Dayton Reporter

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee has approved a request by Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) to provide $4 million in federal funding to renovate the historic Wright Company Factory in Dayton in the wake of the March 2023 fire, Turner said at a press release and Aug. 1 joint press conference with Dayton Mayor Jeffrey J. Mims, Jr., and Mackensie Wittmer, Executive Director of the National Aviation Heritage Area.

“The Wright Brothers Factory is an incredible and historic building. This location became operational to build airplanes in 1909, and it is part of the story of the aviation heritage in the area,” Turner said. “I worked on the original legislation that authorized the park district to expand this to include this in our national park network.

"We have been working collaboratively, as a community, to try and restore these buildings to make them part of our fabric again in telling our story of our history with flight," he said.

The Wright Company Factory buildings caught fire in the early morning of March 26 and sustained significant damage. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Turner said in the press release.

The factory is a monument not just to the brothers and their consequential invention, but also to the role of leading industrialists of the day in giving birth to the age of commercial aviation. The factory was built shortly after Wilbur Wright visited New York in 1909, a March 27 New York Times article said.

Turner requested $4.5 million in Community Project Funding for the restoration. The City of Dayton is the intended recipient of the potential funds.

The city said the historic hangars (buildings 1 and 2) would become an aviation museum and tourist destination and that the plan for the three non-historic hangars (buildings 3, 4 and 5) was to renovate them into a 50,000-square-foot operational center for entrepreneurs who are people of color, the Dayton Daily News reported. The property could become home to a food hall, an urban market and a community space. The city said the goal was to create a mixed-use development offering retail, entertainment and dining options, city officials told the newspaper.