Webster Station in Dayton in Montgomery County, Ohio — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
The Age of Cinema - The Theatres on Fifth Street
Patterson Boulevard Canal Parkway
Photographed by Craig Doda, June 28, 2025
1. The Age of Cinema - The Theatres on Fifth Street Marker
Inscription.
The Age of Cinema - The Theatres on Fifth Street. . The Park Theater (later renamed Mayfair Theater) hosted the first motion picture show in Dayton in 1896. Located on the south side of Fifth Street between Jefferson and Main Streets, the Park Theater was constructed in 1876-1877 as the Gebhart Opera House. The Gothic Revival style building was a Dayton landmark during the late-nineteenth century. When constructed, the building was clad with a decorative sheet metal faηade. The cladding was forged in William Gebhart's factory located on Third and St. Clair Streets near the Miami Erie Canal. The opera, which seated 1200 patrons, was the first public building in Dayton to install sprinklers for fire protection. In 1889, the theater was renamed the Park Theater after being leased. In 1906, the Park Theater, which showed movies with Vaudeville shows between the reels, underwent a significant reconstruction on the interior, and was renamed the Lyric. The Mayfair Theater, as it was called from 1934, burned down in a fire in 1969, the day before its scheduled demolition for the construction of the Convention Center., Left image: The Lyric Theater and National Theater (Strand) Fifth between Jefferson and Main, photographed during the 1920s. The Lyric Theater opened in 1877 as the Gebhart Opera House, and was significant for exhibiting the first motion picture in Dayton. Right image: The National Theater was located to the west of the Opera House. The theater burned down in a 1916 fire, and was rebuilt as the Strand. It remained in use until the mid-twentieth century.
The Park Theater (later renamed Mayfair Theater) hosted the first motion picture show in Dayton in 1896. Located on the south side of Fifth Street between Jefferson and Main Streets, the Park Theater was constructed in 1876-1877 as the Gebhart Opera House. The Gothic Revival style building was a Dayton landmark during the late-nineteenth century. When constructed, the building was clad with a decorative sheet metal faηade. The cladding was forged in William Gebhart's factory located on Third and St. Clair Streets near the Miami Erie Canal. The opera, which seated 1200 patrons, was the first public building in Dayton to install sprinklers for fire protection. In 1889, the theater was renamed the Park Theater after being leased. In 1906, the Park Theater, which showed movies with Vaudeville shows between the reels, underwent a significant reconstruction on the interior, and was renamed the Lyric. The Mayfair Theater, as it was called from 1934, burned down in a fire in 1969, the day before its scheduled demolition for the construction of the Convention Center.
Left image: The Lyric Theater and National Theater (Strand) Fifth between Jefferson and Main, photographed during the 1920s. The Lyric Theater opened in 1877 as the Gebhart Opera House, and was significant for exhibiting the first motion picture in Dayton. Right image: The
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National Theater was located to the west of the Opera House. The theater burned down in a 1916 fire, and was rebuilt as the Strand. It remained in use until the mid-twentieth century.
Location. 39° 45.452′ N, 84° 11.241′ W. Marker is in Dayton, Ohio, in Montgomery County. It is in Webster Station. It is at the intersection of South Patterson Boulevard and East 5th Street, on the right when traveling north on South Patterson Boulevard. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 160 S Patterson Blvd, Dayton OH 45402, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Ohio’s Miami Valley. It is also in the American Midwest and in the Corn Belt. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, the territory of the Mississippian Culture, and the Northwest Territory.
Credits. This page was last revised on July 25, 2025. It was originally submitted on July 4, 2025, by Craig Doda of Napoleon, Ohio. This page has been viewed 110 times since then and 27 times this year. Photos:1, 2. submitted on July 4, 2025, by Craig Doda of Napoleon, Ohio. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.
