Youngstown

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — General Thomas W. Sanderson

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General Thomas W. Sanderson

Civil War hero, lawyer, and one who both made and wrote Youngstown history. In a nutshell, that’s General Thomas W. Sanderson, and yet most of us have never heard of him. As far as I know, no Youngstown streets or buildings are named after him (there is a Sanderson Avenue in Campbell, once East Youngstown) and yet Youngstown wouldn’t have been the county seat of Mahoning County without him.

Thomas W. Sanderson was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania on October 17, 1829. His father, from Scotland, was a farmer. His mother’s family came from Wakefield, England, the setting of Oliver Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield. The family moved to Youngstown in 1834, where they continued to farm. Sanderson was educated in Youngstown’s schools, attended college in Bardstown, Kentucky, and then read law in the office of William Ferguson and was admitted to the bar in a district court in Canfield, then the county seat, in 1852. After a brief stint as a civil engineer, he formed a law partnership with his brother in law, F.E. Hutchins, Hutchins and Sanderson.

Civic leadership followed quickly. Appointed county prosecuting attorney in 1856, he had to delay beginning this work to serve out an unfinished term as Mayor of Youngstown. However, the Civil War interrupted his legal career after one term as prosecuting attorney.

Sanderson entered the Army as a second lieutenant of the Second Ohio cavalry. By war’s end, he was a Brigadier General, having fought at Stone River, Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga, marching with General Sherman on Atlanta and to the sea. One example of his gallantry and leadership was an engagement south of Atlanta at Bear Creek where, leading one brigade, he held off three divisions of General Wheeler, achieving victory.

On return to Youngstown, he served four terms as solicitor beginning in 1868. During this time, the fight took place to move the county seat from Canfield to Youngstown. It turned on the constitutionality of a law passed in 1874 in the state legislature, and whether a previous law in 1846 could make Canfield the “permanent” county seat. The case finally ended up in 1879 in the United States Supreme Court where Sanderson faced future president James A. Garfield, arguing for Canfield. Sanderson won and thus Youngstown’s standing as county seat was confirmed.

In his time, he was considered the best trial lawyer in the state of Ohio. He represented Chauncey Andrews in the Hocking County railroad case, where he won a judgment of $15 million, the largest settlement won in Ohio up to that time. He also took up smaller cases. In one, in 1872, he represented Herman Brandmiller, a brewer, charged with selling a young man a drink, violating “dry” laws enacted in that period. He succeeded in proving that the ordinance had never properly been recorded, making it invalid, leading to acquital of Brandmiller.

The one grief in an otherwise successful life struck in his family. He married Elizabeth Shoemaker of New Castle on December 19, 1854. They had two children, a son who died in infancy and a daughter, Louise, a highly educated and accomplished young woman. Sadly, she died June 21, 1901, predeceasing her parents, a difficult blow for them.

Sanderson had always been a writer and in his last years, he wrote the 20th Century History of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, published in 1907. The work offers a history of the city and county and brief biographies of leading citizens of the area up to that time. I’ve used it as a source for many articles and it may be accessed at the Internet Archive. This was the first such history, preceding that of Joseph Butler.

General Thomas W. Sanderson appeared in court up to the last year of his life. He was in declining health over the previous year and passed on Sunday, January 26, 1908. He was buried on January 29, 1908 after lying in state at First Christian Church with funeral services at 1 pm that day. The Tod post provided his final escort to his burial site at Oak Hill Cemetery, where he was buried with full military honors.

A number of Youngstown leaders have living family who carry their memory to this day. This was not the case for General Sanderson. Yet his name is among the “greats” in our city, serving with distinction in the Civil War, offering leadership and capable advocacy to effect the move of Mahoning County’s county seat to Youngstown, serving clients great and small as a trial lawyer, and writing the first local history of the area. If you take a tour of Oak Hill Cemetery, be sure to visit his tomb. He is worthy of memory.

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

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — The Flats in Mill Creek Park

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“Mill Creek Park – View of Mill Creek from Suspension Bridge” by Jack Pearce is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

One of our favorite hangouts in high school and college days in the early ’70s was The Flats in Mill Creek Park, seen in the distance of this picture, on the east side of Mill Creek through the trees. Valley Drive alongside The Flats was lined with cars, some of which were being waxed by their owners. You could see couples on blankets making out, a group gathered around a guitar player, guys and girls in cutoffs running around, throwing a frisbee, people smoking, whether cigarettes or something less legal. All of us enjoyed this open meadow just east of the Silver Bridge. A sunny, clear autumn day and you could barely get to the place.

