There has been a recent effort to make the Connoquenessing Creek a usable waterway again with the addition of boat landings from Zelienople to Ellwood City. Those that have gone down the “Conny” know that West of Ellwood City Forge to the Wild Waterways Conservancy at the site of Ellwood City’s old Amusement Park, Rock Point Park, the rapids get a “little” rough. They also know that there are places in Ellwood City that the creek gets very shallow during the summer. 
     This was not always the case. The Slippery Rock Creek that feeds into the Connoquenessing Creek in Wurtemburg used to double the size of the Conny but has dwindled down in size since Moraine State Park was built. Also, another contributing factor to the depth of the creek was the large dam built by the old power plant just west of the Ewing Park Bridge. The two pictures here were taken when the dam was still intact and according to a 1903 map the area was referred to as “the pond”. This area was the site of Foley’s famous jump and from what we hear the site of pretty good fishing including some record size catfish.
     Of course the dam failed in the early 1900′s and was not rebuilt. The creek that once almost touched the Ellwood City Nature Trail in Ewing Park is now fifty feet away from the trail and canoeing is restricted in the hot months late in the summer. We would enjoy hearing any fond memories you may have of the Connoquenessing Creek. To share your memories, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    Glen Park was one of the big selling points when convincing people to relocate to the new town of Ellwood City. The park ran along the south side of the Connoquenessing Creek from the current site of the Fifth Street Bridge and stretched approximately five miles west. Glen Park was heavily populated with a multitude of trees including hemlock, beech, birch, and other forest trees and many large rocks covered with ferns and moss. Roads were graded through for easy access and the place was named by H.W. Hartman.
    Since there are not many people around today that can recall the scenic gorge along the Connoquenessing, we can only imagine the beauty and grandeur. The creek held storied beauty where it rolls over the rocks amidst the wildest scenery, having no counterpart for romance and picturesqueness anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains.
    Glen Park consisted of over one hundred acres with walks and drives to access the beautiful scenery including the Palisades, the Sentinel Rocks, etc. The park also had six crystal clear never ending springs bubbling forth from the rock formations and seven other fine springs flowed from the tabled and mineral ridge above.
    The park was abandoned when the factories along the B&O railroad began dumping garbage and refuse along the top of the hill. The area along the creek is still undeveloped and has regained a lot of the natural beauty that was lost. The old Glenn Park would make an ideal scenic spot for a bicycle trail similar to those found in Pennsylvania’s State Park’s.

    Do you remember the Forge picnics in Ewing Park? In the Forty’s if you did not work at the Ellwood City Forge, you always made it a point to be friends with someone who did because of the highly anticipated company picnics. Employees of the Forge would get tickets for family members and if you were lucky a couple extra ones for you and your family.
    The picnics would have some of the areas best food, penny games for children, games for adults, clowns, and did we mention the great food? To those we have talked with about the picnics, it was one of the highlights of the summer in Ellwood City. They truly must have been to remember them so vividly a little over sixty years later.

     If you remember the Forge picnics in Ewing Park or elsewhere and would like to share your memories or pictures, please leave a comment below or you can email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    The house that formally stood at 460 Glen Avenue has a very unique history. The two story bungalow style house was originally the woman’s restroom at Rock Point Park. After the park was closed, the house was moved to Glen Avenue by Charles Carlson in 1915 shortly before Ellwood City finished construction on the former Fifth Street Bridge. It was not odd that the building was moved as the park closed in 1912 and by the time they begun quarrying the area for large stones for bridge construction in 1922, all the buildings that were at the park were gone. They had already been moved, dismantled for material re-use, or burned in one of the five different fires reported during that ten year span. One of the fires reported in the Ellwood Citizen on April 22, 1915 reported that a fire of unknown origin destroyed the abandoned dancing pavilion and the Rock Point Inn.
    The house escaped certain doom at Rock Point Park, but could not escape it forever as the house was torn down when the present Fifth Street Veterans Memorial Bridge was built.
    We have uncovered attempts to have the house moved in the early 1990′s but we could not verify anywhere that the attempts were successful and the house was torn down. If you have any stories you would like to share about any of the families that lived in the house or of the house itself, please leave a comment below or email us your memories by CLICKING HERE.

