Mcdonald

How Mcdonald began

McDonald was built as a company town by Carnegie Steel (later part of United States Steel) and named for Thomas G. McDonald, superintendent of the Youngstown District for the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company, who oversaw construction of both the McDonald Works steel mill and the housing town built around it. The mill rolled its first steel on January 12, 1916, and the village incorporated December 12, 1918, electing James A. Freed its first mayor. At its peak the McDonald Works employed about 3,500 people; U.S. Steel announced the plant's closure in late 1979. The village's population grew steadily through the steel-industry twentieth century, from 621 residents in 1920 to a peak of 3,744 in 1980, before settling into a gradual decline that has left it a quiet, largely residential Youngstown-Warren-area suburb.

Settled 1916 (McDonald Works mill construction and first steel rolled January 12, 1916), incorporated 1918-12-12, by Thomas G. McDonald, Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company superintendent, who built both the mill and the surrounding company town.

Where the name comes from

The village is named for Thomas G. McDonald, superintendent of the Youngstown District for the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company, who oversaw the construction of the McDonald Works steel mill and personally built the housing town around it for mill workers and their families; both the mill and the village that grew up around it took his name.

Before the town

No Native village, camp or treaty event specific to McDonald is recorded in the sources we reviewed. The village sits on the Mahoning River within the valley the county's 1882 history describes as Delaware-occupied hunting ground used seasonally by Seneca and Mingo bands through the 1700s, but no source found names a site at this specific location.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Seneca, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

Timeline

1. 1916-01-12 — The McDonald Works steel mill, built by Carnegie Steel under superintendent Thomas G. McDonald, rolls its first steel.
2. 1918 — Housing construction begins for the company town; the first 122 homes are completed on Grant, Hayes, Garfield and McKinley Avenues, the first house standing at the corner of Grant Avenue and Fifth Street.
3. 1918-12-12 — The Village of McDonald is officially incorporated.
4. 1919-03-02 — James A. Freed, elected the village's first mayor, presides over the first village council meeting.
5. 1920 — McDonald's population is recorded at 621, in its early years as a Carnegie Steel company town.
6. 1920-11 — McDonald's volunteer fire department launches, initially housed in a purchased garage moved to the corner of Fourth Street and Ohio Avenue.
7. 1928 — McDonald High School opens to serve the growing number of young families the mill sought to attract; the same year, McDonald becomes what is described as the smallest community in the country to have its own YMCA.
8. 1980 — McDonald's population peaks at 3,744, reflecting the mill's peak-era employment of about 3,500 workers at the McDonald Works.
9. 1979-late — U.S. Steel announces the closure of the McDonald Works.
10. 2020 — The census records 3,172 residents, a 2.8 percent decrease from 2010.

Stories

The mill superintendent who built his own town

McDonald exists because one man built both ends of it. Thomas G. McDonald, superintendent of the Youngstown District for the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company, oversaw construction of the McDonald Works, which rolled its first steel on January 12, 1916 -- and then, recognizing that mill workers with families would not come without somewhere to live, built the town himself: the first 122 houses, on streets named for presidents (Grant, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley), went up starting in 1918, the same year the settlement incorporated as its own village. The company kept building out the town's civic infrastructure as it grew -- a high school in 1928 to draw young families, and, that same year, what is remembered locally as the smallest YMCA building in the country. At its height the McDonald Works employed about 3,500 people in a plant sprawling along the end of Ohio Avenue, the whole town's economy resting on the mill that gave it its name and its start. When U.S. Steel announced the plant's closure in late 1979, the town Thomas McDonald had built lost the industry it had been built around, though the community itself endured.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · mcdonaldvillage.com · businessjournaldaily.com · archive.org

Meander Creek Reservoir + Berlin Reservoir (Mahoning River basin) The water here

• Mcdonald Village95% of residentsMeander Creek Reservoir + Berlin Reservoir (Mahoning River basin)
• Niles City3% of residentsMeander Creek Reservoir + Berlin Reservoir (Mahoning River basin)
• Girard City2% of residentsMeander Creek Reservoir (via Niles/MVSD, blended)
• Youngstown City1% of residentsMeander Creek Reservoir + Berlin Reservoir (Mahoning River basin)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (2)

Police stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-08-24: official county or city website.

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 2 of 2 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked. The county's results on file run through 2026-02-03; later elections are not loaded yet.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-11-06

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Races, candidates and every question for an address: your ballot. County offices and judges are on your county board's sample ballot.

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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