preservationrestoration

I think I'd rather live in Old Towne East. Seriously. I remember the first time my brother look me to New Albany when I was visiting him while he was living in C-bus. He thought I would be impressed. I was modestly impressed. Is this what we have to look forward to at San Mare Gale or whatever they are calling that crap in Oregonia?

Yup that was my idea. But who am I? I'm still not convinced the school will come down :)

You should disown them.

I've never seen the water that blue. Nice shots. Thanks for sharing.

Ink is probably drooling over this picture LOL :) Nice shots of Mt Clemens. I've only driven through once, but didn't stop. It's been on my list of places to see.

I wonder who Hamilton had to sleep with to get a bridge like that. Nice pics.

I'm not surprised. Ashland and Middletown are a package deal. I've heard rumblings that AK could be looking to unload them or spin them off to focus more on stainless, which is exactly what ARMCO did when they owned the mills. They created a joint-venture with a Japanese steelmaker. That joint venture lasted a few years before the company was spun off into AK. In 1999, AK bought ARMCO.

Not sure Not yet anyway...they own plenty of land to do so if that's what they want.

wicked.

Not anymore. They are represented by UAW now, I believe. The AK plant in Rockport represented a $1 billion investment in the mid 90s when it was constructed.

You have such an talent for bringing out the best in places.

I hear this place is pretty good: Monnettes Market Place (419) 885-3848 5849 Alexis Rd, Sylvania, OH 1.31 mi

yuck ]

More of a reason to relocate to Cincinnati :) woxy.com returning to the dial in cincinnati Submitted by: Bryan That's right, folks. We've been working on this for some time now, but it's finally time to let the cat out of the bag. Through a unique partnership with Cincinnati Public Radio and 91.7 WVXU, you'll soon be able to pick up WOXY.com on the second multicast channel of WVXU once it transitions to HD Radio in August! Once you have an HD Radio receiver, you'll be able to pick up our live broadcast 24/7 on WVXU HD2 anywhere within WVXU's coverage area. Yup, WOXY.com will rock your car once again. We're all incredibly excited about being back on-the-air in the Tri-State and will be posting more info soon on what to expect and the best places to pick up an HD Radio receiver

I ate at the BW3s for lunch about 8 years ago when my dad and I spent the day in Springfield glad to see it still there. Springfield reminds me a lot of Hamilton. I love the old City building though. Of course I'm a sucker for that style.

Here is an aerial view. You can see Swallens attached to the parking structure:

Agree 100%. Removing the parking structure would really open up the view from Broad Street to Donham Plaza and the civic buildings in that area. The garage makes it seem so separated. Nice pictures, btw. Especially of Broad Street, the Plaza and Port Middletown Park. I know what I'm going to do on my next trip into town. I will be on top oof the parking garage LOL. But this shot is my fav: What you see here is the upstairs of the Quiznos building, which for several years was an "urban loft" for Tom and Peggy Blakely before they renovated a building on Main Street as their home. I just love the angle that's captured with this picture. I wonder if the owners of the Dohn's Hardware building know that they can get a GRANT (i.e. won't have to pay it back) from the city to help remove the ugly blue sliding from the building? If not, someone from the city should tell them!

It is certainly no Nickel's Arcade ;)

You are welcome. The parking structure is still there, but could come down in the near future with the Swallen's building. The mall wing with parking structure was very dark and gloomy. The rest of the mall during the day was full of sunlight, if the sun was out. But the concrete floor gave it an unfinished looked and feel. Many assume the mall was a response to suburban malls. In some ways it was. Middletown had actually contemplated building a new downtown on the east side of town. For those who know Middletown, its the area around K-Mart and the Masonic Temple. The Masonic was on of the first civic buildings to jump on the idea, but it never took off. I have a rendering and article of that plan as well.

