I have come across a dozen various pictures, postcards, and advertisements showing the outside of the Hotel Oliver (later named the Hotel Lawrence) on Crescent Avenue. The only interior picture I had come across was taken inside the elaborate dining room. Then I had someone share this picture of the interior of the lobby of the Hotel Lawrence and I was very excited to share it with you. This picture gives us a good idea of how elaborate the hotel was in a town that still had unpaved muddy streets.

     The wood work and dental molding around the front desk and fireplace is very elaborate and detailed. The trim around the ceiling of the room and the wainscot below the chair railing around the room are also very intricate. In addition to the hard wood floors and pocket doors, you might notice the decorative details on the ceiling and the florals on the lamps hanging also hanging from the ceiling.

     The picture from inside the hotel’s dining room shows us that the fine details continued throughout the modern building. The finely uniformed staff is posing around the elaborately decorated banquet table. The table appears to be set for forty guests with fine linens, decorative serving pieces, cutlery, glassware and other ornate table settings. The settings are made complete with high back solid wood chairs and numerous fresh flowers. Other details from around the room include windows that seem to stretch from the hardwood floors to the ten to twelve foot ceiling. Eight foot tall doorways, decorative wood trim including crown molding and electric lights. The Hotel was the first building in town that had electric power provided from the dam on the Connoquenessing Creek.

If you notice something we missed in the pictures or feel that the two large dark colored bowls on the floor by the front desk were something other than spittoons, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

This picture taken in 1968 is of the commonly known intersection of Fifth Street and Lawrence Avenue, which at the time was a one way street. As you can see from the picture, some of the business at the time included Oswald’s  that was on the first floor of the “Stiefel Building” and on the first floor of the “Simon Building” there was a sign for what I believe is Albert Your Druggist.

     Other businesses in the picture you may recall include the two on Fifth Street; Porter Funeral Home in the current Historical Society Building to the right and across the street is a large sign for General Finance Loans. If this is how you remember Lawrence Avenue, then you should also recognize Peoples National Bank on the northeast corner and on the northwest corner I believe is Young’s Drug Store.

A common statement I hear from people is how they remember Lawrence Avenue like these old pictures and how nice it was to grow up at a time like this. The busy street scene with lots of cars and people walking up and down the street going in and out of multiple stores. There was a time when the wide sidewalks along Lawrence weren’t wide enough.

I am hoping I got the two drug stores names correct, if not I have a good feeling that someone will let us know exactly what we are looking at so any feedback you might have would be appreciated. You can leave your comments below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

In 1908 fifteen year old Carmine Troino left San Georgio, Italy with his older brother to try to make themselves a better life in America. The same customs broker that would not allow his brother into the country also changed Carmine’s name to Charles Turner. Mr. Turner, who could not speak English, followed other Italian immigrants to Greensburg, Pennsylvania. It was there that he came across a newspaper ad for a barber wanted at the National Tube Company in Ellwood City. Not only did he cut hair at the tube mill all day but he also would cut hair at his house on Hillside Avenue and eventually opened his own barbershop on Lawrence Avenue.

Everyday management personnel from National Tube stopped for their “shave and hair cut” (25¢ cash). These daily stops helped him get through the Great Depression and in turn he was able to help his neighbors in Little Italy. The Turners lived on the corner of Bell Avenue and Fourth Street and built several $3,000 houses on Hillside Avenue. Charles was able to send his second son Kenneth to college to pursue his desire to be a funeral director after his oldest son Gene joined Navy where he served as a radio man and as a barber. After the Navy, Gene the red headed Italian became second chair in his fathers shop.

At a time when it was common for men to get a haircut once a week, turners Barber Shop boasted six chairs and no waiting. Turners was reportedly the first barber shop in Ellwood to have a television for its customers. In 1960, Gene installed the television so his customers could watch the Pirates who were going to the World Series that year.

After developing Hodgkin’s disease in the mid-40’s, Charlie (along with some of the family) moved to California for his health. Gene stayed in Ellwood to manage the shop and his brother Kenneth also remained in the Ellwood to operate his funeral home. Not one to sit still, Turner looked around his new home in the Los Angeles area and decided the area needed a motel.

From time to time Charlie would visit Ellwood City and go into the shop, move now first chair Gene’s tools to the second chair and begin cutting hair – it was his shop. Gene would eventually own the barbershop at 405 Lawrence Avenue that he managed for his dad and where his family lived on the second floor. In 1963, Gene sold the barber shop and the former second chair moved to California to become a barber to the stars.

Gene became a barber/stylist at Cosmo Sardo’s Art Gallery, Hairstyling, and Barber Salon around the corner from the famous Schwab’s Drug Store in Hollywood. The salon/art studio was everything you can imagine complete with martinis and hors d’oeuvres for customers. Gene not only cut the movie stars hair, but he himself was in a number of Gillette commercials.

