Monthly Archives: May 2010

    In 1925, Franklin Township built an eight-room, two-story red brick building to replace the two-room North Star School at the corner of Mercer Road and Zelienople Road. The students from the old Frisco School and the old North Star building were assigned to the new brick building for the 1925-1926 school year. The Frisco School building reverted back to its owner from when it was an old bank building.
    In 1931, plans were made for an eight-room addition to the North Star School but the proposed $25,000 bond issue to build was rejected. The school continued to grow and as other schools in the area closed the students were sent to the brick North Star building. The Old Furnace School closed in 1943, Greenwood closed in 1947, and the American School was shut down in 1948.
   The school was used for pupils from first grade through eighth grade. After eighth grade, the North Star students were sent to Ellwood City, Zelienople, or Beaver Falls High Schools to finish their education.
     The school was eventually torn down after standing empty for a number of years to make room for a shopping plaza along the four lane highway (Route 288). We would love to hear any memories you may have of the old North Star School. If you would like to share, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    In 1894, the Swiss-born engineer Ralph C. Stiefel came to the Ellwood City from England to work for the Ellwood Weldless Company. Along with becoming a stockholder in the company, Stiefel accepted the position of general manager and introduced his own patented process for making seamless tubing. Ellwood Weldless became the first company in the United States to make tubing by the Stiefel method making it one of the leaders in the tubing industry.
     By 1908, the U.S. Steel Ellwood plant had consolidated the Shelby Steel Tube Company (Mill A) and National Steel Tube Company (Mill B) into the National Tube Company (a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation) and all the seamless tube works was produced in Ellwood City. Due to the growth, the Ellwood City Works of the National Tube Company expanded to 127 total acres with 23 acres under a roof with an annual capacity of 350,000 gross tons of tubular goods by 1942 and employment during World War II reached 4,000 employees.
     In 1974, U.S. Steel closed its doors in Ellwood City and the last seamless tube was produced at the National Tube Company. When the plant closed everything that was not sold off, was to be shipped to the Gary, Indiana plant however not everything made it. In the U.S. Steel (Ellwood Works) conference room was a beautiful hand made table with a glass top and under the glass were samples of all the products the Ellwood Works produced. These pieces of tubing were not made for this specific purpose but were taken from parts of tubing made to customers order and thus demonstrate to some extent the wide adaptability and range of shapes and sizes of this interesting material. The Shelby Seamless Steel Tubing could be formed into a large variety of shapes and uses were almost limitless.
    The legs of the table were taken off of the table and the table top went to Mr. Stiefel’s family. Someone asked his daughter what she planned to do with the decorative piece. Since she had no plans for the piece, it was given to the local citizen who had himself worked at U.S. Steel and hung in his home, where it still hangs today.
    If you would like to comment on this post, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    Ellwood Shafting & Tubing Company was the first manufacturing institution to establish itself in Ellwood City in 1891 and the first to manufacture seamless tubing in the United States. Just three years later in October of 1894, the Ellwood Shafting & Tube Company was sold to H.A. Lozier the “Bicycle King of America” and the name of the company was changed to Ellwood Weldless Tube Company. Ellwood Tubeless produced the seamless tubes for the H.A. Lozier & Company who was the original producer of “Cleveland” bicycles. The seamless tubes were produced in Ellwood City and shipped to Toledo, Ohio where they were assembled by H.A. Lozier & Company (later Lozier Mfg).
    Lozier continued production until selling the bicycle portion of the business to Col. Pope of the American Bicycle Company towards the end of 1899 (just before the bicycle industry crash) for quite a lot of money. Lozier Manufacturing and the Cleveland brand also separated at that point. H.A. Lozier went into the boat engine business, and then his heirs went into the automobile business.
    The Ellwood Weldless Tube Company continued to produce the tubing primarily for the bicycle industry and boilers until 1898 when the United States declared war on Spain in the Spanish-American War. During the war, there was a subtle shift from the previous gun barrels types to the seamless tube gun barrels. Then when World War I broke out in 1914, the mill was primarily converted to the production of tubes to be used in the assembling of military guns.
