Monthly Archives: September 2010

    At the corner of North Street and Line Avenue was Pinkey James Gulf Station. The service station used to be the hang out for the Road Rebel Car Club which Pinkeys son, Earl was a member.

     Pinkey’s Gulf Station later became Luttons Atlantic and then eventually Buccelli’s ARCO. In the 70′s, Buccelli’s added a restaurant in the back of the service station. Those that lived in Hazel Dell around the service station all knew when there was a fire because the fire whistle was located on top of the gas station and an older gentleman, Mr. Potter would go out and direct traffic for the firemen and tell them where the fire was.

    If you remember when the Central Tax Bureau building was a gas station, we would love to hear your memories, or any memories you might have of the Road Rebel Car Club. Please share your memories below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    The story of the 1985 Riverside Panthers Football team actually begins with the last game of the 1984 WPIAL Class AA Championship game that took place in New Castle, PA. Beaver Falls edged out Riverside 14-13 to capture the crown. Flash forward to week seven of the regular season in 1985 when Riverside hosted the defending WPIAL Class AA champions Beaver Falls. Riverside and Beaver Falls were battling for the MAC conference lead along with Beaver and cross town rival Ellwood City.
    After leading for almost the entire second half of the game, Riverside watched Beaver Falls tie the game 7-7 halfway through the fourth quarter when Beaver Falls capped an eighty yard, twelve play touchdown drive. Then with six minutes and thirty-one seconds to go in the final quarter, 5-8″ 137 pound junior reserve running back Curt Houk took the ensuing kick-off and rattled off a ninety-two yard kickoff return behind a tremendous block from Mark Altsman giving Riverside a 14-7 lead that would ultimately be the final score in the Panther victory.
    Of course Houk did not win the game by himself but rather Head Coach Karl Florie’s game plan of ball control offense was more of a factor. Mike Potter had 127 yards rushing on 34 carries and scored the first touchdown of the game with twelve seconds remaining in the first half. A half of football that seen Riverside run forty-four plays to Beaver Falls fourteen plays. But the capper was when Beaver Falls drove down to Riverside’s nine yard line with forty-five seconds remaining in the game. Beaver Falls quarterback Arthur Henderson was chased out of the pocket and tried to hit his receiver at the goal line but was picked off by Altsman to clinch the game. The victory left Riverside and Beaver tied for the MAC lead with Ellwood City and Beaver Falls now a half game behind.
    After Beaver Falls, Riverside played Quaker Valley before facing Ellwood City for what be the MAC Championship. Against Quaker Valley, Riverside rolled up 434 total yards total; 366 of those yards coming on the ground lead by Senior halfback Mike Potter. Riverside easily won 39 to 6 improving their record to 7-1, 6-1 in the MAC section.
    The back yard rivalry game between Riverside and Ellwood City carried more heat than usual and the MAC Championship. The highly anticipated game was decided very early in the game when Ellwood City was unable to get two punts offs resulting in two cheap Panther touchdowns. Mike Potter recovered both bobbled snaps; the first on the one yard line, the second was recovered on Ellwood City’s seventeen. Ellwood scratched back to within four points at halftime though. 
    The second half saw Ellwood City drive all the way down to the five yard line but it was Riverside’s Craig Richards that came up with a big tackle on fourth down to keep Ellwood City out of the end zone. After the momentum deflating fourth down goal line stance, Riverside was able to move the ball and control the clock deep into the fourth quarter. Riverside iced the victory when Quarterback Melfi broke loose from five yards out to put Riverside up 21 – 10.
    The first round of the playoffs witnessed Riverside outlast Sto-Rox 22-20 at Riverside. The second round matched Riverside up with Freeport and the weather was not kind. With two minutes left in regulation in a steady downpour that caused the field to resemble a swamp more than a football field, Riverside was down to third and goal at Freeport’s five yard line with the score tied 0-0. A mishandled exchange between quarterback and center put the ball on the ground and Freeport jumped on it. The game was going to overtime.
    In overtime, Freeport won the coin toss but rather than taking the ball, elected to defend a specific goal. The rules at the time stated that each team got one possession in which it had four downs to score. Riverside got the ball at the 10-yard line first. On the first play of the first overtime period ever played by a Beaver County team, Riverside Quarterback Melfi rolled right and ran ten yards for a touchdown. Melfi’s extra point kick attempt fell short giving Freeport an opportunity.
    Freeport’s turn. On first and ten, the WPIAL single season scoring record holder (205 points) Jeff Christy burst up the middle for a six yard gain. Second and four saw Christy gain one yard and third down was stopped for no gain. On fourth and three, Freeport quarterback Chris Zema floated a pass into the end zone where Altsman intercepted it to win the game and put the Riverside Panthers back into the WPIAL Championship game for the second year in a row.
    A second chance that Riverside would seize with a 21-15 victory over 10-3 Swissvale. Riverside (12-1) won the 1985 Class AA championship, the first championship ever for the Panthers. Swissvale running back Brian Chizmar rushed for 153 yards on 27 carries and scored two touchdowns, but he was upstaged by the performance of Riverside quarterback Mark Melfi. The six foot 180 pound senior rushed for 125 yards on fourteen carries and completed six of eight passes for eighty-four yards and accounted for all three Riverside touchdowns. Melfi also intercepted a pass late in the game to seal the Panther Championship.
    We would appreciate any memories of the championship run twenty five years ago you may have or pictures you would be willing to share. Please leave any comments below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