I never knew it by any other name than “The Flats” but at one time, the area was known as Hiawatha Flats. John Melnick, MD, in The Green Cathedral, suggests that the name comes from a production of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Hiawatha” by a group of Iroquois Indians in 1916, or possibly as early as 1912 or 1913 when a group was encamped there. Mill Creek was temporarily dammed to allow Hiawatha to float down the river on a canoe.

At various times, the area was know as the “Cricket Field” (yes, they apparently played cricket in Youngstown at one time!) or Orchard Meadows. It was a favorite picnic area and included a number of picnic tables and grills.

In the early days, Volney Rogers used the area as a deer park reserve, with a wooden building erected as a deer shelter. It was rare we ever saw deer there or anywhere else during the years I was growing up. I know deer in the park is a point of controversy with groups that want to save the deer and others to remove them. I’m not a local so I won’t even touch this one!

Back in 1976, parking was limited to pull in spaces in two areas. Today, park maps show a picnic area and “comfort station” in the area with part of the east Mill Creek gorge trail running through it. But it has no name on park maps that I can see. I’d love to know how it is being used these days. But “back then” it was the place to hang out on a sunny, spring, summer, or fall afternoon. Little did we know of the long history nor the other names by which this place was known. To us, it was always “The Flats.”

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

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Top Ten Fair Memories

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Father and son enjoying one of our favorite memories. ©Robert C. Trube

August 30, 2023 marks the beginning of the 177th Canfield Fair, the county fair for Mahoning County and one of the biggest in the country. Living away from the Youngstown area, we’ve not been able to get to the fair in recent years but I visit the fair in my memories. These are ten of my favorite fair memories–hard to keep it at just ten!

10. Getting our annual DiRusso’s Italian sausage sandwich with my son. When my son was growing up, we were at the fair every year and one of our first stops was DiRusso’s. As he got older, there was a rivalry of who would eat it the hottest.

9. A childhood memory was when my dad bought me a footlong hotdog. I’d never seen a hotdog so big, and a foot of all the fixins? Heaven on a bun.

8. The year of the strollers. We often met up with friends from YSU and there was one year when we all had small children in strollers. Hard to believe that those “kids” are now pushing 40!

7. The rabbit and rooster barn. This was an annual stop for us–we couldn’t believe how many different varieties of these two creatures there were.

6. When I was young they had a double ferris wheel, the top of which was so high and at times not only would each wheel go around but also the whole hulking thing! A bit terrifying to look at and an absolute blast to ride!

5. The midways at night. All the lights, the haze in the air from both all the food being cooked and late summer humidity. All the wonderful sounds, the barkers at the “games of skill” booths.

4, A fresh made lemonade on a hot afternoon at the fair. Nothing was more thirst quenching–and all that sugar! Or a Strouss’s malt. Or an apple dumpling with a big scoop of ice cream. They were all good for cooling off.

3. Sharing an elephant ear among four or more of us as we strolled down a midway. Or Molnar fries.

2. Taking pictures outside the pumpkin exhibit, putting our heads into the pumpkin cutouts after being overwhelmed by the monstrous pumpkins inside.

1. Sharing the fair with friends as our annual re-union, and unwinding afterwards, staying up late and catching up on a whole year.

Actually, I’m just skimming the surface, but if I don’t share all my memories, that leaves plenty of room for you to share yours. There is so much to the Canfield Fair! A list of ten things just doesn’t cover it. And if you go to the fair this year, eat a DiRusso’s or an elephant ear for me!

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

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — The Valley Park Hotel

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Scan of stationary for the Valley Park Drive-In Hotel at 525 Wick Ave from 1956.

I’m getting a reputation. A friend from Wisconsin was cleaning out his mother-in-law’s place and came across some ephemera from Youngstown and wondered if I’d be interested. He sent a photograph, and I realized that the pictured stationary was the old Arts and Sciences Offices at Youngstown State, at 525 Wick Avenue, across the street from the Butler. This week, the pictured stationary and the original matching wax envelope enclosing the stationary arrived in the mail.

As a freshman, I remembered going there to meet my professor to discuss my first draft of a term paper on Perelandra. I visited the building several times during my first years at YSU. It was also the home of WYSU, the campus Public Radio station. I saw the studios and found myself envious of the record collection! We always entered the building from an entrance off the driveway passing through the center of the building to parking behind the building. The building was torn down about the time we graduated to make way for Bliss Hall for the Performing Arts and the McDonough Museum of Art. In 1977, the College of Arts and Sciences moved into the newly built DeBartolo Hall.