Gene’s daughter Linda Turner Tidemanson of Winnetka, California once shared that she had no choice but to be “good” during her time in Ellwood. In our small town, everyone knew her dad and everyone knew she was Gene Turners daughter so she had to behave. In 1963 Gene sold his shop to Joe DeLisio who had started working the sixth chair at the shop in 1953 while in the 10th grade at Lincoln High School.

    Did you know the Elwood City area used to have a pizza shop? Okay, so we still have one or two, however, do you remember Frisco Pizza in the Franklin Plaza? Here is a picture from the Ellwood City Ledger showing the owner Ed Kingston pilling on the toppings. Frisco Pizza differentiated itself from the other various pizza shops in town as they delivered.

      There has been a lot of discussion about the business section of Hazel Dell at the end of the Veterans Bridge, but here is a new name. The first of the buildings erected in the “downtown” section on the south side of Wampum Avenue east of the former Fifth Street Bridge was home to the Zona & Sulia Confectionery. The building was built by T.C. Marshall. Pictured here outside the confectionery building are Mike Sulia and his daughter Effie.

      I have gotten a number of pictures from Betty Fontana and others that feature the Newton family including a number of pictures of the famous Washer Gang. I was curious as to why this one family in particular was so photographed in a period where “snapshots” were not common. Then I received this picture of the Newton Brothers picking up their shipment by train. In the bottom of the picture it is stamped by the photographer H.C. Newton.
      Thanks to H.C. we get to enjoy these pictures of the Newton Brothers Liquor Store a century later.
      The two pictures of the wagon loads of Standard Beer from Kittanning PA and New Castle Beer (among other beverages), are timeless photographs; and they make me feel a little sorry for the horses. The picture of the single wagon is clearly marked License No. 26 and the horse is also tagged with the same license number. I am curious if that is a liquor license or if that license is required to pickup cargo from the P&LE railroad cars?
     The Newton Bro. Liquor Store was owned by Ellwood City Memories contributor Ralph Newton’s grandfather, Thomas J. Newton. I have not been successful in finding whom the brothers were that may have been business partners with Thomas, if there ever were any.
We would enjoy hearing your memories. Please share below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      Ellwood City had a few Duck Pin lanes in town, but as for actual bowling alleys go, there were only two or three of those. The one most folks remember was the bowling alley on Woodside Avenue (Ellwood-New Castle Road or Route 65). In the last twenty years the name changed two or three times, but I believe it was Woodside Lanes the longest. Please correct if I am wrong.
      Another popular bowling alley in town was the bowling alley pictured here. The building was torn down awhile back to expand McElwain Brothers used auto lot, but many people still remember the bowling alley. The only name I could find for the bowling alley was the Ellwood Bowling Alley (1964 Phone Book) but I do not ever remember it being called that.
Do you remember the bowling alley on Lawrence Avenue? We would like to hear your memories. Please share below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      The single story stone and brick building on the corner of Ninth Street and Lawrence Avenue has one of the most storied histories in Ellwood City. Originally built as a two story stone building, it housed the Pittsburg Company Offices and was officially named the Bank Building of the Pittsburg Company. The second story housed the offices of the company Hartman used to build his town. The first floor was home to the First National Bank of Ellwood City which was organized in 1892. Many of the young town’s most influential men were at one time or another involved in the bank including J.H. Gelbach, president; H. S. Blatt, vice-president, and former board of directors’ members Frank Moore and Captain A.C. Grove.
      The Ellwood City Ledger would later operate out of the stone building, but expansion was necessary. A brick addition was added to the east side and rear (south) of the building. Additional office space was added out the East side and in 1963 the second story of the original building was removed.
      The giant safe of First National Bank is still located inside the Ledger building today but was sealed shut for many years as no one had the combination to open it. When the safe was finally cracked open, to everyone’s disappointment nothing of significant value was found inside.

There has been a lot more feedback from those born at the old Mary Evans Maternity Hospital than I could have imagined. A lot of the website’s regulars have commented on the old hospital post however Mr. Newton went one step further. Mr. Ralph Newton of Colorado was born at the Ellwood City Hospital on November 13, 1927 and he still has the bill to prove it.

    His parents (Ralph W. & Helen Newton) were billed $45.50 for Helen’s 11 day stay at the hospital and $5.50 for little baby Ralph’s 11 day stay. The blood work in the laboratory was an additional $5, a $7.50 fee for the Special Nurses Board, and the $5 fee for the delivery itself rounded out $68.50 bill.
Not only does Mr. Newton have the bill from his birth, but he also has the cancelled check. I am not sure which document is more fascinating. The check has a five digit account number and the check number is hand written. I have a hard enough time keeping track of my account now; if I lived in 1927 my wife would have strangled me.
    Please remember this was 1927, $68.50 was probably a month’s wages back then. There is quite a difference from then to today where my Emergency Room co-pay is $200.
Thank you Mr. Newton, and happy belated 84th birthday.

