Great Site. 

My father worked for the YS&T for about 18 years. He worked in the Power Plant as a stationary Engineer.The pictures of the Sheet and Tube are exactly as I remember them in late 30's.  I was born in Sturthers in 1930 and would often go with my Mother to the Struthers entrance to the Mill and pick up my Dad.

 

President Roosevelt was at the Sheet and Tube sometime in the late 30's or early 40's.  I can remember my Mother lifting me up to see  him.  He went in the Struthers entrance.  As for me, I went to work for the YS&T after I graduated from Struthers High School in 1948. I was living with my Aunt in Youngstown at the time and would take a trolly bus down Mahoning Ave, through Youngstown, and then on down Wilson St to the  Mill. I can remember having to walk over a bridge to get in but don't know the street in Campbell that intersects Wilson St.

Chadslink, the intersecting street was Robinson Road.  Which Struthers entrance did your dad use?  There was the Walton Avenue entrance which was also on a bridge off of Poland avenue, and then there was an actual Struthers Works of YS&T off of Bridge Street.  I have stuff stored in the former powerhouse at the Struthers Works, so I am curious if that is where your dad worked.  The stationary engineer's office still exists in the powerhouse.

Hi Rick........my Dad used the entrance at Poland Ave and Walton on the Struthers side of the mill.  I'm not sure but think that was called Stop 14.  My Uncle Phil Diana used to run the projectors at the Palace Theater in Youngstown and I guess that's all gone now too.  We lived at the corner of Creed St. and Poland Ave. until 1946.

The company I work for now was just bought by the same company that owns V&M star in Y'town.  They are about to start a $650 Million expansion to make seamless pipe for LNG (liquefied natural gas)

My company will weld it together.

 

 

Anywho, after seeing this tread, I think it is pretty cool my new company is spending 2/3s of a billion dollars investing in the Youngstown steel industry

Some new members posting on the forum! Welcome, all!

 

Rick, I'm particularly glad to see your participation in the forum here. As a long-time antique engine collector (no big stuff, though) and enthusiast, I've been aware of the Tod Engine project for some years since I first saw photos linked on Smokstak or Harry's Old Engines.

 

There are several Youngstown photo sets and discussion threads on Urbanohio.com, and I'm pretty sure I posted a link to your Tod Engine site either in a reply on one of those, or in my own set of Youngstown photos from 2008. You can find more of the Youngstown posts by using the "SEARCH" function from the menu bar at the top of the page.

 

Although the majority of forumers here are more focused on architecture, urban planning and design, and transportation infrastructure, there's a small handful of us who love massive machines and historic technology in general, the functional bones of industries that made this a great country.

 

Chadslink, you've displaced me as senior member here. I was born in 1939. Again, a few of us seniors in the midst of a big bunch of young guys, but its a diverse, smart, talented, welcoming crowd. Stick around and explore the forums.

Well, I didn't know that I had such a following!  Thanks for your support of our project.  Last month we added another 110 tons of Youngstown significant steelmaking equipment to the collection, and currently I am working on another 100 tons worth.  We're quickly running out of room at our Hubbard Road site! 

 

I'll post a few current photos of the museum project later on when I have a chance.

There are many more investments in the steel industry in the Mahoning Valley going on. Check out my summary at:

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,6916.msg497537.html#msg497537

 

And, actually, the steel pipe V&M will be making is to tap the gas shale in the Marcellus basin, the world's second-largest natural gas field which was untapped until 2007....

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,22242.0.html

 

Rick, I am involved with the campaign to develop Cleveland - Youngstown - Pittsburgh passenger rail as part of the TechBelt Initiative. A favored station location is to utilize the United Technologies plant near the Covelli Center as a train shed for the station. Youngstown Pipe & Supply is using small part of the building and we'd like to find them a new home. I'm hopeful they are willing to relocate.

 

But the station would be only part of the land use. I think heritage tourism should also be part of this station facility. Your museum could be part of it, too. As could the Steel Valley Railroad Museum run by the Mahoning Valley Railroad Heritage Association could be part of it as well.

 

It would be great to have all of these within proximity of downtown, as well as near the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor and the university. This is the kind of critical mass I'd love to see, all within walking distance of a downtown train station.

