Engineers Club of Dayton

Very cool! I love old buildings like this, well-​taken-​care-​of and full of items from a bygone era.
I recently attended an event hosted here and had a great time. The current President of the Engineers Club gave my friend and me a personal tour of the building. Wow! There was all kinds of cool things from Dayton-​area «dignitaries» like the Wright brothers, Charles Kettering, the Nutters, etc. They have a ton of old books and maps, busts and statues, early iterations of various equipment and machinery, and some amazing animal heads on the wall in one of the big conference/​banquet rooms.
Yes, animal heads, and we aren’t talking about your normal 8-​point buck or a stuffed mallard here, either. There were rhinos and a zebra and buffalo and all sorts of other things that would make PETA’s head spin. Ah, the halcyon days before political correctness…
I hope to attend other events here, because normally it’s members only (and I’m no engineer, believe me).

The first thing you should know about the Engineers Club of Dayton is that you don’t have to be an engineer to join. You can be anyone who is invested in the future of Dayton, or who enjoys intellectual discussions or business networking. Please join if you have the means. The younger you are, the better.
The club is open to the public for events such as lectures and screenings, and on a weekly basis for Sunday brunch. It’s a little pricey, and I don’t go myself (I have 7 food allergies and I don’t like to bother people who are hosting buffets to get special food.), but I work with a few members who say the brunch is nice and the service is good.
The Engineers Club of Dayton was founded with the intention of rebuilding Dayton after the flood. It is a beautiful, old building with a theater, a library, a few reading and meeting nooks and two dining areas. It’s a sign of Dayton that the members are all older. As far as I know, there are no members under 35. The Engineers Club needs new life. We can all meet online, or use
, or meet at coffee shops or call each other on the phone. Maybe the idea of a brick-​and-​mortar club where people can meet and share interests outside of the home is outdated. It still seems like a good idea to me, and I’m a little worried about Dayton that no one is taking advantage of this club.
ONE NOTE FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES AND VEGANS: They have animal heads all over the place. Don’t go there if hunting trophies upset you. I don’t mind them because trophies are just evidence to me that as humans, we have a bloody past to go with our gruesome present. (For the record, I believe that was then and this is now. We may have gotten where we are by using, abusing, riding, killing, breeding, confining, beating and butchering animals, but we can stop anytime now. We’d be better for it and they’d be better for it. I stopped to the best of my ability and I am gratefully free from this aspect of our culture.)

Neat little place, I was there to hear a local congressman speak, and it its a nice venue. Hard for me to give it much past a 3 star because the food was soup and salad — kinda hard to really mess that up. That wasn’t the engineer club’s fault — I’m sure that’s what they agreed too. Anyway, its a pretty nice venue, and for what the food was, it was pretty good.