EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a weekly series on our region’s history coordinated by the Trumbull County Historical Society.

The National Packard Museum drives tourism in Trumbull County and regularly attracts thousands of visitors from all over the nation and the world. This year, we have already welcomed guests from Europe, Asia and Australia.

As one of the county’s leading cultural tourism destinations, we encourage our guests to visit Warren’s historic district, where the Packard family once lived, worked, and played, and explore its unique hotel, dining, shopping, and entertainment attractions. We also encourage community members to trace the “Packard footprints” in Warren’s historic district. Three Packard family landmarks are located just a few blocks apart on North Park Avenue.

PACKARD BLOCK ON COURTHOUSE SQUARE, 144 NORTH PARK AVE.

A year after James Ward Packard constructed this impressive three-story brick and stone structure in 1894, the old Trumbull County Courthouse was destroyed by fire. Ward then leased his new building to the county, which used it as temporary court quarters until the current courthouse was completed in 1897.

After the county vacated the premises, the Packard Block was filled with retail merchants and professional offices. One of the tenants was the law firm of Taylor & Upton, whose partners were the father and husband of Packard family friend Harriet Taylor Upton. The Warren YMCA was also located in the building for a short period of time.

Ward Packard and his wife Bess lived in a second-floor apartment in the Packard Block for several years after their 1904 marriage. While no Packard business offices were ever located in the building, Ward maintained a private office on the third floor until his death in 1928. His widow held the building as income property until her death in 1960.

PACKARD FLAT, 318 NORTH PARK AVE.

New Castle, Pennsylvania architect S.W. Foulk designed Warren’s very first apartment building for owner Ward Packard in 1901. The elegant three-story, 14-suite brick and stone apartment house featured the latest in modern technology and comfort, including “speaking tubes” and electric door openers. The basement housed a restaurant and bicycle livery.

The Packard Flat’s original tenants included Ward’s brother, William Doud “Will” Packard, nephew Warren, and their housekeeper Kitty Bruder; his widowed mother, Mary E. Packard and sisters, Carlotta and Olive, who occupied a sprawling 10-room apartment; and his uncle, Frank and aunt, Mary Packard. Curiously, Ward Packard never lived in the Packard Flat, choosing to remain in his apartment in the Packard Block.

Other early tenants included Packard Motor Car Company’s chief engineer Bert Hatcher, his wife and infant daughter; wealthy industrialist Benjamin Edwards and his wife Lottie; and the socially prominent Thomas Kinsman and his wife Emily, who downsized from their family’s Mahoning Avenue mansion into a luxury apartment.

The Packard Flat remained a prestigious residential address until Ward sold the building in 1919. In the 1920s, a few of the first-floor units were converted into doctors and professional offices. The Packard Flat slowly deteriorated after the 1970s and was condemned about 20 years ago. The Packard Flat is vacant and battered now, but hope is on the horizon. A private developer has announced plans for a historic renovation of the building.

BUCKEYE CLUB, 366 NORTH PARK AVE.

Ward Packard paid William Abell $6,000, roughly $200,000 in today’s dollars, for this red brick house located on the corner of North Park Avenue and Scott Street. After a costly year-long renovation, Ward and wife Bess moved into their new home in 1909.

The graceful residence was tastefully decorated and furnished by a prestigious Cleveland interior design firm and featured several custom spaces, including gun and billiard rooms for Ward, a fur safe for Bess, along with servants’ quarters for their maid, Nina Erickson, and butler and chauffeur, George Tibbs.

Bess was a master gardener who planted and maintained elaborate flower gardens on the immaculately landscaped grounds. While Ward was introverted, Bess was gregarious and enjoyed entertaining family, friends and neighbors in her beautiful new home.

Not surprisingly, in the day when owning one automobile was a luxury, Ward kept a chauffeur driven Packard limousine, sedan and sports car in the garage, which was demolished many years ago. Bess owned her own car and often drove it to escape the noise and air pollution that disturbed her as the downtown commercial district encroached on her previously quiet neighborhood by the early 1920s.

After the couple moved to their lavish Georgian-Revival style mansion on Oak Knoll Avenue NE in 1924, Ward leased their former home to the Buckeye Club, a private men’s club, of which he was a member. After Ward’s death, he left the property to his nephew, Warren Packard II, who transferred the home to the club. The Buckeye Club later built an addition on the south side of the home, where Bess once maintained her beloved flower gardens.