Monthly Archives: March 2010

    The house at 18 Fifth Street was built in 1891 for James J. Meneize, a hand picked associate of Ellwood City’s founder Henry W. Hartman. James worked for Mr. Hartman in Beaver Falls but when Hartman began building his town, he brought James here to Ellwood City to work for the Pittsburgh Company and help develop the area. The house was built in a nice upper class area at the time. In 1891 when the house was built, the subway under the tracks did not exist and the bridge connecting Hazel Dell was on Sixth Street.
    Meneize’s daughter Mary Ellwood Meneize was the first baby born in the new town of Ellwood City. The Meneize family also holds other distinctions like they were the first family in Ellwood to have three generations serve on the borough council. James J.’s son James P. and his son Raymond all served the community through the council. James son Robert was one of the young men that made the ultimate sacrifice for us in World War II. Since he was stationed in the Philippians when the War broke out, he possibly was Ellwood City’s first casualty in Corregidor (since the date is unknown, this is unconfirmed).
    We are trying to uncover more of the history behind not only this house but also the families that have lived here. If you have any memories about this house, whether it be who lived here or who turned it into a bait shop, please leave a comment below or email us your memories at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. Information for this post was gathered from the book Ellwood City Houses and the People Who Lived in Them by Charles R. Moser available at the Ellwood City Historical Society.

    When Andrew C. Cole built his house at 824 Wampum Avenue across from the Cole family homestead, the B&O railroad was almost at the front door. The now abandoned line ran from this house East right beside the Cole barn (today 110 Gregg Street) through some present alleys that were all part of the Cole farm, right through what is today Tony’s Distributing Company drive through. The empty lot at the end of the Fifth Street Bridge is all part of the abandoned B&O line that continued East along Wampum Avenue.
     The Cole’s were one of the original twelve landowners in the area when Henry W. Hartman began buying up the farms for his new town. Andrew’s grandfather, Isaac Cole came to Wayne Township during the 1790’s and his father, Abraham Cole, was born forty years later. Abraham’s house is still standing on the southern side of Wampum Avenue between Gregg Street and McKinley Street. Abraham’s daughter also built her house on the Cole farm and still stands there today at the corner of Line Avenue and North Street. 
     Andrew Cole’s house was purchased by John and Mildred Novakovich in 1957 and has undergone dramatic updating and remodeling. We are trying to uncover more of the history of the families that have lived here. If you have any memories about this house including who lived in the historic house, please leave a comment below or email us your memories at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. Information for this post was gathered from the book Ellwood City Houses and the People Who Lived in Them by Charles R. Moser available at the Ellwood City Historical Society.

    The house that formally stood at 460 Glen Avenue has a very unique history. The two story bungalow style house was originally the woman’s restroom at Rock Point Park. After the park was closed, the house was moved to Glen Avenue by Charles Carlson in 1915 shortly before Ellwood City finished construction on the former Fifth Street Bridge. It was not odd that the building was moved as the park closed in 1912 and by the time they begun quarrying the area for large stones for bridge construction in 1922, all the buildings that were at the park were gone. They had already been moved, dismantled for material re-use, or burned in one of the five different fires reported during that ten year span. One of the fires reported in the Ellwood Citizen on April 22, 1915 reported that a fire of unknown origin destroyed the abandoned dancing pavilion and the Rock Point Inn.
    The house escaped certain doom at Rock Point Park, but could not escape it forever as the house was torn down when the present Fifth Street Veterans Memorial Bridge was built.
    We have uncovered attempts to have the house moved in the early 1990′s but we could not verify anywhere that the attempts were successful and the house was torn down. If you have any stories you would like to share about any of the families that lived in the house or of the house itself, please leave a comment below or email us your memories by CLICKING HERE.

    During the early part of the 1920′s Mr. Pirzappia came to America in pursuit of the “American Dream” and a better life for his family. Like a lot of men during the time, he came to this country by himself leaving his wife and children in Italy until he could afford to bring them here. He found work in Ellwood City and in 1926; he was able to build a home for his family and would finally be able to bring his family here. Mr. Pirzappia built a solid brick house that he was so proud of that he even had his name put into the structure.
    Then disaster struck. Before he could contact his family and begin bringing them to Ellwood City, Mr. Pirzappia was found dead. His body was discovered on the railroad tracks close to the current site of Blank Concrete and Supply with a bullet wound in the back of his head. It was rumored that he was the unfortunate victim of the Black Hand but we can not confirm this.
    The Pirzappia family never made it to Ellwood City, or even America for that matter. After this tragedy, the family left Italy for Australia where his remaining relatives still live today.

    After twenty-eight years of coaching, Frank Geniviva’s Ellwood City’s Lincoln High School Girls’ Cross Country team won the 1992 state championship on the Penn State University three-point-one mile course. On the way to the state championship the team won ten dual meets, five invitationals and the WPIAL class AA Championship.
    Jenna Bartolomeo, who at the time was coming off of a bout of the flu, had the team’s best finish coming in fifth with a time of 19:21. Lindsay Rangel (18th 19:56) and CeCe Catello (20th 19:59) also earned medals. Other members of the team were Leslie Rangel, 27th; Alysia Mondell, Maggie Dietrich, and Caroline Abraham. Mondell had missed the four previous days of school because of strep throat but still managed to run at the state meet.
    The PIAA title was the first ever by any Ellwood City team in any sport. The 1925 football team that played in the “National Championship” against Freeport, Illinois won the WPIAL Championship but there were no structured games beyond that. Freeport took it upon themselves to search out the team that would give them the greatest challenge in the country and proposition them to a game.
    If you recall this great cross country team and would like to share a memory, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com