I've often tried to envision what Wick Avenue looked like around the turn of the 20th century, when it was filled with the mansions of the wealthiest families in Youngstown.

So many of the old mansions are now long gone, demolished by the university, the i-680 interstate, and other entities as the years passed by.

It's such a shame, as these were some of the greatest architectural treasures in the city. I've been collecting historic photos of these mansions, in an effort to visually reconstruct what this area of the city must have looked like at the turn of the last century.

This new section will contain pages from the 1907 and 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of Youngstown, which show Wick Avenue as it was in the early 1900's.

The tour is a visual one - just hover your mouse over each of the Wick Avenue homes and buildings shown on the maps. If there is a photo gallery for that spot on the map, your cursor will turn into a pointing hand and a small tool tip window will indicate which address you are pointing to.

Clicking on that portion of the map will open a pop-up window with a photo gallery and historic information for that address.

I've started with a couple map pages that show homes and buildings on the West side of Wick Avenue, with more to come as I am able to find additional photos and historic info to go with them.

These photos are very hard to find in many cases, and it takes a lot of digging to get the historical information about the original owners, etc but I will keep adding more map sections as I can find the photos and info.

If anyone has old copies of the Burch's City Directory for the years 1890 through 1930, please let me know. These would be a great help in associating the addresses with the owners. The Sanborn maps will show the locations.

Eventually, I would like to do image maps for other areas of the city that are of historic significance, ie: Central Square, the Wick Park district, etc.

I sincerely hope you will enjoy the tour!