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Wow, that's a really cool idea! There's a lot of potential for under the Market Street bridge and I think that's an interesting thing to do which could prove to be a good attraction. I still wonder what's going on with the Uptown Theater as I havent seen any work being done to it in months. Also, for the park around the amphiteahter, I know people keep trying to push for a skatepark down there - I think that would also be a really cool attraction to have down there. There's a ton of potential for the new park, but right now it's really only being used for the amphitheater and nothing else. As for the Garden District, I think it would definitely be a "hip" neighborhood if Youngstown was a bigger city. I agree with you though, I like the North Side better due to its architecture. I would love to own a house in Wick Park and fix it up, but sadly I'm just a broke college student so I don't have the means to do that quite yet!

It's been a while since I posted! I haven't really had any proper photo tours, but I have taken some random pictures here and there over the past two months. Garden District: This building on Steel Street in the Garden District has always stood out to me. I like the design of it with the second story balcony, but the fact that the balcony looks to be leaning away from the building makes it all the more interesting! This building used to be a commercial building but was converted into apartments at some point. It appears to still be occupied. Here's a picture of the commercial buildings on the corner of Mahoning Avenue and Steel Street. The Garden District is an interesting neighborhood that I hope to cover more in depth later on. It's still relatively stable and is one of the last neighborhoods in Youngstown that have the early 1900s working class housing styles which isn't completely blighted and unkept. The neighborhood reminds me a lot of working class neighborhoods in Cleveland and Akron. The area also retains some businesses meaning residents can walk to bars and restaurants. It's also within biking distance to Downtown and has amazing access to Mill Creek Park, specifically the Fellows Riverside Gardens, the namesake of the neighborhood. Sadly the neighborhood has been experiencing a lot of demolitions, but it's still pretty in-tact. There have been some efforts to rebrand the area as an arts district, but nothing has really come of it. It's also the most racially integrated neighborhood in the city and is relatively safe in my opinion. It's actually one of a few neighborhoods in the city I'd consider living in. In case you care, here's what a typical residential street in this area looks like. Canfield Photo Tour: Canfield is a small town around Youngstown which was originally the county seat of Mahoning County. Founded in 1849 and settled since the early 1800s, the village remains an example of a typical Connecticut Western Reserve village. I'm sure most of you know on here, but Northeastern Ohio used to be a part of Connecticut which means a lot of the architecture and town planning in the area has been inspired by New England - Canfield is no exception. But as time went on, and Youngstown grew, Canfield lost its status as the county seat, and has slowly become a suburb of Youngstown rather than its own entity. As a result, many overlook the history beneath the recent suburban developments. This "photo tour" is rather disjointed and not comprehensive, but here it is... I also hope to do one of Poland, OH soon which is a much better example of Western Reserve architecture. This is the original Mahoning County courthouse built in 1848. It overlooks "The Green" which is a very New-England part of Canfield. Like towns in New England, Canfield has a town green which served as a public park space surrounded by various religious and governmental institutions in the town. Here's a well preserved Spanish-revival service station across the street: The street you see in the photo above is Court Street - it's one of the streets that has the most 19th century buildings on it. In fact, walking down the street definitely gave me some mild New-England vibes, but admittedly it wasn't anywhere near the most "New-Englandy" place in the Western Reserve. One interesting part about Court Street which I didn't photograph is that many homes still have stone horse-mounting blocks in front of them. This Greek Revival mansion is the Charles Ruggles House. Most Western Reserve architecture is rather simplistic but with a Greek Revival style to it - this building is an example of a more ornate Western Reserve home, something which is found all over the region if you know where to look. This 1846 home was built by a lawyer and is now being used as a personal residence and recording studio: This next house is another amazing example of Western Reserve architecture: Lastly, we have this simple but beautiful home which I suspect is from the early 1900s. Court Street has a mixture of housing from various eras which makes it quite interesting. You have some Pre-Civil War Western Reserve homes mixed with late 1800s Italianates, early 1900s Colonial-Revivals, and even some mid century ranch homes. This is the Canfield United Methodist Church.... not sure of the history of it, but it's on the same site as the oldest church in the village, from 1822: Next is the Mahoning Dispatch Building which served a long standing Mahoning County newspaper, founded in the 1870s. The building however has been around since 1866 when it served the village as a grocery store: Home Savings & Loan Buildings (Youngstown): I regret to inform you all that the iconic Home Savings sign on top of the Home Savings Building will no longer be with us soon - in fact, they just removed three of the four signs yesterday. Home Savings, which has occupied this iconic building since it was built in 1919 has merged with Premier Bank, who will soon be displaying their new and less aesthetically pleasing logo on the building. I figured this was my last chance to take pictures of this building, which is arguably the most iconic part of Youngstown's skyline, before it changes forever. It's hard to imagine the Home Savings sign won't be illuminating the night sky anymore after 101 years of doing so.... And because I am horrible at night photography, here's a picture someone else took of the building at night: Lastly, here's a surprisingly good picture I took out of my car window on Front Street, which shows a few of the city's skyscrapers from behind: Stay tuned, a Columbiana Photo Tour should be ready soon!

