There was a time in our history when Jockey Moore Road was lined with large family owned farms. The farmers helped each other out when possible, especially during harvest time. Walt McQuiston owned the local thrashing machine and would go to all the local farms along Wampum Avenue, Jockey Moore, and couple of farms on Line Avenue Extension. An annual tradition, the wife of the farm the men were working on that day would cook lots of great food. Walt McQuiston is pictured here posing with his J1K Separator thrashing machine with a Frick engine in 1911. Also in the picture are John McQuiston sitting on the wheel and John Wilson on the roof of the engine.
     A couple of the farms included the Phelner farm, located on the east side of Line Avenue Extension almost where Jockey Moore meets today and the Koser Farm (Elijah), opposite Jockey Moore & Line Avenue. The one room school house (still standing today) is located on what was the Clark farm on Jockey Moore Road. 
      In addition to farms, Jockey Moore area was also a productive coal mine. There is a section of the current road that has worn enough that one of the old railcar rails has become exposed again. We would love to hear your memories of this area. Please leave you memories below in the comments section or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    The home at 12 Fifth Street is remembered most commonly as the home of Dr. C.R. Carnahan and family. The doctor purchased the home in 1935  and had his dental office there until he retired in 1993. The office was on the first floor and the Carnahan family lived in the rest of the house. He retired at 89 yrs of age.  His daughter Patricia Carnahan Newton shared the picture with us.
      Anyone who would like to share their memories of the doctor or his family, 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

     This picture is part of a collection once owned by Harry W. Horton, Assistant Borough Engineer under Alex Main from 1920-1925. Most of the pictures show Ellwood City in an important stage of its development as it was getting more of the town out of the mud in the years following World War I.
    This picture is the North end of original Fifth Street Bridge looking West down Wampum Avenue. The house on the right as you are looking at the picture with the clothes hanging out back was once the home of Ellwood City Ledger’s Louise Carroll. Her mother rented the house in the 1940′s when it was owned by Madison Maine.
We have not had a lot of luck uncovering the business that was inside the building on the left at the very end of the bridge. Further down Wampum Avenue across from the house on the right, Morini’s built their neighborhood store. Some of the homes still remained from this picture into the 1940′s as Mrs. Carroll remembers that one of the small houses was still standing and a lonely older lady lived in one. She still has memories of her mother baking homemade bread and occasionally would take her a loaf.
    If you look closely at the picture, there a couple of odd things that kind of stand out, at least to us. The sidewalk on the bridge is paved and looks very fancy, especially since the main roads leading to and from the bridge are all still dirt roads. Another thing that stands out is the rooftop next to the business at the end of the bridge. The building looks to large to be an outhouse but we don’t know what else it could be. The dirt road just seems to drop off into the building also. Like we said, odd.
    If you see something else we missed, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    We posted a number of pictures that Bud Dimeo took of the National Plumbing fire on Second Street in little Italy. In 1959, the year of the fire, South Second Street was the main road in and out of Ellwood City as the four-lane highway was not even considered yet. We focused on the destroyed building itself in the original post, but Tim Gerard pointed out in one of the pictures you can see Summit Avenue before the four-lane cut the road in two. We tried to zoom in the best we could and as you can see, there were a number of houses that were torn down when the four-lane was put in. If you have any memories of the houses that are long gone or the families that were displaced as a result of the highway construction please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    The house at 319 Fourth Street was built in 1925 for Charles and Emma French. Mr. French purchased the lot from Ellwood City’s founder Henry W. Hartman’s sons Holliday Hartman of Zelienople and “Waters” Hartman of Denver, Colorado. Mr. French would later become Pennsylvania’s first Fish Commissioner and later was appointed the Executive Director of Fish Commissioner. During the time Charles worked for The Pennsylvania General Service Administration as a land agent, he was responsible for purchasing most of the land for Moraine State Park.
    On August 27, 1963, Carl “Rizzo” Mantz purchased the home on Fourth Street for his sister Helen (Helen’s Dress Shop) and himself. Rizzo was a star athlete for Ellwood City and would later serve as golf coach and head football coach for Lincoln High School. Mr. Mantz became one of Ellwood City’s finest golfers and was named to Ellwood City Ledger’s Golf Hall of Fame.
    If you have any memories about this house or the families that have lived here, please leave a comment below or email us your memories at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    This beautiful house was built in the middle of a farm with a beautiful view of the Connoquenessing Creek in 1872 (before Ellwood City was founded) for John C. Johnston’s family. The Johnston’s were descendants of Andrew Nye, who settled on the tract of land known as “Great Falls”. He was deeded 343 of the 439 acres that comprised “Great Falls” and settled on the tract in approximately 1788-1789. Mr. Nye is widely believed to be the first white settler within boundaries of Lawrence County. Many families in the area today can trace their descent from this man including all of the Nyes, and the greater majority of the Mains, Deemers, Matheny’s and Johnstons.
     In 1939, Superintendent of Ellwood City Schools, James Ellis Bell and his wife Mary Braham Bell purchased the home. Mr. Bell served as the  Superintendent from 1938 to 1962, longer than anyone has ever held that position in Ellwood City. Mr. and Mrs. Bell’s son Eric is still remembered in the area as having one of, if not the most, memorable championship car in the annual soap box derby.
    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 or the families that lived here, please leave a comment below or email us your memories at info@ellwoodcitymemories.

