Man gives back to Campbell by fixing Company Houses


The group’s neighborhood revitalization effort could
benefit from city grants.

BY ANGIE SCHMITT

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

CAMPBELL — The 125 row-house apartments known as the Company Houses were built to last.

Solid concrete walls topped with terra cotta roofs, the homes were built to house workers of Youngstown Sheet and Tube between 1918 and 1920. Those days, the demand for millworkers was so high, there was a shortage of affordable housing in the city. And Youngstown Sheet and Tube wanted the homes to last forever, as the company intended to.

Now Sheet and Tube and housing shortages are distant memories in Campbell. The remains of the development’s former glory rise amid patchy fields and scattered devastation in the city’s 1st Ward. So solid was the Company Houses’ design that they’ve outlasted the company; they’ve outlasted years of abandonment and neglect; some have outlasted fire.

Revival

For $1,000, you can buy a two-bedroom, one-bath piece of history, said neighborhood resident Tim Sokoloff, 40. But you better be willing to roll up your sleeves. Thanks to the efforts of Sokoloff and a group of dreamers, the long-forgotten development is undergoing a revival.

Sokoloff calls the apartment he shares with his daughter and her fiancé the “war room,” not only because it’s undergoing renovation, but because it’s the headquarters for his full-time endeavor to revitalize the complex. One lawn at a time, the Campbell native and his daughter, her fiancé and a handful of neighbors are taking back the neighborhood.

Taking it back from rats and groundhogs — for three months, they’ve been slashing through shoulder-high grass, unburying sewer grates and edging sidewalks. Taking it back from absentee landowners — they plan to make a presentation on the issue before county commissioners. Taking it back from vandals and thieves — they’ve organized a block watch.

Their next project is painting and power washing, said Sokoloff.

Getting involved

“These buildings are very easy to repair because they’re solid concrete,” he said, pointing around his apartment. “If you know what you’re doing, you could redo this in four days.”

Sokoloff said his home apartment “was one of the rougher ones.” Even so, it’s nearly halfway finished, he said.

Anyone who needs a place to stay and is willing to lend a hand is invited to get on board with the project, said Sokoloff. Fifty-five-year-old Alvin Miller joined the team in part because he needed a place to stay. Now he works with the crew.

Sokoloff hopes the development will someday operate as a self-sustaining housing co-op. He’s appealing to out-of-state college students in environmental studies to get in on the effort. He said he’s planning to register as a nonprofit under the title Iron Soup Inc. — iron a nod to their neighborhood’s steel past, soup for the city’s nickname “Soup City.” He hopes to find a lawyer who will donate his services to help the group incorporate.

So far the only aid he’s received is the lending of a large garbage bin from the city. But soon the project could benefit from some of the city’s grant awards, said Mayor John Dill.

Giving back

Dill said the neighborhood was one of the city’s worst before Sokoloff and his crew set to work.

“It was so bad, it just didn’t seem like there was any pride down there,” he said. Sokoloff’s group has “shown great determination that they don’t want to live in that environment.”

Meanwhile, the crew continues working, their excitement growing. Each considers himself a handyman, from Sokoloff’s daughter to 18-year-old Robin Rowbotham to 12-year-old Paul Booker. A graduate of a construction training program in Trumbull County, Rowbotham said her dream is to transform the neighborhood into a place where her 1-year-old can play.

“It makes me feel good: Helping one of the places where I’m living,” said Rowbotham. “This can be a good neighborhood for kids and people, all it needs is work.”

Sokoloff said he’s gotten used to shrugging off people’s disbelief at his ambition to restore a ramshackle near-ghost town to the neighborhood of his dreams.

“I like it here. I like my neighbors, I like they city of Campbell,” he said. “Sometimes you’ve got to ask, not what your city can do for you, but what you can do for your city.”

aschmitt@vindy.com

By using this site, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use.

» Accept
» Learn More