 

Read more at:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,12576.0.html

 

We will be meeting again Sept. 9 at noon (brown bag lunch) at the Regional Chamber's conference room on the 17th floor of Central National Tower. RSVP to Shari Budge at the chamber at 330-744-2131 Ext 31.

Hi Rick........my Dad used the entrance at Poland Ave and Walton on the Struthers side of the mill. I'm not sure but think that was called Stop 14. My Uncle Phil Diana used to run the projectors at the Palace Theater in Youngstown and I guess that's all gone now too. We lived at the corner of Creed St. and Poland Ave. until 1946.

 

While the Palace Theater still stands, it has been closed since the mid-70s. The city just bought it to demolish it but will preserve its Federal Street facade.

 

chadslink, I'm very grateful for your sharing your stories here. If you have any pictures you wish to share, that would be wonderful. If you'd like some help in posting them, just let me know. Feel free to tell us some more of your memories and recollections of Youngstown. Nothing is too insignificant or trivial.

Hi Rick........my Dad used the entrance at Poland Ave and Walton on the Struthers side of the mill. I'm not sure but think that was called Stop 14. My Uncle Phil Diana used to run the projectors at the Palace Theater in Youngstown and I guess that's all gone now too. We lived at the corner of Creed St. and Poland Ave. until 1946.

 

While the Palace Theater still stands, it has been closed since the mid-70s. The city just bought it to demolish it but will preserve its Federal Street facade.

 

Unfortunately, the Palace really is all gone.  It was where the parking lot is, next to the Stambaugh building on Central Square.  You're thinking of the Paramount Theater.

Sorry if this double posts as I got an error message that my pic was too big so I am re-doing the whole thing.

 

Hi Robert, I will surely be around for a while. When I see all of the mills as they were in my youth, it saddens me that they no longer exist.  We don't make anything in the USA anymore and we need to get back to doing it.

 

Thanks for the welcome, KJP........the only picture I could lay my hands on at the moment is a picture of my United Steel Workers Card.  It was for the year 1950.  Why I ever kept that I'll never know.

My father worked for the YS&T for about 18 years. He worked in the Power Plant as a stationary Engineer....

Hi Chad,

My father worked in the power plant at USS Ohio Works on the other side of town.  Then he moved on to the blast furnaces, then the open hearth.  He excelled at crane control.

My father worked for the YS&T for about 18 years. He worked in the Power Plant as a stationary Engineer....

Hi Chad,

My father worked in the power plant at USS Ohio Works on the other side of town.  Then he moved on to the blast furnaces, then the open hearth.  He excelled at crane control.

 

I'm not sure what my Dad did at the power house but I do know that he had to have the Stationary Engineer's License to do it.  I think it may have been a very cushy job as he never got dirty and in a steel mill thats kinda hard to do.

Unfortunately, the Palace really is all gone. It was where the parking lot is, next to the Stambaugh building on Central Square. You're thinking of the Paramount Theater.

 

Sorry, my bad.

 

Thanks for the welcome, KJP........the only picture I could lay my hands on at the moment is a picture of my United Steel Workers Card. It was for the year 1950. Why I ever kept that I'll never know.

 

Because it adds a personal angle to all of the big-picture changes we talk about here. Thanks for sharing that. I'm glad you kept it and shared it.

I was out in California earlier this week and picked up all of my photo albums for a biography that I will be doing later and I  happened to come across some of my Dad's stuff.  It was not a picture but it was a pay stub from the S&T in 1943.  I thought it was kind of interesting to see what the wages were during the middle of WW2 when the steel mills were going full blast.

Activity continues at the Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum as we prepare for the Tod Engine's 100th birthday celebration to take place on Sept. 20 and 21.  The museum will mainly consist of one exhibit, a recreation of the interior of a rolling mill engine house, with our 260 ton, 4,000 horsepower rolling mill engine being the centerpiece.  Our idea is to immerse visitors in the sights, sounds and smells of being in a steel mill and we will place a high priority on operating equipment and audio visual effects to recreate the drama of at least one part of the steelmaking process.    How much of it we get done by Sept. is anyone's guess, but we will at least have the engine reanimated by then so its machinery can be seen in motion.

