Marion's tallest; looks to be preserved as senior housing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Marion County Courthouse is a twin of Fayette County, both designed by David Gibbs

 

 

 

In the 1970's, Marion County Commissioners decided to modernized the courthouse. Although the historical society filed an injunction, the project went on and almost all of the interior woodwork and architectural details were removed.

 

 

 

 

Notice the weird addition to the right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marion pumps music through its downtown; I was shocked at some of the selections, Cupid's Chokehold played twice  :roll:

 

An interesting city building

 

 

 

 

 

 

A shame.

well there's another palace theater that beats lorain's (of course to be fair the latter's signage was destroyed in a tornado like everything else in downtown lorain).

 

i like the mod city hall too, at least from that angle.

 

some good stuff there for sure, but the pumped music thing is weird beyond weird -- gives me flashbacks of my visit to the green in dayton.

Looks like someplace I need to visit.  I find these smaller, once-grand industrial cities fascinating (place like Hamilton, Middletown, Springfield, Lima, Richmond IN, etc.)  There are plenty of cities like this in NE Ohio and along the Ohio River that fall into this category that I still need to check out too.

 

Thanks for the tour.

Some interesting stuff, but overall a sad story for a town that once was an industrial powerhouse.

 

Marion was known for Marion Steam Shovels, including some huge machines that dug the Panama Canal, and for Huber threshing machines, steam traction engines, farm tractors, and road-construction machinery. Here are a few shots of a Huber steam engine and some tractors showing their evolution. I have some photos of Marion Steam Shovels, but I haven't scanned or uploaded them yet.

 

 

 

 

Marion was known for Marion Steam Shovels, including some huge machines that dug the Panama Canal...

 

Wow!

Sadly, it reminds me of another decayed Ohio city that I'm all too familiar with.

^There are a lot of similarities, although I think Marion appears more decayed. Of course, Marion does have the presence of the county seat: historic courthouse, county offices, etc.

Know Marion very well... here's my very quick take on the city from a preservation/revitalization planning point of view:

 

PROS

 

--> Good courthouse, and a decently re-done county building smack in the middle of downtown

--> Pretty good building stock downtown, including a good solid block of two-story Italianate commercial buildings on South Main that have potential

--> A handful of large "Gee, I wish that met someone with vision and money" buildings, including the Masonic Temple (pic 20), the Old Opera House/Elks Building (pic 24), etc..

--> A John Eberson atmospheric theater -- one of his best

--> A couple of solid local banks with downtown main offices

--> Good local history museum in a very good historic structure (the old Post Office, pic 24)

--> Nice adaptive reuse of the old Harding Hotel, which has amazing continuing potential (pic 2)

--> The county and city planning people really care about the community, and the downtown

--> Some investment occurring - one of the recent Ohio historic preservation tax credit projects is in downtown Marion

--> Marion has an AMAZING collection of surviving bungalows and Craftsman-style residences; this is one of the city's strongest preservation resources

--> Of course, the whole Warren Harding story, including one of the better Presidential homes in Ohio and an imposing final resting place

 

CONS

 

--> Lackluster downtown revitalization efforts over the years that have failed to capture the imagination (and money) of a critical mass of potential investors

--> City Hall that is ugly and has turned its side to the street

--> A very wide, one-way Main Street that is not amenable to creating a shopping/destination environment

--> Very little retail downtown (what is there is nice, but it is hardly enough to entice more)

--> A very weak design review/historic preservation ordinance that has practically no teeth and has allowed some very unusual alterations

--> Two INCREDIBLY poorly located overpasses that block entire areas of downtown that, as a result, sit devoid of investment

--> Like most Ohio cities, all of the schools have deserted the central city

 

Thomas/presOhio