It's good to see some development like this in Akron! "Walkable" might be a stretch as it doesnt seem to include any retail or anywhere to walk to necessarily, but this will still be a great project. It should definitely help strengthen that neighborhood. The northwest part of Akron (Highland Square, Wallhaven, ect) is actually one of my favorite areas - great architecture in the homes there!

Prima Cucina Italiana to Open Next Week in Downtown: https://businessjournaldaily.com/prima-cucina-italiana-will-open-next-week-downtown/ Not huge news, but a new restaurant is opening up in Downtown on the corner of Phelps and Federal. I'm happy to see this project wasn't cancelled amongst COVID and I hope to see the other planned new restaurants open as well. The article claims that two of them at least are still coming. Currently, Downtown is a total ghost town, and it reminds me of what it looked like 5-10 years ago.... I really hope this helps bring some traffic back down there. The only businesses that seem to be doing okay down there are Whistle & Keg and maybe pickup at Avalon Pizza Also, my new article/blog post about the history of Youngstown's Uptown area has been released. It covers everything from fine dining, the area's 1960s garage rock scene, neighborhood movie theaters, crime, and the mafia presence of this once thriving but now abandoned entertainment district. It's part one of two. In the second part, I'm going to talk about my ideas for how the area could be reused today. Feedback is appreciated!

Efforts Being Made to Preserve Former West Federal YMCA Building: https://www.wfmj.com/story/42275717/effort-being-made-to-preserve-former-ymca-youngstown-building The fact that this building might get torn down is insane to me. It's such a beautiful building, and hasn't been vacant at all, yet the current occupants, the "Rescue Mission" plan on demolishing it when they move locations. The building is in good shape, a good location, great architecture, ect. It makes no sense why anyone would even consider demolishing it. Luckily, this article points out efforts being made to preserve it, and it seems likely that it will be saved. But if it gets demolished, that will be a catastrophe.... Especially since it is one of, if not the only, remaining historic building on this parts of West Federal, which was once a bustling business district.

Revisiting Mingo Junction: So, I had time to go back and take pictures in Mingo today. It was a bit better than last time because the sun wasn't so bright outside today. Anyways, I decided to walk around Commercial Street, which serves as the center of "Downtown Mingo." I've gone over the history of Mingo in a post a few weeks ago, so scroll up if you are interested in that - it is a really cool little town with a ton of history to it. Downtown Mingo Junction looks like it was built for a neighborhood in a bigger city - it's hard to imagine that this town only has ~3,000 residents despite having such a dense looking Downtown area. Sadly, most of the buildings on Commercial Avenue are abandoned and way beyond repair. The funny part is that I looked at the National Historic Places registry form from the 1970s, and frankly the buildings looked just as terrible back then! The good news? Well, the city has absolutely no money to tear them down. None. That means I can still go take pictures of this corridor, which is largely unchanged from its days as a bustling steel mill town. The few businesses that remain in Downtown Mingo are dive bars, and surprisingly a new coffee shop which just opened. I plan to check it out soon. This is down at the southern end of Downtown. It is actually right near a viaduct under a railway which serves as the only route connecting the lower parts of Mingo to Downtown - I didn't get a picture of it, but man it is just another example of Mingo's super sketchy infrastructure. As I said before, I actually feel a bit on edge driving on these crazy roads in town. One of the larger buildings is the Avalon Building. I believe it has been awaiting demolition for years - last time I was in town, they had the sidewalk below closed due to falling bricks. Here's a cool view from a vacant lot, which really shows the steep hill between Commercial Street and the homes above: Looking down Commercial Avenue.... I love this photo because it shows just how vast and vacant this stretch of road is: More vacant buildings. The one with the yellow brick facade actually has "CONDEMNED" written on the storefront, so perhaps the town may actually get to tearing down some buildings soon - but hey this is the same town that has had 3 burnt out homes which have been sitting there for three years with direct view from the highway. You can see the condemned building better in this next picture - also, notice all the parking meters. Do they still work? I don't know. I didn't pay the meter myself because some of them look like they haven't been touched in decades, and frankly I imagine Mingo just doesnt have the money to remove them: You can see the new coffeeshop in this picture towards the right side. It's actually a coffee shop mixed with an antique shop. I'm curious to check it out, but they were closed since it was Sunday. I like the boarded up building on the right here: Next, there's this burnt out church up the hill from Downtown.... Again, the town has no money whatsoever to tear it town: Looking down towards the steel mills and Downtown from Lincoln Avenue: Lastly, there's this cool tudor-style apartment building in Steubenville's Pleasant Heights neighborhood, known as The Hillcrest Apartments:

Thanks for the input! It was very very cold when I was there, but trust me, I know it has to be much worse in the winter! I briefly lived in Erie, PA once and the winters there were horrendous sometimes. And I'm glad you liked the photo tour - I always like exploring new neighborhoods, and coming from Youngstown, I'm very jealous of places like Ohio City - I'm glad it helped remind you why you like the area so much! Even for me in Youngstown, I've really tried to explore and appreciate things in the city I never did before. If you really look around your city/neighborhood, you can find so many cool things you've probably overlooked before, and as a result, I actually have much more of an appreciation for this city which I used to hate.