 

This is what you see as soon as you enter our building.  The engine was built in Youngstown.  The crane was built in Alliance in 1893.

 

Outside view of the south side of the property.  We will be doing some work on the south wall this summer to improve its appearance.  A planned addition to the building will be built on this side.

 

For more photos go to our Flickr photostream.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/33523379@N03/

 

 

 

 

Thanks Rick! Please keep us apprised of developments at this growing museum!

Is the tower at the P&LE's Gateway Yard still standing?

Yes I believe it is still standing, although I haven't been by there in a couple of months.

I filmed a video tour of the Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum yesterday for everyone who has not yet been able to pay us a visit.

 

I filmed a video tour of the Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum yesterday for everyone who has not yet been able to pay us a visit.

 

 

Very nice. I can appreciate how much work you all have put into this!

“Dead Steel Town Blues” © 2000 & 2003 James J. Pirko

 

The skies are black,

They used to be red;

The night testifies,

Steel Town is dead!

 

On the banks of a murdered river,

Cathedrals of fire brought to life,

White-hot strength to build a nation,

Spewing money, power, and strife!

 

They built a city to serve those monsters,

As dirty and deadly as the sulfur sky;

Gamble and drink, and buy some women,

Cross the Mob and you’re gonna die!

 

The streets were alive with the struggles of life,

Battles to survive in each neighborhood;

Under a sky of smoke and dust,

At the core of it all the giants stood!

 

Scenes from Hell inside those walls,

Smoke and flame and noxious fume,

Blasts and screams from ancient machines,

Toil until your health you doom!

 

Blackened men sacrificed their lives,

To feed those Gods of steel and brick,

Stone and scrap and ore and coal,

Leaving in pain, tired and sick!

 

Old men now, they face their fate,

Wracked with cancer, ache and pain,

Their sons will never know their work,

The graphite dust or the toxic rain!

 

Those dragons are dead, their fires cold,

Slain by steel from foreign shores;

They were not saved by elected leaders,

A pack of liars, pimps and whores!

 

Now the city crumbles, with empty stores,

Gone are the money and power and hope;

Nothing to do but watch the mailbox,

Rob and kill, and sell some dope!

 

The skies are black,

They used to be red;

The night testifies,

Steel Town is dead!

 

 

Another piece of Youngstown Steelmaking history preserved.  Former US Steel Ohio Works diesel locomotive No. 73, which became McDonald Steel No. 777, has been donated by McDonald Steel to Youngstown Steel Heritage.  I hope to have it running again within a couple of weeks.  The 777 is one of the very last pieces of equipment to remain from the once vast Ohio Works.  It can be seen sitting near the guard shack in this photo of the Ohio Works taken in 1981 before going to McDonald. 

From a few weeks ago:

http://wytv.com/2015/06/19/old-steel-locomotive-preserved-for-future-generations/

Youngstown’s Slow Path To Recovery

A once-proud steel town kicks off our election-year series about life and politics in post-industrial America

http://billmoyers.com/story/youngstowns-slow-path-to-recovery/#.VyH-TDCckN8.twitter

Thank you for this post KJP. I've got to admit that I shed a few tears while watching this video. I was born and raised on the Southside of Youngstown. It is very sad how far that it has fallen. I moved away to attend college and never returned.

 

I remember the Southside neighborhoods that were portrayed in this video well. The neighborhood that Mr. Morris stated was "high class" was "middle class" at best, he is reasonably correct.

 

Now that my parents are deceased I rarely return. I have many happy memories of my hometown. I wish nothing but the best for Y-town!

Sadly all of the Photobucket pictures I shared here can no longer be viewed. I will have to move them to a new hosting service, when I have the time.

 

In the meantime, here's a video to watch on this 40th anniversary of Black Monday, when Youngstown stopped being the city I knew as a symbol of America's power and instead became a symbol of America's decline....

 

The Vindicator‏Verified account @vindicator  2m2 minutes ago

More

ICYMI: 40 years on, victims recall shock of Black Monday #Youngstown

 

Stories/videos: https://buff.ly/2jGrjCP

More...

