Where is the oldest neighborhood in the city?
Most of the houses I've seen around the city were built during the first quarter of the 20th century. There are a few individual exceptions of older houses scattered throughout the city, (like the Wick Log Cabin, my co-worker's parents live in a house built in 1813, and, if you believe the auditor's website, there is a house in my neighborhood built in 1851) but are there any older neighborhoods?
My guess is that the older neighborhoods were in or near the core of the downtown and near the mills. I've seen old photos of the downtown area and houses were jammed in everywhere. Most or these structures were removed as the need for parking lots grew.
According to the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for the late 1800's one of the remaining early neighborhoods that still exists is around the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.
The mansion that burned on Park Avenue was built in 1875,
the houses at the corners of Broadway and Elm street (two of
the three corners) were built in the late 1800's (one in 1895).
My property on Woodbine Avenue was built in 1900, and there are
a few others in the Wick Park neighborhood that were built prior to
1900.
The Arlington Heights neighborhood is also one of the oldest
North Side neighborhoods. I have a friend who lives on
Covington street, and his house was built before 1900.
The oldest neighborhood in Youngstown was actually downtown Youngstown itself especially the East Boardman and East Front Street area that still had scattered houses right up to Urban Renewal.
The second oldest neighborhood was the area between east Rayen and East Commerce Street. This neighborhood also lasted until urban renewal.
Both of these neighborhoods trace back to the late 1800's.
I'm renovating an 1835 greek revival in Poland Village and remember a greek revival on wood street on the side of the county jail that was demo'd. That house should have been saved. Majority of the oldest houses in Mahoning county were greek revival architecture.
Restoring, I mean really restoring historic homes are an act of love verses function. The house I am restoring for my wife and I will not be recognized as refurbished even though several additions have been erected.
The greek revival in the picture is one that was thoroughly restored several years ago.
Sorry I am off topic, I just wanted to emphasize that we need to save some of Youngstown's historic structures.
Small world, my house in Lowellville was also built in 1900.....
The reason I asked this question originally, is that in my hometown of Massillon, it's not unusual to have streets of houses that are from the 1860's to the 1880's. There are even some houses from as early as the 1840's mixed in here and there. And, since Youngstown was first founded in 1796, I was wondering where the oldest neighborhoods were. So, as Towntalk says above, I guess the oldest neighborhoods were downtown, and are long gone.
The area between East Rayen and East Commerce may still have a few houses, but Choffen took up the bulk of the area. If anyone has occassion to visit Our ady of Mt. Carmel or SS Cyril & Methodius, perhalps they can tell us whether there are any private homes left in that area.
In the day ... Mid 1800's to early 1900's, the East End was known as "The Grinder District" because this was where the very poor lived, It extended from Boardman to Front Streets and consisted of single family houses to boarding houses. It was also one of the city's red light districts. There were also cheap rooming houses that accomidated mill workers in conditions that were horrable to say the very least, and one room would be rented out to two men. While the one man was at work, the other would sleep in the single bed, and they would switch when the other man came home. Bed's linens were rarely changed, and for meals the men would have to stop in at a nearby saloon that served meals.
By the 1940's as the mills expanded much of the Grinder district went away leaving few houses in the area, and with Urban Renewal the whole area went away.
Maybe 2 years ago I posted a picture of a business card from a Hotel on E Federal.
I donated that card to the county historical behind Arms Museum. They dated it at the early 1900's if i remember right. And they gave me a private tour of the Arms....
tt if there are homes in that area then they are owned by the chs that you named.
In looking through old editions of the Vindicator back in the day, the two districts besides being referred to as the "Grinder District", and Youngstown's "Tenderloin" district where the "foreigners" lived. The Vindy in the day was very snobbish in its stories about these districts, yet it was also the Vindicator that championed the elimination of these districts because of their deplorable conditions, and because of the prostitution, gambling, and other criminal activities that were being protected by the police who were not above taking bribes from the gamblers and madams. One such madame was Sady Allen who with her ladies of the night would go down to the police station once a month to pay their tribute to the police benevolence fund in full view of the Vindicator reporters. Sady's downfall came when she "hired" a minor to entertain her guests, and ended up in the Work House where it was hoped that she would mend her ways.
Sady throughout her career ran the best pleasure house in the city, and many of the city's elete gentlemen of means enjoyed her company and were glad when she left town.
The side of the story that was never mentioned was the fact that some of the city's wealthiest families owned the land and houses in the grinder district and did little to keep them up, but were very quick to collect the rent.