Hey everyone! So I admittedly have not explored nearly enough of Cleveland, but when I had a day off from college, I'd usually try to go up and check out parts of Cleveland. My favorite place I visited was by far, the Ohio City neighborhood. Now I do not know much about Cleveland history, so my captions for these pictures won't be too in depth. Disclaimer: Some of these pictures are unedited or subject to absolutely horrendous lighting... hope you guys don't mind! So to start out, I parked at West Side Market and walked down West 25th Street. The first thing I noticed was scooter-geddon.... they were everywhere. However, the Lime Scooter fit very well with this mural! Overall, West 25th is a very good commercial district for the Ohio City area. Most buildings are kept up, and the few that aren't will probably get fixed up in the coming years. Here's a couple shots of the Market Avenue pedestrian street across from Westside Market - pedestrian streets are some of my favorite parts of cities, and I wish there were more in the US: Westside Market: This building, the "Heil's Block" was one of my favorites in the neighborhood. It is so well preserved and I love the green/yellow accents on it! More from West 25th: I really like this corner commercial building. From here, I made a left turn onto Bridge Avenue. Moving away from West 25th and onto Bridge Avenue feels like entering a totally different world. West 25th feels like almost an extension of Downtown whereas the side streets feel very cozy. It almost reminds me of German Village, but I may even like Ohio City better. I loved the urban fabric of this neighborhood with the workers cottages, midrise apartment buildings, and neighborhood retail buildings all mixed together. Notice the tiny retail building in the next picture: The West Virginia Building: This next home is stunning! At this point, I'm unsure where each picture was located. So I'll just sort of tell you my route. I went down Bridge, south on W. 30th, west on Carroll, north on W. 32nd, west on Bridge, north on 38th, east on Whitman, and east on Woodbine. I absolutely loved this little neighborhood commercial building with a cafe in it: Here's a part of the Saint Ignatius Campus, easily the fanciest looking high school I've ever seen. It feels like something out of the Dead Poet Society: Some workers cottages on Carroll Ave. I love this one in particular, it reminds me of Chicago workers cottages: What a weird addition to this house: Next we have this cool triangular building home to Le Petit Triangle Cafe located along Frank Novak Park: I love this little workers cottage tucked away in this narrow brick alley: The back of St. Patrick's Catholic Church: More random houses that I don't know the exact locations of ?(Most are on Bridge Ave): This style of duplexes was fairly common in the neighborhood - it's a unique style that I don't recall seeing elsewhere: Another beautiful home along Frank Novak Park: Edgewater Park: Before I left, I stopped at Edgewater Park to get some sunset pictures. It was extremely cold and windy so I didn't get amazing pictures, but I did get one of my best pictures I've ever taken there! This next one is one of my favorite pictures I've taken. I love the sunset colors, the birds, and the woman looking out to the lake. The skyline you see is actually the Gold Coast in Lakewood, Ohio which is full of mid century high rises overlooking Lake Erie and Downtown Cleveland: Thanks for looking at the photo tour! If you'd like more, let me know. I can post one from German Village in Columbus, one from Nashville, one from Charleston, and one from Baltimore. But overall, I loved the Ohio City neighborhood! It makes me jealous that there's no beautiful urban neighborhoods like that back home in Youngstown ?

YNDC Progresses on Fundraising for new Neighborhood Center at former Carmelite Monastery https://businessjournaldaily.com/yndc-professes-on-fundraising-for-monastery-building/ The YNDC has met a significant goal of raising $20,000 online for the restoration of the former Carmelite Monastery on Volney Road in the Idora neighborhood. The building will be restored into a community center of sorts in which Youngstown neighborhood groups can meet and organize. It's good to see this old mansion be saved. It was built in 1927 by William McKelvey, founder of McKelvey's Department Store. Interestingly, the article also talks about the YNDC having plans to build new houses in this part of Idora. I hope that come to fruition as it would be amazing to see this area make a slight comeback - there's some beautiful houses there, and it has unparalleled access to Mill Creek Park and the East Cohasset Bike Trail. However I suspect these houses would not be market-rate as they seemed to have trouble selling the last market-rate homes they built. I wonder if they plan on building along Mineral Springs Avenue - the entire road has been vacated except one house. This makes it a perfect spot for redevelopment efforts. I do wish Youngstown had an area along the park that could be developed into new market rate housing - I know Akron did this with a secluded road close to Downtown and it's been working well. Sadly though, other than maybe the old Idora Park site, the land around the park is already pretty developed. I think the best bet would be to do some new infill housing in the southern part of Idora near Lanterman's Mill as that area is still relatively nice, close to the mill, and has seen tons of home rehabs in recent years.

