Just for fun, compiled all the towers in Ohio's midsize and smaller cities. I used seven floors as the minimum and purposely excluded inner-ring suburbs, Youngstown (it is in its own class), and buildings outside of the immediate downtowns. Feel free to add your own shots and additions.

 

ALLIANCE - 1

 

 

BELLAIRE - 1

 

 

CANTON - 8

 

Harter Building

 

Huntington Plaza & McKinley Grand (in distance)

 

Hotel Onesto & Bliss Tower

 

Renkert Building

 

Chase/Bank One Tower

 

Courtyard Centre

 

Canton City Hall

 

Elyria - 3

 

 

 

 

FINDLAY - 1

 

 

HAMILTON - 6

 

Rentschler Building

 

Anthony Wayne Hotel

 

First National

 

Hamilton Municipal Center & Butler County Gov't Services Center

 

Ohio Casulty

 

IRONTON - 2

 

 

 

LIMA - 6

 

 

Lima Square

 

 

 

 

 

MARION - 1

 

Hotel Harding

 

MANSFIELD - 3

 

 

 

Mansfield Municipal Building

 

MARIETTA - 1

 

 

MASSILLON - 2

 

 

 

MIDDLETOWN - 3

 

First Merchants Bank

 

CG&E

 

First National Bank

 

NILES - 1

 

 

PORTSMOUTH - 3

 

 

(ColDay's pic)

 

(ColDay's pic)

 

SANDUSKY - 1

 

 

SPRINGFIELD - 4

 

Tecumseh Building

 

Credit Life Building

 

Shawnee Hotel

 

 

STEUBENVILLE - 3

 

National Exchange Bank & Trust

 

Frort Steuben Hotel

 

Union Savings Bank & Trust

 

WARREN - 2

 

 

Fascinating, it would interesting to hear the stories of how those got built. What was going on that people thought that those towns would benefit from that level of capital investment. I'd also say there are a couple different kinds of places in this list. Some are serious cities and some really are small town Ohio. Thanks.

Good work.

There's the Kent State University library tower - tallest in Portage County at 125 feet:

 

 

It's not in downtown Kent but since it's the largest in the county I figured it deserved mentioning.

Creative.

wonderful idea for a thread. We don't get enough of Ohio's smaller cities, and there are some gems. Lima's (165 feet) I think is tallest of everything pictured here. Findlay's Marathon Oil Headquarters is not a tower per se (it doesn't really emphasize its vertical elements, and it takes up a whole city block), but it qualifies as a high-rise since it's over 100 feet tall.

 

anyways, once again, bravo for picking this theme. Also, I think it'd be a good idea to clear up what what are actual metropolitan areas, and what are just small cities, or small cities part of larger metros:

 

Independent metropolitan areas (MSA's)

Canton

Springfield

Lima

Mansfield

Sandusky

Findlay (on the border of micro and metro)

 

Small city in larger MSA

Elyria (Cleveland)

Hamilton (Cincinnati)

Middletown (Cincinnati)

Warren (Youngstown)

Alliance (Youngstown)

Massillon (Canton)

Steubenville (Weirton, WV)

Ironton (Huntington, WV)

Marietta (Parkersburg, WV)

 

Just small cities with no MSA

almost no one on here. Suburban sprawl/commuting has added many of these small cities to larger metropolitan areas nearby.

 

 

Does anybody know where Portsmouth goes in this list?

Findlay's Marathon Oil Headquarters is not a tower per se (it doesn't really emphasize its vertical elements, and it takes up a whole city block), but it qualifies as a high-rise since it's over 100 feet tall.

 

You find that with many of these cities' tallest buildings. They are the same typology as a traditional block building, just built with more floors. Often, this means only the facades on the street are decorative; the other elevations are simpler and usually of a cheaper material.

Does anybody know where Portsmouth goes in this list?

 

Portsmouth is just a small city with no MSA, I believe. It's pretty much the only one. It's just a micropolitan area. The rule for MSA is you have to have a contiguous urban core of over 50,000 people. Sandusky is just over the threshold and Findlay is right at the threshold. We'll probably see a Findlay MSA by 2010.

 

In the case of Ohio's Appalachian cities, the urban cores/primary metropolitan cities are all in West Virginia (Huntington, Parkerburg, Weirton, etc.).

 

 

 

Cool. Thanks.

Just a minor correction - Alliance is in Stark County, so shouldn't it be in the Canton MSA, not Youngstown...

