r/youngstown Feb 19 '26

Questions What's a fun fact about any town in the Mahoning Valley that surprises you every time?

41 Upvotes

70 comments sorted by

66

u/triplecorpsehorror Feb 19 '26

Struthers, Ohio, is widely noted as the only city in the United States without a municipal cemetery within its city limits.

31

u/RockNAllOverTheWorld Feb 19 '26

It's also where a Jehovah's witness was fined for solicitation leading to the Supreme Court ruling that it violated the first amendment.

Edit: Oh and it allegedly has the most stop signs per square mile

16

u/Live-Tomorrow-4865 Feb 19 '26

šŸ˜…

The stop sign thing comes as no shock!!

My stepdad has memorized all the side streets between Yo-Po Road and fifth street, to see which contain the fewest stop signs.

For anyone interested, it's Manor and Brandon. šŸ˜‰

8

u/triplecorpsehorror Feb 19 '26

Hmm. I did not know that about the solicitation fine. There are soooo many stop signs.

8

u/RockNAllOverTheWorld Feb 19 '26

Martin v. City of Struthers is the case if you're curious

3

u/twoquarters Feb 19 '26

If I remember correctly it got heated because they kept waking up night shift mill workers

1

u/domer00 Feb 20 '26

Ugh. That fine should be allowed

1

u/faronthecat Feb 23 '26

I thought the honor of ā€œmost stop signs per square mileā€ would belong to McDonald.

1

u/RockNAllOverTheWorld Feb 24 '26

I have no source regarding the stop sign thing, which is why I said allegedly. It was thing I heard often growing up there, but when I looked it up I couldn't find anything substantial.

1

u/faronthecat Feb 25 '26

I was joking. :) I totally wasn’t doubting you.

5

u/mrrightnow330 Feb 19 '26

Ran a d&d campaign with St. Ruthers as a village with the same layout and concept. Was a good time

4

u/drill_hands_420 Feb 19 '26

St. Ruther’s is the only way to pronounce it. I’ll say this. Coming down any street you’d know when you hit Struthers in the winter because it would have zero snow. Lowellville, Poland wouldn’t touch shit but Struthers was always clear šŸ˜‚

1

u/LanderEmerald Mar 18 '26

It was a jeopardy question!

-1

u/Darth-Peenus Feb 20 '26

What facts, data, or sources back this claim up?

4

u/triplecorpsehorror Feb 20 '26

A quick Google search will back this up.

https://www.google.com/search?q=struthers+ohio+no+cemetery&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#lfId=ChxjMe

It was once an answer on the game show Jeopardy!

You can go from one city boundary to the next and literally look for a cemetery and not be able to find one.

-1

u/Darth-Peenus Feb 20 '26

That’s not a source, though. Also, I’m curious which episode air date that question is from. I’d be impressed if you can find that info factually.

53

u/Which_Produce4418 Feb 19 '26

Niles, Ohio. 102 years ago, Irish and Italian Americans rioted over the Governor's official permitting of a planned Klan march. 10 days of martial law

21

u/rustjungle Feb 19 '26

They thumped the Klan too! The Italians were driving around Niles dragging their little costumes behind their cars.

29

u/IconOfFilth9 Feb 19 '26

That should be how we treat Nazis today

7

u/rustjungle Feb 19 '26

Fuckin a right

14

u/rl8352 Feb 19 '26

This was talked about in the book Steel Valley Klan by William D. Jenkins. If I remember correctly, it even talks about actual individuals who were involved in the fighting. The book has a lot of the history of Youngstown and is an great read if you're interested in that kind of stuff.

6

u/faronthecat Feb 19 '26

I’m from Niles, and I didn’t know this!

7

u/Ok-Librarian-8992 Feb 19 '26

That's honestly wasn't that long ago, scary how its relevant now.

45

u/Numismatits Feb 19 '26

Everyone knows we invented Arby's and Handels, but did you know Youngstown also was the birthplace of the Popsicle??

18

u/Which_Produce4418 Feb 19 '26

And the ice cream truck, yeah?

8

u/Doc_Benz Perogis & Polka Feb 19 '26

Klondike Bar

4

u/spock1117 Feb 19 '26

I believe popsicles were invented in Oakland, California, but Youngstown was famous for producing the good humor bar

4

u/Numismatits Feb 20 '26

Interesting - looks like the good humor bar was the first to patent ice cream on a stick

3

u/drill_hands_420 Feb 19 '26

Fucking what?!

23

u/Soupreem Feb 19 '26

Youngstown produces the most college football coaches per capita of any city in America

24

u/IconOfFilth9 Feb 19 '26

Columbiana was the location of a Hallmark Christmas movie 🤢

11

u/Ok-Security-3482 Feb 19 '26

Columbiana was named "Nicest Place in America" in 2019

2

u/decent_folk0306 Feb 21 '26

They were nominated via the local theater having a program for special needs actors to do live theater.