    Our gratitude goes out to Jonica Walters who took the time to help by filling us in on the history of VanGorder’s Beach. As you can see below in her own words, Van Gorder’s Beach was on VanGorder Mill Road just past the third bridge on Route 488 in Perry Township.
    The beach was not similar to current popular swimming spots in Ellwood City like “B.A.B.” and “Little Falls” but was more similar to Hubers Beach (later called Nedda Lake Park) on the grounds of what is today Olde Stonewall golf course. Those that went to the popular beach would pay an entrance fee to Joe VanGorder. The creek was considerably deeper then and the bottom was completely stone. Also, along the beach were bath houses so swimmers could change their clothes.
    Please see Jonica Walters comments below and if you would like to add any memories you may have of the beach, please leave a comment below or email us by CLICKING HERE.

    One of our favorite pictures of Ellwood City is the picture taken from 196 feet above the town sometime between 1909 and 1915. It is amazing how much has changed from then to today. There is so much in the picture it is easy to miss some of the more interesting things. We have added yellow numbers to some of the points we would like to draw your attention to in this picture, of course there is more than the twelve things we mention here and would love to hear about something we missed.
    The first point of interest we see when we look at this picture is the grand Hotel Lawrence surrounded by the majestic Oliver Park. Though it is difficult to get your bearings with this picture, we are actually looking at the side of the Hotel. The front of the Hotel formally called Hotel Oliver is the side with the large white peaks and faces down Fifth Street.
    Secondly, in almost the center of the page we see the Central School building built in 1902 on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Sixth Street. Today the Ellwood City Municipal Building is located on that lot of land with a number of memorials displayed in the front lawn. The large World War II memorial in front of the Municipal building was purchased with the extra money that was raised for Ellwood City’s anniversary.
    Number three in the picture is the Park Hotel, built 1895 and located on the North side of the Ellwood City Short Line. Today, most people don’t remember the Park Hotel and we have had a difficult time uncovering the fate of the old Hotel. Did it catch on fire from the sparks of a passing train, or was it simply torn down due to dilapidation? The fact remains that the building is no longer there but if you look the next time you drive past, one of the walls from its foundation is still standing today.
    Four and Five go together, almost. Point number four is the old train station that is no longer there today and number five points to something that is actually missing from the picture, the Fifth Street Subway. The railroad you see in the picture beside the train station was the Pennsylvania Railroad, who owned Rock Point Park. The railroad through Ellwood City was known more as the Ellwood Short Line and replaced the B&O railroad that was built along the Northern bank of the Connoquenessing Creek in 1876. After the Ellwood Tunnel was completed in 1892 the railroad connecting North Sewickley & Rock Point ran through the natural plain which Ellwood City was built upon and the hilly B&O railroad was abandoned.
    Ellwood City owes its birth more to the Ellwood City railroad tunnel and Beaver Falls then the more common misconception of New Castle. Ellwood’s founder H.W. Hartman was dissatisfied with the conditions in Beaver Falls where he was the head of the Beaver Falls Water Company and Hartman Steel Company.  He heard the railroad was planning to build the tunnel to bypass the slower line through Hazel Dell and put his plan for an industrial resort town into action.
    The passenger station in the picture, known as the Union Station, served Ellwood City until the mid 1950’s. One text says the station was torn down as late as 1957, while another says it was torn down as early as 1955. Today, a parking lot is all that remains beside what is now the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Rail line.
    Just west of the Union Station is number Six, the freight yards of Ellwood City. The large structure on the Northern side of the tracks is the B.O. Freight Station. The station was located just West of Sixth Street which was a main road at the time of the picture as the bridge connecting Ellwood City to Hazel Dell was the Sixth Street Bridge, not the Fifth as it is today. The “Hazel Dell Bridge” as it was known then connected Sixth Street and College Street. The original Fifth Street Bridge was not erected until 1915.
    The B.O. Freight Station was demolished in 1982 and the property was sold to the Ellwood City Forge Group.
    Our number seven point of interest is one of the few things in the picture still standing today. Point seven is the Stiefel Building on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Fifth Street. We have yet to discover if the building was named after one of Ellwood City’s most prominent citizens, Mr. R.C. Stiefel, if he actually had the building built, or maybe he even had his offices there.
    Number eight is the old tube mill more commonly known to the folks of Ellwood as “Mill B”. Originally the mill was the home of the Ellwood Shafting & Tubing Company, the first manufacturing institution to establish itself in Ellwood City as early as 1891. “Mill B” was dismantled in 1923 and the property was sold to Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad for a freight station and yard. It is hard to see it today but from Sixth Street to Blanks Concrete and Supply was nothing but P&LE spurs. Five or six lines of empty railroad lines loading and unloading freight coming into and out of Ellwood City all day long. August 25th 1981 marked the last day P&LE took a loaded boxcar, cargo from Airway Industries out of Ellwood City.
    Nine is less of a specific point as it is a general area. As you can see from the picture, the West End of town was the direction of the growth in the early days of the town. The mills and businesses were more congregated at that end and most Ellwoodians thought that the town would continue to grow in that direction. In fact the first school built in Ellwood City after its founding was the West End School and the first hospitals were all located in that direction of town. It wasn’t until Ralph C. Stiefel and J.H. Nicholson left the Shelby Seamless Tube Company in 1899 and erected the Standard Seamless Tube Company (later called “Mill A”) that the town began spreading east also.
    Ten is the beautiful picnic grounds of Oliver Park and the site of Ellwood City’s first murder. According to “A History of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania” James Bell was found in the park next to a tree murdered. The victim, who had carried the mail from Ellwood City to the Belton Post Office, was also robbed as his pockets were all turned inside out. The park was a popular picnic destination (if you got permission from the Hotel) and how Park Avenue got its name. 
    Eleven simply points out the large farms and spread out residences that still existed in Hazel Dell. Hazel Dell originally was on both sides of the Connoquenessing until Merrit Green and Henry Hartman purchased all the farms on the South side of the creek to build Ellwood City. The roads through Hazel Dell were the old Indian trading paths from when the Shawnee & Delaware Indian tribes occupied the area. It was these tribes that actually named the Connoquenessing, which means “can’t canoe”. Hazel Dell was cut in half by the Connoquenessing and connected by the covered bridge known as the Jones Mill Bridge or White Bridge (built 1858 and razed 1898) located at the present site of the Fifth Street Bridge.
    Hazel Dell did not become a borough until 1901, almost ten years after Ellwood City. The borough of Hazel Dell officially consolidated with the borough of Ellwood City in 1914.
    Finally, point number twelve reminds you of the time period that the picture was taken. The buildings with no windows behind the houses are not garages, but barns. Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 but didn’t begin the moving assembly lines in his factory until 1913, so there were not very many cars in the town when this picture was taken.