The building began its life after World War II when “motor hotels” or “motels” were built across a country rapidly being connected by a road system to accommodate growing automobile travel. The Butler as well as downtown Youngstown with its mix of theaters and shopping, and a growing college provided the incentive to build this tastefully constructed red brick two-story motel on Wick Avenue across from the Butler and overlooking Smoky Hollow.

Wax translucent envelope enclosing the stationary, listing other motels in the chain

The envelope enclosing the stationary lists three other motels that are part of this chain of “motor hotels.” The Noble Motel and the Town House Motel were both in Cleveland and the Rest Motor Hotel was in North Randall, probably near the race track.

Postcards I found of the motel describe it as follows:

The Most Modern Motorist Hotel in Ohio 70 Units – Completely Air-Conditioned 24-Hour Telephone Service Coffee Shop on Premises Two Minutes’ Walk from Downtown On State Route No. 7 and U.S. Route No. 62 525 WICK AVENUE – YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO. AAA Approved. Telephone: RIverside 3-1141 (from Pinterest).

Another post card indicates that at one time, it also featured a steak house and a swimming pool.

Two minutes is pretty optimistic to walk from that location to downtown, but it plainly was walkable as we did many times during college. For someone who didn’t want the hassle of parking and traffic downtown, which could be considerable in Youngstown’s heyday, the motel provided a comfortable alternative.

At some later time, the motel was known as the Wick Avenue Motel, probably reflecting a change in ownership. I suspect the growth of suburban motels in the 1960’s brought competition. I could not find a date when the university acquired the building. By 1970, university maps show the building as “ASO” or “Arts and Sciences Offices.”

Many of us who went to YSU in the 1970’s will remember this building as a place of meeting for advising or course discussions with professors. Others will have memories of when it was a motel, a forerunner of motels including chains like Holiday Inn and Howard Johnson’s that eventually sprang up along the highways of a nation with a love affair with travel–including some folks who lived in Wisconsin who found their way to Youngstown, stashed away some stationary, that over half a century later brought to life another Youngstown memory.

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

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Woodrow Wilson High School

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Image by Joan Minenok Yanchick. ©Joan Minenok Yanchick. Used with permission.

Over the past couple years, I’ve written brief articles about the history of the public and parochial high schools in Youngstown. Today is the day for Woodrow Wilson High School. I had two personal connections with Wilson. One was that when I was visiting my girlfriend (now my wife), who lived in Brownlee Woods in the days when I-680 ended at South Avenue, I often cut over to Gibson, drove past Wilson, and took a few other side streets over to Midlothian. The other is that my wife’s best friend from childhood to this day was a Wilson grad (my wife went to Cardinal Mooney). It turns out that this was not uncommon–students from the two schools often grew up and hung out together.

With the growth of the Southside in the 1920’s additional school space was needed. Woodrow Wilson opened in 1928 to serve junior high students and initially also had six classrooms dedicated to grades 1-6. There were also two rooms dedicated to Fresh Air students with special needs. By 1932, with the opening of Bennett Elementary and increasing crowding, the decision was made that Wilson would serve only Junior High students, grades 7-9. In 1936, students moving on to 10th grade stayed at Wilson and by the 1938-39 year, it became a full-fledged high school with enrollment totalling 1551 students. In 1939, an addition was built for vocational and arts programs.

Joan Minenok Yanchick (’72), a source for much of this article, described Wilson as the hub of the community. Various extra-curricular programs from athletics to cheerleading to arts and drama programs meant that students were often around the building from early morning until 10 pm in the evening. There was always a great sense of both pride and cameraderie, beginning in the early years when students and faculty teamed up to collect the funds to plant lawns and landscape the dusty and muddy surroundings left by construction of the school. In Joan Minenok Yanchick’s day, she recalls how a group of 28 girls gathered each day in the cafeteria, pushing tables together.

Woodrow Wilson High School Cafeteria, Image by Joan Minenok Yanchick. ©Joan Minenok Yanchick. Used with permission.