    The building that today houses Kimmels Bakery on Franklin Avenue was originally a grocery store and the home of Frank Bellissimo. Frank raised his family on the second story above his Clover Farm Grocery Store. When Bellisimo, who often traveled abroad, would go on an extended trip he would leave the Clover Farm grocery store and meat market to be managed by his brother-in-law Frank DeMauro.
    We have had some difficulty uncovering when Clover Farm closed and Kimmels Bakery opened. If you may be the person to answer this, we would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below, or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com
    A personal memory I recall was during the summer Lincoln High School offered students the chance to take their History class during the summer and be done in six weeks instead of taking it all year long. To a tenth grader this sounded like a great deal and I jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunely it wasn’t until school started in the fall that I realized that history was one of the classes that helped me get through the typical school day. Back to my point, the entire summer we would get 15-20 minutes for lunch and none of us had a driver’s license so we had the choice of packing a lunch, Johnny’s if it was open, Four Star, or Kimmels Bakery. For one dollar and fifty cents we could get a couple long donuts filled with crème and covered in powder sugar and milk. I ate more donuts that summer than I have my entire life. Hmm, come to think of it, that might explain my weight problem.

    The house at 414 Division Avenue doesn’t look to peculiar from the street except that it has two front doors from being transformed into a duplex. However, once you see a glimpse from the side, you notice that the building stretches back forty yards to the alley. Some might recall seeing two large delivery trucks with big bold letters stating “Mrs. Smith’s Noodles” parking inside the garage doors at the rear of the building.
    Considered one of the strongest businesses in Ellwood City, the Mrs. C.H. Smith Noodle Factory at 414 Division Avenue was considered among  National Tube Co. and Mathews Conveyor as the business leaders of Ellwood City. Employing all women (except the truck drivers) Mrs. Smith mass produced one of the tastiest noodles of its time. Unfortunately, her secret ingredient – wheat from Russia, is what also forced the Noodle factory to close during World War II.
    The Noodle Factory was the first company to put their noodles in “kerosene bags” (clear plastic polyethylene bags) and sold their product to the many corner grocery stores in town and beyond to neighboring states. Mrs. C.H. Smith started the business in 1921 after developing the recipe herself. The business thrived for many years and was one of the few businesses that actually grew during the Great Depression. Mrs. Smith Noodles continued to grow and plans were made to enlarge the business and go national with their special noodle, until June of 1941. That summer, Hitler invaded Russia and Mrs. Smith was unable to get her special wheat. The business came to a standstill until finally closing sometime after 1942.
    If you recall these noodles or have any memories of Mrs. Smith or the house at 414 Division Avenue, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. We would like to thank Louise Carroll for all of this information that we got from the terrific article she wrote for the Ellwood City Ledger.

    Frank Paglia (also known as Frank Straw) had the commercial building at 817 Second Street built in 1918 for his store. Frank’s first wife died in 1921 and he remarried Linda Giovanno of Naples, Italy. The two of them along with Frank’s children, operated a store in the two story brick building. After Frank’s death, the property was sold to Nick and Emma Rocco who owned the Rocco Store across Second Street at the time. Mrs. Paglia took her share and invested it in a small store with a house at 32 Line Avenue (corner of Line Avenue and Smiley Street). Many people have shared their memories about Paglia’s store across from Barry’s.
    We have heard that Mrs. Paglia was the only store in Hazel Dell that would give you the refund on empty soda bottles and PEM Morris shared how his mom often sent him to Paglia’s for milk and DeRosa’s bread. He also recalled getting his first baseball cards of the season at Linda’s as she always seemed to get them before anyone else.
    He also shared with us his memories of years later taking his own children to Paglia’s store when they were small to pick out penny candy. Linda, as always, waited patiently for them to make their choices. For the young children, it was one of the highlights of the family trips to Ellwood City and they still remember it today.
    If you would like to share your memories of Paglia’s store, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    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

    The house located at 131 Fountain Avenue was built by Joseph McCandless in 1901 and his family continued to own the house over the next hundred years. This was the second house Mr. McCandless built as he and his brother built the very first brick residence at 622 Wayne Avenue in 1893.
    I remember growing up a couple of blocks away and recall thinking that the family that lived there (Agey’s) at the time were living in a castle. With the rounded brick porch and the “tower”, of course this house in my mind had to be a castle. I also remember the giant pine trees that lined the Second Street side of the yard. The house looked so much bigger when they were cut down.
    Joe wasn’t done building brick houses as he built the large brick garage behind the house on Fountain Avenue with a large apartment above it in 1902. He later built additional brick houses in the same vicinity, the first facing Fountain Avenue and the other one facing the alley. He later built brick houses on Line Avenue Extension, the brick house at 700 Orchard Avenue, and a brick house on Fourth Street that is still owned by his grandchildren today.
    If you have any old stories you would like to share about any of these homes or the people that have lived in them over the years, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com.