    If you noticed something we missed or if you feel that we got something wrong, please leave a comment below or email us by CLICKING HERE.

Oliver Park

- Hotel Oliver Grove was located directly behind Hotel Oliver on Crescent Avenue. The park extended from 4th St. to 6th St. and all the way to Oak Ave on the South. The popular picnic area was the site of the first murder of Ellwood City, an apparent robbery.
    The southside of Oliver Ave at 6th St behind Oliver Park was a building shaped in the form of a letter “T”. The building housed Hotel Oliver’s billiard room & bowling alley. A hotel’s Bar-room was also located in a separate building to the rear & west of the main building & connected to the main building by a small hallway.

Circle playground

Circle Playground is located on the former grounds of Circle School on the corner of Lawrence Ave, Fourth Street, AND Pittsburgh Circle. The witch’s hat, teater totter, turtle shell monkey bars, and other playground equipment may be gone, but children still enjoy the swings, twist slide, large field among other things still today.

Circle playgroundCircle playground

Circle playground

Indian Lake at Camp Ellwood

We have come across a number of pictures from Camp Ellwood in Ellwood City, PA. Problem is, we are not exactly sure where Camp Ellwood was exactly. Some believe it was where the current Camp Alleghany is today and some others believe that Camp Ellwood was on the same grounds as the current Camp Kon-O-Kwee.

Camp EllwoodArchery pratice at Camp Ellwood

Archery pratice at Camp Ellwood

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Felican Park was a continuation of Glen Park and later named Rock Point Park. Rock Point Park was home to beautiful trails, a roller coaster, miniature train, dance hall, the Peristyle, Mechanical Swings, a ferris wheel, skate rink, merry-go-round, baseball field with grandstands, and of course, the Shoot the Chutes ride.

Other parks in the area included Forest Grove near the Knox Plan and Oliver Park on the Hotel Oliver grounds. Oliver Park was a popular picnic area located on three and a half acres between 4th and 6th streets while Forest Grove sported it’s very own merry-go-round.

Con-e-que was also a popular destination in the late 1920’s and early 30’s. Addison O. Caldwell built a dancehall and severeal cottages along the Connoquenessing and hosted dances with live bands. Con-e-que was later sold and became a gambling hall until it closed in the 1940’s. Today, the Snyder potato chip factory stands on its location.

The only park that still remains today is Ewing Park, located on 6 acres and home to multiple picnic shelters, playground equipment, basketball, bocce, & tennis courts, peaceful trails, and the Veterans Memorial swimming pool.

Pictures and comments of the Parks in Ellwood City

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