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This week in history: Warren sees industrial boom

99 years ago in 1919:

• The Board of Trade secured for Warren the Youngstown Pressed Steel Company. The big addition to Warren’s industrial growth was expected to bring many new families to the city.

The company acquired a tract of approximately 40 acres in the northeast part of the city at the intersection of the Erie Main Line and the Pennsylvania Railroads. This site, one of the best locations in the city, was to give the new company plenty of room for expansion and excellent shipping facilities.

Three factories in Hazelton, Pa. Youngstown and Sharon, Pa. will be consolidated in the new plant to be built in Warren.

• With Warren’s new anti-jay walking ordinance in effect, pedestrians were going to have to learn to cross streets making right angle turns. The more common practice of cutting corners had been the cause of many accidents. Police were to hand every person seen violating an ordinance a card bearing the message: “Use the Cross-Walk — You have violated Clause 32, 33, 34 of the Traffic Ordinance No. 887 of the City of Warren. We do not think this is an intentional violation but please bear in mind that it is dangerous to Jay-Walk. Safety First.”

50 years ago in 1968:

• A 52-day strike at the Wean Manufacturing plant of Wean United Inc. on North River Road, ended Sunday following a settlement worked out by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service between the company and the United Steel Workers of America. A settlement of grievances growing out of a previous strike and the dismissal of various unfair labor charges as well as a $1 million damage suit against the union were part of the agreement.

• Ten thousand attended an Armed Forces Day public open house at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station at Youngstown Municipal Airport to commemorate Armed Forces Day. Between 8,000 and 10,000 people poured into the Air Base in Vienna to attend the event.

25 years ago in 1993:

• Niles City Council plans for a senior center had not been shared with the zoning commissioner who reported he “had not seen anything on it.”

Melvin Rose, city planning and zoning commissioner said he hadn’t met with the project’s architect and didn’t know why plans had not reached his desk.

The building to be built over the city parking lot required about 55 parking spaces, according to a city ordinance. Rose said he could not say how many spaces would be available at the site or where users of the senior center would park their cars.

“I can’t say anything for sure until I see those plans,” he said.

City Law Director J. Terrance Dull said it might have seemed unique that money had been set aside for a public building project that had not been reviewed by the persons who issue the building permits, but it was not illegal.

l McKinley High School art student paintings removed from display during a school-sponsored art show and following student protests were rehung.

School administrators had been accused of violating students free speech rights and the state of Ohio ACLU attorney commented that the censorship of paintings showing death, violence, suicide and poverty should have been out of bounds for school officials.

“If the students were merely expressing their feelings about matters of public concern, there is no legitimate basis for censoring their work, “ ACLU attorney Kevin O’Neill said.

The argument applied, O’Neill said, was that the paintings were “inherently personal and could not reasonably be perceived as representing the views of school officials.”

10 years ago in 2008:

• Former Warren G. Harding High School students took one last look at their alma mater. With the new building adjacent to the high school about to be completed, the school district offered people the opportunity to stroll through the halls.

The facade was all that was to remain of the historic building as graduates and others congregated in the auditorium and outside around the flagpole before dispersing through the building.

Ed Renner, a 1960 graduate, said he wanted to get a last look, although he wished more of the old school survived the wrecking ball.

Mary Marshall, a 1945 graduate, said ” Nothing here has changed.”

Although some students were disappointed that they would not be graduating from the old building, they said they were ready to transfer their pride into the new building.

“We’ll just take the old Harding traditions and put it in the new building,” Kelvin Newell, a junior said.

— Compiled from Tribune Chronicle archives by Emily Earnhart

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