SitemapA seven-stop bus tour Saturday is designed to highlight efforts to revitalize and bring economic development to the city’s South Side.
“The South Side is filled with incredible people, thriving nonprofits, healthy businesses and faith-filled church communities,” said Vicki Vicars, a tour organizer who also is Thrive Mahoning Valley’s director of advancement and Ursuline Sisters Mission’s director of mission, equity and resilience.
The tour costs $10 with tickets available at Glenwood Grounds Coffee House, 2906 Glenwood Ave., or by calling Vicars at 330-717-8953. The tour is 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. The bus can hold up to 80 people and tour guides and site hosts will be on hand to provide information.
The tour starts at the former South High School, 1833 Market St., which Youngstown City School District closed in 1993. It has changed hands a few times and operated as charter schools.
Youngstown Jubilee Urban Development bought the property Oct. 26 for $500,000 and started a revitalization project to restore the former school. One of its first projects is renovating the former auditorium, including restoring the wood floors, replacing 800 broken seats and updating stage lighting and the audio system.
From there, the tour stops at the Oak Hill Collaborative and St. Patrick Church, both on Oak Hill Avenue.
The collaborative includes a maker space, a small business incubator and computer training courses through its Digital Advantage Initiative.
St. Patrick has long been an anchor in the Oak Hill neighborhood with the church built in 1926.
The tour stops at the Ford Nature Center at 840 Old Furnace Road in Mill Creek Park. The facility completed a $4 million improvement project last year, including a new natural exhibit hall, history room and bird observation room.
The bus continues to the Youngstown Playhouse at 600 Playhouse Lane, off Glenwood Avenue. The playhouse is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
The playhouse started in 1924 in a converted barn on Lincoln Avenue and moved to Market Street in the 1940s before building its current home in 1959.
The tour visits the Bernard Street Housing Development, which is underway on the Glenwood Avenue corridor.
The development encourages home ownership near the north end of Glenwood Avenue. In its first phase, three new homes are under construction by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. on Bernard Street, which used to be called Cliff Street and was closed by barricades for years. YNDC is also planning three additional homes on the street.
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