Every school has traditions. One begun in 1928 that continued for many years was the bugle call that accompanied the flag-raising each day. Wilson was also an innovator among Youngstown schools, instituting the first afternoon conference period between students and teachers to discuss the day’s school work. They were also the first to establish a permanent homeroom for all years of the high school. For many years the last part of the lunch period featured motion pictures in the auditorium. For two cents a day you could see movies like Captain Courageous. The auditorium was also the site of many outstanding play productions, some under the direction of Bob Vargo, including Oliver and Oklahoma.

Woodrow Wilson auditorium from the balcony. Image by Joan Minenok Yanchick. ©Joan Minenok Yanchick. Used with permission.

Wilson continued to change over the years. A new wing was added in 1953, and in 1954 a World War II Memorial was dedicated in remembrance of Wilson graduates who gave their lives in service to the country in that war. Later, when the building was razed, the wall was preserved and installed in the new Woodrow Wilson Alternative School and Virtual Academy. In 1962, Wilson’s teams, long known as the Presidents, became the Redmen. In 1985 Bernadine Marinelli became the first woman to serve as principal.

Like all schools, students found ways to engage in a variety of high jinks. In the mid-1960’s, a tree in front of the school was cut down. Many possible suspects were suggested, including Mooney students, but the identity of the prankster remains a mystery. Students were permitted to walk home for lunch. Some took advantage of this to hang out and smoke with friends at a pizza shop across from the school until school authorities figured out what was going on and declared the place “off limits.” Perhaps the most famous and abiding mystery is whatever happened to the engine buried on Earth Day in 1970, a symbolic act to represent eliminating the pollution produced by internal combustion engines. At an event sponsored by Student Council and the Key Club, a Health Department official spoke on pollution, the engine was buried–and subsequently disappeared. When the Wilson building was razed, people searched the area where the engine was buried with metal detectors, but it could not be found.

Newspaper clipping from The Vindicator of the Earth Day Engine Burial at Wilson High School. Clipping courtesy of Joan Minenok Yanchick.

As Youngstown’s school population declined from the 1980’s on, South High School closed in 1993 and then East in 1998 (to subsequently reopen in a new building). Students came to Wilson from both schools. In 2004, the school transitioned to a “Small School” concept with part of the school becoming the Class Academy and part the Center for Interactive Exploration. With further enrollment declines, the class of 2007 was the last to graduate from Wilson. On May 26, 2007 over 2000 alumni walked through the school for the final time, sharing stories with their children and grandchildren. The building was razed in 2008 but the Wilson name lives on at 2725 Gibson as the Woodrow Wilson Alternative School and Virtual Academy. It houses the War Memorial and serves grades 3-12.

Main Hallway. Image by Joan Minenok Yanchick. ©Joan Minenok Yanchick. Used with permission.

The hallways of Woodrow Wilson High School are only memories, along with the strains of “Wilson High, We Love You Dearly” and the Wilson fight song, to the tune of Ohio State’s “Across the Field.” I suspect a number of graduates still have their copy of Orion, their school yearbook and reminisce at alumni reunions. Many alumni will drive great distances just to have dinner with another Wilson alumnus. Once a year, a number of alumni gather for the Woodrow Wilson Geneva Bike Run. It sounds to me that for many, ties of friendship run long and deep.

I hope those of you who are Wilson alumni will add your own memories to this history. Go Redmen!

_______________________________

I’d like to thank Joan Minenok Yanchik for her help with images, memories, and history of Wilson without which this article would not have been possible.

The “History of Woodrow Wilson High School” compiled from Olga Jaronski (’39) and Debbie Smith (’68) was an invaluable resource, also scanned and sent to me by Joan Minenok Yanchik.

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

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — The Hopewell Theatre

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The Hopewell Theatre, Mahoning Commons by Jack Pierce is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

I must have walked by or driven by this old church hundreds of times to and from downtown Youngstown without paying it much attention. At one time, it was the home of the Church of St. George and built in the 1890’s. It is located at 702 Mahoning Avenue, in the Mahoning Commons neighborhood just west of the Spring Common underpass, a rail bridge over Mahoning Avenue.

In 1992, Dr. Jean McClure Kelty, a former Youngstown State professor led an effort to convert this small church building into an intimate theatre, forming a theatre company then known as the Victorian Players. The original aim was to focus on plays from the Victorian era. They called the building The Victorian Players Theater. From pictures, it looks like a cozy space with 55-60 seats that are close up on the stage, more a large living room than an auditorium.

