If anyone asks the average Youngstown resident for directions to Lansingville, a blank stare might be the best one gets.

To know Lansingville, one almost needs to know Ken Stanislaw whom friends and neighbors regard as the beating heart of Lansingville and its ersatz “mayor.”

Stanislaw’s southside Lansingville neighborhood was a suburb of Youngstown until the late 1880s when it was absorbed into the city. According to historical accounts, it was named — no exact reason given — for John Lansing Jr., an Albany, New York, native who rose to prominence during the American Revolution. In a mystery still unsolved, Lansing vanished in New York City in 1829 at the age of 75.

According to the Youngstown 2010 Plan (a city planning document created two decades ago), Lansingville exists within enormous boundaries, but Stanislaw said the core was always the intersection of Murray Avenue and Cooper Street.

“That was where the one-room schoolhouse was,” said Stanislaw, who will be 80 next year. “They tore it down when I was 7 or 8.”

He also described the area as dotted with businesses like Fox’s grocery store, where the proprietors lived on the second floor. The build-out to Midlothian Boulevard came with the post-World War II housing boom.

Stanislaw’s forebearers were among the Eastern European immigrants that descended on Youngstown’s steel industry, and they gravitated to Lansingville making it a Slovak enclave of sorts.

Once settled there, few left. Except for a period dictated by education and military service, Stanislaw has never left Lansingville either.

“I was born and bred in Lansingville and went to Cardinal Mooney — Class of 1963,” Stanislaw said. “I wanted to be an architect, but … .” He didn’t find the engineering component of architecture agreeable, so he channeled his artistic skills into interior design instead and headed for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

There he met a pretty student from Erie, Pa., by the name of Annette, who also was studying interior design. Together, they pursued their degrees — and each other — and would eventually marry. They are still going strong after 50-plus years.

During his time in Pittsburgh, his living quarters were in a former residence of Lillian Russell, a famous actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The immense Victorian home, Stanislaw said, “was divided up into little apartments and (my little apartment) was her bedroom.”

As he finished his arts degree, the war in Vietnam was escalating. Stanislaw didn’t wait to be drafted.

“I joined the Navy,” he said. “I didn’t want to lay in a ditch” in the Army, he said, laughing.

While stationed in Jacksonville, Florida, Stanislaw encountered another housing brush-with-fame.

The daughter of President Richard Nixon, Julie, lived nearby. Her husband, Naval Reserve officer David Eisenhower, was stationed there.

“All these black vehicles were always in the driveway,” he said referring to the Secret Service detail assigned to the president’s daughter, adding that he and Annette never felt safer.

Following his discharge, Stanislaw moved his family back to Lansingville. He eventually became a mail carrier for more than 30 years, and while delivering letters didn’t use his artistic talents, his neighborhood involvement did — sometimes in the most delightful ways. When organizations got heavily involved in board-ups of abandoned homes, Stanislaw drew upon — pun intended –his artistic skills to paint lamps, curtains and reclining cats on the plywood, rendering a lived-in look to the vacant structure.

Stanislaw has been a revered leader of the Lansingville Block Watch but is careful not to take credit for starting it.

“That was Mr. Edwin Buday,” he said. “A lot of people called him ‘Cookie,’ but I always called him Mr. Buday.”

Edwin Buday established the Lansingville Fourth of July parade, which to this day is the only Independence Day parade in Youngstown. When asked why Buday started the parade, Stanislaw said, “Because he was just a good guy, and he liked a (darn) good party.”

Buday passed away before the next scheduled parade, and it was left to Stanislaw to pick up the baton of block watch leadership and parade organizing.

The parade has been a wholesome celebration of the nation’s independence, and “it has been a good way to connect residents to their political leaders at least once a year,” Stanislaw said.

After 20 years at the helm, Stanislaw turned the reins over to the 7th Ward Citizens Coalition. Unfortunately, the organization had to cancel this year’s parade but intends to resume it in 2025.

Whether it’s a parade, a painted cat in a boarded-up window, or reminiscences of businesses and residents come and gone, Ken Stanislaw will see to it that Lansingville never vanishes like its namesake.

To suggest a Friday profile, contact Metro Editor Marly Reichert at mreichert@tribtoday.com or Features Editor Ashley Fox at afox@tribtoday.com.