Youngstown business history

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Loblaws

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Loblaw ad from 1967

Other than Sparkle Markets, I don’t think any of the grocery store chains we shopped at when I was young are still in Youngstown. My parents shopped at A & P on Mahoning Avenue until it closed, then shopped at Sparkle. My wife’s parents shopped at Loblaws on Youngstown-Poland Road. Going through the Vindicator in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, you can see their ads every week, especially on Wednesdays, when stores advertised their weekly specials.

What I was surprised to learn was that this chain had a relatively short existence in the Youngstown area. Loblaws, then called Loblaw, had its beginnings in Toronto, Canada, in 1919 where they opened their first “Grocetarias,” cash and carry stores. By 1924, they had expanded throughout Toronto and into New York state, forming an American company headquartered in Buffalo. The American subsidiary was also known under the name “National Tea,” as you will notice in the ad from 1967, although Loblaws of Canada held the controlling interest.. They continued to expand into Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio.

The Canadian chain continued to expand after being acquired by the Weston family, who also had department store interests. They pioneered the concept of supermarkets, the precursor to our superstores. They also implemented a customer loyalty program with Green Stamps, that spread throughout the US.

Meanwhile, Century Foods operated 14 stores in the Youngstown area and 39 in the region. On June 11, 1961, the New York Times ran a story announcing the sale of Century’s 39 store to Loblaw, Inc. of Buffalo. That’s when the old Century Foods became Loblaw Food Stores and later Loblaws Markets. The chain grew as it continued to expand during the early 1960’s but then growth stagnated and declined.

A Loblaws ad from its last year in Youngstown in 1972.

In 1972, Galen Weston, the new CEO began a reorganization and downsizing of the chain, focusing on its most profitable stores and consoldating stores. As part of that, the Meridian Road warehouse was closed and the 14 stores (they never expanded in the Mahoning Valley) were sold off to other chains. And thus, the Loblaws name came to an end in Youngstown.

The reorganization paid off for Loblaws in Canada. By the1980’s, they were Canada’s biggest supermarket chain. They acquired Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada’s largest chain of pharmacies, in 2013. They’ve created their own line of superstores. But its all in Canada. So if you are ever in Canada and see a Loblaws, you can say you remember when they were in Youngstown. And if they don’t believe you, just show them this article with the Vindicator ads.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Mahoning National Bank

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It was the one bank whose name showed its connection to the Youngstown area. Its main offices graced the southwest part of Central Square, designed by one of the distinguished architects of the day. A fiscally sound institution, it operated 132 years until it merged with another bank. It was my mother-in-law’s bank, and at the end of her life, we had professional and efficient dealings with them as we helped her manage her finances. The tellers at her branch were like family to her and a number had worked there for years. That was the Mahoning National Bank many of us knew.

The Mahoning National Bank was established in 1868 as the Youngstown Savings and Loan Association. The founding directors were a veritable who’s who of business leaders in Youngstown: David Tod, Chauncey Andrews, W. J. Hitchcock, F.O. Arms, T. K. Hall, Joseph G. Butler, Jr., T. H. Wells, John Stambaugh, David Theobald, Richard Brown, A. B. Cornell, B. F. Hoffman, and William Powers formed the board of directors. David Tod was elected president but died two months later to be succeeded by F. O. Arms.

They first operated on the northwest part of Central Square until moving to the southwest part in 1873 in a building connected with Andrews and Hitchcock. In 1877, the association adopted a national bank charter under the name Mahoning National Bank. Then in 1909, the bank bought out the Andrews & Hitchcock interest in the property and razed the old structure to erect a modern high rise building.

The building was designed by Alfred Kahn, known at the time as one America’s foremost industrial architects. He also designed the Stambaugh Building and North Side Hospital. He designed a number of industrial facilities in Detroit including Ford’s Highland Park plant where the Model T was assembled. The building was completed in 1910. You will note that the building above is only part of the present day complex. A four story addition was added on the site of the old Opera House, and the building was extended southward by 72 feet. This video, produced by Metro Monthly shows the stately lobby of the bank as well as giving information about its architect:

The bank grew with Youngstown, opening branches as the city expanded and people moved into the surrounding suburban community. In 1924 the bank had assets of $6.3 million. By 2000, its assets had grown to 818 million and it had twenty-one offices.

The end of the twentieth century was marked by numerous bank mergers. In June of 1999, it merged with Sky Bank, part of Sky Financial Services, an upstart company formed in 1998 in northwest Ohio that grew rapidly through mergers. At the end of 2001, it changed its name to Sky Bank. Then in 2007, Sky Bank was acquired by Huntington Bank, based in Columbus.

Huntington Bank had offices in the old Mahoning National Bank building but has moved to smaller offices in the Stambaugh building. In December 2022, The Business Journal reported the sale of the building for $2.3 million to a New York based investment group operating under the name 22 Market Street Ohio LLC. The company intends to use the bottom four stories for office space and convert the upper nine floors to residential units, preserving the historic character of the building.

