Brier Hill - Current Challenges

Current Challenges

Like many urban neighborhoods, Brier Hill faces an uncertain future. Beginning in the 1950s, large swaths of the neighborhood were razed to make way for urban renewal projects, including the building of modern expressways. Brier Hill was further depopulated by economic dislocations that came with the decline, and eventual collapse, of Youngstown's steel industry. Today, all that remains of a once-vibrant ethnic enclave is the ITAM Post (Italian-American War Veterans' Club), a bandstand, Modarelli's Salumeria, and the memorial wall. The ground floor of the ITAM Post was once the site of the Forde family butcher shop, owned and operated by Italian immigrants Frank and Catherine Forde (Fiordilisi). The structure's second floor served as the Forde's residence, where they raised eight children. A concrete marker on the building's facade features the inscription, "Forde 1921".

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