Niles is a city in Trumbull County, Ohio, United States. The population was 18,443 at the 2020 census. Located at the confluence of the Mahoning River and Mosquito Creek, Niles is a suburb in the Youngstown, Warren metropolitan area, and roughly halfway between the two principal cities.
Niles is best known as the birthplace of William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States. Located in the Rust Belt, the city’s economy focused initially on iron manufacturing but later diversified to include steel and glass production. After the decline of heavy industry in the region in the 1970s, Niles became a retail hub for the northern Mahoning Valley with development centered around the Eastwood Mall complex and along the U.S. Route 422 corridor. The Mahoning Valley Scrappers baseball team plays at 7 17 Credit Union Field at Eastwood in Niles.
At a Glance
- County: Trumbull County
- State: Ohio
History of Niles
Niles was founded in 1806 by James Heaton, who owned one of the first iron ore processing plants in Ohio. The town originally went by the name of Heaton’s Furnace but was later renamed Nilestown after Hezekiah Niles, editor of the influential Weekly Register news magazine. The name was shortened to Niles in 1843. In the early 19th century, Heaton built a forge and, later, a charcoal blast furnace in the area just east of what is now the city’s central park, on the west side of Mosquito Creek. Heaton is credited with producing the first bar iron in Ohio.
Niles’ iron industry thrived until the late 19th century, when the economic depression of 1873 brought about the closure of the community’s largest industrial firm, James Ward and Company. Plans to restore the local iron industry floundered because of the exorbitant cost of modernizing outdated mills. By the early 1900s, however, Niles was the site of companies including Ohio Galvanizing, Sykes Metal, the Niles Glass Works of the General Electric Company, and the Niles Iron and Steel Roofing Company. Between 1900 and 1920, the city’s population swelled from 7,500 to over 13,000. The Great Flood of 1913 precipitated massive flooding of the Mahoning River, leaving extensive damage exceeding $3 million and 428 casualties in Niles.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Niles, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.