     According to the Lincoln High School Marching Blue Band’s Facebook page, the Lincoln High School Blue Band was created in 1958, when the school colors were changed from Maroon and Gray to Royal Blue and White. Since that year, the band under the direction of the original general manager Mr. Weinstein has been known as the Blue Band. Throughout the years the Blue Band has kept with it’s traditional high step marching. Band director Mr. Paul Berendt in 2002 switched the Marching Blue Band to an all brass format, similar to Ohio State University’s Marching Band. 
     Now under the direction of Mr. Lee Caldwell Jr., the Blue Band has kept up the traditions that have made it the “Pride of Ellwood City” marching band while adding the newest feature and fan favorite “The Funk”. 
     The LHS Blue Band has performed in numerous states and other countries since it’s inception in 1958 and thousands of Ellwoodians have been members of not only the marching band but also the numerous Lincoln High School ensembles including; Pep Band, Jazz Ensemble I, Jazz Ensemble II, Jazz Ensemble III, Commencement Band, Junior High Band, and the Elementary Band. We would enjoy hearing your favorite memory from not only those who served in the band, but those that have enjoyed the band’s performances in the numerous festivals, sporting events, parades, competitions and so on. Please share your memories below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

     The Hazel Club Beverage Company on Wampum Avenue was not the only bottling company in Ellwood City. The Hires Bottling Company was a prominent site on Lawrence Avenue during the 1950′s and 1960′s. This picture was taken by the Ellwood City Ledger in 1968. Today, this is where McElwain Legend used car lot is located.
    The Hires Bottling Company bottled the popular orange pop Crush and one of the oldest root beers in the country, Hires Rootbeer. If you remember the large building on Lawrence Avenue and would like to share any memories, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

     In 1922, the Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler & New Castle Railway Company created the Harmony Short Line Motor Transportation Company primarily for freight purposes but the busses were soon after used to supplement the Beaver Falls branch of the trolley line. Additional bus lines were added by 1924 to supplement Ellwood City and New Castle rail service along with a new route in 1925 between Butler and New Castle where rail service was not present. These bus lines were originally used primarily for getting freight and additional passengers to and from the already established trolley operation. 
     In 1929 a new route was added to the regularly scheduled routes between Pittsburgh and Zelienople which was extended in 1930 to Ellwood City. The extended route connected Pittsburgh to the existing Ellwood City – New Castle route.
     Unfortunately due to increasing popularity of privately owned automobiles and ultimately the Great Depression; in April of 1931, the entire Harmony system including bus and trolleys went into receivership. The Harmony rail service was eliminated and the Ellwood City – Beaver Falls – New Castle portion was converted to bus operation.
     It was reported on August 12, 1954 that two men purchased the Ellwood City Motor Coach Company from Beaver Valley Motor Coach who had purchased the company in 1952. Donald Wooster of Koppel, who was employed at Ellwood City Motor for fifteen years and Gerald Wallace of Ellwood City purchased the bus line and renamed it Wooster-Wallace Motor Coach line. 
     We have heard that there were a number of bus stops in Ellwood City including the main stop at the Jayhawk Restaurant on Lawrence Avenue. Lincoln High School students from Ellport had the option of either walking through Burnstown and around the tube mill to school or pay to ride the city bus each day. Other bus terminals we have heard about included a stop in Wurtemburg, Ellport, Wampum, Chewton, and stops in Hazell Dell. 
     We would love to hear your memories of the busses in and around Ellwood City. Please leave a comment below or email us your memories at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