Drovers Inn (Wellsburg, WV): Located up the hill from Wellsburg, WV along the historic Washington Pike is Drovers Inn, a very popular local restaurant inside a historic tavern/inn. The three story sixteen room home was completed in 1848 by John Fowler. His home was opened to travelers along the Washington Pike in 1850. Travelers could enjoy a drink or meal at the tavern or lodging in the many rooms upstairs. In 1965, the aging brick building was purchased and beautifully restored into a restaurant. I didn't get pictures of the inside, but it is a very grand and stately looking interior - here's the website with photos. The house is located in a small hamlet which was known as Fowlerstown - as a result, the inn was historically known as the Inn at Fowlerstown. Also, no joke, the food here was really good. It is known locally, including even 30 mins away in my hometown, to have the best wings around. I didn't try those, but I did have haddock which was easily some of, if not the best, fish I have had in such a landlocked area like the Ohio Valley. They also had very generous portions! Drovers Inn has a really cool basement which is known as the Tavern. It is accessible through a narrow and steep root cellar entrance at the side of the home. The basement is insanely cool and has original stone flooring and walls. The only other building on the Inn at Fowlerstown property is the log house. The log house, astonishingly, dates back to 1790! That is pretty old for this area and there are very few 1700s homes left - there's one left in Wellsburg (which will be in a future post as I took enough pics for a whole photo tour of the town) and another was recently tore down to build a county annex building. Yes, they literally tore down a large 1790s tavern/inn which was frequented by river travelers to build a stupid addition to the courthouse - what a travesty. Anyways, here's one of the few 1700s Upper Ohio Valley log cabins left: Art-Deco Steubenville Rowhouse: I do not know any backstory to this home, but it has always really intrigued me. It is located on Sunset Boulevard in Steubenville and is very out of place compared to the rest of the houses in the city. It has a very art-deco feel to it. It looks like something you'd see near a beach in Florida or California! One of my relatives claims to vaguely know the old owners and thinks they did this weird art-deco style in the 90s as an add on and that the house was just a normal looking home beforehand. I have a hard time believing this however. East Liverpool Giant Eagle: Lastly, we have East Liverpool. Like all of the valley towns, East Liverpool has sooo much history and so much to take pictures of - but like always, I am too pressed for time to do a comprehensive photo tour. The town has certainly fallen into disrepair and has a wide variety of issues, notably the opioid epidemic. There is a small spark of revitalization in Downtown, but I'm not sold on the fact that the town is genuinely in an upswing quite yet. I didn't get a picture today, but I found a very cool boarded up and abandoned mansard/second empire style home. I wouldve stopped for a picture, but I was too busy making sure my tires didn't burst on the incredibly broken and narrow brick road.. yikes! I also noticed some old overgrown public city-steps, like the famous ones in Pittsburgh. They're all over the valley towns but are all in terrible shape and out of use, and until recently, I had no clue they ever existed. The only town that maybe still uses them in some capacity is Mingo Junction. But today, I was in town only to stop at Giant Eagle real quick, and I think it's worth sharing this Giant Eagle. As you can see, the signage and the store itself is very outdated and looks the same as it has for decades I presume. The inside of the store as well feels like a step back into time. Surely this must be one of the last totally non-updated Giant Eagle locations left! And it wouldn't be East Liverpool if it didn't have a burnt out building across the street! Hope you guys enjoyed this rather random assortment of photos! I'll try to finally post my Wellsburg tour soon.

More progress on Trilogy Lofts on Wick Avenue. Sadly it appears they're using the originally planned materials which I think look terrible and incredibly dated. It's disappointing in comparison to University Edge, The Enclave, and the other projects done by Strollo Architects which were much better than this one. I just hate the huge wall with no windows and just plain siding that will be facing the main intersection (as seen in the rendering) and that weird black trim they have in the rendering won't do them any favors either. But hey, it's some new density so I can't complain! It appears they're building a tiny surface lot behind the building which is accessible from the side street behind it.

Honestly I think Cedar Point would have good reason to do this. Making Downtown Sandusky into a destination would probably help their business and increase tourism. Especially if they build a hotel of their own down there. There's a ton of potential for Sandusky and it seems like a waste not to tap into that.

