For close to a decade now I’ve been running Dayton Vistas, sharing the history, architecture, and urban stories of Dayton, Ohio.
What started as a basic extension of and way to promote my book Lost Dayton, Ohio grew into something more, including deep history dives and ongoing coverage and analysis of historic preservation and urban redevelopment projects across the city.
Along the way, the question I kept getting was some version of: do you do this for other cities too?
The answer is now yes!
I’ve recently launched Lost Urban Vistas, a new site exploring lost, transformed, and hidden-in-plain-sight history across American cities.
During the years I’ve been doing Dayton Vistas I’ve spent a lot of time in Cincinnati, I’ve read extensively on American urban history, and I’ve always tried to get out and explore the remaining historic urban fabric of all of the cities I visit.
So I’ve had the idea for a while but only now actually hit publish. One of the catalysts was a work trip I recently made to Denver, where I captured some photography and did some research of urban renewal and some really fascinating lost landmarks in the area of downtown I was staying.
Overall, the new site will feature a diverse cross-section of the buildings that were demolished, the ones that survived by becoming something else entirely, and the ones still standing that most people walk past without knowing their story.
The same level of research that built Dayton Vistas, applied to a much bigger map. And I’m excited to be able to explore larger trends across American cities and provide a level of categorization of my articles once I built up a bigger library (think browsable building types, architectural styles, time periods, etc.).
If you’ve enjoyed following along here or on Dayton Vistas, I’d love for you to check out the new project at losturbanvistas.com!
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