rike’s Tea room. Sometimes I would have the misfortune of being dragged along to suffer through at least an hour of boring lady talk. On one such occasion my Mothers friend brought along another lady from the lodge, midway through the conversation it was mentioned that she and her husband owned and operated The Miami Valley Bus lines. I recall now she did live in Trotwood and that is where I recall the old MVBL yard being. I would have probably never thought of that meeting again had you not posted the name of Olin Wichael. I assume this must have been Mrs. Wichael. She Ieft me with the impression that she had a pretty significant role in the ownership and operations of the company. For some reason I thought her husband either worked at Wright Patterson or was in the Air Force before they started the Bus lines; I never knew he was a former employee of St. Johns.
I am relying solely on memory here so I can’t name exact months, days and years, but if they station at Third & Patterson was indeed a Greyhound station that only served specific routes, can you recall where the Greyhound Station was that served the rest of the operations? This was a few years before my time and the first station I recall was the one at first and Wilkinson. Also do you have any idea when the line from Belmont to WPAFB was pulled or what it may have been called, it was long gone before my time as was most of the feeder lines to WPAFP, and the only one remaining was a St.Johns run to New Germany.
Last Edited by RIVERDALE RAT on Jun 16, 2014 1:46 PM
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