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I'm happy they are building the Campus Lofts but oh my god what type of monstrosity is this design! It looks so bland and dated to me. Not to mention it's a shame there won't be any retail along Wick Ave. That could've been a crucial link between retail on Lincoln Ave. near YSU and retail in Downtown. In more exciting news.... we have more amphitheater photos! ?

Crandall Park North & Parkway Towers: I took a quick walk to take photos at Parkway Towers, an abandoned apartment building in front of Stambaugh Auditorium and Wick Park. After, I walked along a block of Tod Lane in the Crandall Park North neighborhood to get some photos of the old mansions there. Stambaugh Auditorium: Parkway Towers: Tod Lane in Crandall Park North Historic District: Crandall Park North was one of Youngstown's early wealthy neighborhoods. It was developed in the early 1900s as an alternative to the Wick Park area. Today the area north of the park (Crandall Park North and North Heights) remain generally stable. Some parts are good neighborhoods, others are making comebacks, and some are still seemingly doomed. South of the park is the older part of the North Side (Crandall Park South and Wick Park). These neighborhoods are in much worse shape and most old mansions are not kept up. This block of Tod Lane that I photographed is surprisingly kept up - I plan to take more photos here and in Crandall Park South. A newer house from either the 40s or 50s: This house was once owned by the Wick family, a prominent Youngstown family. It fell into despair in recent decades but was luckily saved by a neighborhood preservationist last year after a lengthy campaign to sell it rather than tear it down. It's good to see it be saved since it was the last house on the block that was in bad shape: The Burt Printz Mansion, built in 1915 with an addition built in later decades. It is now being used as a bed and breakfast. It is on the corner of Tod Lane and Fifth Avenue:

It's amazing how much that piece of land has changed! I'm excited for June when it's done. There's already some decent sized acts who've announced concerts in June or July (Earth Wind & Fire, Chicago, & Gucci Mane) Once the park surrounding it is done, it'll be an amazing asset for Downtown. Honestly if the city can focus on linking everything from the river to Downtown to the YSU campus, it could easily become a bustling college town. Frankly it's a wonder we havent become a typical college town yet... everything is in place for it to happen, it just needs set in motion.

I'm not sure how I feel about EGCC closing off a block of Boardman Street. I'm all for improving the streetscape there but I'm not sure it's a good idea to make it a pedestrian only area. And let's face it, there will be no shops around it and there aren't too many EGCC students anyways so I can't imagine it would even be a very lively space. It's just nowhere near what the closing off N. Phelps Street plan is.

Concept Studio Opening: Concept Studio opened up this month in the Davis Building in Downtown. The David Building, built in 1899, was one of the first revitalized buildings in Downtown but never really had a first floor retail tenant. Concept Studio is an "open concept gathering space." In other words, it is an open space that can be reserved to be used for business meetings, popup shops, events, ect. They held their first event this week (still going on until Saturday), the Spring Pop-Up Market. The Market has 4 vendors, Branch Street Roasters, Blush Boutique, Kabocha, and Charm House Decor. It's cool to see something like this come to the Davis Building, and I hope it is used a lot! The only downside of this is that it isn't a permanent restaurant or retail shop - this block of Federal only has two restaurants (Joe Maxx Coffee and Draught House) so I wish more permanent shops or restaurants would come to the block. Also, having Branch Street at this popup market still makes me lament the fact that their plans to open up Downtown fell through... The Davis Building: The inside: The Spring Pop-Up Market: Unfortunately there hasn't been too much news in terms of new businesses in Downtown. There's some projects going on by YSU however such as renovations to Stambaugh Stadium, new luxury student housing on Wick Ave., and the Cafaro Sports Complex which is coming to the Wick Park neighborhood.

A better view of the amphitheater: The Amphitheater will be open in June and the concert lineup will be announced this month. The management recently announced a partnership with LiveNation who is helping to book national acts. JAC Management claims there will be a mix of national acts and local acts or events this summer. I'm really excited to see this project continue. Once the whole park is done it will be a great asset to Downtown and the riverfront!