It sounds wonderful if it unfolds as promoted. There do seem to be the beginnings of a downtown renaissance. But I wonder if the Youngstown economy can yet sustain it and whether there is sufficient “draw” to live downtown. I, for one, would love to see historic buildings like this and the Stambaugh buildings (both Kahn designed) preserved and used well.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Fredonia Manufacturing Company

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Many of us think the Mahoning Valley’s history of automobile manufacturing began in the 1960’s at GM’s Lordstown Assembly Plant. Actually, the history of automobile manufacturing in Youngstown goes back to the beginning of the twentieth century–and maybe a little before.

The Fredonia Carriage and Manufacturing Company was a carriage builder with a factory just east of the Market Street bridge near the present location of the Covelli Center. In 1895, Dr. Carlos Booth, a local physician, commissioned the company to build him an automobile that he had designed. They helped him become the world’s first doctor to use an automobile to make house calls–a Youngstown first. He eventually gave it up, claiming it made “a commotion among the horses.”

In 1902, the company changed its name to The Fredonia Manufacturing Company and started making automobiles. In their first year, Fredonia automobiles came in “neck and neck” claiming the top two spots in a 500 mile reliability run from New York to Boston. A Packard was also among the top finishers. Then in 1903, a Fredonia set an unofficial speed record on a run between Youngstown and Tyrell Hill, covering the 36 mile distance in 35 minutes, nearly 62 miles per hour or 100 kilometers per hour. Pretty fast in 1903!

The reliability and speed of the cars reflected the work of the company’s engineer, Charles T. Gaither, who also worked as a pressman for The Vindicator, where he invented a process for photo engraving pictures for printing. The engine he designed was a single cylinder 5 inch piston with a 5 inch stroke. The engine was flat mounted, water-cooled, and set up as a mid-engine design, just in front of the rear axle, with a two speed planetary gear transmission.

The company manufactured both a two seat touring car and a five seat tonneau. In all they built about 200 cars between 1902 and 1904 when the company went bankrupt. The factory where they were built was destroyed in a fire in 1907.

Howard C. Aley, in A Heritage to Share, records that Charles Stewart, who was known for many years as “Youngstown’s safest driver” bought his first car in 1904, a five seat Fredonia. He sold it a year later, but it continued to appear in parades, running under its own power for 75 years.

We may think that Detroit was a good place to build cars, but Youngstown has a century-plus history of building cars. Now it is electric vehicles and batteries at Lordstown. We’ll see if the Mahoning Valley will become a new “Motor City.”

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — McGuffey Mall

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McGuffey Mall at the time of its Grand Opening in 1972. Screen capture from Youngstown Vindicator, October 22, 1972 via Google News Archive.

It seems that I have been writing a lot about the East side of Youngstown of late. I’m back there this week because it was fifty years ago this week that the McGuffey Mall had its grand opening. There was no big fanfare but simply a sparkling new shopping mall covering over one of the first plazas in the Youngstown area and adding 10,000 square feet of retail space.

In 1954, William Cafaro built one of his first shopping centers at the intersection of McGuffey Road and North Garland. It was a location that was special to Cafaro, who grew up on the East side. They added the Garland Plaza in 1960. For many years the plazas were a thriving shopping location but by the early 1970’s, a number of tenants were leaving at the end of their leases for the new malls. Eastwood Mall, another Cafaro property, opened in 1969 and Southern Park Mall, operated by the DeBartolo Corporation, opened in 1970.

The Cafaro firm took an unusual step that reflected their ties to the area. They admitted that they could have signed a few leases and sold off the property. Instead, they made a major investment, enclosing the old retail space and adding additional retail space. They worked with the community to gain their buy-in and in the fall of 1972 opened a glittering new space at the site of the nearly 20 year-old plaza.

This move certainly extended the life of shopping in this area. Over the years shops, banks, drug stores, supermarkets, a bowling alley, and a post office occupied the site. But by the early 2000’s, the site was clearly struggling. In a 2007 video of low video quality, it shows only four open businesses that I can see, anchored by a Family Dollar and a National City Bank. Much of the retailed space was closed off.

2007 Video of McGuffey Mall

The Garland Plaza was occupied by Mahoning County Department of Job & Family Services from 1988 until 2007. In 2012, the Cafaro firm decided to sell both the mall and the plaza. On October 25, 2013, it was acquired by Highway Contracting of Boardman, a demolition contractor, who proceeded with demolition beginning in December, completing it in 2014.

The site has been idle since, but 2022 brought news that the Western Reserve Port Authority (WRPA) planned to acquire the site for $162,250. They had no immediate plans for the property but Anthony Trevena, representing WRPA, observes that the nearby freeway access makes it a desirable location for redevelopment. Viewing the site on Google street view reveals a significant amount of workers and vehicles on the site, suggesting the first steps of preparing the location for redevelopment.

