At the corner of Blymyer and Marion Avenues today, stands a tall residential assisted living center called Mansfield Memorial Homes towering above the neighborhood, so it will require the use of a Then & Now photograph to imagine what it was like on that corner back in the 20th century, and even the 19th century.
Back then, the site was at 55 Marion Avenue, and it was the family farm of the Blymyers (of Blymyer & Day Manufacturers), who were cousins to the Baxters (of Baxter Stove Co.), and the Blacks (of Ohio Brass Co.) So in the late 1800s, the old farm had a street cut through, called Blymyer Avenue, that was lined with homes of many up and coming industrialists.
For 75 years it was a thriving neighborhood of family homes with new generations coming along, until the mid 1970s when the entire street, between Marion and First, was replaced with the medical/residential/retirement center that occupies the farm today.
The old Blymyer home seen here was built in 1856.