     The Hazel Club Beverage Company was located along Wampum Avenue heading towards Chewton. We recently heard from Sam Guerrera whose Grandfather owned and operated the Hazel Club Pop Factory in the 1950′s and 1960′s.
    He recalled that the “Factory” was in the basement of his grandparents’ house and was really not that large. The company delivered to various locations in Ellwood City, New Castle, Beaver Falls, and points in between. He also recalled that from time to time he and his cousins would take the large bottles, shake them up and have pop fights, instead of squirt guns.
     The back of the clear bottle reads; ” For Better Flavor – For Better Quality – drink A Better Beverage. Contains carbonated water, sugar, artificial flavor, and color (What, no high fruitoces corn syrup?), bottled by Hazel Club Beverage Company Ellwood City, PA.
    The Hazel Club Beverage Company had various flavors as you can see by the attached pictures. If you recall the pop or even the company itself and would like to share your memories, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

     Mark Barnes recently shared with us a number of pictures taken to chronicle the construction of the Ellwood City Post Office beginning in 1932 through completion in 1933. We will get all of the pictures onto the website soon but we wanted to just give a little glimpse of what is to come. McGlincy Studio took this great picture from atop of either the 7-L building that burned down or from the building that formally housed Four Star Pizza next to the alley.
    This picture quickly became one of our favorites, not only for the picture of the Post Office but more for what you can see in the background. Most of the houses pictured here in 1933 are still standing along Crescent Avenue and look very similar today. As the tube mill was only a couple blocks away, it is safe to assume that these were mill workers homes and a couple of the “giant” houses (sixth and eleventh house on the south side of Crescent Avenue) were probably boarding houses.
    The houses are not the only fascinating buildings in the picture. If you look just beyond the church in the right of the picture, you get an un-obscured view of the old Hospital on the hill. To us at least, this is an incredible view as today it is hard to picture the old hospital without it being mostly hidden from view behind trees.
    With the brick paved roads, the old car, the two foot diameter telephone pools and the fancy street lights hanging from them, and so on and so on. Like we said, it is quickly becoming one of our favorite pictures. If this picture brings back any memories you would like to share, please leave a reply below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

     The “five and ten” store originally featured merchandise priced at only five cents or ten cents. There were a number of these stores like Ben Franklin Stores, and G.C. Murphy’s, and the original “5 & 10″ – Woolworth’s. These stores were also known as nickel and dime, five and dime or dimestores, although later in the twentieth century the price range of merchandise expanded. Inflation eventually dictated that the stores were no longer able to sell any items for five or ten cents, and were then referred to as “variety stores” or more commonly in this area are now known as dollar stores. 
     The first “5 & 10″ store in Ellwood City was not actually G.C. Murphy’s but rather belonged to Horace O. Abbaticchio. Mr. Abbaticchio (1872 – 1970) was involved in a number of popular businesses after coming to Ellwood City in 1900. He was a partner with Mr. Biordi at the Majestic and also was part owner of the Manos Theater for a time. Before he got into the theatre business though, he opened the first 5 & 10 store in Ellwood called Abbey’s Racket Store in 1907. The name of the store later became Abbey’s 5 & 10. 
     Mr. Abbaticchio owned and operated the store until selling it Murphy’s in 1917. G.C. Murphy’s was founded in 1906 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania by George Clinton Murphy. The G.C. Murphy’s in Ellwood was originally located at 631 Lawrence Avenue before moving to the much larger location in the center of the north side of the 500 block of Lawrence Avenue.

     Margaret’s Restaurant was originally located in the building on the corner of Fifth Street and Beaver Avenue. By the time of the big snow storm of 1950, Margaret (Desport) Krause had moved the business to the building next door to the South along Fifth Street.
     We have heard from Doris “Varner” Miller who worked at Margaret’s during that 1950 snow storm. She recalled that Margaret owned the house that is now just two doors down from Alborne tires and the Restaurant on Fifth Street. The house was remodeled to have three or four dining rooms located on the first floor. On Sundays, she would prepare the food at the restaurant and bring it to the house to serve dinner at the house. The area single mill workers would come to the house for the “home cooked”, more family like atmosphere. Doris remembers working all day preparing food and taking it over there to be served. 
     As we mentioned in other posts, Margaret’s Restaurant was known for their pies. Folks that remember the restaurant get that look on their face like they can actually remember how good the pies were when you mention Margaret’s even today. If you remember Margaret’s Restaurant and would like to share your memories, please leave a reply below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com