YOUNGSTOWN Group seeks to name school after architect

A district goal is to open the new high school in fall 2005.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Plimpton Ross Berry designed the first high school in the city -- and laid down its bricks.
Now, a group of community members is working to make his name one spoken by generations of schoolchildren to come.
They are circulating a show of "community support" that they will present to Youngstown school board members in the hopes of having a new high school named after Berry.
"He was not only a person of character and community, he also gave back. He not only built buildings, he built lives and families," said the Rev. Lewis W. Macklin II, pastor of the Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, who is spearheading the drive.
"An educational building helps build lives and communities as well; I think it's befitting of him."
His work
Berry, who was black, was a brick mason and architect who designed many of Youngstown's buildings in the 19th century, including the original Rayen School (now home to board of education offices); Tod Mansion on Fifth Avenue; the Mahoning County Courthouse; the National City Bank Building; and First Presbyterian Church.
He was born in Lawrence County, Pa., in 1835 and moved to Youngstown in 1861 to begin construction of The Rayen School. He died in 1917 after working 40 years in the city.
Supporters of the community-support resolution want a new high school that will be built on the city's East Side to be named "The P. Ross Berry Central High School."
Construction of the $26.9 million school at Parker Street and Bennington Avenue is slated to begin in the fall. The new school is part of the district's $182.5 million facilities project in which 80 percent is funded by the state and 20 percent comes from a local 4.4-mill property tax issue.
A district goal is a fall 2005 opening.
Support
Macklin said he has the support and help of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society as well as local historian Vincent Shivers.
Shivers will present an historical presentation on Berry at 6 p.m. Thursday at Holy Trinity Church, 505 Parkcliffe Ave. Photographs and other visuals will be included.
Those attending can also sign the resolution to have the school named after Berry. Macklin stressed that the document is not a political petition and that anyone -- of any age, ethnic background or address -- can sign.
Macklin said Berry is being remembered only in part because of his skin color. In the 19th century, it was unheard of for a black man to have the kind of influence and success that he did. But, Macklin said, setting aside Berry's minority status, he is a man to remember.
"If people look at his architecture, he stands out for that, too, without color or creed," he said. " ... These are magnificent structures."