The organization changed its name to the Hopewell Theatre, reflecting an expanding scope of plays. From photos on the Theatre’s Facebook photo page it appears that the new name for the company and theatre made its debut in the summer of 2017. In recent years their performances have included An Evening of O’Henry, Snoopy The Musical, Godspell, The Man with the Plastic Sandwich, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 20th Century Blues, I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, Rude Awakening, Child of Glory: A Gospel Nativity, and Becky’s New Car. The Business Journal offers a preview of Becky’s New Car, which performed in Spring of 2023, giving a sense of the play and the intimate setting of the theatre.

The 23-24 season starts soon with a slate of six plays scheduled. They include:

  • August 25-September 3: Grace and Glorie, Hopewell Theatre
  • October 20-29, Sweeney Todd, Millenial Theatre Company
  • December 8-17, Exit, Pursued By A Bear, Hopewell Theatre
  • January 19-28, Cabaret, Millennial Theatre Company
  • May 17-26, It Shoulda Been You, Millenial Theatre Company
  • June 14-23, Rabbit Hole, Hopewell Theatre

As you might notice, three of the plays are offered by the Millenial Theatre Company, which also performs at the Youngstown Playhouse as well as offering a variety of classes. Their website describes the Company’s purpose as follows: “The Millennial Theatre Company (MTC), a 501(c)3 nonprofit theatrical organization, founded in April of 2016, aims to produce excellent theatrical experiences while focusing on the involvement of the Millennial Generation.”

Tickets for the performances are available through the Hopewell Theatre website. The Youngstown Foundation, The Thomases Family Endowment, and the J. Ford Crandall Memorial Foundation help provide funding for the Hopewell Theatre, but performing to full houses will certainly help the bottom line of this non-profit organization. Recent construction of ramps has enhanced handicapped access.

Dr. Kelty passed away in 2003 but her vision lives on. This year marks the 30th season for this arts organization, one that has weathered recessions and the pandemic and continues to offer live theatre productions in a unique intimate setting. I think it is amazing to see the number of cultural opportunities available in Youngstown!

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

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — The Rayen School

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The Rayen School ca 1912. Public Domain via Wikipedia

Having written about several other high schools in Youngstown, it is time for me to write about Youngstown’s first high school, The Rayen School. While it is referred to as Rayen High School, including in the image above from 1912, proud alumni have told me that the real name is “The Rayen School” and so that is the name I will use in this article.

The Rayen School’s name and origins go back to Judge William Rayen, one of Youngstown’s early founders, who died childless in 1854. Regretting his own lack of education in his youth, he left a gift for the youth of Youngstown in his will, where he wrote:

“As this school is designed for the benefit of all youth of the township, without regard to religious denominations or differences, and none may be excluded for such or the like reasons or grounds, I hereby prohibit the teachings therein of the peculiars religions, tenets, or doctrine, of any denomination or sect whatever; at the same time I enjoin that no others be employed as teachers than persons of good moral character and habit who by precept and example will instill into the minds of those under their charge the importance of industry, morality, and integrity in all the relations of life.”

He left a sizable bequest for his day, $31,390 which would be $1,140,163.27 in 2023. In 1866, The Rayen School was opened at Wood and Wick. The distinctive red brick was the work of Youngstown’s premiere bricklayer of the day, P. Ross Berry, a Black bricklayer and architect. The original building was expanded over the years and served as Youngstown’s only public high school until South High School was opened in 1911.

The continued growth of the city led to the need for a new, larger facility, and The Rayen School moved to its new building at 250 Benita Avenue in 1922. The old structure served for a time as an elementary school and the home of the Rayen School of Engineering for what was then Youngstown College. Later, it was purchased by the Youngstown City School District for its headquarters, which were moved to the new East High School when it opened. The superintendent’s office is still in the original Rayen building and it serves as the home of the Youngstown Rayen Early College High School.

According to Wikipedia, The Rayen School continued to operate on funds generated from the Rayen, and the name “The Rayen School” became the popular name for the school in the 1940’s. The school was widely known during this period for the quality of its teachers and its rigorous academic standards. Edward Manning, from the class of 1933, in an oral history interview stated:

“We were very fortunate; we had all of the teachers that had taught at the old Rayen. Those were some of the best teachers in Northeastern Ohio. The teachers at Rayen would lecture and we had to take notes just as in college. We had one teacher, Miss Wallis, an English teacher she was a world traveler. She could tell you about England, France and other European countries. She has been to the Louvre in France and any of those big art galleries in Italy. She brought that outside information into the class, just the same as the college professors. Most of the teachers we had there were way above average.“

Over its history, The Rayen School had 19 principals and graduated over 50,000 students. Some of the graduates about whom I’ve written include William Stewart, the first black legislator from Youngstown, Joe Flynn, most famous for his role in McHale’s Navy, and François Clemmons, the talented singer and Officer Clemmons on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Albert Warner, one of the four Warner Brothers, also graduated from The Rayen School.

