Canton officially likes football

Monday was a very good foto safari, went to three towns and pretty much saw everything i wanted to see. In Barberton, and Canton people were very pleased to see the hounds. They like road trips, and new places to sniff around.

 "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world." —King Gustav V of Sweden

Jim Thorpe was an athlete that amazed everyone. In 1912, he was the gold medalist in the decathlon, and the pentathlon. Besides track and field, he played baseball, football, basketball, and ball room dancing. Now there are statistics kept on things that are obscure, and some are fancifully categorised. Thorpe's statistics are incomplete, and new details can appear. When the sports ended, his life was difficult and uncomfortable. He died ill, and impoverished. The painting is by Joseph Close.

A few days ago marked one hundred years since the National Football League was created at a Canton Hupmobile dealership. Jim Thorpe was the titular president in the first year.

It is taking MUCH longer to write text and upload fotos because of their stupid changes on Blogger. Are they keeping the meter running? for their benefit? Fifteen minutes at least to post these two sentences, and the foto above it.

 Gail Folwell. The NFL Draft. 2015.

This bronze sculpture is open for human touch. It is a bronze of the Philadelphia Eagle owner, and later league commissioner, Bert Bell [he is wearing the suit and holding the ball].  In 1936, he started the draft of incoming footballers. The Football Hall of Fame made a list of eleven important events, and this one. All eleven will have public art installations within walking distance of the others. Two have been recently displayed, making nine in the public's view. This sculpture invites people to stand behind the five figures, and pretend to be the backfield.

 

Before there was semi-professional or professional football in the area, there was high school football: the Canton Bulldogs, and the Massillon Tigers. It is still a very popular event for the two high schools, and towns. Scot Phillips placed pixels to this 1905 photograph.

This Canton sign is part of a two acre park/plaza, which is still being built. There was no activity on Monday, when the photograph was snapped. The "A" looks like the McKinley Tomb, but is suggestive of the Football Hall.

Canton has really heavily invested in promoting football, but it has been expensive, and the account books may not be joyful. This year, they were expecting a big centennial show. The virus killed it. The city enjoys the national cameras for the pre-season game of two NFL teams. There was no pre-season this year. In 2016, an act of paint stupidity cancelled that year's game. Logos were painted at midfield, and the end zones. The paint would not give to cleated shoes. Solvent was tried, and failed. The chalk, lime, and powder, that was used years ago, would have been fine. Modern ideas, modern problems.

Barberton

Ohio Columbus Barber (founder of Barberton) is wearing a face covering, although it slipped below his nose.

In years past, this last weekend, it would have been Mum Fest in Barberton. 2020 being the year of coronavirus, the shindig was cancelled, but the flowers were planted. Here are some fotos from a few years past [click], [and click], [and here too].

 this year's floral arch

A mural with Barberton highlights: the nickname of the high school is the Magics, Hopocan was a Lenape chief before, and during initial white settlement of Ohio. The chicken drumstick is a nod to Barberton Serbian style chicken, that was popular doing Hoover's Depression. The chicken is cut up into more pieces than now expected, including pieces normally not used now. The chicken is frien in lard, and unseasoned.

It is nearing the end of the population count, and the library reminds us. The screen also has many additional messages.

 mural on the backside of the library

Will was about to trim away some branches, when i saw him.  I mistakenly thought he was dressed as a Scotsman with weaponry.

When the coronavirus precautions hit Ohio, one of the no-go sites were picture shows. The marquees are blank, or list mid-March showings.

two cats in a bookstore

 Amazon island early 1940s??. 

Outdoor ceiling of an entrance to what once was a store is now a mural.

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nota bene: I have little to no control of how Blogger is formatting spacing in the text display.  There new system SUX.

local electoral messaging

 

                     sometimes the signs are quickly made, and this time it is highly fanciful

Gary Williams and Robin Robinson. Glenville, Cleveland 

Some people will like this, and some will not.

the appropriate quadrennial autumnal lawn decoration

photographs of abandoned places #26

Immanuel Presbyterian

Immanuel Presbyterian began as a mission in 1903. Its first building came as a chapel in 1906. The English Gothic building began in 1924. The architect was Herman Maurer. Remodeling was done in 1961 with a new stained glass window. In 1993 the congregation became so small that the Presbytery of the Western Reserve had other plans.

