Mahoning Valley Forum

I'm sure no Forum members were around during the time depicted in this painting of downtown Youngstown.  What is unusual in the painting?  The view is as though the artist was looking over the shoulder of the Man On The Monument on Central Square.

Everything looks so clean and green.  Would this picture have been done before the steel mills?

Since this isn't a photograph, a lot of artistic license could have been taken.

Although the the artist painted the picture in recent times, the painting depicts Central Square and Wick Avenue in 1900.

Name some of the buildings along Wick Avenue that appear in the painting.

From left to right:

Foreground:

Dollar Bank - Fitch Wholesale - Elks Building - County Court House - Second National Bank

Background:

Rayen School - St. Joseph's Church - First Presbyterian Church.

Somewhere in my photo collection I have a picture similar to that scene, and actually based on scenes in my collection it's pritty accurate.

The hill going up Wick Avenue is not accurately portrayed in the
painting.. even then the natural topography of the area would
have been considerably steeper going up the hill...

The Rayen School building is on considerably higher ground than
Wick Street (Now called Commerce Street).

Also, Wick Avenue used to be "North Market Street".

Here is a photo panel I took from The [second] Rayen School during
the final Alumni Tour after the last Homecoming game... pretty much
the same scene, with lattitude taken by the artist who painted it.

For those of you who never saw the second Rayen High School, the
mural was on display in the foyer outside the auditorium.

This painting was done either in the late 40's or early 50's, I can't
remember for sure - it was donated by the Senior Class of that year,
and they paid for the costs involved in creating the mural.

It's called artistic license Allan.  :D

There are a couple of buildings that aren't in the painting but that's understandable since it would require considerable research to determine where they would go in the scene.

For example, right behind the Second National Bank was another building that among other businesses housed a funeral home, and behind that was a hotel that was on the northeast corner of Commerce (Wick Street) and Wick Avenue.

On the West side of Wick Ave. were a couple of other buildings between Commerce and Wood.

Whoever did the painting did a good job showing that area though.

Joly1584 there were mills here as far back as the mid 1800's

Volney Rogers the man who inspired Mill Creek Park use to complain about the soot and smoke that hung over the city.

Towntalk,

Re: "artistic license" - gotcha!


:)


(I used the word "latitude"...)

Jay, while looking through my photo library I came across this 1889 photo of an Erie RR train that had just left the depot and was passing the Commercial Hotel on Wick Avenue. This is a cropped picture but if you would be interested in the whole photo let me know and I'll post it.

Towntalk,

I'd love to have the full size photo if you could email it to me... looks interesting

:)