JohndowntownCan

Thanks for the vintage photos of Canton, Ohio. I grew up here in the 60s and rarely went downtown, so I don't remember much of it. Ironically, I ended up living downtown in a wood framed house, which I gutted and transformed into something the original owners wish they could have had. It all looks original, from the first floor to the attic, because I kept the style while drastically improving the quality of materials and workmanship. It's hard to imagine how congested downtown Canton once was.....with houses, commercial buildings and people. It's a lonely place now. It's much more open spatially, but hardly anyone cares about it now, despite more recent improvements. Has much to do with the demographic profile change that's happened over the last 50 years in Canton along with the constant loss of residents. As charming as many of all those old buildings were, it was inevitable that they were doomed. They would have been costly to maintain and with property values plummeting, it would have made zero economic sense for anyone to save them. That's where Canton has been and is.....it doesn't make any economic sense to improve any old building or house long term without tax credits. I went against the trend and did, the only economic incentive being the low property taxes I have....somewhere under 200/year for a house with a fair market price of 300K. Unfortunately, city leaders aren't focused on changing the demographic profile, making it more economically diverse, instead of progressively poorer and poorer. I don't think they have a clue as to how it could even be done. Thanks for the photos once again.....there were buildings I didn't know existed so close to my house.