 

foto by Thomas Lewis, possibly from the Cleveland Press, now in Cleveland State Archive

Most recently the congregation was Tabernacle Baptist Church. It has been vacant, and broken into, and is deteriorating. Same story again, congregation of a major denomination has a good building; then after some generations the number of people becomes reduced; it is sold to people who can not maintain the building; it becomes abandoned.

 

 

 

 nota bene: the new blogger format is less responsive, and crappier.

E. 156th, near Waterloo

 In Collinwood a recent multi-artist mural,

 

 in which a boy reads a book, and pages fly out.

Artists United for Change

                                              Encouraging Police Brutality
“My art piece is a reminder that while the American public was protesting in the streets, in record numbers, against racism and police brutality, Donald Trump was encouraging police brutality against the protesters, reinforcing the very same problems within law enforcement and the criminal justice systems the protesters were demanding to be reformed.” —Shepard Fairey

—from a May 29 Trump tweet, quoting Walter E. Headley, Miami police chief, in 1967: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Thursday, nine different billboards went up in Cleveland featuring the art work of several graffiti artists. “Remember What They Did” is a project by Artists United for Change, Scott Goodstein, and Robin Bell.  These signs have already been seen in a few cities, the first four:  Detroit, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Phoenix. The impetus to place them in Cleveland is the Tuesday night meeting between Joe Biden and Trumpenfuehrer at Cleveland Clinic/Case Western Reserve University. Parts of Chester and Euclid have been closed. Most people avoid Euclid anyway. So, more traffic has been moved to Carnegie; and these two signs were on Carnegie.

“I chose to use this quote because this thinking is mythical and dangerous. Discord continues to be sewn regarding a global pandemic and countless lives will continue to be lost due to a non-unified message with profit and politics over people.”  —Nate Lewis

Lewis was an ICU nurse in Washington DC. He used a CT scan of a covid patient, “it’s an eyewitness account… about how real this virus is.”

David Biro's “Ascent”

I think Dave Biro has his wood filigree building in front of his family's business. He has a sign explaining that it is a place conducive for silence in this tumultuous year.

                                                         looking up at the center

                             Shadows from the cutouts produce patterns on the cracked asphalt.

                                    Karma chairs the meeting on W. 43rd and Detroit.
 

Jesus saves Scranton

Scranton Road Bible Church (again)

 

If you pay attention to the world, you would know that the odds of this church being a Baptist one extremely good. It has had a few names, and its current name was used before. The congregation has been on a building expansion program. The sign is a new one, replacing an older identical one. The sign directly faces St. Michael the Archangel Catholic, once the largest and still the tallest church in the city. Baptists have a long history of antipathy to Catholics.

St. Michael the Archangel

The church was started on the east side in 1869, and moved here (then referred to as the south side) in 1874. This building was built in 1893. St. Michael's was built from 1889 to 1892, a previous church was built in 1883, and burned in 1891 as the new church was going up.

The Spanish Influenza killed many of the Baptists in 1918. Czech Baptists began services there then, eventually the congregation became Czech speaking. The new name was “West Side Czecho-Slovak Baptist Church” in 1942.  In 1962, a Parma church was built, and the language was English again at Scranton.

 iron cage for a previous air conditioner

There has been an influx of money for infrastructure on the street and nearby. New surface has just been placed on the intersecting Clark, the road markings have not been finished. Several other street improvements have been made. On the third corner of the intersection, a remodel of the Carnegie Library has been completed.  Still, the neighbourhood has a rough and sketchy side.

waiting for a train

 

 “ I'm a thousand miles away from home just waiting for a train ” —  Jimmie Rodgers