Here's a photo of the amphitheater I found from a news article. It will open in early June:

Awesome! And with the ambitious plans in place for the former Anthonys on the River site across the street, that part of the riverfront could really become a great place! Not to mention, the amphitheater and park will be right across the bridge.

I was driving around the North Side and came across this really beautiful house... it's such a shame that it's in this state. I knew it would probably be torn down soon, so I had to stop and get a picture of it. There's a lot of other houses like this (many in better condition) in this neighborhood, but frankly it's a sketchy part of town so I'm not sure I want to walk around taking photos...The house is on the corner of Juanita and Alameda: And also, here's some photos from High Street in Leetonia, Ohio. High Street was Leetonia's millionaire row and still has a lot of old 1800s Victorian mansions. Here's a few of the houses on the street:

It's an old photo, I believe that Quiznos is no longer with us ?

Bike Share Program Coming To Wheeling The Health Plan has sponsored a new Bike Share system for Downtown Wheeling. The first phase will just be one docking station in front of WesBanco Arena. The location is connected to the riverfront Wheeling Heritage park and bike trail network. Theoretically, you could ride the trail all the way to Wellsburg and back from the docking station. If the docking station is a success, the city will invest in new docking stations at bike-trailheads in the Warwood and Elm Grove neighborhoods and a station in the busy Center Market neighborhood. It will be West Virginia's first bike share program. This program proves yet again that Wheeling is very progressive when it comes to urban planning issues. Despite the city's relatively small size, it is becoming a unique urban center in the Ohio Valley region. Downtown and the historic neighborhoods along the river in the city's core are all surprisingly urban and walkable. I'm glad Wheeling is embracing its urban core instead of running away from it like towns such as Steubenville are doing. Wheeling - Pittsburgh Steel Building renovations to start this Spring: Developer Steve Coon of Canton announced that he is ready to move forward with his $21 million restoration plan of Wheeling's largest skyscraper, the Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Building. The 12 story building will be made into 110 market rate apartment units. However, he only will move forward with the plan if the city commits to building a parking lot across the street. The parking garage proposal will likely go through and is supported by the mayor and other members of the city government. The garage will have first floor retail, 160 parking spaces for the apartments (a bit much in my opinion) and more spaces that can be used by anyone coming to Downtown. The lower two floors of the Wheeling Pitt Steel Building will be reserved for retail space. The Wheeling - Pittsburgh Steel Building:

I don't have a full "photo tour" today but I got a couple random photos in the past two weeks. Newport Village Historic District: Newport Village and Forest Glen Estates make up the Boardman Historic District, Youngstown's first "streetcar suburb". They are located just across the street from Youngstown's South Side. Today the neighborhoods are beautifully maintained and filled with 1900s-1930s era mansions and middle class houses centered around tree lined boulevards. There are especially a lot of beautiful tudor homes. They stand heavily in contrast to the surrounding South Side neighborhoods which are in distress or barely hanging on. Here's an example of one of the many beautiful tudor homes. This one is on Jennette Drive which is full of beautifully preserved tudor houses. Only two blocks away across Midlothian is one of the worst parts of the South Side, yet this area remains one of Boardman's most desirable neighborhoods: Another house on Jennette Drive: I'll 100% be back to take photos of more houses and commercial buildings in Newport Village once the weather gets nicer! Leetonia, Ohio: I made a quick stop in Leetonia the other day. Leetonia is a small village south of Youngstown. I only took a few photos of the Downtown area which appears rather rundown and desolate. However, there are several streets just north of Main Street with absolutely stunning Victorian era mansions. Again, I will definitely be back to take photos of those! But in the meantime, here's the quite gritty and abandoned Main Street on a snowy day:

Sadly there's not much of a demand for anything in Youngstown these days ? It's a shame seeing these apartments go - the houses in the area are starting to be cared for more, but it's such a shame to lose all the denser residential buildings. It's a shame the neighborhood doesn't benefit more from YSU.

