Youngstown is the largest city in and county seat of Mahoning County, Ohio, United States. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 60,068, making it the 11th-largest city in Ohio. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, which had a population of 430,591 in 2020, making it the seventh-largest metro area in Ohio and 125th-largest in the United States. Youngstown is situated on the Mahoning River in Northeast Ohio, southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh.
The city was named for John Young, an early settler from Whitestown, New York, who established the community's first sawmill and gristmill. Youngstown is a midwestern city falling within the Appalachian Ohio region among the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It was an early industrial city of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; with restructuring of heavy industry and movement of jobs offshore, it has been classified as part of the Rust Belt. Traditionally known as a center of steel production, Youngstown has been forced to adapt after the steel industry in the United States fell into decline in the 1970s. There has been a decline in population of more than 60% since 1959.
Downtown Youngstown has seen various revitalization efforts since 2000, including the Covelli Centre and Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre. Other notable institutions in the city include the Butler Institute of American Art, Mill Creek Park, Stambaugh Auditorium, and Youngstown State University. Youngstown's first new downtown hotel since 1974—the DoubleTree by Hilton—opened in 2018 in the historic Stambaugh Building, adapted for this use.
History
Founding
Youngstown was named for New York native John Young, who surveyed the area in 1796 and settled there soon afterward. On February 9, 1797, Young purchased the township of from the Western Reserve Land Company for $16,085. The 1797 establishment of Youngstown was officially recorded on August 19, 1802.
The area that includes present-day Youngstown was part of the Connecticut Western Reserve, a section of the Northwest Territory that Connecticut initially did not cede to the federal government. Upon cession, Connecticut retained the title to the land in the Western Reserve, which it sold to the Connecticut Land Company for $1,200,000. While many of the area's early settlers came from Connecticut, Youngstown attracted many Scots-Irish settlers from neighboring Pennsylvania. The first European Americans to settle permanently in the area were Pittsburgh native James Hillman and wife Catherine Dougherty. By 1798, Youngstown was the home of several families who were concentrated near where Mill Creek meets the Mahoning River. Boardman Township was founded in 1798 by Elijah Boardman, a member of the Connecticut Land Company. Also founded in 1798 was Austintown by John McCollum who was a settler from New Jersey.
As the Western Reserve's population grew, the need for administrative districts became apparent. In 1800, territorial governor Arthur St. Clair established Trumbull County (named in honor of Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull), and designated the smaller settlement of Warren as its administrative center, or county seat. In 1813, Trumbull County was divided into townships, with Youngstown Township comprising much of what became Mahoning County. The village of Youngstown was incorporated in 1848, and in 1867 Youngstown was chartered as a city. It became the county seat in 1876, when the administrative center of Mahoning County was moved from neighboring Canfield. Youngstown has been Mahoning County's county seat to this day.
Growth and industrialization
The discovery of coal by the community in the early 19th century paved the way for the Youngstown area's inclusion on the network of the famed Erie Canal. The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal Company was organized in 1835, and the canal was completed in 1840. Local industrialist David Tod, who became Ohio governor during the Civil War, persuaded Lake Erie steamboat owners that coal mined in the Mahoning Valley could fuel their vessels if canal transportation were available between Youngstown and Cleveland. The railroad's arrival in 1856 smoothed the path for further economic growth.
Youngstown's industrial development changed the face of the Mahoning Valley. The community's burgeoning coal industry drew hundreds of immigrants from Wales, Germany, and Ireland. With the establishment of steel mills in the late 19th century, Youngstown became a popular destination for immigrants from Eastern Europe, Italy, and Greece.