The Morgantowner: Columbiana County, Ohio

I had planned this county (my 81st) as a day trip. From the Monongalia County Court House in Morgantown to the Columbiana County Court House in Lisbon, is 106 miles. If it's over 100 miles, I think about staying over one night, but this was a county that voted 68% for the current president in 2016, and one of the bigger cities (Lisbon is designated a village) is closer to home. Columbiana County is the closest county to us in Ohio that has a larger population than our county, with more than 107,000 people. Just something I know.

My plan was to go Sunday, because Joe was busy most of the day, and I didn't have any place I had to be. I checked the weather, and snow was forecast all day Sunday (that happened) with temperatures into the week starting in the single digits. So, no, it had to be Saturday.

I left about 9:40 in our newer car. Google Maps takes one on the Interstate to Washington, PA, then off on PA-18, a two lane road through some small towns to U.S. 30, back into West Virginia's northern panhandle, then across the Ohio River. I visited two of the three cities in Columbiana, East Liverpool and Salem. It's 87 miles from our house to the bridge over the Ohio River from Chester, West Virginia's northernmost city, to East Liverpool, Ohio. It took me about two hours, with traffic backed up on PA-18 by a funeral going to a church and large trucks with strange-looking machinery used in fracking.

East Liverpool is a beautiful small historic city, situated on a bluff above the river. It was cloudy and windy, as it was most of the trip, with temperatures near Morgantown around 40, five degrees cooler at my destination. Not much was happening in East Liverpool. There were antique malls, where people sell off the relics of the twentieth century to try to make ends meet. I saw people going in to those. I had picked ten places in the county (of 42) to find from the National Register. Half of them were in East Liverpool, including a beautiful Carnegie Library, two historic districts, the former city hall, The Elks Club and Odd Fellows Hall. I walked to all of them. The Union for Reform Judaism showed a synagogue in town, with nine member families. I found the building, next to a hospital in what was once a swanky residential area. The building is empty and for sale.

I usually look for a mall, but found only two shopping centers, one near Salem and one outside East Liverpool. It was 1 P.M and I was hungry, so I visited the latter. I knew there was a Wal-Mart and a Penney's, so I figured there would be something to eat. There were a few other stores, selling shoes and jewelry and women's clothes, and three or four free-standing chain restaurants, but I ate at Subway, inside Wal-Mart. The store is huge, has a complete food section and everything you would want to buy, heavily discounted. I believe everyone in eastern Columbiana County was there. It's easy to blame the demise of small towns on Wal-Mart and other big box stores, but maybe the small-town downtown is not a feasible model today. Maybe they were drying up anyway, leaving an opening for big-box stores.

I moved on to Salem, way in the north end of the county, twenty-five miles from both Youngstown and Warren. Most of the route is on OH-11, what we Californians would call a "freeway," in much better shape than any road in West Virginia. State Street is the main commercial district in Salem, and on the National Register. It seems livelier than East Liverpool, with a larger, more occupied downtown. I also found the home of John Street, a leader of the abolitionists, and Waterworth Memorial Park, an urban park with a lake and a theater.

I wanted to be sure to see Lisbon, the county seat. Wikipedia says it was platted in 1803, only the second (European-American) city in Ohio. At 2800 or so people, it is much smaller than Salem or East Liverpool. It is on Little Beaver Creek, which flows into the Ohio River north of East Liverpool, in Pennsylvania. The center of Lisbon is a historic district. Many of the buildings look to be from early in the 19th century. I also found the Hanna-Kenty home, from 1838, remodeled in 1907, and apparently again more recently. Marcus Hanna was a U.S. Senator at the turn of the last century. I headed out to the west from Lisbon, where I found Guilford Lake State Park and the 1832 Hostetter Inn.

I had planned to leave from Lisbon at 4:30 to be home by 6:35. I stayed a bit later. I was cold and suddenly hungry. I ducked into a Subway in a historic building in Lisbon, and treated myself to milk and cookies.

Coming home along PA-18 in Washington County, I was low on gas and also needed to pee. Two gas stations along the way had signs on the door of the attached convenience store saying "no public restroom." My car said I had enough gas to get home (but not much more). I relieved myself on the side of the road somewhere, then drove to Waynesburg, one county north of us in Pennsylvania, to get gas at Sheetz, a Pennsylvania-based chain that has gas, food, and (usually) clean restrooms. I arrived home close to 7. Joe and I had dinner out and were home by 8:30.

Patterson Memorial Building, 1924, now used by Kent State University's Liverpool Branch

Carnegie Library, East Liverpool, 1902

Alumni Tower on the site of the former East Liverpool High, overlooking the Ohio River. West Virginia is on the hill across the river

5th Street Historic district, East Liverpool

Downrown Historic District, East Liverpool

Elks Hall, East Liverpool, 1916

Synagogue, East Liverpool. The building is for sale.

The old bridge across the Ohio River to East Liverpool

Historic Houses, East Liverpool

Former City Hall, now the Health Department, East Liverpool, 1934

Odd Fellows Building, East Liverpool, now apartments, 1907

vacant commercial buildings, Market and 6th, East Liverpool

State St., Salem

South Broadway, Salem Historic District, now used by a church

John Street House,1838, Salem. Street was a Quaker and an abolitionist, the son of one of the founders of Salem
This was a stop on the Underground Railroad