What would a city be like without electricity or running water, without a sewer system or even paved streets?  The largest towns of the Western Reserve had few modern improvements before the Civil War, and it took a lot of work by forward-looking citizens to commission them afterwards.

Although a paving ordinance was passed in Warren in May of 1865 to improve an 8 foot wide track on Market Street, and another paving ordinance was passed the next spring, it was 1867 before paving work actually began on Main and Market Streets.  A sewering ordinance was passed in the spring of 1866 but construction on the first sewers didn’t begin until 1868.

In spite of having a larger population and more industry, and implementing a city form of government in 1868, Youngstown took even longer to begin civic improvements.  A horse-drawn street car began operating in 1875 but it was 1882 before Federal and Market Streets were first paved, and a telephone system began operating.  The threat of malaria was relieved in the same year with the installation of the first sewer system in Youngstown. 

Electric lights replaced gas street lights in the 1880s, but even as homes were wired for electricity, people remained dependent on ice cut from the Mahoning River and Mill Creek to cool their food.  In other parts of the Mahoning Valley, progress was slow as residents remained dependent on their own wells and septic systems, lit their homes with kerosene lamps, and drove on dusty pot-holed roads and streets.

What services do you think are essential for a modern town or city?  Do you know how an ice-box works?  What civic improvements would you vote for today: underground utilities and wires, high speed internet access, free public transportation?  Visit the website of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society at www.mahoninghistory.org to learn more about Valley history.  Under ‘Education,’ and ‘What Do You Know About,’ click on an article title to access downloadable  files of these and other images.

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