James M. Cox’s Beaux Arts Newspaper Building: From a New York Bank to a Presidential Ticket
In 1898, a 28-year-old James M. Cox bought a struggling Dayton newspaper. By 1920, he was the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, running alongside a young Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The newspaper building he modeled after a specific bank in Manhattan still stands in Dayton, but is vacant and deteriorating after a botched redevelopment effort over a decade ago.
Cox’s Beaux Arts Masterpiece, Modeled After Knickerbocker Trust Building in NYC
Cox purchased the Dayton Evening News on August 15, 1898. After renaming it the Dayton Daily News, he decided a few years later that the growing paper needed a larger facility that would better represent his ambition.
The story goes that Cox approached a major local banker for a construction loan, but was refused, based on the reasoning that “newspapers don’t make money”
Cox found financing elsewhere and instructed prominent architect Albert Pretzinger to “build me a damn bank.”
The building was constructed in 1908-1910 at the corner of Fourth and Ludlow Streets in downtown Dayton in the style of the Knickerbocker Trust Company headquarters at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, designed by McKim, Mead & White and completed in 1904.
The New York City building was enlarged by 10 stories in 1921 and the lower floors were later modernized, so although it still stands, the original design is unrecognizable.
And ironically, although the building was chosen to project an image of wealth and financial stability, the bank would famously fail right before the Dayton building broke ground, causing the Panic of 1907.
Fortunately, Cox’s own fortunes diverged considerably from the Knickerbocker Trust Company.
James M. Cox: Three-Term Ohio Governor and 1920 Presidential Nominee
While building his newspaper business in Dayton, Cox was simultaneously building a very successful political career.
He served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected Ohio governor in 1912. After his first term he was voted out, but was re-elected in 1916 and again in 1918, becoming only the second person to be elected governor of Ohio three times.
In 1920, Cox won the Democratic presidential nomination and chose Franklin D. Roosevelt as his running mate, who was then serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
The Cox-Roosevelt ticket lost in a landslide to fellow Ohioan Warren G. Harding, and Cox retired from politics soon after the 1920 loss.
He devoted himself to his successful media business, which continued to grow and still operates today as Cox Enterprises.
Cox’s Once Grand Building Today: Vacant and For Sale
The newspaper moved its operations out of the building in 2007. Six years later, a botched redevelopment project that would have built around the historic building and added new apartments ended up demolishing everything but the original corner structure and then flaming out due to a lack of funds and a previously-misunderstood deed restriction on the site.
The debacle included mistakenly demolishing a 1922 addition on the west side which was supposed to remain. And a subsequent legal battle between the developer and the demolition contractor ended up with the latter assuming ownership of the building.
It took years to even clean up the rubble from the demolished buildings, and since then the building has been listed for sale off and on, but downtown stakeholders have reported that they have not been able to reach a sale at a viable price point.
In the meantime the structure sits empty and precariously exposed to the elements.
