This picture was taken about 1920 in front of the place the stairs to the Lincoln High School auditorium now stand. The picture was given to a man in Fallston and hung in a barroom in the same town where the locals took bets on which community it was. E.J. Wright of Beaver formerly worked at the Aetna-Standard here in town and recognized the background as Ellwood City.
      Although it is fairly easy to establish the date of the picture as 1920, since that was the date the Simon Building in the background was completed, and it is still under construction in this picture, nobody seems to know for certain just what the occasion was. There are some that seem to think it was a Knights of Pythias program, but that has not been substantiated. A graduation ceremony can be eliminated as Lincoln High School was not built until 1925 and at this time students attended Central Public School on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Sixth Street. The older gentlemen on the left, just right of the band are wearing grand uniforms that tend to be more closely associated with the Knights or with the Odd Fellows. The front row of the picture appears to be younger children wearing “sailor” uniforms with round discs on their heads. The flag on the left would be the biggest indicator as to who these folks were and what they were celebrating.
      Notice the bricks on the left where a house is about to be erected (Evans Home) and the vacant spot where the First Methodist Church now stands. At the time of the picture, the Hotel Lawrence was still standing. At the time of the picture there was a half circle (or crescent, if you will) on Crescent Avenue in front of the old hotel. The hotel could not be accessed from Crescent Avenue, but rather it had a driveway that jutted through Oliver Park behind the hotel and circled up to the front. Crescent Avenue had to have the half circle to accommodate the driveway in front. If you look closely, you can still see the crescent in this picture.
We would like to hear your thought about the picture. Please share them below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      After the 7-L building burned down on the corner of Seventh Street and Lawrence Avenue (get it, 7-L, 7th & Lawrence) the city was worried about having another empty lot downtown and instead decided to try to make the area more attractive. The City Centre Mini-Park was built in 1988 complete with playground equipment for children and a number of benches. The mini park was decorated with multiple bushes and tress.

      The Lawrence Service Station was owned and operated by Merit Haberman when this picture was taken around 1927 or 1928. The station was located where PNC Bank has its drive through facility today.
      Advertisements hanging around the station include multiple signs for Quaker State Motor Oil and for United States Tires.
      Merit Haberman sold the Service Station and moved to Zelienople, where he had a Ford dealership in partnership with his father Lewie Haberman.

      The massive facility known as the Shelby Social Club or the Shelby Clubhouse was built only a very short walk from Shelby Works Park located on the corner of First Street and Fountain Avenue. Mrs. Thornhill shared with us that she remembers the park had an outside swimming pool, tennis courts, playground, a place to wash automobiles and a rooming house.
      The clubhouse on the corner of Pittsburgh Circle and First Street was home to an Olympic size indoor swimming pool, a meeting room, a gymnasium, a six lane bowling alley, billiards, an auditorium, a soda grill, lounge room, cafeteria and a basketball court among other things.  The one thing it was missing was a baseball field, but the tube mill already had one; Shelby Field in the Shelby Land Company’s Plan (later to become Ewing Park.)
      Situated directly beside the P.H.B.&N.C. trolley tracks (today Joffre Street) and Foch Street, the tube mill already owned perhaps the most popular recreation of the time, a baseball field.
      An excerpt from “Hack” written by Bob Boone; “People frequently walked far out of their way just to pass Shelby Field to watch Lew (“Hack” Wilson) bat out long home runs and slide on his belly around the outfield. Careful coaching from (Connie) Wardman combined with Lew’s natural talent produced a ten-year-old who played as well as boys many years older. Most of the adults who came to watch this talented youngster also noted that he did little to conceal his pleasure at playing before an audience.”
      When you combine the Shelby Clubhouse, Shelby Park, and Shelby Field; there is not a popular recreation that is not accounted for. The large recreational plan was all within walking distance of work at the tube mill and the employee’s homes in the Shelby Land Company’s Plan.
      We would enjoy hearing from anyone else that remembers Shelby Works Park. There is very little evidence of it’s existence today except this photograph that simply says “Ellwood City” across the back and the memories of but a few. Please share below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      When heading into Rock Point Park, shortly after crossing the railroad tracks there is a large pond from a limestone quarry that operated on the property after the park closed. The water that filled the quarry had a blue tint and was commonly referred to as “Blue Pond”. The story that we got from Leonard Chapman goes that at end of the shift, the men left the stone quarry and everything was fine. In the morning, something was different, the steam shovel was gone. Supposedly some local teenagers that often visited the quarry after hours managed to fire it up and move it. As legend goes, it did not go far and rests at the bottom of Blue Pond.

      This is what a section of a corner at the Mercer Road and the Ellwood-Zelienople Road intersection looked like on October 22, 1980, before construction of the Franklin Township Plaza started. The highway to the far left is Ellwood-Zelienople Road, in the left center in the background is North Star School and at the right in the background is the Ellwood Knitting Mills facility.
      The second picture is less than a year later. The corner of Mercer Road and Ellwood-Zelienople Road intersection would forever look different as construction work is almost completed on the plaza. Still visible is the North Star School in the background, but the Ellwood Knitting Mills facility is hidden by the plaza. At least five businesses were scheduled to open within the next month inside the plaza. After initial construction, there would be facilities for up to eleven businesses.