I didn't know the Jet Express ran out of Sandusky, I thought it was only Port Clinton. Good to know!

Is there any type of permanent water taxi between Cedar Point and Downtown Sandusky? If not, it's a very missed opportunity. I think Downtown Sandusky has reached the point where Cedar Point tourists would like visiting it. A connection from Downtown Sandusky to Put-in-Bay and Kelley's would be great too.

Crandall Park North - Fifth Avenue Historic District: It's time to showcase one of Youngstown's best neighborhoods, Crandall Park North. This neighborhood on the city's North Side is located north of Crandall Park and south of Gypsy Lane. The neighborhood was built as an upper class and upper middle class neighborhood during the 20s and 30s. Fifth Avenue in particular, once Youngstown's "millionaire row," is home to a wide variety of mansions, most of which are well-kept. The neighborhood is known for its tudor-revival and spanish-revival architecture. Though it is no longer upper class, Crandall Park North has remained a stable middle class neighborhood. It is also one of the few Youngstown neighborhoods which is both very racially integrated and middle class at the same time. Yesterday, I took pictures of some of the houses on Fifth Avenue - In the future, I hope to get pictures of houses on other streets in this neighborhood as well as the part of Fifth Avenue in Crandall Park South. This house is on the corner of Tod Lane and Selma Avenue. It is across the street from Crandall Park: Next is the Burt Printz mansion on the corner of Fifth & Tod. I have photographed this and the houses down that block of Tod in the past - I believe they may have been posted earlier in this thread. Anyways, this beautiful home used to be a bed and breakfast. It remains one of the prettiest homes in Youngstown in my opinion. The rest of the pictures will be of houses along Fifth Avenue. I don't know much about the history of any of these homes sadly. But as I said before, these houses are very well kept. This part of Fifth Avenue is immaculately maintained and remains a highly sought after street. In fact, Crandall Park North is one of the few stable real estate markets in Youngstown outside of the West Side. I hope you guys enjoyed this post! I feel like I only have been showing the bad parts of Youngstown recently, so I need to start showcasing the beautiful parts like Crandall Park North! Also, I love the tree lined median on Fifth Avenue! I wish the city would expand it to the entirety of Fifth Avenue and not just this small portion - I think it would do wonders for revitalizing and stabilizing the parts of Fifth Avenue which are less well-kept than this section. It would also boost real estate value and would make for an extremely beautiful gateway to the city for people visiting Downtown and YSU. Frankly, if the North Side got a few projects like this done to help give the area a bit of a facelift, the North Side would probably start to make a comeback. It's not too far gone at all in my opinion. If the North Side were fixed up today, I think it would look comparable to places like Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights, or Northwest Akron.

Disclaimer: Not all of these photos are edited so excuse any poor photo quality View of Steubenville from Highland Hills: One of my favorite photo locations is Highland Hills Memorial Park above Folansbee, West Virginia. It has the best view of the Ohio River around Steubenville that I know of. Sadly though I never can get a great picture here I feel like! But here's the view. Notice Market Street Bridge, which was saved and repainted in recent years from a rusty brown color to its current blue and gold colors. At night, it lights up in those colors as well. Historic Fort Steuben from the 1780s, named after Prussian Revolutionary War hero, Baron von Steuben, is to the left of the bridge. Morelli Building (Steubenville): This is the Morelli Building in Steubenville. It is on 6th Street in Downtown Steubenville. I'm not sure of its history, but it is very beautiful! I love the columns and balcony on the second floor. It has been used as an "adult novelty store" for many years but now seems to be a "smoke shop" of the same name. There's usually interesting clientele out front ?: Mingo Junction: Just south of Steubenville is one of the weirdest towns in Ohio, if not the weirdest: Mingo Junction. Mingo is a very very rundown steel town. It is unique because it still has many of its old buildings left as the town has no money to tear them down. In fact, there's been two burnt out houses and a burnt out church, all visible from the highway, which have not been demolished for years. The town's Downtown in particular looks as if it's from a much larger city. I only got a few pictures on the day I stopped by, I was mainly scouting out future photo opportunities. But oh my god does the infrastructure in this town suck! I have never felt more unsafe driving than in Mingo - there'd just be random gigantic potholes that are unavoidable and would probably destroy your tire if you aren't careful. There's tons of insanely steep pothole infested roads that have likely not been maintained since the 70s. Tons of narrow one lane roads meandering up and down the hills. There's also a lot of public steps, like in Pittsburgh, which could still be used; though they are in terrible shape as predicted. I can safely say I was actually thrilled to get out of Mingo and back onto the highway as driving through it was insanely stressful. However, Mingo is one of the coolest towns in Ohio as it is basically a ghost town stuck in time. In fact there's still lots of 1970s-90s cars around which I found interesting. If you enjoy urban exploration, you have to visit Mingo. Anyways, here's the few photos I got: The abandoned Mingo Junction High School building, now merged with the old Wintersville High School to form Indian Creek High School: Bonus Mingo Junction Fun Facts: Mingo is home to the 1970s one hit wonder Wild Cherry, of "Play That Funky Music White Boy" fame. Woody Hayes also had his first coaching job at Mingo High School, and is where part of "The Deer Hunter" was filmed. George Washington also set up camp here in 1770 on his expedition of the Ohio River Valley. He noted that the town, which he called "Mingo Town," was inhabited by about 20 cabins and 70 residents, all of the Iroquois Confederation, but specifically the Mingo people. Also, here's a pic (NOT MINE) of Downtown Mingo Junction - I hope to get here again soon for more photos! Next photo tour will be of Wellsburg, WV:

