Wright Cycle Company

Wright Cycle Company & Wright and Wright Printing Offices and Shop
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Rented by Wright Brothers, 1895-97
Location:	22 South Williams St., Dayton, Ohio
Coordinates:	39°45′13.14″N 84°12′43.17″W
Built:	1886
Architect:	Abraham and Joseph Nicholas
Architectural style:	Late Victorian
Governing body:	National Park Service
NRHP Reference#:	86000236
Added to NRHP:	February 13, 1986

The bicycle business of the Wright brothers, the Wright Cycle Company (originally the Wright Cycle Exchange) occupied five different locations in Dayton, Ohio. Orville and Wilbur Wright began their bicycle repair business in 1892, and soon added rentals and sales. In 1896 they began manufacturing and selling bicycles of their own design, the Van Cleve and St. Claire, named after their ancestors. They invented the self-oiling hub and the innovation of machining the crankarm and pedal on the left side of the bike with left-hand threads to prevent the pedal from coming unscrewed while cycling. They also ran a printing shop on the second-floor of their rented brick building at 22 South Williams St., Dayton, Ohio, the only extant building that housed a Wright bicycle shop on its original foundation and in its original location. The 22 South Williams Street building, where the Wrights worked from 1895 to 1897, is part of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park and the National Aviation Heritage Area.

The Wrights used the profits from the Wright Cycle Company to finance their aviation experiments.

In 1901 they fitted a third bicycle wheel horizontally above the front wheel of one of their St. Claire bicycles and used the apparatus as a test platform to study airfoil design. From October to December that year, they conducted pioneering wind tunnel tests on the second floor of their bicycle shop at 1127 West Third St., the last location of their bicycle business.

In that building they designed and constructed their gliders and first airplane, the Wright Flyer. In 1937 the building was moved to Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan by Henry Ford with the cooperation of Orville Wright.

Wright bicycle in National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio

Shop locations

With the exception of the West Second Street location, which is located near the Schuster Center on the other side of the river, all of the shops are located within about one block of each other.

• 1892 -- Wright Cycle Exchange at 1005 West Third Street.
• 1893 to 1894 -- Wright Cycle Exchange at 1034 West Third Street. The name later changed to Wright Cycle Co.
• 1895 to 1897 -- Wright Cycle Co. at two locations -- the main store at 22 South Williams Street, and a branch store in downtown Dayton at 23 West Second Street. The branch Closed In 1896.
• 1897 to 1908 -- The Wright Cycle Co. at 1127 West Third Street.

Left photo: Orville and boyhood friend Ed Sines (left); right photo: Wilbur. Both photographs show the 1127 West Third Street bicycle shop in 1897.

External links

• Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company