Nothing is firm yet, but this would be a shot in the arm for the area, recalling the years where this was a center of bustling commercial activity. That might be the best news this area has had in fifty years.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown – Hills Department Store

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“Hills is where the toys are!” You probably remember that jingle if you grew up in Youngstown. While most stores expanded their toy selection at Christmas, Hills had a great toy department year round, and an attractive layaway program for parents who couldn’t afford all those toys in the month or so before Christmas.

For many years, Hills was the discount department store in the Valley. The first store, founded by Herbert H. Goldberger in 1957, was in Youngstown. By 1964, there were seven stores in the area. They focused their merchandising on clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, seasonal, beauty products, electronics, toys, and housewares.

In 1964, Goldberger sold the company to Shoe Company of America (SCOA) of Columbus. Goldberger stayed on as president until 1981 when his son, Stephen A. Goldberger succeeded him. When Herbert Goldberger turned the chain over to his son, it had expanded to 99 stores. It would grow to 125 stores by the mid-1980’s. A series of business decisions from this time onward led to the eventual demise of the Hills name, and its successor in turn.

In 1985, Stephen Goldberger led management in a leveraged buyout of SCOA, subsequently selling off everything but the Hills stores. This left the company with $642 million in debt to which it added when it acquired 33 Gold Circle Stores and opened 8 more in 1989. This came right at the time of an economic downturn and led to Stephen Goldberger’s departure in 1990 and a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 1991.

Thomas Lee, who helped engineer the buyout of SCOA remained as board chair of Hills and brought in Michael Bozic in 1991. Bozic was a Sears veteran and led a turnaround that focused on remodeling stores, focusing and enhancing key merchandise lines, including its own American Spirit clothing line as well as its toy sales which accounted for 10 percent of sales, while leaving other merchandise departments like sporting goods, appliances, automotive products, and lawn and garden supplies to competitors. They also closed unprofitable stores, focusing on the places they were strongest: Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Ohio towns like Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown.

They emerged from bankruptcy in 1993 to a banner year with $1.76 billion of sales. In 1994 they actually returned to opening new stores. Almost immediately, they became embroiled in a stockholder dispute, and in 1995, Bozic and most of the senior executive team resigned, leaving the company in turmoil as they tried to change numerous systems. In 1998, Ames Department Stores acquired Hills, with nearly all of the stores renamed as Ames stores by 1999. This created the fourth largest discount chain after Walmart, K-Mart, and Target. By 2002, however, Ames was out of business, leaving a number of empty stores that were once thriving Hills operations.

Hills hosted special sales and events throughout the year. It was a great place to buy those Easter Lilies for mom. But many remember two other events. One was the fireworks displays on the fourth of July in their parking lot and the arrival of Santa on Thanksgiving Day. Of course, it was also a good place to find reasonably priced school clothes, fashionable but inexpensive adult clothing, and household goods. As teens, Hills had some of the best prices on music and electronics. And of course there was that toy department. But what many of us remember the most was the popcorn!

Born in Youngstown, Hills just seemed to fit with its original market. Sadly the combination of bigger competitors like Walmart and Target, and some questionable business decisions spelled the end to the store whose motto was “Save every way, save every day at Hills.” But they sure gave us some great memories!

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Consolidated Warehouse

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Consolidated Warehouse ad in the Youngstown Vindicator, August 7, 1961

One of my memories of growing up in Youngstown was Saturday morning trips to the Consolidate Warehouse in downtown Youngstown. It was located on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and West Commerce Street, what is now the site of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and Jail. As you can see from the ad above, the building closest to Fifth Avenue was a six floor cube, connected by what looks like a two-story building and a third three-story building where loading docks were located. The downtown store also had a tire and paint sales facility across the street behind the downtown fire station.

As I recall, dad usually went there for whatever supplies he needed for household jobs–paint, tools, hardware, seal coat for the driveway, caulk–you name it. Mom usually gave him a list of cleaning supplies that often sold for better prices than at the local grocery. As their ad said “we are never undersold.” It was kind of an overwhelming place–you could find school clothes, casual clothes, work clothes, personal care items, appliances, automotive supplies, and garden supplies. It was the closest thing we had to Walmart. Sears was a pricier version. K-Mart, Almart, Montgomery Ward, Woolco, and Walmart were all in the future.

Eventually Consolidated opened stores, under the name Consolidated Discount Stores, at 5635 South Avenue, where Petiti’s Garden Center is located, and at 1729 S. Raccoon Rd, in the Wedgewood Plaza. Later on, they opened a store in Salem and after the downtown store closed in the early 1980’s, there was a store for a few years in the McGuffey Mall on the East side. This no longer appeared in their ads by 1984. Obviously these stores as well as the downtown store are long gone. I could not find information about when they finally went out of business. I suspect the buying power of the national stores who came into the area led to their closure.

Consolidated was way ahead of the times. In a way, it was the “proof of concept” for all these other stores. It wasn’t fancy. It was a warehouse. My memory is that it wasn’t brightly lit. It was no frills. It didn’t need to be. All that mattered for my parents was good prices. As far as I know, they were not undersold!

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!