Pig Iron Press Building Turns 100

[Towntalk]

This is a long shot but the family that developed the Good Humor Ice Cream had a Ice Cream Parlor on North Phelps Street. This was early on pre-Frankles.

[Towntalk]

I think that what Allan has in mind are photos of when it was a cigar store.


Try this

http://mahoningvalley.info/forum/index.php?topic=7876.0

[jay]

The interior today is cluttered with the equipment of the business, a large "pig" collection, and miscellaneous items which are for sale.

[Towntalk]

Try looking in my Webshots site.

[AllanY2525]

Anyone have any pics of the interior?

[Youngstownshrimp]

I live in the Frankle brothers home on Fifth ave. since 1996 after it was boarded up and foreclosed on by a bank.  A brass plaque is bolted on the front stating built in 1920, National historic site.

[jay]

Celebrating 100 Years

     The Pig Iron Press Building at 26 North Phelps Street, downtown Youngstown, celebrates its One Hundredth Birthday (100 years) in 2010, the row building unit it occupies having been erected, according to city records, in 1910.  Record shows various owners and tenants.  Principle are the Frankle Brothers Tobacco Company that owned and operated the building from 1933 until 1985.  Present building owner and operator is Jim Villani and Pig Iron Press, who took over the building in 1993, and now is in his 18th year of operation an open to the public storefront and office building downtown.

     Situated halfway between Commerce Street and Federal Street, on the west side of Phelps, across the street from the former Strouss-Hirschberg Department Store, the three story row-building structure measures eighteen (18) feet across and 150 feet deep.  It has a tall neoclassical style front facade made of white glazed terra cotta, which it shares with the unit south, number 24 North Phelps.  Aside from sharing the facade, the tow buildings are not identical or connected, the neighbor a two=story structure.  The side are rear walls of the edifice are built with locally produced paving brick.  The Pig Iron Press unit is the only three-story building in the block-long row complex, except for the multi-story Federal Building, whichsits at the corner of Phelps and Federal Streets.

     Previously, the first and second floors of the Pig Iron Building were always separately occupied, each having a street entrance.  The bottom floor housed the Frankle Brothers and their tobacco and pipe shop, which operated at the location for 53 years.  There were various tenants on the second floor, and it has proven difficult to track down names of businesses, they being renters.  Old timers speak fondly of a bookie joint on the propertiy's second floor, and markings on the tile floor clearly show the space at some time was broken up in partioned booth segments.

     The structure is a preserved example of early 20th century commercial row build in the best preserved such block in central city Youngstown.  The unit occupies over 6,000 square feet of usable space, inlcuding a full basement, the first and second floor retail or office floors that are unpartitioned, and a third attic-like floor with exposed block, roof rafters, and pine flooring.  The first and second floors are lathe plaster walls and ceilings.  An oak balustrade mezzanine occupies the back third of the building first floor, suspended midway between ground level and the 30 foot high ceiling in the front show area space.  The first floor mezzanine is capped by a four foot mezzanine on the second floor.  Second and thrid floors have full-width windows front and back of the building.  The interior spaces are graced with charming depression-era ornament and molding.  The building was last made over in the 1930s.  The basement and three stories are linked by a semi-circular oak stairwell.  The floors are also connected by electric freight elevator, a Warner Elevator Manufacturing Company of Cincinnati unit, installed in the building when it was erected.  The elevator remains in its original 100-year-old form, with brass ornament, hand operated doors, and exposed cage.  It is operating still and utilized.

     The principle occupiers of the building have made, through their occupancy, a significant impact on City trade and activity.  The Frankle brothers and their tobacco and pipe company actually predates the Phelps Street building they occupied in 1931.  Records show that the tobacco company first began operating downtown in 1885.  Early photographs show that the company had delivery wagons for tobacco products.  By 1920 the company was renting the first floor of the Federal Building, with show windows facing Federal Street, and a showroom extending te entire Federal Street width of the building.  Unfortunately for the tobacco company, the national economy collapsed in 1929; a natural cutback in the budding depression was tabacco and tobacco products.  The Frankle Brothers company took a hard hit financially for declining sales and operating the large rented showroom became untenable.

     In 1933, understanding that the depression was going to become a fact of life and utilizing the cash assets thay had accumulated in the heyday of their success, the Frankle brothers left their Federal Building showroom and purchased the smaller building at 26 North Phelps, with the intention of reopening with a smaller shop to accomodate the smaller customer base and of renting their second store loft.  The Frankle brothers set up an attractive and elegant pipe shop with oak and walnut cabinets, counters, and display fixtures, serving its customers six days a week.  A state-of-the-art walk-in tobacco humidor was installed in the basement.  The company operated in the building for nearly 55 years.  When the last Frankle family operator passed away in 1985, the company ceased operation, which curiously, marked 100 years since the company's founding in 1885.

