Well, it's "occupied."  Just with boxes.

Shoulda went to Massillon, instead.  I like Massillon better, but I consider it my hometown, so I'm a little partial.

 

I've never been there, but from the pictures and descriptions I've read, the Palace is amazing inside.  I think it's called an atmospheric theater.

 

No offense to Massillon, but it really can't compare to Canton, it is pretty much just a suburb of Canton anymore.  What more does Massillon offer than Canton?  They built a strip mall in the middle of their downtown for God's sake. 

Well I visited Wooster right before we arrived in Canton and I thought it had a much better downtown/business district.  The street level retail was healthier the streets actually had pedestrians.  Although with a silly name like Wooster, I am sure it is hard to get any respect. ;)

 

Comparing Canton to Wooster is like Comparing Cleveland to Mentor, apples and oranges.  Canton is a very urban industrial city with a metropolitan area of 412,000 while Wooster is a small rural town of 24,000 and no real metropolitan area.  If you are going to compare a city to Canton, it really has to be in the 300,000 to 500,000 range in metro, like Kalamazoo, Erie, Youngstown, Reading, Pa., Scranton, Roanoke etc... not Wooster.

Canton is not in that bad of shape economically or physically as some on here suggest.  It is in much better shape than Youngstown, the city in Ohio closest to Canton's size.  There are more upscale old neighborhoods in Canton than Hills & Dales, there is Ridgewood (within the city limits with 1920s and 1930s coloniel and tudor mansions), Avondale and the large old mansions on North Market Avenue between 37th Street and 44th Street.  Canton is doing fine, no downtown in Ohio is back or every will be back to the glory days of the 1940s and 1950s because of urban sprawl, strip malls, corporate parks and horrid cookie cutter housing developments of which Canton has its fair share.  If I ever get the time, I will get some better pictures of dowtown Canton and its prestigious old neghborhods and post them. 

No offense to Massillon, but it really can't compare to Canton, it is pretty much just a suburb of Canton anymore.  What more does Massillon offer than Canton?  They built a strip mall in the middle of their downtown for God's sake. 

 

It's alright Buck, I wasn't being totally serious.  I also said I was partial to Massillon.

 

I look forward to your photographs as I'm not that familiar with Canton. (even though I grew up right next door)

  What more does Massillon offer than Canton?  They built a strip mall in the middle of their downtown for God's sake. 

 

Yes... but does have a Rockne's... mmm... Rockne's.

 

 

Canton looks okay. I actually have not been downtown for several years.

Actually Wooster is more than just a quaint little town in farm country. It has a college and also an industrial heritage (Rubbermaid). Still, it's not in the same league as Canton, a much larger and much more-industrial city. But that just makes the health of Wooster's downtown even more significant. Even with it's much smaller size, downtown Wooster probably has more retail than the more-expansive downtown Canton. Why? Wooster has long had an aggressive Main Street program through Heritage Ohio.

not to mention small college towns are somewhat insulated from economic calamities and are currently very popular with yuppies and retirees. that may have as much to do with the health of main street wooster as anything.

Wooster has certainly not been insulated from economic calamity.  Rubbermaid's corporate relocation and facility closure a few years ago was quite economically and psychologically devastating to the community. 

^At least there is some old money sitting around...and donating beautiful libraries.