National Park Service

Visitors at the Wright Cycle Company complex

The Wright Cycle Company complex consists of the Wright Cycle Company building and the Wright–Dunbar Interpretive Center (the restored Hoover Block) and the new Aviation Trail Visitor Center and Museum.

The Wright Cycle Company building was home to the Wright brothers’ bicycle business from 1895 to 1897. Here the Wright brothers began to manufacture their own brand of bicycles which gave the brothers the mechanical experience and financial resources necessary to began their experiments into powered human flight. The Wright Cycle Company building was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1990.

The Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center is located in the Hoover Block. The Hoover Block was home to Wright & Wright, Job Printers from 1890 to 1895. The Wright brothers began their first business, printing, when Orville was still in high school and they printed small neighborhood newspapers, notecards, bill heads, and circulars. While located in this building, the Wright brothers printed a newspaper published by Paul Laurence Dunbar for the African American community of Dayton. The Hoover Block is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing structure in the West Third Street Historic District.