     Building ownership changed hands a couple of times after the Frankle family demise.  In 1993, Jim Villani, editor and publisher of Pig Iron Press and English teacher, purchased the building with the intention of locating Pig Iron Press in the downtown location, which business he had operated out of his home, the company having been established in 1973.  The work, after twenty years, had outgrown location in a home, and Mr. Villani decided to locate downtown for its centrality and in the hope of becoming a player in downtown revitalization.  Location downtown was an immediate success in terms of organization and production and the support of the Youngstown arts community.  Mr. Villani established a walk-in photocopy and office service provider, the Downtown Copy Center at Pig Iron Press in 1995, which continues to service customers.  The parent company, Pig Iron Press, has produced since moving into the building, 32 authored books.  Nevertheless, the operating businesses do not mark a financial success story.  For the entire 18 years of downtown operation, there has been a lack of economy in the central city area and a lack of customer base.  The service capabilities of the service providers are under-utilized and recorded sales cintinue to not meet expenses.  Mr. Villani underwrites business loss with his salary as a teacher.  Since 2006, Mr. Villani has been a professor of English at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio.  Now in his 18th year of operation the described building in central city Youngstown, Mr. Villani has received no financial support from the City of Youngstown as a businessman or a property owner.

     In addition to businesses, the building is also home to a non-profit organization, the Pig Iron Literaty & Art Works, Incorporated (PILAW), established in 1981 as a companion public arts foundation to Pig Iron Press for the purpose of developing artistic audience, especially with regard to the literary arts.  PILAW began hosting writing and literary programing downtown in 1995, at the described location and also at various central city locations, restaurants, taverns, and libraries.  It sponsors this years 30 public programs, including the Second Tuesday Open Poetry Reading, the Work-In-Process Writing Workshop, a Community Street Concert, two Poetry Contests, poetry readings at the YSU Summer Festival of the Arts, and will serve as host at the Pig Iron Press Building on New Years Eve as part of First Night Youngstown.  The organization has also sponsored four community street festivals downtown on Phelps Street, which program it will hold again in summer, 2011.  It has been organizing near thirty annual events since the year 2000.  The group is an exempt arts foundation, is operated by public trustees, and is supported by donations and grants.  PILAW reports, thankfully, that the City of Youngstown has contributed in-kind services and grants for its street festival projects.

     Other functioning activities are also based in the Pig Iron Press Building.  The Pig Pen is a retail resale shop on the first floor featuring Vintage, Collectibles, Curiosities, and Odd items.  The Pig Pen sets up on the Phelps Street sidewalk daytime in the summer.  Also officed in the building are two community ventures, the Green Party of Mahoning County, newly assembled in the area, and the Green Party's political action agency, the Mahoning Valley Greens.

     Owner of the building admits that the structure does need additional renovation and upgrading.  Although he undertook roof repair sixteen years ago, the roof was not replaced.  It doesn't need replacement, but some resurfacing is again required.  The facades, front and back, need to be pressure-cleaned and retrimmed.  Signage needs to be upgraded.  Four levels of windows in the rear of the building need to be replaced.  The doors to the first and second floors need to be upgraded.  Inside, the oak floor on the ground level needs to be treated.  Other repair is cosmetic mostly, the owner having undertaken considerable upgrading inside when he purchased the building, including installation of ADA compliant restrooms on the ground floor and replastering with lathe plaster on the first and second levels.  Long range plans call for the installation of solar panels on the roof.  Owner is committed to preserving the deco-influenced ambiance of the building and will not remodel.  The building is fully eligible for listing onn the National Register of Historic Spaces, although application has not yet been made for such status.

     Because the operating entities in the Pig Iron Press Building are functionally artistic and show negliglble cash flow, the owner has not been able to secure lending for renovation or business operation.  The ventures involved in the building have had and do have account relationships with various Youngstown banks.  The owner of Pig Iron Press did have a Small Business Association (SBA) loan through Mahoning National Bank, which has been totally paid back.  The building and its occupants have functioned without interruption for 18 years.  The hundreds of programs sponsored by the building's occupants have brought many people downtown and have generated considerable economic activity for various enterprises downtown, many of whom have hosted events sponsored by the Pig Iron Press Building agencies.  The building owner is promoting additional development of the structure.

     Inquiries about the services described herein are welcome at 26 North Phelps Street or 330-747-6932 or pigironpress@cboss.com or at P.O. Box 237, Youngstown, Ohio 44501.  Some parts of the described premises are open to the public.

Happy Birthday Building, 100 years old

[jay]

I just acquired a seven page document about the history of the Pig Iron Press Building which recently marked its 100th year.  I will attempt to post the information in the next few days.