Steubenville has a pretty good showing.  That first and third buildings would hold their own in any of the 3 C's.

Just thought of another one. When built, this building was a Holiday Inn, now it is a dorm for OU

 

This one is in Downtown Athens - Bromley Hall(photo from photo gallery)

The First (Second?) National Bank in Warren that's pictured is simply awesome. It's like an old-timey bank that you would see in a movie, all brass and marble. Pretty stunning.

very interesting -- great idea for a thread.

 

love the old towers. there are like three of these junk crummy modern public housing mini-towers around lorain. it's crapola, but "eh" it exists:

 

ah the irony in comparing c-dawg's last 2 posts!  :laugh:

Here's a few more.

 

This is the tallest in Sidney. I don't know if it was housing to begin with, but it appeared to be senior housing when I took this four years ago:

 

OK: I'm cheating. This is only six stories, but a 19th century six-story Masonic Temple in Zanesville is probably taller than some newer seven- or even eight-story buildings:

 

 

OK: I'm cheating. This is only six stories, but a 19th century six-story Masonic Temple in Zanesville is probably taller than some newer seven- or even eight-story buildings:

 

 

Actually, the masonic temple is a bit deceiving. From the front it is 6 stories, but from the back, it is 7. There is a 7th floor on the back half of the building. And, yes, it does seem to be taller than most buildings with the same amount of floors.

Thanks. I wasn't aware of the secret seventh floor. So my hunch was right: This is appropriate for a Tower thread.

This is a fantastic thread...I found the Steubenville buildings to be especially surprising.

And just for height references:

 

1. Canton: Bank One Towers - 190 feet

2. Hamilton: Judith A. Shelton Government Services Center ~ 185 feet

3. Kent: University Library - 177 feet

4. Sidney: Shelby County Courthouse - 170 feet

5. Lima: Chase Tower - 165 feet

6. Springfield: One South Limestone Street - 165 feet

7. Elyria: Elyria Memorial Hospital - 160 feet

8. Mansfield: Chase Bank Building - 157 feet

9. Zanesville: Muskingum County Courthouse - 156 feet

10. Marietta: Washington County Courthouse - 155 feet

11. Warren: Trumbull County Courthouse - 150 feet

12. Steubenville: Bank One Building - 145 feet

13. Portsmouth: Masonic Temple Building - 128 feet

14. Sandusky: Erie County Courthouse - 128 feet

15. Athens: Bromley Hall ~ 120 feet

16. Lorain: Lakeview Plaza - 120 feet

17. Middletown: 1000 Central Avenue - 111 feet

18. Alliance: Lionel H. Newsom Tower ~ 110 feet (9 floors)

19. Bellaire: Chase Building ~ 110 feet (9 floors)

20. Findlay: Marathon Ashland Petroleum ~ 110 feet

21. Ironton: Sherman Thompson Towers ~ 110 feet (10 floors)

22. Marion: Rotary Towers ~ 100 feet

23. Massillon: Lincoln Professional Building - 80 feet

24. Niles: National City Bank Building ~ 70 feet

^Nice job!

amazing thread... Steubenville rules

Really enjoyed the pics. Side note: I was in downtown Lima the other day and found it to be one of the most unsettling places I have ever been. It just felt unsafe. I have not felt that uneasy in a long time. For a small/midsize town I was surprised to see gang(s) just standing around downtown in the middle of the day.

Great thread!!

loving this thread.  :clap:

 

i was just thinking about bowling green.

 

these will melt your eyeballs, but bg has the bgsu library:

 

 

and offenhauer dorms:

 

 

and i think that's about it for tall around there.

 

 

I was always suprised by Steubenvilles skyline.  I didn't think the place was big enough to warrant one skyscraper, let alone the ones as tall as they have.

 

 

Newark and Mansfield both lost towers. This gives Newark no notably tall buildings today (except for the basket) and left Mansfield with a parking lot in its concentrated "skyscraper district" along Park Avenue.

 

Mansfield - Leland Hotel

 

Newark - Newark Trust Company

The Leland Hotel, oh how we miss thee!  :cry:

 

I know, it was torn down before I was born but you have no idea how much this building is missed by Mansfielders.

 

Ink, what constitutes a tower? Is it seven or more floors? If so, I think that you missed one more in Mansfield. It is apart of a senior citizen community on the west edge of downtown. Also, I think that the Ohio Brass Building might make the cut. However, I can't remember if it is six or seven stories tall.

