YOUNGSTOWN Court building quietly turns 90

The courthouse's golden anniversary also had passed without notice.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County Courthouse had a birthday Tuesday, and no one threw a party. In fact, most people didn't even realize the building had turned 90.
"We should have celebrated or something," said Commissioner David Ludt. "We should have known, but to be honest with you, I didn't even think about it."
According to Vindicator files, the courthouse's 50th anniversary in 1961 also passed without notice or fanfare.
The building, which fronts Market Street and sits between Boardman and Front streets, opened its doors for business March 6, 1911.
Historian: "They had a short ceremony in what is now Judge [Maureen A.] Cronin's courtroom on the second floor, and then all the judges went to their courtrooms and went to work," said Ed Black of Austintown.
The four-story building has seen many changes since then, Black said. He works in the clerk of courts' office and has become a courthouse historian.
He got interested in the building's history when it was being renovated in the 1980s, and has since accumulated a boxful of clippings and documents that tell its story.
He said the sheriff's department and board of elections were housed in the courthouse when it opened, but both have long since grown too large to be housed there. The board of elections is in the South Side Annex on Market Street, and the sheriff's headquarters is in the county jail on Fifth Avenue.
Bird problem: One thing that hasn't changed is the problem with birds that roost in window ledges and create a mess with their droppings.
A 1961 Vindicator story about the 50th anniversary said starlings were the problem then. Now, it's pigeons, Ludt said.
Nets hang from the outside walls to discourage the birds from roosting there, but they have worn out and become ineffective. New ones are ordered, but no one is sure when they will arrive and be put in place, Ludt said.
The inside of the building, noted as one of the most beautiful in the state, is still getting what Ludt said is a long-overdue scrubbing and shining.
"When I took office in 1999, it was deplorable," he said. "It will be a showplace when I leave."
Highlighting the interior are four triangular murals by New York City artist Edwin H. Blashfield, Black said. Blashfield received the Architectural League of New York's medal of honor in 1911 for his work.