      This picture is from a collection of pictures that were recently shared with us. The picture is of the former tube mill taken from the grounds of the old baseball field known as “Tunnel Field”. In the immediate background of the picture is the small village of Burnstown.

      Burnstown is located along the south side of route 488 between Ellwood City and Ellport in the third ward. The area was built up upon the Burns farm that stretched from the Northeastern edge of Ellwood City, east, and included parts of Ellport, Rock Dell, and Wurtemburg Heights. When Merrit Greene was purchasing land for the Pittsburg Company, Burns refused to sell any of his property to the group.

      Burnstown was home to many large homes as you can see in the pictures, and was largely made up of families that worked in the tube mill. Burnstown also housed a number of business including corner grocery stores and barber shops and even had its own school.

      When this Ellwood City Ledger picture was taken in 1969, the 700 block of Beaver Avenue was a parking lot. The lot was formerly owned by the P&LE Railroad and offered “all day parking” for the exuberant amount of twenty five cents.  Today the pictured area includes Huntington National Bank drive-through and Diamond Milling.
      In the background you can see two railroad freight cars sitting in the freight yard and Michael’s Discount Company.

      For awhile now we have been looking for people to share their memories of growing up on Chicken Coop Hill so if you lived there we would love to hear your memories. We would enjoy hearing if you remember your neighbors, the families, any neighborhood parties, in other words – memories.
      Despite conflicting stories, we have uncovered the story behind the name. Chicken Coop Hill is simply called that because of the large number of households that had their own chickens in the back yard – for the fresh eggs we assume. The entire hillside seemed to have a chicken coop or two from “Coop Hill” all the way to “Little Italy”. It was popular for awhile to keep pigeons, so we are not sure if the chicken coops were used for pigeons or for actual chickens. You know what, that is not important – what we would like to hear are the memories you might have of growing up on the hill. Please share your stories below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      Caleb Cragle recently shared this picture from the Ellwood City Ledger taken at the former North Star School. The costumes appear to be very creative and not simply store bought. The time period is reflective of the costumes as the dominating theme include E.T. and Sesame Street characters. Among those pictured in their costume for the party are, seated left to right, Kari Emerick, Jenny Seaman, and Carrie Kotuby. Standing from left include, Mindi Meehan, Bronson Bailey, and Janet Kerr.

     The J. Wilbur Randolph Post of the American Legion was organized in the late summer months of 1919 by honorably discharged veterans of World War I. The post was named in memory of the first resident of Ellwood City to make the ultimate sacrifice in that war. 

     The Legion turned an undesirable triangle of land into a fitting memorial park located at Fourth Street and Spring Avenue. Legion Park was dedicated to the fifteen local men that died in World War I. As part of the tribute, a Norway maple tree was planted for each of the lost soldiers with a granite marker bearing the soldiers name. A captured German Trench mortar was placed at the base of the flag pole at the park dedication on November 11, 1923.

     Additional Memorials have been added since 1923 including an impressive monument “In Honor and Memory of All that Served World War II”. This monument also lists the men and women that died defending us in World War II. Additional monuments include a Pearl Harbor monument in remembrance of December 7th, 1941 and a memorial “In Memory of Ellwood City Area Men and Women Who Served in the Korean War”. This monument lists the eight local men who did not return from Korea including John Walczak, Ralph Taylor, John Bonzo, Gerald Book, Sam Ierino, Dan Hawke, William Francis, & Thad Wiegel.

      We have heard from a couple of people that remember when the circus came to Ellwood City but it took awhile to get a picture of such an event. At the beginning of the twentieth century the circus came to town a couple of times and set up in the west end part of town just North of Lawrence Avenue. In this picture you can see the mill in the background so we believe this was one of the times they set up at that location. There are a number of tents including the big three ring tent on the left, the “attractions” tent on the right and a number of smaller tents and wagons in front of both. We can not tell what the children are sitting on in the bottom left corner of the picture. 
      Leonard Chapman recalled that for a number of years the circus would be on the farm of Ben Parker on Wampum Road just west of the town limits. He shared how a lot of the local kids would go and help the circus set up the big tent and the other tents in exchange for a ticket to see the show. It was a lot of hard work but they enjoyed doing it and being part of “the show”. He also shared the excitement they got being around the circus people and seeing the animals while setting it up and likened it to being back stage.
      The year the circus truck wrecked near the Frisco Bridge was a year it was held at the Parker farm. On the last day the circus was in town, the truck that hauled the cook tent left ahead of the other trucks to go to the next town to setup for the next day. The truck went through Ellwood and down old Frisco hill but lost control. The large truck did not make the turn on the Frisco side of the bridge and hit the house to the right, not the house straight off the end the bridge. We have not validated if anyone was hurt in the accident or if the truck hit the bridge itself.
    If you recall the circus coming to town, we would enjoy hearing your memories. Please share below, or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com