Agreed, it's really hard to classify them! Many of these towns feel really urban, such as Steubenville or even the neighboring town of Mingo Junction. Bellaire, OH for example has a population of 4,000 but has a small skyscraper - These towns all used to be thriving and much larger but sadly are not like that at all anymore - it makes for interesting urban exploration opportunities though!

DISCLAIMER: I am not super sharp on specific history of buildings in the Ohio Valley like I am with Youngstown, so pardon any vagueness. Victorian Home on Fifth Street I've been meaning to take pictures of this house for a very long time! It's located on Fifth Street, right behind the Fourth Street Historic District. The street is no where near as grand as Fourth, but it has many cool homes like this mixed in. Sadly, this one is likely nearing the end of its lifespan. Downtown Steubenville: Next, I took this quick picture of a skyscraper along Fourth Street in Downtown Steubenville while I was stopping for a coffee. Downtown Steubenville actually is surprisingly pretty structurally in tact for a solid few blocks of Fourth Street. Next is "The Kingston" - an amazing but abandoned apartment building, built in 1917. This is in a pretty sketchy part of town, and even I who takes pictures everywhere, did not want to get out to get a closer look... maybe another time though! But it's still a pretty good picture from my car. As a side note though, you'd be shocked at how sketchy Steubenville can be. I even feel a bit more unsafe in some parts of town here than back home in Youngstown believe it or not. Also, this building was/is for sale as of a year ago, so if you want a project, here you go! ? Steubenville's "Polish Hill": Next, we have an area up on the steep hillside behind Downtown near the now abandoned St. Stanislaus church. The area used to be a Polish neighborhood, hence the name of the church. I believe some locals refer to it as "Polish Hill" - not to be confused with Pittsburgh's Polish Hill neighborhood. Like most cities of the time, Steubenville had quite a variety of ethnic enclaves including Slovak, Italian, and Polish. I even found out through some family ancestry research that my ancestors owned a popular market in the Italian ethnic neighborhood - but that's a post for another time! Anyways, here's some of the remnants of the Polish neighborhood... These rowhouses have to be really old, at least in comparison to most buildings left in town: Next, we have this abandoned building with some very photogenic graffiti... Recently Steubenville has had a massive uptick in Anarchist and anti-capitalist graffiti and vandalism across town. Some advocating for a rent strike, some exposing the two party system, and some calling for a full blown revolution with a hammer and sickle symbol and all. This little town can surprisingly get pretty politically charged, partially due to rampant poverty, blatant corruption, and possibly even some vocal Franciscan University students I presume as the college is a mecca for some pretty fringe Catholic movements. Anyways... "capitalism killed the hood" is ridiculously fitting for this photo: Belleview Boulevard: At the top of the hill is the La Belle neighborhood, also known as "The Hilltop" - La Belle is a very dense, diverse, but extremely poor neighborhood. Many Valley residents know to avoid this area all together as it's constantly the site of gang violence related to Chicago and New York gangs competing over the lucrative drug trade in the Valley. Despite this though, the neighborhood still has many beautifully maintained properties and pockets of stable areas. But deep into this neighborhood is Belleview Boulevard, a very beautiful and sought after street with 1920s and 30s mansions overlooking the city below. In fact, houses here still regularly sell for upwards of $300,000, which is very rare to see in Steubenville. This house I took a picture of is currently for sale and is a former convent for the Sisters of Saint Francis - the interior of the house sure reflects this! As I said before, Steubenville is incredibly Catholic. Just driving around this neighborhood, you will see countless Pro-Life and other catholic yard signs and bumper stickers. It's normal in Steubenville, but for other cities it's nowhere near this prevalent. Regretfully, there's only one public viewing area for the view below. This picture doesn't do a justice though as it is very beautiful and almost surreal to see in person. However I didn't want to stick around for a better picture as the owner of the property didn't seem to excited for me to be out there taking pictures, even though it was from the street ? Hope you enjoyed the tour! More pictures coming soon!

