Best places with active town squares

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by ZnGuy

Boasting so much on P'ville, you gotta be a resident, no?

I'm just familiar with Painesville and several other places in northeast Ohio and throughout Ohio, and have a great interest in art and architecture.

Your derogatory statement about Painesville's square, calling it a "dump," misrepresented reality so badly, as I demonstrated with the links, that I find it hard to believe that you ever lived in Concord Township. Candidly, having dealt with your pointed statements in other threads, I decided to document my comments, so other readers could understand why I considered your assessment of Painesville's square to be highly fallacious. I learned quite a bit about Painesville while doing web searches to find the links posted.

What was misrepresented in my posts?

Painesville once was a leading commercial center in northeast Ohio. It was supplanted by Mentor, now the sixth largest commercial center in Ohio as measured by retail sales.

http://www.news-herald.com/general-n...center-in-ohio

Until the 1960s, the population of Painesville was much greater than that of Mentor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painesville,_Ohio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentor,_Ohio

BTW, I said the Painesville square largely was a commercial dead zone due to a badly designed mega-structure which has no street-level commercial outlets. Even if someone wanted to convert that Victoria Place "mall" to something resembling Crocker Park or Legacy Village, its bizarre design likely would make that impossible.

[ZnGuy]

Originally Posted by WRnative

I'm just familiar with Painesville and several other places in northeast Ohio and throughout Ohio, and have a great interest in art and architecture.

Your derogatory statement about Painesville's square, calling it a "dump," misrepresented reality so badly, as I demonstrated with the links, that I find it hard to believe that you ever lived in Concord Township. Candidly, having dealt with your pointed statements in other threads, I decided to document my comments, so other readers could understand why I considered your assessment of Painesville's square to be highly fallacious. I learned quite a bit about Painesville while doing web searches to find the links posted.

What was misrepresented in my posts?

Painesville once was a leading commercial center in northeast Ohio. It was supplanted by Mentor, now the sixth largest commercial center in Ohio as measured by retail sales.

Mentor now sixth-largest retail center in Ohio

Until the 1960s, the population of Painesville was much greater than that of Mentor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painesville,_Ohio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentor,_Ohio

BTW, I said the Painesville square largely was a commercial dead zone due to a badly designed mega-structure which has no street-level commercial outlets. Even if someone wanted to convert that Victoria Place "mall" to something resembling Crocker Park or Legacy Village, its bizarre design likely would make that impossible.

You're probably right, Painesville is a commercial dead zone. I lived in Lake County in late 80's and visit in-laws in Mentor couple times a year. Painesville was the pits back then and hasn't gotten better since then.

[theurbanfiles]

Originally Posted by ZnGuy

You're probably right, Painesville is a commercial dead zone. I lived in Lake County in late 80's and visit in-laws in Mentor couple times a year. Painesville was the pits back then and hasn't gotten better since then.

FYI, it all depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a super upscale, inviting feeling shopping street, then Yes, DT Painesville isn't the place to go. But, I'd say that is one of the best compilations of architecture within a town square that I have seen. It does have some cool history, and Silvestro's off the square and the other bakeries/restaurants there are pretty nice. Plus, there's a decent number of festivals and farmers markets there during the summer, and it's not a bad launching point to bike on the Greenway Corridor all the way from there to DT Chardon and beyond, or go to all the sports fields down in Rec Park. It could certainly be a worse place. And at least lately, it isn't a place I would feel unsafe walking around, even at night.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by ZnGuy

You're probably right, Painesville is a commercial dead zone. I lived in Lake County in late 80's and visit in-laws in Mentor couple times a year. Painesville was the pits back then and hasn't gotten better since then.

Here's all of the retail and services left in the City of Painesville, not including restaurants.

Shopping

I think the two most viable retail operations, not including drug stores, are Joughin's Hardware and Active Plumbing Supply.

Joughin's Hardware is a treat. It's the only surviving retail operation from Painesville's glory days. It's a multi-story, large hardware store, with wooden floors, covering a couple store fronts, if I remember correctly, a "blast from the past" type operation.

Local Lore: "Hardware Heaven" - Joughin Harware in Downtown Painesville

Some of the "inventory" is decades old, and perhaps is more akin to museum pieces or perhaps equipment of interest to the Amish. Painesville seems like a marginal location for Amish shoppers, but perhaps they stop there after visiting Mentor area retail outlets, as I do see the Amish in Mentor several times a year, and I'm not a big shopper.

It's well worth a visit for anybody interested in what retail was like in small town America in the pre-Wal Mart, Home Depot, "big box" age of retailing. It's also a great place to get just the right item for some fix-it-up task, even individual bolts and nuts, just like at hardware stores in the old days.

Downtown Willoughby has a more significant, small town retail district, but nothing from my memory with the historical feel of Joughin's.

Joughin's is a few blocks east of Painesville's public square, just off Main St.

At the corner of State and Main, I believe there is a restaurant with an old soda counter that once was part of an old-fashioned drug store. Joughin's is located just south of that restaurant.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationP...unty_Ohio.html

http://www.sidewalkcafepainesville.com/gallery_1

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by ZnGuy

Painesville was the pits back then and hasn't gotten better since then.

BTW, "dump," now "the pits."

Sustained disingenousness isn't flattering.

As noted, there's more character in the buildings on Painesville's public square than most places in Greater Cleveland, but just a smattering of restaurants and a bank branch, and little, if any, retail presence. There is quite a bit of office space, with, as might be expected in a county seat, many law offices.

I honestly can't think of any other place in Lake County that has quite the same historical charm, perhaps with the exception of the James A. Garfield National Historical Site in Mentor, but that's not a living, breathing place. Ditto, for Historic Kirtland, although the Kirtland Temple still is in use as a place of worship.

E.g., Painesville's public square was a mustering location for Civil War troops.

http://www.painesville.com/vertical/...ion_FINAL_.pdf

[kpl1228]

Medina and Oberlin, for different reasons, have village squares utilized often, esp. in summer. Both are nice and about as far removed from each other demographics/politics-wise as you can get, but the village square experience is strong in both locales.
Hudson, certainly. Vermillion, also. Ohio's got lots of these.

[Nanaki]

I'm another vote for Chagrin Falls and Medina.

Last year, I went to Medina shortly before Christmas for their festival of lights where every business on the square stayed open late and the huge Christmas tree in the center of the square was lit and decorated. In fact, the entire place was practically covered in lights. It seemed to draw an enormous number of people. All of the sidewalks were outlined with "candles" made, if I remember correctly, from milk jugs. That might sound junky to some, but I thought they were cute.

Chagrin Falls has a great downtown too, with a very pretty waterfall and river running right through the center of town. Slightly off the main square is the original Dave's Cosmic Subs. It's in a funky, crowded shack covered in hand-painted, rather psychedelic art and many portraits of legendary rock stars. Dave's is becoming a chain now, with several rather nondescript locations scattered throughout Northeast Ohio, but the original is a lot of fun.