WARREN, Ohio – It’s a crisp, clear morning in late October, and the aroma of a fresh wood fire permeates much of Fowler Center in Trumbull County. Alongside the Fowler General Store and Bakery, owner Shawn Curry is outside with a large smoker preparing a pork shoulder that he’ll let cook until the following morning.
“I’ll probably keep this going below 200 degrees for about 20 hours,” he says as he restocks a bin underneath with firewood. “This is cooked slow and low.”
His outdoor smoker is actually a converted 500-gallon propane tank that was custom-made for just this use. “I’ll get about eight hours of smoke on it, then I’ll put it in a pan and add a little apple cider and vinegar. I’ll put it back on overnight, and by 8:30 in the morning, it’s done.” The pork shoulder will then be ready for hot sandwiches for customers at the General Store.
Curry and his wife, Heather, have owned the store for nearly four years. It’s a Civil War-era building that commands the intersection of state Routes 193 and 305 in this rural community.
“It’s just a little old-fashioned square,” Curry says. “I’ve always loved this place and places like it.”
These are small but nevertheless telling places that exemplify the heart of Trumbull County. Communities such as Fowler – hamlets that hark to another time and serve as a living preservation to history – are knit together along two of the county’s major north-south thoroughfares, state Route 193 and state Route 7.
Bulls, Bears and Twisted Peacocks
Both of these roads share common attributes. Their southern tiers are anchored by densely packed commercial development, lined with locally owned and chain-operated restaurants, auto dealerships, hotels, professional offices, banks, retailers, hospitals and small service businesses.
In Liberty Township for example, retailers have long dominated the Route 193 (Belmont Avenue) corridor, turning this portion of the county into a major commercial artery. In recent years, the route has exhibited more diverse businesses – ethnic restaurants, for example – while larger scale developments such as Mercy Health and Lifepoint’s new behavioral and rehabilitation hospitals have opened their doors.
Moreover, this part of Liberty is inviting for the hospitality industry because of access to Interstate 80. This, along with a loyal neighborhood and regional customer base, is what helps drive business at Bull & Bear American Grille and Tavern, says its general manager, Carlos Ramirez.
“We’ve developed a lot of regulars from the hotels,” Ramirez says. The restaurant is located near the intersection of Belmont Avenue and Liberty Street, just south of the I-80 interchange. “These are people who are on business, say, between New York and Detroit, and this is their mid-point. They’ve tried us out, and make it a point to stop in,” he says. The restaurant also has a steady clientele from hotel employees, and mostly from the neighborhoods nearby.
Ramirez says the business is constantly working to freshen its menu but draws attention because of its drink specials, its wing portions, pizza and a new patio that opened toward the end of summer. “We’re going to implement more items, but we try to touch everyone’s palate,” he says.
As motorists drive north along 193, the commercial district begins to thin, and the road opens to a more rural and rolling landscape across Vienna Township, as residential houses, offices and small businesses mingle across a more sparsely populated region. This neck of the county along 193 is also home to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, while small businesses have recently opened in Vienna Center.
Others have adapted to changing times and tastes.
“This used to be a driving range and a par 3 golf course,” says Cyndi Koehler, co-owner of the Twisted Peacock, a coffee shop in Vienna along 193, just north of Vienna Center. She and her husband closed the course in 2015 and the range in 2017, but decided to renovate the clubhouse into a new coffee spot in 2023.
Koehler says a bistro she visited in the South called The Flying Pig provided the inspiration for the coffee shop’s unusual name. “I wanted a colorful animal, so I chose a peacock,” she says. “I added ‘twisted’ to it because I thought it would be a fun name.”
Vienna at the time did not have a stand-alone coffee shop, she says, and The Twisted Peacock fills this void. “We have places such as the Yankee Kitchen and a pizza shop, but we didn’t have an actual coffee shop. We sell all the specialty coffees.”
The Twisted Peacock has grown every year, Koehler says, and is featured on coffee trail marketing brochures in the Mahoning Valley. Her children help with the business when they can and came up with the peacock logo, and her husband painted and renovated the building.
“We draw from a decent area,” she says. “There’s a lot of traffic along 193, and we get business from the airport and the nearby air base,” she says, referring to the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna. Students from PIA also frequent the shop, Koehler says. She also points to new businesses that recently opened in Vienna Center, such as a bookstore and an antique barn.
Meanwhile, there are no plans for a live peacock on the premises, Koehler says. “People always say you should have a peacock roaming around,” she says, laughing. “They’re noisy and a little messy. I don’t think we need a live one.”
A Portal in Time
In Fowler Center, 5 miles north of Vienna’s Twisted Peacock, The General Store’s Curry walks back into the old shop after monitoring the smoker. The building was constructed in 1864, one year before the end of the Civil War. Inside, the store looks as if it’s been untouched since that era, the shelves stocked with homemade jams, popcorn, jars of honey and maple syrup. A counter toward the back of the store sells freshly baked apple bread, pies, cookies, donuts and of course the store’s smoked meats. Antique furniture and accessories fill the entire room.