Hey everyone! One year ago, I did an in depth photo tour of Downtown Steubenville, Ohio and a photo tour of Steubenville's Fourth Street Historic District. I have a thread for Random Youngstown area photos, but I felt as if you guys might be interested in seeing some of my pictures from the Ohio Valley as well! I grew up in the area and have been exploring it a lot recently during the COVID shutdown. The area is naturally beautiful, has a ton of great architecture, and a ton of history. These pictures will mainly be from the Steubenville area but I hope to get down to Wheeling sometime this summer. Also, if you want to see me post some other photo tours (German Village, Ohio City, Baltimore, Charleston, ect) let me know! I will start with photos from this weekend, but stay tuned because I'll post some older pictures later on!

I've never been to Newark, but I have to say, I'm very impressed with it every time I see pictures of it! It's amazing how nice their Downtown looks ever since they started investing in it. Especially considering it's not a big city. I think other small cities in Ohio should try to replicate this success to some extent.

I'm finally done with finals so I have time to take some pictures now! I hope you guys enjoy and expect more pics to be posted weekly or more! Pyatt Street Market: Pyatt Street Market is an interesting piece of Youngstown history that I really only discovered a few months ago. I plan to write a whole article on its history at some point, but here's a brief rundown. The market existed for most of the South Side's history in the 20th century. The market sold produce and other goods found at a farmers market. It continued to serve a wide variety of customers for years to come. There were also several businesses, restaurants, ect that set up shop both inside the market and in the surrounding buildings. As the 70's dawned on Youngstown, the South Side, especially this area close to Downtown, was becoming a very impoverished and unsafe place to be. The market had a brief revitalization with the Pyatt Street Diner and the "Down Under Club" beneath it. However as the decades wore on, the market's customer base kept shrinking until 2004 when the market and every shop around it closed down; except for one! There's still a vendor, who has been there for several decades, who now operates a food truck on the last and only portion of the market still standing. "Kenny K's" is particularly known for his sausages and french fries which he sells for lunch on most days of the week. When the market hall was torn down in the early 2010s, the city was kind enough to leave a small, but admittedly dilapidated, part of the market left for Kenny K's to use as a picnic shelter. It's crazy to visit this location now as it is completely dead - even by South Side Youngstown standards, this block is eerily empty besides a few remaining auto mechanics and Kenny K's. As I read the news yesterday and saw that there was (another) fire at the Pyatt Street Diner, I realized I had to hurry and get a couple pictures before it is gone. The market used to go all the way down the block to the right. It was torn down a few years ago: This small portion is utilized by Kenny K's, but it is anyone's guess how long it will remain standing - it is doubtful that anyone will repair it: Welcome to the Pyatt Street Diner! The diner was a "farm to table" style restaurant and was known for being themed like an old fashioned diner from the 50s. The diner was initially successful and even briefly had a second location in Liberty Township. The "Down Under" club was underneath the building. It was primarily known for it's role as a Jazz venue. After the fire last night, which is the second one in recent years, there is not much left standing at the diner and it will probably get torn down whenever the land bank gets a little extra money - typically these largely industrial and vacant areas see less immediate demolitions than other neighborhoods. Here's a picture (NOT FROM ME) of the Down Under Club ruins as of a few years ago. Credit for the picture goes to Sean Posey, an amazing local historian who has published a handful of great and informative books on Mahoning Valley history: Looking down Lois Court, the road that intersects Pyatt Street: The yellow brick building seen here (also on Lois Court) is an apartment building - I believe there's actually still some tenants there but I'm not positive. Lower Gibson: The Lower Gibson neighborhood is a rapidly disappearing neighborhood which has a lot of unique attributes to it that many may not notice. It's a very old neighborhood and has some of the oldest remaining housing in the city - one small house in particular looks incredibly old - however these are all very working class homes, nothing too ornate, so they go unnoticed. There are also some brick streets left in Lower Gibson which is a rarity, and the houses were built very close to eachother. But due to demolitions, this is less apparent today. I will be coming back to this neighborhood to get more pictures one day, but since I had to drive past it, I took this one picture today of a house on Pyatt Street (though a very different stretch of Pyatt than the market area). It may not seem unique to most people, but for some reason I find the Lower Gibson area to be very interesting and photogenic (in an urban-ex sort of way) so I hope you guys look forward to me getting more pics there. Until then, here's this one: Mahoning Commons: This next picture is on Marshall Avenue in Mahoning Commons, a neighborhood close to Downtown which is both an aging industrial park and a small but active artist colony: Random House on Lora Ave. in the North Side: Robinson Road, Campbell, OH: Campbell (pronounced as "Camel") is a town I regrettably have never photographed until now. I do know that it used to be called East Youngstown and was heavily industrialized due to it being along the Mahoning River. In many ways, Campbell is more of an extension of the East Side than a suburb. It is very ethnically diverse. It has a large Greek population, and no, no just Greek in name. It was founded mostly by Greek immigrants in the early 1900's, and even to this day, 9% of Campbell citizens claim to speak Greek as their native tongue. I can attest that everyone I know from Campbell is either Greek or really into the town's Greek culture. Additionally, the town is home to an ever increasing Puerto Rican population along with the East Side of Youngstown. 9% of the town speaks Spanish. Not much is left of the original business district on Wilson Ave. due to the 1918 East Youngstown Riots which destroyed most of the area's commercial buildings. Today some remain but are very abandoned. It was getting dark out so I could only get one decent picture, but this stretch of road is very cool and i will definitely come back to get pictures. It is all overgrown and only has one dive bar remaining on the entire block. There is actually a renovation project though which I will cover another time. What you see in the following picture is just one section of this abandoned and fragmented business district which I will post more about in the future:

