Trip to Irondale- While looking at my 1920 picture of Irondale, I felt I had the germ there of a larger more important picture; and I suddenly was obsessed by the desire to look again from the hill where I made the study.
Hurriedly packing (with Bertha’s aid) I threw all my materials in the car, and by 3:30 was on my way. There is little to record of the drive to Youngstown, as I drove at top speed, and found no interest in the flat country, my mind being full of Irondale. I ate a nice dinner at a wayside restaurant, and arrived in Youngstown after dark, about 9:00 PM, where I secured a room at the Todd hotel. I took a short walk out over the Market Street bridge to relax myself after the drive. The steel mills in the big valley below were cold & silent.
Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, August 18, 1938