YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Bustling with people walking, driving individual vehicles and riding in streetcars and even on a horse-drawn wagon, downtown Youngstown was indeed roaring in the 1920s.
Speaking as part of the Bites and Bits of History series at the Tyler History Center on Thursday, Traci Manning, curator of education for the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, said she loves the old pictures from that time because they’re full of great detail.
“For me, it’s just the quality of the photography,” Manning said. “Whether it’s zooming in on fashions or faces, something like those highway signs that are cool. … You get those little moments like the guy on the back of the pickup truck or those two kids standing in one photo, just waiting to cross the street. So it’s the humanity in the photographs. This is what I love the most.”
The Central Bank Tower was built downtown, and not only were most storefronts full, but offices in the floors rising above street level also were well-used. Manning shared photos of the Central Tower as it was built; the Strouss-Hirshberg Store, which opened in 1926; McKelvey’s Department Store; and the ornate Keith-Albee Theater, which began as a vaudeville theater when it opened in 1926. It would become the Liberty Theater and then Paramount Theater as motion pictures replaced live entertainment.
Manning encouraged those attending Thursday’s event to walk around downtown and look up at the ornate carvings and details that can still be found on many of the buildings.
The building that housed Burt’s New Confectionery on Federal Street opened in 1922, featuring not only Harry Burt’s candy and ice cream treats, but flowers and restaurants. It is now home to the Tyler History Center.
The 1920s was a decade that would see the population of Youngstown grow from 132,000 to 170,000, while Warren similarly grew from 27,000 to 41,000, Manning reported. The Black population grew from 6,600 to 14,000.
Manning shared the stories of the Belmont branch of the YWCA and the Booker T. Washington settlement that predated the YMCA on West Federal Street. Such organizations gave young minorities a chance to socialize, do organized community service and compete on sports teams.
The Mahoning Valley had its share of racial tensions at the time. Fletcher Armstrong and his wife, Maggie, who started a haberdashery, the first Black-owned business in downtown Youngstown, were forced to close due to Ku Klux Klan activities. And there were KKK riots in Niles that drew national attention in 1924.
Prohibition sent alcohol underground. In 1909, Manning said there were 296 saloons in Youngstown, and they outnumbered the grocery stores. She showed one Vindicator headline to emphasize that drinking in speakeasies remained despite the ban – “Dry Men Raid 27 Places Here.”
It was a decade where many people lived well in many of the large homes in neighborhoods that can still be found in parts of Youngstown, while others lived in tenement housing within walking distance of the mills – 10 to 13 people could be living in a four-room house.
Manning said entry-level industrial laborers made just over 42 cents per day, about minimum wage by today’s inflated numbers. They were working six days a week and long hours.
“They’re lucky if they take home $20 to $28 per week … and then you see ads like this in the newspaper – you could get a full suite of clothing for $35, more than your entire week’s pay as an average laborer at the time,” Manning said.
Yet photos Manning shared showed children playing on playgrounds, standing in a concrete pool of water on a hot day and even competing in a sack race.
“Don’t you wish you could just get like a minute with one of these kids? Just ask them, ‘How’s life?’”
Bites and Bits of History, which is held on the third Thursday of each month, is a free program where the public is invited to bring a lunch and learn about interesting topics. The next event is at noon March 20 and will feature the decade of the dark period of the depression in the 1930s. It will be presented by local historian and author Sean Posey.
Manning said while the Bites and Bits of History program is 11 years old, the idea was to go back, decade by decade, for the historical society’s 150th anniversary. In April, she will feature the steel industry and support for the war in the Mahoning Valley in the 1940s.
Pictured at top: Traci Manning, curator of education for the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.