Yes, it was. Well not actually "Main Street' per se. But Central Avenue and Broad Street. When I first read your "Middletown Ghost Town" thread a couple of years ago, I assumed you knew that the area was once a covered mall. Hence, you can begin to understand why the area suffered so much. Middletown cut the life out of their downtown by blocking off the main street through town by building the mall. That said, it was a nice surprise to see this thread receive some renewed interest. The mall had always interested me. You see, it was finished one year before I was born, so I never knew downtown without the mall. I had seen pictures and heard stories of what it was like, always envious of the generations before me who got to experience it. Many assume the mall was built as a reaction to the Towne Mall in Franklin Township, just east of Middletown but now within the city limits. Not true. The Towne Mall wasn't completed until until 1977--three years AFTER the downtown mall was finished. The downtown mall was more of a response to your typical strip centers which had began popping up around town and aging buildings in the core area. Don't get me wrong, the Towne Mall complicated things for the downtown shopping center. From what I've read, the mall concept was heavily supported and lobbied for by the merchants and property owners. My gut tells me they never imagined the impact on their sales of a construction project of this magnitude. The first comprehensive plan for Downtown Middletown was completed in the late 1960s. Well before the Towne Mall. It was with this plan that the downtown mall concept began take roots. I have a copy of that plan. It has some great conceptual renderings. Unfortunately, it it is rather large and difficult to scan. I did find a rendering of from that plan. This rendering shows the mall entrance facing Verity Parkway at what would have been the intersection of Canal Street and Central Avenue. As you can see, the mall is flanked by two parking structures both with high-rise office buildings atop....Middletown's "Twin Towers" have you. One was to be residential. The other was office/commerical. The plan also called for an expansion of the Central Store to connect to the mall and an expansion of Pennys by tearing down the two historical structures next to it. Thankfully, that did not happen :) The design of the entrance ways was much different then as well. By the early 1970s, it appears the city had received federal funds to help with the project. Of course, getting federal funding is not easy and often vastly delays projects. Had the city been able to fund the mall project on its own, it may have been more successful. The next shot comes from another downtown plan from the early 1970s. As you can see, the plan still is for two parking garages, but one of the office towers is missing. From a design standpoint, this closely matches what was completed. The grey buildings were existing buildings to be retained. White buildings were new construction. Notice in this model, many of the historic buildings along Main Street, including the US Hotel and the Sorg Opera House a would have been torn down. Notice the "U" shape complex on Main Street. Not sure what the plans were for this. Attached to both parking structures are new "department/variety" stores that were to be constructed. Only the building in the upper right corner was constructed as a department store--Swallens. The upper left became a new YMCA. The bottom right and left became parking lots and the Sorg Opera House was retained. The Centre Centre "brand" had not been developed yet. Next is a floor plan from the same early 1970s plan: PreConstruction and Construction Photos (hopefully no dups from above :) ) The mall construction started in 1972 and was completed in 1974. Fay Drugs was a victim of the mall. The other two buildings were replaced with a more modern structure prior to the mall's construction. In this photo Fay Drugs is now Walker Shoes and all the buildings to the right of it, with the exception of the tower, were victim of the mall: The big open space behind Penny's is where Swallens built. Looks like Urban Planning and Design wasn't the only bad thing in the 1970s LOL The mall canopy goes up at Pennys Work on N. Broad preparing for the mall roof The next photos come from a marketing piece on the "City Centre": A map of the area: Some interior shots: Up close of a mall storefront: Aerial of the mall area. Nice view of the mall area and government/civic plaza. Notice the mall entrance at the bottom seems unfinished. That's because the city was waiting for more funding to completed the second garage and Elder-Beerman was supposed to anchor the south entrance and garage. I'll talk more about Elder-Beerman later :) In this image, Swallens is also completed. The next shots come from another "color" marketing piece. The first is the cover of the brochure: More interior pictures and the fountain that was at the center of the mall....or the old intersection of Broad and Central: Sketch of the north entrance looking from City Centre Plaza. Notice the old "Y" building now gone. Swallens is to the left. Despite the Swallens building, this was one of my favorite entrances: Next an aerial view circa 1985 So what happened? In the beginning, the mart/mall was a modest success. J.C. Penny contined to operate out of the mall until 1982. Murphy Mart (formerly C.G Murphy and Co) was open until about 1980. The locally owned Central Store closed. Probably the biggest disaster for the mall was Elder-Beerman, who had just aquired Mabely and Carew out of Cincinnati. They had planned a new store in the mall. There were issues that were unresolved with a local property owner and the city over land and parking. Eventually E-B opted to join McAlpins and Sears at the Towne Mall. Middletown wasn't the first to do the covered mall thing downtown. Hamilton also pondered a similar move. The problem was that it was a mall in a traditional mall sense. For example, with a mall, there usually was a single property owner (with the exception of the department stores). This mall owner charged standard rental rates, set standard hours and could b selective with whom they signed leases. With the City Centre Mall in Middletown, you had more than 14 property owners....all setting their own rental rates (two similar storefronts could vary vastly in their rent). Plus there was no control over who was rent to or what their hours were. In the end, it was a failure and was costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain each year. In the early 1990s, the city began to study removing the roof. It was nearly 10 years before the decision to do so was made. The roof came off and Central and Broad were reopened to traffic in 2003. I have some pictures of the mall deconstruction. They aren't digital, but I can scan them in the future.

No pics of the AK Steel plant? ;)

Love the roundabout and fountain downtown. That alone makes Troy an easy favorite.

^^^ OMG This is news to me. We have been eating at Dominics fro over 20 years. When we first at there, they were always consistently good. Now, its hit or miss. Some nights it is outstanding. Others is ok. Regardless, lots of good family and friend memories at that location. I'd hate to see them move. But I'd rather have Dominics in a new location than a no Dominics at all.

You are correct. If you think the outside was bad, the inside is much worse. The outside always reminded me of a really cheap arena. But remember, the idea was that this was a "mall building." So the true front of the building faced the mall concourse. But it true Swallen fashion, it was cheap too lol. There have been a lot of "plans" for the building. First a convention center. Then the Middletown Area Senior Citizens tried to buy the building from the city for $250,000. The city turned them down. Said it was worth more. Now the seniors are moving out of downtown to a location on the east-side of town. A group wanted to make a big antique/craft mall out of it. City told them no and wouldn't sell it to them. Tried to give the building away. Not takens. Tear it down.

Surprisingly, there aren't any pictures on this site of the building. Here is the fact sheet the city put out when trying to give the building away. A few pictures there. http://www.middletownedc.org/forms/Swallens_Fact_Sheet1.pdf Also, here is a picture of the building from Verity Parkway. It had an exterior entrance on Verity. The mall's entrace faced what was/is now again Broad Street.