 

Black Monday reaction: Shock and disbelief #Youngstown #steel

 

http://www.vindy.com/news/2017/sep/19/almost-unbelievable/

The death of middle class America in one article.

A tremendous read...

 

The 40th Anniversary Of Youngstown’s “Black Monday,” An Oral History

 

http://beltmag.com/40th-anniversary-youngstowns-black-monday-oral-history

 

I wasn't expecting much from the NY Post. But this was a very good article about Youngstown's Black Monday and how it was the beginning of the end of America's prosperous working class...

 

The day that destroyed the working class and sowed the seeds of Trump

http://nypost.com/2017/09/16/the-day-that-destroyed-the-working-class-and-sowed-the-seeds-for-trump/

This man was at the forefront of Youngstown's battle to retain good-paying industrial jobs in the late-1970s when the city lost 40,000 steel industry related jobs. His advocacy of communism won him many friends in Youngstown, a city that now has many Trump supporters. 

 

 

14 minutes ago, KJP said:

This man was at the forefront of Youngstown's battle to retain good-paying industrial jobs in the late-1970s when the city lost 40,000 steel industry related jobs. His advocacy of communism won him many friends in Youngstown, a city that now has many Trump supporters. 

 

 

I grew up in Warren (30 minutes north of Youngstown) and have thought about this a little lately. Was there ever another event in recent history where thousands of people lost their job over a weekend seemingly?

One of the most poignant threads ever posted on this site. It still packs a punch... Very powerful!

 

On 11/22/2022 at 11:11 PM, guardianpayroll said:

I grew up in Warren (30 minutes north of Youngstown) and have thought about this a little lately. Was there ever another event in recent history where thousands of people lost their job over a weekend seemingly?

 

There were bigger plants shut down than this. One of the largest was the Bethlehem steel plant in Lackawanna (Buffalo), New York. It had 20,000 jobs in the 1960s but was scaled back to 10,000 by 1982 when it was announced that the plant would be closed.

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/28/business/bethlehem-steel-to-cut-7300-jobs-at-upstate-plant.html

 

Then there's the Lordstown GM plant...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/01/magazine/lordstown-general-motors-plant.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/28/business/bethlehem-steel-to-cut-7300-jobs-at-upstate-plant.html

 

But the closing of Youngstown Sheet & Tube's Campbell Works was a watershed event. It caused the passage of a federal law that required advance notification of plant closings. YS&T workers had no such notification. They found out when they walked up to the plant's work that Monday morning. Black Monday. A terrific video including the effort partly led by Staughton Lynd to buy the steel mill. A $100 million dollar loan from the federal government to buy the mill and modernize it was blocked by the Carter Administration and opposed by the national steel workers union that wanted to see this and other unneeded plants close to keep capacity tight and wages high. It's why Youngstowners don't trust the outside world anymore and voted for people like Jim Traficant and Donald Trump...

 

 

 

Minor quibble:  the WARN act didn't pass until 1988.

 

The experience of the Youngstown steel workers vis a vis the union, repeated numerous times in specific locations (NUMMI for example) has more to do with why workers don't see unions as essential than anything management or government ever did.

 

Whoever decided to hot shutdown the LTV mills in the flats should probably have a statue down there, despite it all.   Had they done a cold shutdown, it's highly unlikely ISG ever starts them back up, and they would almost certainly still be down.   Cleveland didn't dodge a bullet it dodged a GAU-8 shell.

^Total aside, but one thing that blows me away in that video is the amount of foot traffic on Federal Plaza in Downtown Youngstown.

1 hour ago, ink said:

^Total aside, but one thing that blows me away in that video is the amount of foot traffic on Federal Plaza in Downtown Youngstown.

And that ABC News was still making black and white tapes in 1978!

On 12/2/2022 at 3:12 PM, gruver said:

And that ABC News was still making black and white tapes in 1978!

 

I was surprised about that too!

On 12/2/2022 at 1:29 PM, ink said:

^Total aside, but one thing that blows me away in that video is the amount of foot traffic on Federal Plaza in Downtown Youngstown.

 

I remember in the 1970s during lunch hour in downtown Youngstown was active as downtowns in Cleveland and Columbus, or at least how they were before the pandemic.