Manufacturers: Jackson China and Shenango China
User: Youngstown Club
Date of examples:
Shenango plate: 1955
Jackson plate: circa 1973 – 1985
Notes: According to an article in the Rust Belt Magazine dated May 28, 2015, The Youngstown Club in Youngstown, Ohio, "was formed in the offices of the Youngstown Steel Company with 150 members. They were all white men, and all had names recognizable to anyone who's ever gotten lost on the city's north side, where streets are named for them. … . On the day the club was founded, there was already a waiting list, of two. Membership would cap at 150, and any new member would have to be unanimously approved."
The club's first home was the eighth floor of the Dollar Savings and Trust Building; however, within a year the club had expanded to include the seventh floor with four rooms with baths for overnight guests.
By 1926, the club moved to a new home atop what was then the First National Bank Building where it would reside for the next 63 years.
Again, from the article: "The transition went so smoothly that no meals were missed at the club, which boasted furnishings costing an estimated $125,000, including a marble foyer off the elevator, laundry service and pool tables – for the men.
"The club was remodeled in 1961 – two years before the fire – and then remodeled again after the fire. By then, the club had three floors atop the Union Bank Building, with the 12th floor serving as the women's floor. The 13th floor held the dining room, lounge and grill, and the 14th was home to card rooms. Nearly three-quarters of the more than 800 members still lived in Youngstown, but in some instances, family membership was maintained through generations, and some out-of-towners remained members for the sake of tradition."
By the 1960s, people with the means to do so were leaving the city of Youngstown for its suburbs. The club continued along, however, celebrating its 75th anniversary with a special dinner in March 1977, boasting membership around 850.
However, six months later, on September 19, 1977, was the day Youngstown Sheet and Tube abruptly closed its Campbell Works plant, instantly laying off more than 5,000 workers and signaling the devastating decline of the city's steel industry, an event forever known as "Black Monday" in the Mahoning Valley.
More closures followed, and within five years, Sheet and Tube was no more. All told, 50,000 industrial jobs were lost, a crushing blow to what had become a one-industry town
The population of the city shrank by 20,000 from 1980 to 1990, down to 95,000. Membership in the Youngstown Club also declined. By the time the club moved into what turned out to be its last home in 1989, it was down to 750 members.
The old Haber Furniture Store on Commerce Street was a four-story building ill-suited for any other purpose, but it did have an expansive parking lot which was uncommon in downtown Youngstown. After a nine-month renovation that included the addition of a fifth floor, an atrium, and an elevator, the club opened its new home atop the newly renamed Commerce Building. Unlike the previous home, there were no separate spaces for men and women, who were given full voting privileges in the club in 1986.
Again, from the article: "The new home also offered more wide-open spaces for hosting events like receptions and parties. But the economy continued to take its toll on the Mahoning Valley, and the population of Youngstown dropped to 81,000 by 2000, and 67,000 by 2010. Membership, after spiking with the change in location, also dropped, to 580 by 1994. Restrictions continued to be eased, with Barbara D'Alesandro becoming the first female club president in 1994, and funeral director McCullough Williams Jr. becoming the first African American on the board the following year. The club even hired a marketing manager to promote itself, something unheard of for any private club just a generation earlier.
"But membership continued to drop, reflecting a nationwide trend. Nearly 1,000 member-owned country or golf clubs had closed between 1990 and 2010. City clubs, too, were becoming an endangered species. The Youngstown Club continued to limp along, sustained by events like banquets and receptions.
"By the club's last year in 2012, the only dues were a $35 monthly fee, a far cry from half a century earlier, when men paid a $300 initiation fee (equivalent to $2,200) and annual dues of $162 (equivalent to $1,200). Membership dwindled to 250, and finally, the club announced its closure after the annual New Year's Eve party."
In 2015, George Guanieri, who had sold his Italian restaurant and had plans to retire, wanted to buy a liquor license just in case he decided he wanted to open another restaurant. He had gone to the Commerce Building to inquire about the license.
However, when he stepped off the elevator into the fifth floor all of that changed. He told a reporter that when he saw how gorgeous it was he knew he had to be there. He opened the Fifth Floor Restaurant in 2015 (see ad above).
According to an article in the Business Journal Daily by George Nelson dated Oct. 21, 2024, "The Fifth Floor proved to be short-lived. According to a Sept. 14, 2016, story, the restaurant would close Sept. 28, evicted from the space after failure to pay rent and other bills totaling more than $35,000."
White body plate with a Shenango stock pattern around the rim featuring multi-colored scrolls and baskets or bowls of flowers in shades of red and blue on an orange band. There is an orange pinstripe above the band. At the top of the plate the band is broken by the club's logo. This consists of a yellow shield outlined in dots containing intertwined Old English letters "Y" in white and "C" in light green. What seems to have been a service plate by Jackson China has the logo in the center of the well, and there's a broad deep green band on the rim.
Sources:
Rust Belt Magazine dated May 28, 2015 – article by Vince Guerrieri about the history of the Youngstown Club
BusinessJournalDaily.com dated Oct. 21,2024 – article by George Nelson about the Youngstown Club and the Fifth Floor
Contributors:
Bob Croteau: photos
Rodric Coslet: ID
Ed Phillips: author