Venues in Youngstown

Youngstown is a city in and county seat of Mahoning County, Ohio, United States. It is a midwestern city located at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The city was named for John Young, an early settler from Whitestown, New York, who established the community's first sawmill and gristmill. It was an early industrial city of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and became known as a center of steel production.

Despite the impact of regional economic decline, Youngstown offers an array of cultural and recreational resources. Youngstown's newest venue is the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre; an outdoor venue opened in 2019 upon former industrial grounds in Downtown that hosts various musicians.

One of the city's sports-related attractions is the Covelli Centre, which was funded primarily through a $26 million federal grant secured in 2000 by then-Congressman Jim Traficant. Located on the site of an abandoned steel mill, the large, high-tech facility opened in October 2005. It was formerly called the Chevrolet Center, and during planning it was known as the Youngstown Convocation Center. The centre's main tenants are the Youngstown Phantoms, who play in the United States Hockey League. Previously, it was home to the Youngstown Steelhounds hockey team, who played in the CHL. The venue also hosts "on ice" musical shows and concerts.

Historically, one of the area's most popular attractions was Idora Park in the Idora neighborhood of Youngstown's south side. An urban amusement park, it operated from 1899 until it was closed after a large fire destroyed many of its premier rides in 1984.

Theater
The community's culture center is Powers Auditorium, a former Warner Brothers movie palace that serves as the area's primary music hall and a home for the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. This downtown landmark is one of five auditoriums within the city. Ford Recital Hall was built in 2006 as an addition to newly renovated Powers Auditorium. Imposing and neo-classical Stambaugh Auditorium, on the city's north side, has served for decades as a site of concerts and is often rented for private events. The facility also hosts the Stambaugh Youth Concert Band. Bruce Springsteen, who sang about the decline of Youngstown's steel industry and its adverse effects on local workers in his ballad "Youngstown", played at Stambaugh Auditorium on January 12, 1996, as part of his solo Ghost of Tom Joad Tour.

The Youngstown Playhouse, Mahoning County's primary community theater, has served the area for more than 80 years, despite intermittent financial problems. Believed by some observers to be the nation's oldest continuously operating community theater, the Youngstown Playhouse was the only community theater in Ohio to ever receive major institutional support from the Ohio Arts Council. The Oakland Center for the Arts, formerly in the downtown area, was a well-known venue for locally produced plays before it closed in 2015 due to poor management. In late 2016. the Oakland Center for the Arts was re-established with a new focus on youth and kids theatre.

Well known theatrical personalities from the Youngstown area include comedic actor Joe Flynn, screen actress Elizabeth Hartman, singer and Broadway performer Maureen McGovern, and television and screen actor Ed O'Neill.

Museums

The Butler Institute of American Art is on the northeastern edge of the Youngstown State University campus. Established by industrialist Joseph G. Butler Jr., in 1919, it was the first museum in the country dedicated to American art. Across the street from the Butler Institute stands the McDonough Museum of Art, YSU's University Art Museum and the Mahoning Valley's center for contemporary art. The McDonough, established in 1991, features changing exhibitions by regional, national and international artists and provides public access to the work of students, faculty and alumni from the Department of Art. The Clarence R. Smith Mineral Museum, also on the YSU campus, is operated by the university's geology department and housed in a campus building.

To the immediate north of YSU is the Arms Family Museum of Local History. The museum, housed in a 1905 Arts & Crafts style mansion on the main artery of Wick Avenue, is managed by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society. Once the estate of a local industrialist, it maintains period rooms that showcase the household's original contents, including furnishings, art objects, and personal artifacts. The museum mounts rotating exhibits on topics related to local history. Recently, the museum opened the "Anne Kilcawley Christman Hands-on History Room". The MVHS Archival Library operates in the estate's former carriage house, near the back of the site.

The Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor sits south of the YSU campus on a grade overlooking the downtown area. This museum, owned and operated by the Ohio Historical Society, focuses on the Mahoning Valley's history of steel production. Other museums include the Children's Museum of the Valley, an interactive educational center in the downtown area, and the Davis Education and Recreation Center, a small museum that showcases the history of Youngstown's Mill Creek Park.

On the city's north side the Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation is constructing the Tod Engine Heritage Park, featuring a collection of steel industry equipment and artifacts. The main exhibit is a 1914 William Tod Co. rolling mill steam engine that was built in Youngstown and used at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Brier Hill Works. The Tod Engine is one of three remaining rolling mill engines in the United States and is a Mechanical and Materials Engineering Landmark.