Rittman, Wayne County, Ohio (pop. 6,314)

 

Not the prettiest town in Ohio by a long shot, but it does have some interesting old industrial architecture courtesy of the Morton Salt Co. and Caraustar Rittman Paperboard factory (closed in 2006).

 

And it’s definitely home to the strangest small-town festival I’ve ever heard of:  The Rittman Sleepwalker Pajama Block Party (which I sadly missed by a week – it was on July 24-27th)

http://www.rittman.com/2008Sleepwalker%20Schedule.pdf

 

Rittman is a little off the beaten path, with Ohio Route 57 bypassing it to the east, so there are no state routes running through town.

 

Entering town from the east the first thing you see is the industrial part of town:

 

 

 

The old depot looks pretty intact:

 

 

This one on the other side of town, not so much:

 

A little detour down Salt Street gets closer to the old factories:

 

The Morton plant is down to 230 employees according to the village website.

 

There was some sort of historical marker on the headquarters building - sorry it's lost in the glare:

 

I thought this part of the building was pretty cool:

 

Morton even has its own credit union:

 

The Caraustar Rittman Paperboard Factory closed in 2006:

 

 

Another abandoned old site:

 

All right, let’s head downtown – There aren’t many small towns in Ohio where I can’t find anything particularly memorable – Rittman is pretty darn close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was just weird, in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the National City branch:

 

Even the Subway is disappointing compared to the ones Ink posts:

 

The government-type buildings are pretty bland:

 

 

 

This former church was probably the most interesting building I found, as it has been apparently remade into an apartment building:

 

 

 

Another "remodeling" project:

 

Small town blight:

 

And to end on a high note, the historical society is on the edge of town in this beauty:

 

The town logo:

 

 

Well...

 

Thanks for the pics, anyway.

I had set out for the national cemetery when I realized I had never set foot in the town itself.  And it's hard to find towns in Ohio that aren't represented on UO. (thanks to folks like Ink...  :wave:)

 

 

 

 

The only interesting structures are some of the abandoned industrial buildings, the historical society and the blighted building. The rest of it is worse than ugly; it's just nothing. At least an ugly, trashy, run-down dump gives us something to talk about.

Even though I lived in nearby Wooster, I never visited Rittman... though I drove near it on 585 just to the south many times.  Now I'm glad I never wasted the time... though I do enjoy Morton Salt. 

 

www.mortonsalt.com

It's like a perfectly mediocre movie: not good or bad, but totally forgettable. It coincides with what Rob said. Even a horrible movie will grab your attention and demand a response. Rittman is utilitarian and without it, where would we get our salt?

It's like a perfectly mediocre movie: not good or bad, but totally forgettable. It coincides with what Rob said. Even a horrible movie will grab your attention and demand a response. Rittman is utilitarian and without it, where would we get our salt?

 

From Cleveland. They have mines that go beneath Lake Erie.

How is Wadsworth?

How is Wadsworth?

 

only been through during the cloak of darkness... but the downtown seems to be rather quaint...

How disappointing.

The 'small town blight' pic might be my favorite, or at least in the top three...that says a lot.

All right, let’s head downtown – There aren’t many small towns in Ohio where I can’t find anything particularly memorable – Rittman is pretty darn close.

 

Try Stryker....

 

Nice work.

Stryker wins. Flawless victory.

Wow, and I thought Rittman was depressing when I drove through back on July 3, 2004, two years before that factory closed!

 

:-(

Scrimmaged their High School in football..