Rayen Stadium was built in 1924, and also served as the home field for Ursuline High School and for Youngstown State until Stambaugh Stadium was built. It was the site of football history when Dike Beede first implemented the use of the penalty flag on October 17, 1941 in a game against Oklahoma City University. The stadium fell into disuse in the 1980’s and was restored as Jack Antonucci Field in 2012, honoring another Rayen alumnus.

The school did not survive that long, closing and being razed in 2007, due to declining enrollments. Before closure, a 65 foot mural commemorating Rayen history, painted by art instructor John Benninger and his students in the 1958-59 academic year, was removed, originally destined for Rayen Middle School, which was never built. Instead, it has been cleaned and resides at the Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center.

The Rayen School had a great 141 year history as Youngstown’s first high school. If you went to Rayen, I’d love to hear of your memories of the school.

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

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — The Elms Ballroom

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When I was a student at Youngstown State in the 1970’s, I spent a lot of time at the Kilcawley Student Center. And like many college students, I liked music and went to concerts both on campus and at other venues. Little did I realize that where Kilcawley stood was the site of one of Youngstown’s and northeast Ohio’s most storied concert and dance venues, the (Nu) Elms Ballroom.

It all began in 1921 when a dance instructor, Raymond Bott built an 8,000 square foot dance ballroom on Elm Street between Spring and Arlington. It originally was built to showcase the Bott Academy, a dance academy that his family had operated since 1894. They held classes for men, women and children and hosted Tuesday and Saturday assembly dances. Bott developed a national reputation as president of the Dancing Masters of America in New York City and sold off the school in 1929 to Frank Stadler.

Stadler had built the Yankee Lake Ballroom as well as the Southern Park dance pavilion, near present-day Southern Park Mall. He reopened the building as the Elms Ballroom at the end of 1929. Ballroom dancing had caught on big time, and even in the Depression, ballroom dancing was big in Youngstown with dances at nearby Yankee Lake and Craig’s Beach, as well as Idora Ballroom, Krakusy Hall, Stambaugh Auditorium, the Cascade Room at the Pick-Ohio among the many. In 1932, Stadler turned the Elms over to L.A. “Tony” Cavalier, who also ran the Idora Ballroom and the old H.K. Wick Mansion on Logan. Under his management, it became the Nu-Elms. Working with promoter Clarence King, they hosted such famous bands as the Harlem Play Girls, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, the Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald, and Nat King Cole.

The 1940’s brought Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Billy Eckstine, the Andrews Sisters and Vaughn Monroe, who 3,000 people came to see. The ballroom was remodeled and had a grand re-opening in 1949, once again as the Elms Ballroom. Parking was expanded. But Big Band music was fading, although there is a great recording of Stan Kenton in one of his many performances at the Elms Ballroom on December 2, 1952.

The 1950’s brought “rock ‘n roll,” a term coined by Alan Freed, a Cleveland disc jockey who had worked for a time at WKBN. Clarence King turned to recruiting these acts, bringing in Chuck Berry, Bill Doggett, Bo Diddley, Ike and Tina Turner, the Drifters, Fats Domino, and James Brown and his Famous Flames, who appeared numerous times in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. During one of these appearances, Jerry Poindexter, a ten year old from Youngstown sneaked into the back door at the Elms, as Brown practiced. He remembers:

“I saw three tour buses pull into town and I followed them on my bicycle to Elms Ballroom,” said Poindexter, as he reminisced about his childhood in the 1960s. “I missed my curfew that night and got my butt whupped. I didn’t care, because I got to see James Brown.”

Years later, in 1978, as a keyboard player he joined James Brown’s band, playing for them for another 26 years–and it began at a practice at the Elms!

Between the national acts, The Elms hosted local “sock hops” with disk jockeys like Dick Biondi, Johnny Kay, and Boots Bell from WHOT. Local bands were also popular, including Mike Roncone, the Del-Rays, and the Human Beingz, whose big national hit was “Nobody But Me.” The Del-Rays were the big thing on the local scene in the early 1960’s, consisting of Danny Carbon, keyboards, Nick Timcisko, bass player, Johnny Stanko, lead vocals and guitar; Joe “Mouse” Kalaman, saxophone; and Bruce Dill, drums. They were from Campbell and Struthers. They were regulars at the Elms.

