"Here in northeast Ohio, back in 1803 / James and Dean Heaton found the ore that was linin' Yellow Creek / They built a blast furnace here along the shore / and they made cannonballs that helped the Union win the war." (-- Bruce Springsteen, "Youngstown" )
The busy, retail-dotted streets of Boardman were literally paved by the steel boom of nearby Youngstown. Wartime prosperity led to a big demand for easy access to modern shopping, dining, and urban conveniences, and enterprising developers like Edward DeBartolo, Sr. picked up the call. He opened one of the first strip malls in America, created a vast real estate empire, and brought the aptly named "Little Chicago" into national prominence. Today, Boardman is bustling and busy and seems, rather uncannily, to be much more populated than it actually is. See more