I haven't seen this thread before.

 

I happen to be currently working on the demolition documents for the Harbor HS. (Lakeside 9)  I worked on the new Junior High School, and I am also working on the 5 new elementary schools--when I'm not tearing an old building down. :(

the neighborhoods around the Harbor were heavily Finnish

 

A couple of summers ago, a national festival for Finnish-Americans was held in Ashtabula for that reason, out at the Kent State branch. I made a special point of going to it, even though I now live in South Carolina, because my mother's parents, Finnish immigrants who settled in Warren, built a cottage on the lake west of Ashtabula, where I spent many summer weekends when I was a little kid around 1960.

 

Along Lake Road (Ohio 531) about a mile west of Ohio 45, you'll find a cottage colony named Haywood Beach. Until about 1990, in order to belong to the co-operative association (which owns the land) and have a cottage there, you had to be of Finnish descent. This caused problems for my parents, who inherited my grandparents' cottage, because they couldn't easily sell it. They let one of my (non-Finnish) father's brothers use it, and he paid us the taxes for it because we still had the title to it. Finally, my parents did manage to sell it to a third-generation Finnish-American from Warren, a friend of the family.

 

Up until sometime in the 1960s, Haywood Beach had a functioning communal wood-fired sauna, which was fired up on Saturday nights. I remember going to the "steam bath" as a kid. It was sex-segregated, with separate "steam rooms" for men and women.

 

County landscape about to change

By Mark Todd, Star Beacon, April 16, 2009

 

CONNEAUT — The federal program that will pay to flatten one of Conneaut’s biggest eyesores will also demolish dozens of decaying buildings around Ashtabula County — and breath new life into a few more.

 

Conneaut is slated to receive an estimated $400,000 from the $1.6 million the county has been allotted from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization program, created to help communities deal with housing and building blight.

 

A big chunk of Conneaut’s money will be used to raze problem properties, and leading the hit parade is the so-called Harris building on a stretch of downtown State Street. The three-story building is dotted with broken windows, and a chain link fence protects pedestrians from falling bricks.

 

...

 

More at:

http://www.starbeacon.com/local/local_story_106152841.html

^ Another new article posted above.

 

Game over for Conneaut stadium

Board votes to close structure, football season in jeopardy

By Mark Todd, Star Beacon, April 16, 2009

 

CONNEAUT — Board of Education Thursday night unanimously voted to close the Depression-era Municipal Stadium after learning the brick edifice cannot be insured unless more than $100,000 in repairs are made.

 

Conneaut High School commencement ceremonies, normally held in the stadium, will be conducted in Garcia Gymnasium and the school's six home football games this fall are in jeopardy.

 

A majority of board members approved hiring a consulting firm, TDA, to examine the stadium and surrounding property and devise a master plan regarding the school district's athletic facilities. Cost of the study is $5,000, and the fee will be paid from money earned through the sale of school property.

 

...

 

More at:

http://www.starbeacon.com/local/local_story_106230258.html