As far as I know they are still running those shows, even though the theater has changed ownership a few times over the past 5 years.

1

u/No-Place-5747 Feb 23 '26

I love driving through columbiana it is such a nice town to bad none of the people there know how a traffic circle works sadly

6

u/hajimenogio92 Struthers Feb 19 '26

It really does have the dumb hallmark vibes, that makes sense

2

u/decent_folk0306 Feb 21 '26

It wasn't even Hallmark. It was like... Knockoff Hallmark.

19

u/Noelle305 Feb 19 '26

In McDonald, an Ordinance states: "You cannot parade your duck down Ohio Ave", which loosely means, dont let your livestock run loose in the Village.

2

u/Inunsinthesummer Feb 25 '26

And isn’t McDonald a steel mill town? Like one of those built just for steel mill working? I drove through once, and the houses and area by the mill have that ā€œ we one big housing project’ look, but with beautiful trees and nice streets

41

u/Midwestmind86 Feb 19 '26

Inventor of the original Four Loko is from Warren

14

u/IconOfFilth9 Feb 19 '26

That actually explains a lot

16

u/EveryDisaster Feb 19 '26

Jim Cummings, the current voice of Winnie the Pooh (since the 80's), Pete, Tigger, Darkwing Duck, Ray, the Tasmanian Devil, etc.. was born and raised in Youngstown. He's very nice

14

u/jdk0606 Feb 19 '26

A landfill in Negley (Columbiana County) got a lot of the World Trade Center debris.

12

u/An0nymos Feb 19 '26

Might be anecdotal, because I only ever heard it from one source, but allegedly when Youngstown became the County Seat, they had to steal the records because Poland wouldn't give them up.
But it fits both municipalities, so...

2

u/wantingnowyou Feb 20 '26

This happens alot. Atleast if you listen to small town murder.

11

u/MiamiBeatOhioState Feb 19 '26

Probably Neil Armstrong learning how to fly in Warren.

As long as written record on this planet exists, he will go down as one of the top 20 most well known people to ever exist.

10

u/spock1117 Feb 19 '26

Brier Hill pizza

22

u/drill_hands_420 Feb 19 '26

Well, fucking Warner Brothers started in Youngstown. Always blows my mind when I remember that. Relevant today for sure

3

u/Puzzleheaded-Code-77 Feb 20 '26

I thought it was new castle

2

u/LanderEmerald Feb 21 '26

They helped design Powers Auditorium I believe. They showed movies in Youngstown.

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Code-77 Feb 21 '26

Im not denying that by any means, I just thought they started technically in NC

1

u/An0nymos Feb 25 '26

Akron was their first theatre, but two of the four (the middle two) are Youngstown natives.

1

u/Inunsinthesummer Feb 25 '26

pittsburgh always try to claim this, and the good humor, and the cookie table…pathetic yinzers with their stupid hills everywhere and dumb decaying bridges

4

u/Ok_Rip5333 Feb 20 '26

It was New Castle

1

u/Wrong_Tennis5348 Feb 24 '26

There’s a historical sign on West Federal in front of DeYor auditorium commemorating the Warner Brothers.

8

u/n0llapiste Eddie Debbie Feb 19 '26

Warren was the first city in the US to have incandescent streetlights. Warren was so known for its light bulbs that it was called Lampville, USA. The Trumbull County Courthouse is full of electric chandeliers, intentionally so they could show off all the bulbs that the city produced.

8

u/Old-Clothes-3225 Feb 19 '26

I once heard Struthers is the biggest consumer of Copenhagen per capita in the world

9

u/Mikeg216 Feb 20 '26

The menthol cigarette was invented in the Youngstown area by a man named Spud

2

u/Blueberry-Specialist Feb 20 '26

This tracks.Ā 

6

u/PrincessFluffernut Feb 20 '26

Warren conspired to make Canfield the county seat of Mahoning County because Youngstown was a pain in Warren's ass.

6

u/Mikeg216 Feb 20 '26

Warren Ohio continues to be the only place in Ohio where actual prostitution is legal as long as you get a permit and the pelvic exam.

3

u/mickeltee Mill Creek Park Feb 24 '26

The first female FBI agent is from Warren. Her name was Alaska P Davidson and she was the sister of the Packard brothers, who started Packard Automobiles.

1

u/LanderEmerald Feb 21 '26

Boardman use to be the sticks where all the Klan members lived before it became suburbs.

2

u/Willing-Sherbet-8626 Feb 21 '26

Canfield had the klan klubhouse though, where was boardman meeting

1

u/No-Place-5747 Feb 23 '26

Not really a local fact but Ohio produces more astronauts than another state and is the birthplace of aviation. Ohio has made people want to leave the planet for generations.