Wick Park Feb. 21, 2019: More Wick Park photos once again! I promise I'll eventually branch out into other neighborhoods ? Hopefully in the coming months I'll have some photos from Crandall Park, Indian Village, and Newport Village/Forest Glen in Boardman. This is an abandoned apartment building (maybe a school?) built in the 1910s on the corner of Bryson Street and Woodbine Avenue. Sadly it will probably get torn down soon enough as it's in very bad shape: Here's two houses across the street from the building on Woodbine Avenue. Besides the apartment building, almost every other house around this corner is kept up well. The first house in particular was very overgrown and in bad shape only a few years ago as seen in this street view: Lastly, here's a house on Park Avenue directly across from Wick Park: Also, just a reminder, if you want to see the rest of the photos I take of buildings in various cities, you can follow my Instagram page @BuildingsOfAmerica.

Timeline for Downtown Youngstown Infrastructure Improvements Much Shorter Than Anticipated Recently, Youngstown secured $26 million in both federal and private funding for massive infrastructure improvements in the Downtown area. Fifth Avenue will be reduced from 6 lanes to 2 lanes with bike lanes and bus lanes - the project will start in March 2020. Sadly this only will be from Federal to Madison Ave. Expressway. The whole infrastructure plan seems to neglect Wick Park which is a shame due to its huge potential. Front Street will be receiving improvements and reduced from four lanes to 2 lanes with bike lanes. This will help connect the new riverfront park and amphitheater to the center of Downtown. Several stoplights are being removed in Downtown and in the YSU campus area, especially on Wick and Front Streets. City Council is currently reviewing plans to turn North Phelps between Federal and Commerce into a pedestrian plaza similar to East Fourth in Cleveland. The city released a detailed press release with plans and detailed maps going over the exact improvements that are anticipated. Here is the link.

I see that mainly is targeting Parkway Towers in Wick Park - it would be cool if YSU could use it for something. It's close to campus and there's a large student population in the neighborhood already.

I guess Columbiana is suburban in many ways but it is quite a bit south of Youngstown. It is however the only town/suburb around Youngstown with a nice walkable main street which is impressive. But I don't understand why towns such as Canfield don't try to do the same.

It actually makes me really mad. It's like they just forget Wheeling is there. It's a big enough city that it should get full coverage. Same story in Steubenville.

Wick Park Feb. 4, 2019: I stopped by Wick Park today and took a few photos of some buildings since it was warmer out today. All of these pictures are from the area around the corner of Elm Street and Broadway. This Queen Anne style home on the corner of Elm & Broadway is one of the best preserved houses in the neighborhood. It was renovated in recent years and remains a single family house unlike most of the other houses in the neighborhood which have been subdivided: This is one of my favorite buildings in Youngstown. It is an abandoned apartment building from the 1910s. I didn't have much time today, but I plan to go back and take more photos of this building soon - especially since I suspect it will unfortunately be torn down soon. It's probably beyond saving:

I think that small towns in general are dying or some are maybe just downsizing. I live in the Youngstown area and most small towns are not doing great around here as expected. The one town I will give a lot of credit to is Columbiana - they have a very pro-development/business attitude there. They've really managed to keep business alive in their "downtown" even when things were looking bleak.Their main street is pretty walkable and has even become a local destination for its coffee shops, arts and crafts store, restaurants, breweries, ect. However if you go down the road to similarly sized cities (Leetonia, East Palestine, Salem), there's really not much going on at all. I think a lot of small towns just need to stop complaining and actually get things done. I guess you could argue Columbiana has an advantage due to its proximity to Youngstown, but it is far enough away that I don't think it even matters much. Here's a photo of Main Street in Columbiana I took earlier this year:

I think I made Downtown look more bleak than it is because I didn't get the chance to photograph the most busy areas. Downtown itself is very much on an upswing and is usually quite busy depending on the block. The bars also make it a big entertainment destination, especially during the warmer months. For all intents and purposes, Downtown is revitalized, it just needs some love on the outer sections for the most part. The other neighborhoods in Youngstown on the other hand are not doing great - however they look much better than 5 years ago due to the YNDC which has renovated countless houses across the city and works to clean up and beautify neighborhoods.