^I was going by seven stories. Ohio Brass is only six (as I count it from exterior images).

 

 

Zanesville also lost a tower. The Zane Hotel stood from 1925 to 1974.

 

Wow, I missed this thread the first time around. Glad to have seen it this time. Nice job!

Love old post cards like these.

I don't think I'd count college towers. 

 

But yeah, I'm a sucker for the baby skycrapers of Ohio (and other places)..I just love these and how the represent the urban aspirations of these smaller cities...."if we have a downtown we have to have a skyscraper!"....and its really too bad about the losses in Mansfield, Newark, and esp Zanesville.

 

Im thinking you could do something similar for Indiana.  Oddly enough Muncie doesnt have any taller buildings from what I recall.  But Fort Wayne, South Bend, Elkhart, Anderson, and Evansville do.

 

 

 

 

well they do exist so i think you are grudgingly forced to count college and pj towers.

Springfield and Canton both lost towers in 2012.

 

Springfield - Arque Building

 

Canton - YMCA

Ink,

 

Just coming across your original post today for the first time.  I'm about five years late...

 

I'm an urban dweller at heart, but your concept of tall buildings in small towns really clicked with me.  Your photos and concepts are first class.  Excellent and inspiring post.  Thank you....

Really enjoyed the pics. Side note: I was in downtown Lima the other day and found it to be one of the most unsettling places I have ever been. It just felt unsafe. I have not felt that uneasy in a long time. For a small/midsize town I was surprised to see gang(s) just standing around downtown in the middle of the day.

So sad. I've never been, but my grandmother was raised in Lima society and had cotillion there sometime in the early 50's. Sounds like it has fallen on hard times since then.

Cool thread. Some of these towns have some beautiful old buildings. I worked for a software company in this building in downtown Massillon for 7 years. The bank lobby on the first floor was very cool. I've been meaning to stop over there.

 

 

23. Massillon: Lincoln Professional Building - 80 feet

Great thread.  Canton is the big boy city in the thread and is very similar to Yougstown in metro size and in the number of buildings 7 stories and up so I am not exactly sure why Youngstown wasn't included.  Canton's downtown is much bigger than the other cities on this thread.  Here is a more comprehensive list of Canton's downtown highrise to lowrise buildings 7 stories and up.

 

1. Bank One Building: 190 ft. (15 floors)

2. Key Bank Building: 165 ft. (13 floors)

3. Bliss Tower: 153 ft. (13 floors)

4. Onesto: 148 ft. (13 floors)

5. Huntington Plaza Bank Building: 141 ft. (12 floors)

6. Renkert Building: 120 ft. (11 floors)

7. Canton Towers: 120 ft. (11 floors)

8. McKinley Park Apartments: 120 ft. (11 floors)

9. Canton City Hall: 110 ft. (10 Floors)

10. William R. Day Building: 102 ft. (8 floors)

11. Courtyard Centre: 100 ft. (8 floors)

12. McKinley Grand Hotel: 95 ft. (8 floors)

13. Heritage Apartments: 90 ft. (9 floors)

14. Stark County Office Building: 89 ft. (7 Floors)

15. Cherry Turner Apartments: 87 ft. (8 floors).

 

Downtown Canton YMCA was just demolished in 2012 for a new YMCA. It's tower was 9 floors and 110 ft. 

 

^Canton is perhaps the "big boy" of this thread, but looking more at the historic towers, it compares closely to Lima and still lags behind Youngstown which is dotted with just so many ornate historic towers (Realty, Stambaugh, Home Federal, First National, Wick, Dollar Bank, Mahoning Savings, etc.).

 

I have updated Canton's section to include a few buildings that I did not realize met the stories requirement, but some on your list are 60's/70's era apartment buildings (Cherrie Turner Apts, Heritage Apts, McKinley Park Apts, & Canton Towers) which I did not include for other cities. Additionally, the William R. Day Building is simply a 2-3 story building on top of a much larger parking structure, so I did not include it in the mix either.

Just ran across an old photo of the now-demolished Bancroft Hotel in Springfield. This stood closer to the railroad depot than the Shawnee, but it looks like the Shawnee was the fancier hotel.

 

 

 

Where was the Bancroft? When was it demolished?

On the north side of High street, a block east of the center block. Over by the library & the men's club.

Nice thread.