    The bicycle pictured here is an 1898 Cleveland “37″. The original selling price was $65.00 and came in two colors, black enamel or optional green enamel. The handlebars on the bicycle are not flipped upside-down, but this was permissible since these were called “reversible handlebars.” We have been told that these were the type of bicycles that were raced “professionally” around Pittsburgh Circle when it was used in that capacity from 1895 to 1905. What we have not yet been able to uncover was that since the road was not paved at this time and Ellwood City was infamous for the muddy roads were there wood planks laid on the road or did they race in the mud?
    If you would like to share any memories you may have about the mill, or bike races around Pittsburgh Circle, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    November 4th 1987, Ellwood City property owners and business people debated a request from Sheetz Inc. to build a convenience store in the borough at the northeast corner of Fifth Street and Fountain Avenue. Arguments against the proposed convenience store pointed out the possible impact on traffic patterns, noise, gasoline fumes, and the effect on the residential atmosphere of the area. Additional arguments stated that there were already seventeen service stations in Ellwood City which were locally owned and the $75,000 per month Sheetz expected to make from gasoline sales would be “taken from local owners and will not be spent here but will go to Altoona”
    Obviously the request from Sheetz Inc. was not approved and fast food chain McDonalds would later purchase the property and continues operation there today.

    The house at 110 Gregg Street has had many different looks over the years and dates back along with one of the older structures in Ellwood City. The building that stood almost against the Baltimore & Ohio railroad tracks that ran through Hazel Dell was originally the Cole farm barn. The Coles were one of the original landowners in Hazel Dell and the original farm house still stands on the south side of Wampum Avenue just before the “S” bend at the western border of Ellwood City. Originally the house faced south and was given a Wampum Avenue address (800 Rear). It was not until 2007 that 911 emergency responses changed the street address to the present 110 Gregg Street to eliminate confusion.
    Until the Ellwood City Short-line was completed in 1891, the railroad ran through Hazel Dell. The B&O line ran up what today is Wampum Avenue heading west until it met North Street. From the Southern most point of North Street the line veered a little North and would run right through what is today Tony’s Distributor drive through. From Tony’s, the tracks continued west along the present alleys just north of  Wampum Avenue running right beside the old Cole family barn. After Gregg Street, Wampum Avenue turns north at the “S” bend and meets up with the abandoned railroad right away again. 
    Even after the house was converted into a residence in the early part of the 1920′s it still wasn’t completed. Since that time, there have been four additions to the house, one in all four directions. The extension out of the front of the hose may have been the result of a motor vehicle rolling down the steep hill of Gregg Street. The Beaver County Times reported on April 27, 1982 that an eighteen year old Ellwood City man was in fair condition after being flown by life-flight helicopter to Presbyterian University Hospital in Pittsburgh with head injuries. He was a passenger in a Jeep that crashed into the front porch of the Ralph Bognoski residence causing the living room wall to collapse. Four members of the Bognoski family, who were watching television in the room, were slightly injured from falling debris according to the police report. The house has since been restored and was featured on the 2008 Women’s Auxiliary Christmas House Tour. 
    If you have any memories you would like to share of the house at 110 Gregg Street or of the families that once lived here, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    There were a number of homes and businesses along Ellwood-Zelienople Road and South Second Street that were torn to build the new four lane highway. We would appreciate any memories you might have of these buildings or pictures you may be able to share as we are working on a full story about these.
    We are going to focus on one of those businesses now that you might recall. Do you remember Easy’s Twin Kiss, located a little north and on the opposite side of the road as the old North Star School? Easy’s Twin Kiss was a classic drive-up on Ellwood-Zelienople Road that served hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, pulled pork barbeque sandwiches, steak sandwich, homemade soup, and more. People remember going there just for the delicious ice cream, milkshakes, and of course the famous Big Kiss Sundae.
    Yes, they had good food, yes they had good ice cream, but you can not mention Easy’s Twin Kiss without mentioning their famous home-made root-beer. Easy’s served their root-beer in large thick heavy frozen glass mugs. The mugs were so nice that they had a difficult time getting the mugs back after someone ordered a root-beer.
    If you remember Easy’s Twin Kiss and would like to share your memories of the old drive-up, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com