Hey everyone! I decided to make a thread to post all of my photos I take around Youngstown. The first update to this post is a walk around Wick Park Historic District and parts of Downtown. Make sure to check back at this post in the future for more photos that I will add in the future when I take more! And if you have suggestions for places in town to photograph, let me know! Wick Park January 2nd: I started out on Elm Street - Elm Street is an up and coming neighborhood business district. It has a co-op restaurant (Cultivate Cafe), a few shops, art/music venues, and most recently a coffeehouse. The street connects to some of YSU's dorms, so businesses on the street are mainly supported by YSU students living in the dorms and in rental houses in Wick Park. This is Culturehouse Coffeehouse on Elm Street: A mural on the side of a building on Elm Street: Next, I walked down Madison Avenue because I saw this really cool run down house. It is very overgrown and appears to be a slumlord property. But it is really a beautiful old house - as you will see, most of the remaining historic homes in this neighborhood are very run down and are now student slums: Next, these apartment buildings from the early 1900s (on the corner of Park Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue) are some of the only well preserved apartment buildings from that era remaining. The neighborhood was once full of buildings like this, but most are either very run down or gone all together. But these buildings are still beautiful and a glimpse into what the neighborhood once was: Here are some of the other houses on Park Avenue: Here's some houses on Broadway (The north side of the park) - this side is visibly more run down and a lot of buildings are in really bad shape - unfortunately I forgot to take photos of a lot of cool houses here. Also, I didn't venture onto any side streets to see the other historic mansions in the area because I'm not familiar enough with those streets and the area is a bit sketchy depending on the block: I then made a quick stop at the Welsh Congregational Church near YSU - it is Youngstown's oldest church. A group wanted to relocate it to Wick Park to save it, but the city is very opposed to any preservation efforts. It will likely be knocked down soon: Downtown January 2nd: Next I went to Downtown - unfortunately my camera died fairly quickly so I did not get to take anywhere near as much photos as I hoped for - expect me to post more in the future when I take them! West Federal Street is a pretty lively part of Downtown and is usually busy. However, the farthest block of it from Central Square is still not revitalized. These four buildings are largely vacant but I hope they will become something soon - they right by the DeYor Center and the Tech Block (Youngstown Business Incubator) so I feel like there is enough demand for some new business there. Sadly the other side of the road is almost all parking lots so it's not too welcoming of a block: Next, this photo is looking west on West Federal Street. This is the Tech Block - all of the buildings on the left except for the Home Savings Building are owned by the Tech Incubator - they have also expanded to buildings such as the old Vindicator Building on the other sides on this block. Some businesses have come as a result such as Joe Maxx Coffee which relocated from Central Square to here this year: The top of the Home Savings Building is arguably the most iconic building in Youngstown: The other side of this block (left) is dominated by 1990s "urban renewal" - though these brought a lot of jobs to the block, they lack first floor retail and the building sure have not aged well... These are three historic buildings on the "Tech Block" of West Federal - however the building on the left (State Theater) is actually just a facade - the rest of the building is gone. Currently a developer is toying with the idea of developing the lot next to it and the lot with the state theater to utilize the old facade. Another fun fact; it was the first venue outside of NYC where the Ramones played in. The middle building, the Davis Building, was built in 1899 and was restored very nicely in the 2000's making it one of the first revitalized buildings Downtown. The storefront is empty however but is occasionally occupied by pop up stores or used as event space. The building on the right houses a long time dive bar as well as a new and unique barbecue kitchen, Space Kat: One of the cool things Downtown has done in the past two years is decorating their utility boxes. Almost every utility box in Downtown and YSU has been redesigned by local artists. It really adds some nice art and color to the city. This is the corner of Hazel and West Federal: The next photo is looking down West Federal from the Hazel St. intersection. The empty lot of the left was the Paramount Theater which was unfortunately torn down 5 years ago or so.The two buildings adjacent to it need some TLC, but other than those, this block is very lively and has seen a lot of development in recent years. It is sort of the hub of the entertainment district Downtown and is pretty crowded on weekends: The next photo is looking down Hazel Street towards West Federal. On the left is the Gallagher Building. There have been multiple developers promising to develop it but nothing has come of it - mainly due to both developers getting caught up in some legal trouble over mismanagement of money. This is a common theme with Downtown redevelopment. In the process however, Cedar's Lounge, a once popular Downtown attraction, was kicked out due to the first developer's plans. I predict the building will be torn down: More views of the Gallagher Building: This is the Wells Building on the corner of Hazel and West Federal. It was beautifully renovated two years ago into luxury apartments (which have quite high rent might I add) with office space on the first floor by Strollo Architects. You can also see the empty lot I said Strollo was trying to redevelop in between the State Theater facade and Wells Building. The steam that comes out of the manholes on this corner for some reason make for great photo ops! This is the only photo I got in Central Square before my camera died. You can see Realty Tower which was one of the first apartment building renovations in Downtown by NYO Property Group. The first floor recently became home to a smoothie bar and a recently expanded spa/barber shop. On the left in the foreground is the Stambaugh Building, home to the new DoubleTree by Hilton developed by NYO. It also is home to Bistro 1907. It was supposed to be home to a Tuscany restaurant YOSTERIA and a new location for Boardman based Branch Street Roasters, but NYO ran into some money problems causing those projects to fall through for the time being: Lastly, here's a photo of the neon sign on the Federal Building on the corner of Phelps and West Federal with the Wick Tower apartments behind it: These are only some of the photos I took that day - if you want, you can see the rest on my VSCO page. Scroll down for more Youngstown area photos!

