Art News

Ohio building with ties to Wright brothers eroding

CINCINNATI (AP).- An Ohio structure containing remnants of a two-story building where the Wright brothers rented space for their first bicycle shop has been declared a public nuisance and may eventually be demolished despite residents’ efforts to preserve it. Orville and Wilbur Wright, who became famous for making the first airplane flight near Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17, 1903, sold, built and repaired bicycles in their hometown of Dayton and had several shop locations through the years. The brothers rented space for their first shop from 1892 to 1893 at the site where a vacant building now stands, according to Edward Roach, historian with the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. The city-owned structure — the Gem City Ice Cream Co. building — contains three exterior walls of the two-story building that housed the brothers’ shop, said Roane Smothers, principal