Public Square/Freedom Plaza

Alliance Public Square was historically located at the intersection of East Main Street and Freedom Avenue. The Public Square was redesigned as Freedom Plaza in 1976 by architects Bergemann and Associates.42 The memorial park is landscaped with flowering trees, grass lawn, simple plantings, and hardscape made up of brick pathways, low concrete walls, park benches and lighted flagpole. The Plaza includes memorials to lost soldiers and members of the police department.

The Public Square was originally a open space at the west edge of the business district of Alliance, with the Town Hall erected on the southwest corner in the 1870s. There were hitching posts for horses around the perimeter of the Square, there was a trough for water of the horse, and under the northwestern corner of the square was a 1500 barrel capacity cistern for use by the Fire Department. In the 1880s and 90s a bandstand was located in the southwestern quadrant where The Alliance City Band and others performed through the temperate months.

The Civil War Memorial was originally erected May 30, 1915 with an eagle sculpture, then replaced in 1924 by the bronze sculpture of President Lincoln by Sculptor, Steven P. Rebeck, and composed of granite base with flanking bronze sculptures of cavalryman and infantryman. The bronze sculptures were cast by Wheelock Foundries. The granite is from the Pellow Brothers Quarry. It is the tallest memorial in Freedom Plaza. The Memorial to Soldiers in the War with Spain, The Philippine Insurrection and The China Relief Expedition was erected in 1923 composed of granite base with single bronze sculpture of soldier. The World War Memorial 1917-1919 (#75c) was erected in 1920 composed of granite base with single bronze sculpture of soldier. The remaining five memorials were dedicated with redesign of Public Square as Freedom Plaza in 1976 or later and include World War I Memorial, World War II Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, and Memorial to Members of the Police Department.

A ‘WONDERFUL TAKE’ ON THE PUBLIC SQUARE FROM AUGUST 1917

An uncredited Cleveland newspaperman visited Alliance Public Square in the summer of 1917, and wrote this observation of the warm evening:

You pass an ice cream store. Inside at one table pretty girls are making eyes at the boys over soda water straws. Next door is a restaurant with a huge "EATS" sign over the entrance It is jammed with men, who sit on high stools and eat ham sandwiches.

The street is a glare of light. Every store is dressed in its best. Automobiles line the curb.

"Hello there, what are you doing down here? Been to the picture show?"

No, you haven’t been, but joyfully you join the ticket line that stretches a whole block along the sidewalk, and wait your turn. Everybody you ever knew or hope to know passes by. The rich Mrs. Tagle, laughing, leaves her limousine and comes to stand in Iine with you. The doctor's wife steps into the procession. Behind her is a big farmer with a long white beard, and his tiny, wrinkled wife, then a row of country urchins, overalled and beaming; then a minister. Behind him stands the town’s capitalist, followed by one of bis employees, and so on and so on.

You hasten from the picture show and Mary Pickford or Charley Chaplin and over to the "square." Flaming torches blaze at four corners. In the center near the monument an orator is proclaiming loudly to an audience of farmers and city folks. Beneath another torch, on a soapbox, a suffragist discourse earnestly and distributes literature. At the other corner a farmer sells his produce. And near him a faker displays elegant jewelry and combs to his dazzled audience. The entire square is surrounded with rows upon rows of country autos and buggies and farm wagons.

The market house is jammed. Upstairs a band is playing. Downstairs the women from the country are buying groceries and filling the bottom of their rigs.

Handshakes, invitations, smiles, friendliness and the happy interchange of country and city spirit, these are the order of the night.

The author's byline was not included with the newspaper article.

National Register of Historic Places Nomination- 2016-04-15- Alliance Ohio East Main Street Historic Commercial District. https://www.cityofalliance.com/DocumentCenter/View/780

Pages from Alliance History, As Printed in The Alliance Review, 1940-1941. Alliance: Alliance Historical Society, 1946.

Magrath, William. Alliance as I Knew It. Alliance: Alliance Historical Society, 2012.

Sanborn Fire INsurance Maps. Accessed at https://auth.oplin.org/?url=https://sanborn.ohioweblibrary.org