Downtown Steubenville Photo Tour (Aug. 2018)
Hey Skyscraper Page! I have been spending some time in the Ohio Valley area recently and decided to take a trip to Downtown Steubenville today! Surprisingly, Downtown is structurally intact for the most part despite most buildings being vacant. Many buildings date back to the late 1800s. There are even two skyscrapers and a few midrises that could maybe classify as skyscrapers. Most of my trip was on Fourth Street.
As I exited the parking lot, the first building I came across was the Laughlin Building - I can't find much information about it, but it is a really beautiful building in my opinion:
Directly next to the Laughlin Building is the Grand Theater - This building has been receiving off and on renovations for years now and certainly looks better than it once did. I believe the first floor is a renovated event space. The hope is to one day restore the theater room itself and bring more events into Downtown:
Continuing north, I crossed Market Street and entered the block of Fourth Street with the most activity and businesses - though it still is not very active. One building that stood out to me was the "Cottmann Building" which houses a local favorite, Yorgo's Gyros & Potatoes. The building dates back to 1886 and is in good condition it seems:
Now, I entered the new Leonardo's Coffeehouse that has been put into the recently renovated Renaissance Building. The shop only opened a few months ago, but it really impressed me! There was a lot more people in there than expect, the coffee was good, and they had a lot of cool historical things to look at. They even have a stage for live music!
Also in the same building as Leonardo's Coffeehouse is the Steubenville Popcorn Company. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo inside this store, but it was an awesome place! They had a wide variety of popcorn (made in the back of the store), many of which were branded for the local cities and high schools. I had the "Redskin Blend" which was caramel and cherry flavored. They also have ice cream here, but I didn't try it. Also in the building is Drosselmeyer's Nutcracker Shoppe. This gift shop plays off of the well know Steubenville Nutcracker Festival by selling a large variety of nutcrackers:
Across the street, there's this little parklet with lights over top of it. It usually has picnic tables out, but not today for some reason. It mainly serves the patrons of the coffee shop:
Here are two buildings directly across the street from the coffee shop. The mid-rise on the far left is a low-income housing building:
Another old brick building on Fourth Street. Like many buildings around here, it could look great if it got a little bit of TLC:
I can't tell you what this building is, but I assume it is affiliated with the Steubenville Diocese due to the statue of what I assume is Mary on the front of the building:
Looking south on Fourth Street:
Looking north on Fourth Street:
Here's some buildings closer to Washington Street. They are both occupied, but as expected, they could use a good amount of work:
Looking north on Fourth Street. The coffee shop is on the far right:
The "Beerbower Building," which dates back to 1890:
The Robinson Music Company Building:
Yet another vacant and boarded up building:
Here are two buildings next to the Huntington Bank Tower. The one of the left houses Hu-Nan Chinese Restaurant, which has been in Downtown Steubenville for decades. The building on the right has "coming soon" painted on the windows, but I didn't notice this until just now and I can't read what's supposed to be opening there
At this point, I turned west onto Market Street. There's a few blocks of this street that are mostly intact still. There is a neat parklet up that street that I forgot to take a photo of as well as a midrise office building that I assume is from around the 1970s. I'm a big fan of the Italianate building on the left:
The Huntington Bank Tower:
The First National Bank Tower:
Now, going south on Market Street, I found these two buildings that interested me. The one on the right is dated as 1885. Sadly that SUV was there, which prevented me from getting a better photo:
Looking north on Market Street:
Continuing south on Market Street, I got to the Jefferson County Courthouse. Here is a statue of Steubenville native, Edwin Stanton. He was the secretary of war during Abraham Lincoln's administration.
A building across the street from the courthouse on Third Street:
Next, I walked into the park area around Fort Steuben. This area is used for events such as the Dean Martin Festival and the annual Nutcracker Village. Here is a view of Downtown from the park:
The fountain in the park with the courthouse in the background:
Here's some better views of the courthouse:
Another look at Steubenville's two skyscrapers:
Here is a row of buildings (including the first two in this tour) on Fourth Street, south of Market Street. As you continue south on Fourth Street, the area seems to get worse and worse and eventually looks like a ghost-town. (There were a few cool buildings down there, but I didn't stop because most weren't too impressive and it seemed a bit sketchy.)
Here is another building on Fourth Street south of Market Street:
Lastly, there's this unique building. It's certainly unlike any others I saw today:
And here's one last view of Fourth Street, looking north:
Final Thoughts:
Steubenville is obviously in a pretty bad spot at the moment. There isn't much business happening around the area, and poverty is clearly an issue in the half of the city closest to the river. Downtown has a ton of potential, as shown by the success of the new coffee shop, but no major plans to fix it up have been put into place. That being said, this is Downtown's best year in a long time due to the new coffee shop and the new First Friday Festivals, which have drawn in thousands of visitors. One thing that stood out to me was the lack of color in Downtown - for a city that prides itself on being the "City of Murals," you'd expect it to be colorful. But, I only saw 2 or 3 murals, and none of them were particularly photo-worthy. And, the murals that were there were far from colorful and vibrant. Even Toronto, Ohio down the road has much better and more vibrant murals that brighten up the town.
Speaking of Toronto, Ohio, if you guys are interested, I'll gladly do a photo tour of Downtown Toronto and some other historic sites around town!
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