Awesome news! That corner will look a lot different with the Enclave on one side and these new lofts on the other. I wish they'd add retail along Wick Ave. to the plans in order to help bridge the gap between Downtown and YSU campus. I'm anxious to see more detailed plans/renderings. EDIT: And, the Central branch library on the other corner of that intersection is getting massive renovations done soon.

Pretty small news, but Youngstown (finally) got wayfinding signs installed. If I get to Downtown anytime soon, I'll take photos of them. But here's a photo posted by NYO Property Group: Also, Chipotle and a Mercy Health Clinic are moving into the Enclave development on the corner of Wick and Lincoln in the YSU area. Despite being a one story building, the "retail" portion of Enclave doesn't look that bad. I wish it extended down Lincoln more however. I could only find one (crappy) photo of the building:

Hey everyone! I finally got around to taking some more pictures in the Ohio Valley! Sadly, it's still Steubenville like my last photo tour. But, instead of showing off Downtown, I took a walk around North End Historic District, specifically North Fourth Street. North Fourth Street is Steubenville's traditional "millionaire's row" and had an interesting mix of historic mansions of various architectural styles. The historic district begins at the Fourth Street off-ramp of OH-7. The most impressive houses are on the 800 block, closest to OH-7. The closer to Downtown you get, the more blight and "urban renewal" you will see. Most houses are actually kept up well, but a few are clearly in need of TLC while others are flat out abandoned. Anyways... here's the tour! CLICK HERE for my Downtown Steubenville Photo Tour. Disclaimer: I did not venture onto the side streets because I didn't have much time; however there are some neat houses to check out in the surrounding blocks as well. Steubenville's Historic North End: We are going to begin at the corner of North Fourth Street and Clinton Street. This house is beautiful and has it's main entrance facing the corner. Peculiarly, a small one story office building is wedged between this house and the one next to it.... Two more houses on the 600 block: Next I crossed Ross Street to enter the 700 block of N. Fourth Street. Unfortunately, a huge Victorian mansion was recently demolished here - it was simply too far gone. The empty lot where it once stood is next to the run down white house: My favorite house on this block was this beautiful abandoned house. It looks really cool and eerie, but the sad reality is that it will likely be torn down in a few years. Actually, this whole block is at a huge risk and needs to be better preserved before it's all gone. I really like the style of this next house. I assume it was built long after the surrounding homes, probably in the 1920s. Nonetheless, it's a great fit into the North End: This Italianate on the corner of N. Fourth Street and Madison Avenue is one of many houses in the neighborhood that have been redeveloped into Bed and Breakfasts: The opposite side of the street on the 700 block is very bare and has seen a lot of demolition over the years. Here are two of the remaining homes: Now moving on to the 800 block, which is the most preserved: On the other side of the street.... This next house was really strange. It stood back significantly farther from the street than any other house on the road. It is a really cool house though: This next house is probably my personal favorite from the neighborhood: And finally, this is the house on the end of the street that borders OH-7: Thank you for reading and hopefully I can get more photo tours up in the future!