But the Elms Ballroom’s days were numbered. What was then Youngstown University was growing and the area around the Elms was acquired for expansion plans. The building was razed in 1965, making way for that Kilcawley Center where I spent so much time. I only knew of the Elms from friends of my parents. It sounds like it was an incredible music and dance venue.

Sean T. Posey has written extensively about the Elms Ballroom in his Lost Youngstown, one of my sources for this article. He produced a great video capturing the history of the place with images and an interview with Mike Roncone.

I’d love to hear from you if you have memories of the Elms Ballroom! What was it like and who did you hear there?

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

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Choffin Career and Technical Center

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The new Choffin Career Center at its opening in 1973. Photo: Youngstown Vindicator, July 15, 1973, via Google News Archive

Vocational education has always been an important part of our educational systems. There are a variety of skilled trades and other occupations that have required specialized training beyond the regular high school curriculum and outside the typical education offered in college. From automotive repair to the construction trades to various medical and dental occupations to public safety, vocational and technical training equips people for jobs important to our economy that have the potential of paying good wages.

Vocational training was discussed as part of the Youngstown schools curriculum but didn’t get under way in a serious way until the late 1950’s following a gift of the C. C. Choffin estate to establish a vocational school. Originally, the Choffin Center occupied the old Wood Street School, built in 1912. Plans were laid in the 1960’s for construction of a new Choffin Career Center, occupying five acres at the corner of E. Rayen Avenue and North Walnut, in front of the old Choffin Center, which was to be demolished.

The July 15, 1973 Youngstown Vindicator ran an article on the new center titled “Choffin School to Open New Vocational Center in Fall.” The article announced that the new Career Center, which would open on September 5, 1973 would serve 1,100 students who were juniors or seniors in Youngstown’s high schools. The cost of the building was reported at $7,452,175 (approximately $50 million in 2023).

Class sizes were limited to 25. Students were bussed from their home high school and back. Juniors would have classes from 8 to 12:15 and then go to their high school for English and history courses. Seniors started the day with classes at their high school, starting classes at Choffin at 11:15, and running until 3:30 pm. Three hours were shop or lab classes and an hour and a half were theory.

The new courses being added with the opening were: account clerk, auto body, advanced secretarial, building maintenance, carpentry, cement trades, child care, commercial art, community home service, data processing, diesel mechanics, high skill stenography, industrial electricity and electronics, medical assistants, nurses aides, office machines, radio, television and small engine repair.

These were in addition to continuing courses in: appliance repair, auto mechanics, cook-chef, cosmetology, dental assistant, distributive education, drafting, machine shop, trade dressmaking, and welding.

Fifty years later, this facility is still serving both Youngstown students as well as adults as the Choffin Career and Technical Center, offering updated versions of some of the same courses as well as a number of new courses reflecting advances and changes in technology. Today’s programs are organized around five academies:

  • Skilled trades: Auto tech, construction, and welding
  • The Arts: Interactive app and game design, music production and recording, and video and audio broadcasting
  • YouMed: Dental assisting, fitness, health and wellness, medical office and business management, physical therapy and athletic training, allied health.
  • Business: Business entrepreneurship and barbering, cosmetology, culinary arts, digital graphic design and imaging, early childhood education
  • Public safety: Criminal justice, EMT, firefighting, telecommunications (911 dispatch)

In addition, they provide adult training in practical nursing, dental assisting (Choffin is one of two programs in the state of Ohio that has received National Accreditation by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association), and surgical technology.

At one time, vocational training was seen as an alternative to college. While that is still true for some students, for others, the training is the first step to college, particularly for those entering STEM-related fields. What is clear is that fifty years on after the new Choffin Center was opened, it continues to serve Youngstown students to accomplish three goals:

  1. I will graduate on time
  2. I will earn industry credentials
  3. I will be career & college ready

Review: Officer Clemmons

/ rtrube54 / 3 Comments

Officer Clemmons, Dr. François S. Clemmons. New York: Catapult, 2020.

Summary: An autobiographical memoir of Dr. François S. Clemmons, from his earliest years in Alabama, his youth in Youngstown, Ohio through his college years when he accepted that he was gay, his relationship with Fred Rogers, and subsequent performing and teaching career.

