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Femininity Walking Path

On your left, in the Massillon Museum’s garden, see an interactive metal sculpture created by Joseph Carl Close to reflect The Giving Tree in MassMu’s 2013 NEA Big Read book, To Kill a Mockingbird.

  • From the Massillon Museum, stay on this side of the street to head up the hill on Lincoln Way East toward the beautiful Massillon Public Library, with the large green dome, pausing at the corner of Second Street to learn about the library building and the women who lived there.
  • Stay where you are and look toward The Farmers National Bank, which stands across Lincoln Way from the Library on the former site of a lovely early Massillon residence.
  • Keep walking two blocks up the hill on Lincoln Way East past the tan stone Methodist Church with the Town Clock in its steeple.  Pause at the corner of Fourth Street and find on your phone a photo of the home that originally stood where the family living center stands diagonally across the intersection.  It’s the building that looks like a 1950s motor hotel, which is what it was.
  • From here, continue in the same direction for two blocks on the same side of Lincoln Way East to the corner of Sixth Street.  Look across Sixth Street at the First Baptist Church.
  •  Cross Lincoln Way and continue straight north on Sixth Street for two blocks. As you walk cross North Avenue and pass the spacious green leading to the Salvation Army, know that four schools have stood on that land.  There was a private subscription school before  Massillon Union School was built in 1848, then the beautiful spired North Street School stood  from 1879 to 1922, and finally Longfellow Junior High School until 2006. Betsey Cowles taught at the second of those institutions.
  • Continue north (straight ahead) for two blocks on Sixth Street until you reach Harvard Avenue.  Turn left and proceed two blocks to Fourth Street.  Turn left, but stop immediately to look at the cream-colored stucco 1860s house across the street, on the southwest corner of Harvard and Fourth.
  • Continue walking south, toward downtown, on historic Fourth Street, one block.  Cross Chestnut Street and stop on the opposite corner.  Turn to look diagonally across the intersection at the old-English style residence.
  • Now, continue to the middle of the next block and look across the street at the little tan house, 315 Fourth Street, the smallest residence on historic Fourth Street.
  • Keep walking south to the next corner, Thorne Avenue, and look at the yellow brick home with the graceful curved porch with double ionic columns and stone lions’ heads.  It’s 225 Fourth Street.
  • Now walk south to the next corner and pause before crossing North Avenue—facing the dark stone mansion on your left, Five Oaks.  It’s the home of Massillon Woman’s Club.
  • Staying where you are, now look at the brick building on the other side of North Avenue, still on the east side of Fourth Street.  The one with the yellow columns and window lintels.
  • Continue one block south—the same direction you’ve been walking—to Federal Avenue.  Before the little Baptist church, turn west (toward downtown) on North Avenue.  Walk down the hill just past the light stone Presbyterian Church on your left to see the Shearer’s parking lot on your right.  While it’s not picturesque, it’s the site of probably the most notorious women who ever lived in Massillon.
  • Please continue walking west down the hill on Federal Avenue until you reach the Rodney G. Klein Stock Market Museum, on your right, in the old post office building at Erie Street.  Look diagonally across the intersection at the “Valor” mural.
  • Now, turn left, south, crossing Lincoln Way, and stopping just before the next corner, Diamond Court, to view at the yellow building across the street.
  • Turn left onto Diamond Court.  Enjoy the mural on your left and walk toward First Street Southeast.  Cross First Street and walk straight ahead, keeping Duncan Plaza on your right.  Stop at the corner of the Massillon Museum to learn about Nell Dorr, whose family lived in the area that’s now the plaza.
  • You might want to detour toward the fountain to read the Ohio Bicentennial Marker honoring the Gish Sisters, but come back to the Diamond Court sidewalk and continue walking east along the back side of the Massillon Museum to the next corner.
  • Turn left and cross City Hall Street to look at the new gallery of notable Massillonians on the wall!  Please particularly read the plaques honoring Charity Rotch, Essie Wooton, Rose Bampton, and Mary Bowman—four notable Massillon women we haven’t already highlighted.