      If the Country Squire Inn does not look familiar to you, perhaps you might recognize the land along route 65. The motel was located on the ground Christy’s Plaza including Trader Horn is located today.
      The Country Squire would later become the Ellwood Motel. Back before the Interstate, a lot of travelers came through Ellwood City and the Ellwood Motel was a popular rest stop. When this picture was taken in March of 1970, Calgon Corporation was not yet located where the picture was taken from.
Normally this is the place I ask you to share your memories of the topic, but I have a few reservations about asking you for your memories of the motel. If you do wish to share, please share your memories below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. Please keep in mind this is a family oriented web site.

Mr. Spoa had been in the grocery business in Ellwood City as long ago as 1922, which was the same time he arrived in Ellwood City. “Uncle Gus” as he was affectionately known, came to this country from a war torn Yugoslavia in 1922 through Ellis Island at the age of seventeen to join his brother. Originally born in the village of Gobesh, Macedonia (later part of Yugoslavia) May 12, 1905, he was one of eleven children.
    His brother Ernest, who came to Ellwood City in 1917, was in the grocery business with Gus Henton at the corner of First Street and Spring Avenue. Costa Spoa later became a partner in the business when his brother died of appendicitis at the age of 26 on February 22, 1923. At that time, the area the store was located in was still part of Burnstown. Mr. Spoa returned to Yugoslavia in 1930 to marry his business partner Mr. Henton’s sister Donce Torbu on November 28th 1930.
As his family grew larger and Henton’s family also grew, the store was no longer able to sustain both families. Mr. Spoa branched out on his own and developed Spoa’s Market on First Street (later First Street Bakery & currently an apartment) in1940. Eventually he moved the market to Spring Avenue at the present site of Pizza Joes. In 1960, he built the Wampum Avenue Value King Store and leased it to Loblaw. 1963 Costa bought the “8 till Late” store in Frisco (later Riverside Chrsyler Dodge) and in 1965 he developed Christy’s Plaza which has housed a grocery store, a bank, pharmacy, restaurant, and other stores over the years. The grocery store at the plaza originally was not Costa Spoa’s store as it was leased out. The Spoas bought the former Herberts Market in Ellport in 1974 and sold the Spring Avenue location to Mario Morini in 1965. In 1985, Uncle Gus opened Christy’s Market in Christy’s Plaza in Franklin Township.
Mr. Spoa saw the grocery business change around him from a time when grocers went to the customers to get their order and groceries were delivered later in the day to a time when nothing was purchased with money but instead everything was bought on credit, to the current state of the industry today. He was one of the last area business men that could recall the days when supplies were unloaded from the Harmony Line street cars onto a horse drawn wagon and the cash registers were all hand cranked.
Costa Spoa was an avid supporter of the community receiving awards for his support of the Boy Scouts, the local YMCA and almost every other organization that asked. Since he spent up to 18 to 20 hours a day at the store, he had little time to join the various organizations himself. To say that Mr. Spoa was just a strong supporter of the Monastery of Transfiguration in Wurtemburg would be a gross understatement.
A little unknown fact is that Mr. Spoa owned the area’s first television; a large consol television with a seven inch black and white screen. He owned the television so early in the television era that he actually had to wait for the Dumont Station (later KDKA) to start broadcasting so he could use it. Even though there was no broadcast, people would come into the store just to see the test pattern on this new fangled machine.
Uncle Gus’s life in Ellwood City had a rocky beginning in Ellwood City as the passenger train he rode from Pittsburgh to Ellwood City in was involved in a collision with a freight train in the tunnel in Frisco. Even with the rough start, Mr. Spoa was a true patriot. He was very proud of America and that he became a citizen of this country. He loved the opportunities this country offered and the life he was able to have here.
If you would like to share your memories of “Uncle Gus” please leave a comment below or you can email us by clicking HERE.

      Paul W. Blocher opened Blocher Jewelers and Silversmiths in the 600 block of Lawrence Avenue in the summer of 1907. The shop moved to 314 Sixth Street for a number of years before settling in at the location most of us are familiar with at 507 Lawrence Avenue in 1947.
For a little over sixty years, Blochers was a staple of downtown Ellwood City before moving to a larger location in the Franklin Township Plaza. We have heard from a number of people that remember the unique black marble front and how it just seemed to “class up” the area. So many Ellwoodians have a tie to Blochers either through engagement rings, wedding gifts, anniversary gifts, Christmas gifts and so on. When someone mentions Blochers, it seems that everyone is inclined to give an inventory of the important items they purchased there through the years.
      Paul’s daughter Ruth took over the business her father started in 1938. The Ellwood City’s Centennial Queen’s daughter Rikki continued the business until 1999 when her daughter Mary took over and became the fourth generation to carry on the family business.