 

I think my favorite smaller city tower is Pennsylvania Power and Light in Allentown, PA (population 118,000)

 

dmerkow asked, in 2008, "Fascinating, it would interesting to hear the stories of how those got built. What was going on that people thought that those towns would benefit from that level of capital investment."

 

 

I forget when Credit Life started. For a while, they were in the Guardian Bank building on Limestone across from the Regent theater. Going way back there was a cafeteria there.

But I digress...

Later they built the building at Limestone & High on the SE corner. The place was a real boy's club - think Madmen. They were growing like crazy and when the city decided to demolish downtown, they bought a corner for their sleek black tower.

I don't know if they even moved in - the company just kinda imploded. For a while it just sat unfinished. The downtown really sucked for awhile.

Clark State took over the building at Limestone & High. I think they moved into the black building, too. The newspaper recently moved into the building.

^What city?

Revisiting this great thread, I now believe these are the cities that really stand out in Ohio. These are unique places, and I think some of them have a chance for recovery. "Hey, small town values, but with a real downtown and urban neighborhoods within walking distance!" A fairly good model for redevelopment can be found Jackson, Michigan. I spent a lot of time there as a kid and remember how dead the downtown used to be (though they've always maintained a symphony orchestra which is just incredible for a place that size). I revisited in November of 2011, and so many buildings had been redeveloped! There were great luxury lofts and a solid nightlife district was forming. Adjacent Victorian neighborhoods were also roaring back. It looked like the classic Amtrak station was remodeled too! It was heartening to see that in a small city I thought most people had written off, even most Michiganians...

 

You don't see this stuff much out west or in other regions (excluding glorious Butte, Montana which is like a West Virginia city transplanted to the Rockies). These small cities and towns with historic mini-skyscrapers are heavily concentrated in Rust Belt locales throughout the Northeast and Great Lakes region. Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York really stand out.

 

There are cities of 100,000 to 300,000 people in California with no junior skyscrapers like this and little to no urban core...

 

There are cities of 30,000 people in Ohio with historic high-rises. Crazy...

This is a very good thread

^^The midsize cities across the midwest and northeast all have decent high rises, etc.  Places like Rockford and Peoria, IL, Evansville, IN, places stated in Michigan, Cedar Rapids, IA heck even small cities in Iowa have decent downtown towers like Fort Dodge, IA (30k people).  Once you get much further west though that starts to die out.

 

I noticed being from Iowa and traveling a bit through Ohio is that the really "small" cities in Ohio are actually medium sized cities in Iowa.  Where my grandparents live, an area of almost 600 square miles in Franklin county the largest city is Hampton, IA which is less than 5,000 people.  It's like that all over Iowa except for the more major metro areas, I would figure that 20 counties out of the states 99 counties have cities bigger than 10 k and that's about it, besides counting some metro areas with suburbs.  In Ohio, you have a city like Eaton, which I assume most here would call a small city, but in Iowa it would be a medium sized city, all about perspective!

Stunning pictures. Thank you for sharing them.

^^The midsize cities across the midwest and northeast all have decent high rises, etc.  Places like Rockford and Peoria, IL, Evansville, IN, places stated in Michigan, Cedar Rapids, IA heck even small cities in Iowa have decent downtown towers like Fort Dodge, IA (30k people).  Once you get much further west though that starts to die out.

 

I noticed being from Iowa and traveling a bit through Ohio is that the really "small" cities in Ohio are actually medium sized cities in Iowa.  Where my grandparents live, an area of almost 600 square miles in Franklin county the largest city is Hampton, IA which is less than 5,000 people.  It's like that all over Iowa except for the more major metro areas, I would figure that 20 counties out of the states 99 counties have cities bigger than 10 k and that's about it, besides counting some metro areas with suburbs.  In Ohio, you have a city like Eaton, which I assume most here would call a small city, but in Iowa it would be a medium sized city, all about perspective!

 

Well considering Ohio is further east, is one of the 10 most densely populated states, and has about 11.6 million to Iowa's 3.1 million, you may notice a difference.  I know what you are talking about, though.  When I was in Illinois and Missouri, some of the towns which didn't really seem that large, had a very big impact much further out than a similar sized town in Ohio would have.  Because Ohio has several good sized metro areas around the state, one doesn't really have to go far to find what you're looking for.  This state has to be one of the more balance in terms of population distribution in the country.  I always compared Ohio to Florida in this regard.  Not having to travel far between larger metro areas, with several smaller 250,000-1,000,000 metro areas in between.