First
National Bank Building on the corner
of East State (Mill Street) and Main Street in downtown Niles.
At various times, it housed the Dollar
Savings Bank, Home Federal Savings Bank and The Girl Scout Council.
This building is also known as the Hartzell Building.
If laborers walked morning and night
to their jobs at the iron furnace, who can fault calling the route
they took Furnace Street? And wasn’t it logical to refer to
the road that crossed the river and tied the new town to the settlements
north and south as Main Street? And the one that led traffic past
the park and the town hall, Park Avenue…and into Warren, Warren
Avenue? Theirs was a life of practicality – no frills, no
nonsense.
Residence
of H. H. Mason located on Vienna Avenue in Niles.
Mason moved into this homestead in 1859. Mr. Mason was the first
mayor elected after Niles was incorporated as a village in 1866.
It was here in his home that he held court.
When land was given for a church to
be built, the corner was labeled Church Street. In the railroad
heyday, city fathers thought it fitting to have both an Erie and
a Depot Street. Names like Vienna Avenue, Salt Springs Road, McDonald
Avenue, North Road, South and West streets acted as compasses for
those hardy immigrants.
First United Presbyterian Church.
This first church was constructed in 1849-1850 on a lot donated
by James Heaton on the southwest corner of North Main and Church
Streets. The plan of the church was colonial in effect and had two
front entrances facing Main St. The pulpit was located between the
two front doors and the floor sloped upward to the rear of the church.
In the mid 1860's the interior was remodeled and the pulpit moved
to the rear of the sanctuary.
A most intriguing way to learn about
the people who built this city is to research its street names.
Harmon Heaton, Pew, Hyde, Pratt, Allison, Battles are a partial
listing of Niles’ earliest families. Memories of those long
ago merchants and industrialists still live in the cement markers
which read Ward, Crandon, Robbins, Russell, Bentley, Sayers, Mason
and Wood.
The Dr. A.J. Leitch residence,
located on the corner of West Park Avenue and Butler Street in Niles.
Built before 1895 in the Italianate
Villa Style of Victorian architecture, it was the home of the President
of First National Bank, and later the home of Harry & Ethel
Mason Evans.
A little bit of reading discloses
two Masons, H. H. and Ambrose, so the city map gives credit to both.
The Bentleys were bankers. E. A. Gilbert and J. H. Baldwin were
19th century industrialists. Thomas Russell came from Lisbon in
1841, an associate of James Ward in the building of a furnace on
the Mahoning River. Founder James Heaton’s story is a familiar
one. Even the daughters of these early families have their names
immortalized on city maps – Ann and Emma Streets, Helen and
Margaret Avenues, Estelle Court and Eliza Alley. One, Mrs. Ann Mason
Williams, could boast three times over.
Residence
of H. M. Lewis located at 170 N. Arlington, Niles.
Still standing and still occupied. Reprinted from Artwork of Trumbull
& Ashtabula Counties, published 1895. Until the 1880s, Arlington
was referred to as 'Mechanic' street.
W. C. Allison was a lumber
yard operator and related by marriage to William McKinley. B.
F. Pew was the organizer and first president of the Niles Board
of Trade as well as one of the first trustees of Union Cemetery.
J. K. Wilson was a town clerk and Misters Harris, Wagstaff,
and Hartzell were well-to-do businessmen.
W.C.
Allison whose residence is still standing and occupied at the
corner of Robbins Avenue and Washington, was involved in the Allison
& Co. Lumber Yard & Mill located near the Erie depot around
the turn of the century.
Prior to 1900, the list of local mayors
and postmasters include surnames, Davis, Leslie, Ohl, and Hunter,
as well as the more familiar, Mason, Robbins and Ambrose. Locating
their names on city maps indicates the growth of the city in all
directions and its emergence as a center of industry. Nationwide,
towns have customarily honored past presidents, and older Niles
was no exception. The street markers constantly remind us of such
great men as Washington, Lincoln, Grant, McKinley, Harrison, Madison,
Taft and Roosevelt. Colonial history was kept alive by our forebears
on such roads as Penn Avenue, Franklin Avenue, and Lafayette Street.
Proud of the role Ohio played in the Civil War, community officials
of that period were responsible for such markers as Stanton, Sherman,
and Sheridan. Little is left to remind us that the Indian did come
and go across our fields. Directories list a Seneca Street and an
Indian Trail. Do you suppose they trapped the beaver that gave their
name to Beaver Street? Pioneers of the early 1800’s found
northeastern Ohio a densely wooded region. Some of Niles’
first streets were named for trees; Cherry, Maple, Chestnut, Linden,
Poplar, Cedar and Hazel. More recent additions of this type are
Hickory Lane and Spruce Court.
The
Carmella House is located on Maple Street
in Niles. This well known downtown merchant came to Niles in 1900
and ran a confectionary store and ice cream parlor.
A few of the early planners must have
had an affinity for the aesthetic because names like Pleasant, Woodland,
Fairlawn and Gardenland appear. Others used no imagination at all,
tagging streets with numbers, First, Second, Third and... The opportunity
to learn to read and spell the names of streets is as close to school
children as street signs that identify Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska,
Iowa, Wyoming and Dakota.
Today’s developers are not history-minded. They don’t
honor war heroes or space age greats. Deep inside a few of them
is the desire to be remembered by posterity so their names are on
the streets which they built… Wade and George and Mauro Court.
Local builders whose roots are deeply attached to the family name
in their neighborhood like Shaker Heights pay respect to their relatives
when new avenues have to be identified. But most support the “catchy”
combination or phrase. These no longer read Street and Avenue, but
Lane and Drive: Pepperwood Drive, Summerberry Lane and Buckeye Lane
as well as Blossom Drive.
Another fad is the foreign expression such as, Bonnie Brae, Buena
Vista and Belle Terre. Romantic-sounding names Barcelona and Valencia
heighten interest in an area for young home buyers. And ad-men know
well the value of the euphonious, so they event a Lantern Lane and
a Windward Way.
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