It's not a great picture, but I was driving down Fifth Avenue today, and Phase 3 of the University Edge project is nearing completion. The project turned a block that was just parking lots into 3 large apartment buildings and the university's new bookstore. It's awesome to have a solid streetwall down Fifth on that block, especially as Fifth will be getting a gigantic facelift starting this summer. Rayen, the other road on this intersection, will also be receiving a road diet in the coming years which will reduce it to two lanes with new bikelanes. Trilogy Lofts, on the other end of campus on the corner of Wick & Rayen, is also coming along nicely. Though it is in an amazing location, the architecture of it is... well horrible in my opinion. It looks very dated and it will likely look even worse unless they decided to change the material they plan to use as it looks quite terrible in the renderings. It also couldve had a couple more floors in my opinion, as it's shorter than the Masonic Temple Building next to it. But hey, it'll add a lot of density to Wick and as it's close to Downtown, I suspect it might help encourage student residents to venture into Downtown itself more often.

Great pictures! I can't say I like all the suburban sprawl in LA, but it does look really cool from above in those pictures!

With the new Enclave apartments, Trilogy Lofts, new Chipotle/Clinic building, and now the library renovations, that corner of Wick Ave. has really changed a ton in the past few years! Honestly YSU has improved so much and it's a really nice campus and surrounding area now. All it needs now is to not be just a "commuter school" Renderings of the Central Library Renovations: The library's a beautiful building, but the inside is quite... dated. I'm excited to see that they will be restoring the historic front entrance on Wick Ave. It's going to be nice to have more greenspace along Wick. Furthermore, I hope the Gallagher Building actually gets renovated this time... the past two owners ended up in jail before the renovations occured! But hey, most buildings Downtown that have been renovated involved some type of corruption or fraud lawsuit within a few years of being constructed, so I guess it's just how Youngstown works! The plans for the Gallagher Building seem to include a sunroom in the courtyard area on the street corner as well as a new elevator outside the building for the apartment tenants.

Oak Hill Cemetery April 25: This isn't a full photo tour of the cemetery. I just stopped by real quick to get some skyline pictures. Oak Hill cemetery is a very old cemetery on the South Side which is the final resting place for many of Youngstown's old elite families. Driving through, you will recognize many of the names printed on the stately mausoleums if you're familiar with the big names in the area. Set on a hillside, the cemetery can be navigated by the winding brick lanes that go up the hill - sadly these have fallen into disrepair and are being replaced slowly but surely with pavement. I hope to go back and get some pictures of the mausoleums some other day! The Colonial House: So I'm writing an article about the history of the Uptown area and how it can be revitalized in the future - and I needed a picture of "The Colonial House" restaurant for that article. Long story short, The Colonial House was once one of Youngstown's most popular fine dining establishments and was frequented by the city's elites. It was jointly owned by the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Mafias until Vince DeNiro (Cleveland) had a falling out with Sandy Naples (Pittsburgh) in the late 50s. This led DeNiro to open his own fine dining restaurant, Cicero's, literally right across the street. Basically Youngstown's Krusty Krab and Chum Bucket. Anyways, this rivalry over the Youngstown rackets only continued to fester until a warm summer night in July 1961 when one of the most infamous events in Mahoning Valley history occurred - When Vince DeNiro exited his restaurant that night, he turned his car key for the last time, triggering a car bomb, killing him instantly. The blast was so powerful, it blew out windows 3 blocks away. The "Youngstown-Tune-Up" as it was dubbed led to four decades of a bloody war between the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Mafias, leading to hundreds of car bombings and mob-related deaths until the mafia finally fell in the early 2000s. It became so common that it seems anyone you ask that lived in town during this time period will have their own story about a car bombing in their neighborhood. It's crazy to think that this building, once a headquarters for Youngstown's criminal underworld, now sits vacant just like every other building on the street. I used to drive past it every day on my way to high school and had no idea of the history behind it - it just goes to show that even the most seemingly mundane buildings may have witnessed incredible events over the decades!