Recently in connection with my “Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown” series, I wrote about François Clemmons after discovering that he also grew up in Youngstown. I also learned that he had recently published a memoir, and intrigued as I was, I picked up a copy to learn about this man who worked on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood for twenty-five years, breaking down racial barriers through his very presence.

My article viewed Clemmons as an outside observer. The memoir gave me a sense of what it was like to be François Clemmons from those early childhood years, the years of awakening to his homosexuality, the extraordinary relationship he had with Fred Rogers, and his later career. He begins with his troubled childhood with a violent father. His Great Grandmama Laura Mae protected him, forcibly removing him when his father kidnapped him at gunpoint, shooting the father in the shoulder! It was his Great Grandmama who led the effort to gather enough money to send a group of men, his mother Inez, and himself to the industrial north, to begin a new life away from his violent father. He also writes of his Granddaddy Saul, from whom he learned to sing.

Youngstown was not any better family-wise. Inez, his mother, took up with Warren, who she adored, but who became an abusive step-father to Clemmons. Singing, especially in the city’s churches became an escape and he rapidly gained status, learning to read music, eventually becoming choir director at his church. Even then, he was beginning to realize that he had feelings for his own sex, “tamping” these down, discouraged by both friends and his church’s, and especially his mother’s, beliefs. He also discovers the racism that would put him on a vocational rather than a college track and excluded him from music venues, except for special Blacks-only nights. His ticket out of Youngstown came in the form of a social worker who paid for music lessons from a well-trained choral director and encouraged his application to Oberlin College. He describes the day a high school principal who was part of the Oberlin Alumni Association called him to his office to share the news that he was going to ask the alumni to provide a scholarship to attend Oberlin, which had a very fine conservatory. That support was crucial because, by then, he was living with friends to escape his step-father’s violent temper.

The next part of the memoir recounts Clemmons musical training under the tutelage of Ellen Repp and his acceptance of his homosexuality. Ironically, an effort of his mother and stepfather to “fix” him by taking him to a prostitute led to his taking refuge with the Beechwoods, whose son was gay and who fully accepted both him and François. They would be his home in Youngstown until his graduation. He became involved in civil rights advocacy, meeting Dr. King and learning about Bayard Rustin, a key organizer who was also a gay man. When he met Nick, he experienced deep fulfillment in a relationship with another man.

The final part of the memoir covers the years in Pittsburgh and the development of his singing career in New York. Much focuses on his extraordinary relationship with Fred Rogers, who he first met during his MFA studies at Carnegie Mellon, while singing in the choir at the church Fred and Joanne attended. From the first lunch he had with Fred, he discovered someone who loved him unconditionally. He describes on particular episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood where Rogers ended as he always did, saying, “You make every day a special day by being you, and I like you just the way you are.” Clemmons felt like Fred was looking at him, and asked him, after the show, “Fred, were you talking to me.” Rogers replied, “Yes I was. I have been talking to you for years. You finally heard me today.” While Rogers personally accepted Clemmons homosexuality, he would not permit Clemmons to be publicly out and remain on the show. That just would not have been possible in the 1960’s. Clemmons describes the tension he struggled with between his homosexuality and his recognition of the work he was able to do on the show to change perceptions of Blacks. He admired Rogers support of civil rights, typified by a time when they were on tour in Cincinnati and a music director refused to let Clemmons rehearse. Rogers asked the man to apologize or they would not work with him.

Rogers supported his singing career, including standing with him, supporting him financially, and mentoring him through further racist treatment with the Metropolitan Opera. Eventually Clemmons retired from the show, going on to research and perform the great spirituals in the Black American music tradition, first with the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble, and later, at Middlebury College, where he now makes his home. One of the heartwarming episodes he describes is the opportunity to invite Rogers to Middlebury to receive an honorary degree.

The memoir concludes with a man who seems to be at peace, having finally found the way to forgiving his two fathers, accepting his own sexuality, championing the distinctive music of his people, and reveling in the love of this most unusual figure in television history, Fred Rogers. The memoir helps us to see how hardwon this peace was, given the racism, the opposition from family and society to his sexuality, and the challenges of making it as a Black in the classical and operatic world. It’s a story of both persevering in a gifted calling, and the difference that a few people who did the right thing–a great grandmother, a social worker, a choral director, a principal, a music professor, and finally, Fred Rogers. In the end, through teaching and through this memoir, Clemmons has turned around to give to others the best of what was entrusted to him.