“We’re just an old-fashioned general store,” he says, noting that the spot draws patrons from this part of Trumbull County and western Pennsylvania. “Once they know we’re here, they come back. We do a lot of gluten-free baking, special orders and stuff like that.”
Yet it’s these small community central squares – bracketed on this October day with blazing yellow, burgundy and orange autumn foliage – that hark back to a period of simplicity, evoking a rural, franchise-free America that is frozen in time and captured forever.
Perhaps there’s no better living monument than Gustavus Center at the intersection of state Routes 193 and 87, whose historic district is studded with 19th-century buildings that are restored to pristine condition. The Farmer’s Exchange Store, constructed in 1829, still stands, while the George Hezlep house – a brick, Federal-Greek revival style residence constructed in 1832 – sits on the northwest quadrant of the center.
The Storekeeper’s House, a whitewashed Greek revival structure built in 1840, lines the village green next to the Farmer’s Exchange, while the Methodist Church – built in 1856 – and the Fraternal Hall, constructed in 1870, complete the row of landmark structures.
One Large Yard Sale
Much of the historic and rural nature of northern Trumbull County is evident as motorists head east along state Route 87 toward Kinsman, where the thoroughfare intersects with state Route 7. In October, two new businesses – Jade’s Design & Event Co.’s Pop Up On Main and Whiskey and Wool – have opened up in the small hamlet of approximately 1,700 people.
In recent years, investors such as Richard and Rhonda Thompson have restored local landmarks into destination venues, such as the Peter Allen Inn & Event Center, built in 1821, and the Stone Cottage, constructed in 1835 and today located on the inn’s grounds.
In June, the Inn was accepted into Select Registry, a nonprofit organization that lists approximately 300 inns, B&Bs and boutique hotels that are considered the gold standard in the craft lodging industry.
It’s also in the heart of Kinsman, where state Route 7 winds its way south, that is home to one of the largest used booksellers in northeastern Ohio.
“I now have more than 200,000 used books in stock,” says Don Sutton, owner of Market Square. “I think that makes me the largest used bookseller within 200 miles.” Most of the shop’s sales are conducted online, he says, and he ships all around the world. “I do a lot of science fiction and fantasy,” he says.
Sutton says he purchased the three-story late 19th century building 40 years ago. An old soda fountain that dates to the 1930s still works, and a period telephone booth from the same era is on prominent display.
Aside from thousands of books scattered through the building, Sutton says he also stocks an inventory of approximately 20,000 vinyl LPs and 45 RPM records in the shop’s basement. “I’m getting a lot of younger people in here, and they like vinyl,” he says.
However, one of the more unique events held each summer along the length of state Route 7 – a 60-mile yard sale that stretches north from Hubbard to Lake Erie – was initially the brainchild of Sutton some 14 years ago.
“It started with making up rack cards with vendors and businesses within a 100-mile radius,” he recalls. “We started a website and about 30 people belonged to it.”
The idea soon morphed into a much more ambitious event: a massive yard sale along Route 7 that is held over Labor Day weekend that invites vendors or anyone planning a garage sale from all over to sell their wares on the corridor. “We had about 250 yard sales this year,” replete with food trucks, Sutton says. “It was great. It was just constant traffic through the whole weekend.” Destination spots such as Yankee Lake in Brookfield, for example, opened its entire parking lot for the gala.
Sutton says that the yard sale has since expanded from a single day to three days over the holiday weekend. “Trumbull Tourism has gotten behind this, and they’ve been a great help.”
Beth Carmichael, Trumbull Tourism’s CEO, says the 60-Mile Yard Sale is just one way to attract interest to Trumbull County, especially to some of the more rural areas. “When we became involved, we increased it from just a Saturday and added Friday and Sunday,” she says. “It’s been really successful.”
Carmichael says the organization requests that vendors fill out a form that identifies some of the products they sell. The data is then collected and published online with a participant’s list alongside general categories – antiques or vintage clothing, for example. “It’s a way for visitors who are coming in for the weekend to know what’s there,” she says.
While it’s important to highlight large urban areas such as the city of Warren, Carmichael says it’s equally necessary to promote the quiet solitude and expansive beauty that’s found along routes 193 and 7. Among her first tasks upon taking the CEO job more than seven years ago was to drive the entire county, exploring the hidden gems along the back roads and country routes that might have been overlooked in the past.
Village greens along Route 7 found in Hartford and Brookfield, for example, are ringed with small businesses, she says, that still maintain a small-town appeal. Hartford Orchards, just off the square, hosts an annual apple festival and not far off the Route 7 trail along state Route 305 is the Hartford Hill Winery. As you head south into Brookfield, among the more recent businesses to open is Ripley’s Scoop Shop, a new ice cream parlor that sells Cockeye Creamery products.
There are plenty of county and state roads that display the charm of Trumbull County and its diversity, and Routes 193 and 7 present interesting perspectives on the region both past and present.
“On both corridors, you begin at urban areas in Hubbard and Liberty,” she says. “As you drive north, you get into these rural areas that are just lovely. If you take the time and enjoy the drive, you’ll have some amazing experiences.”
Pictured at top: Shawn and Heather Curry, owners of the Fowler General Store and Bakery, say their business thrives on the old-fashioned nature of the community.