Posts Tagged bridge

    The first picture of the tube mill was believed to have been taken late summer/ early fall of 1916 from the area that was formerly Tunnel Field. For the younger generations, it is easy to forget how big the National Tube Company (a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation) was.

    The second picture with a close-up of “the smoke stacks” was only a portion of the tube mill that ran from the railroad tracks by the Second Street overpass to the Ewing Park Bridge. The Ellwood City Works of the National Tube Company later expanded to 127 total acres with 23 acres under a roof. Employment reached its highest point during World War II when 4,000 people were employed.

One of the things I like to do when I get old scenic pictures is to track down the location of the original picture and see how different it looks today. Sometimes it is difficult to do in the case of comparing the business district of Hazel Dell from the layout with the old Veterans Bridge to today. However, in the case of these pictures of the men paving Line Avenue with bricks (by hand), it is very easy to compare.

       On the left of the older picture you can still see the bell tower of Bell Memorial Presbyterian Church. On the right side you can still see the bell tower of the old Hazel Dell School that sat on the corner of Line Avenue and College Street. There are a couple more houses in the new picture but the new picture is missing the line of maple (?) trees that lined the south side of the street.

      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.

         The Presbyterian Church of Ellwood City is older than our town itself, having originally organized in the “old brick school house” back on July 14, 1891. The church continued to gather at the brick school by the old white wooden covered bridge that crossed the creek until finally building their own building on the corner of Spring Avenue and Third Street. Yes, I said Third Street. The original Presbyterian Church was built on the corner of Spring Avenue and Third Street. The church met there from 1893 until 1925 when they sold the lot to the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church.
      The stone building specialist, Albert Dahl built the current First Presbyterian Church on the corner of Fourth Street and Spring Avenue. Mr. Dahl also built the original First National Bank (now home to the Ellwood City Ledger) and the First Baptist Church on Fountain Avenue.
      The building itself  has grown through the years and is now also home to Parent’s Preschool and continues to host the famous Boar’s Head Festival each Christmas.
If you have a story you would like to share about the Presbyterian Church of Ellwood City, please share your memories below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      I am always very appreciative to all those who have shared pictures with Ellwood City Memories. Sometimes I am unable to get the pictures onto the site right away as I have to make sure they are not copyrighted, but pictures like these that were donated by Scott Mackey make my task very easy.
I would like to thank Scott for these pictures he took of the construction of the current Veterans Memorial Bridge on Fifth Street. It is very easy to forget how much further west the old Fifth Street Bridge was located. I know it is mentioned a lot how the construction of the current bridge drastically changed the landscape to the Hazel Dell business district and also led to the destruction of the oldest building in Ellwood City. However, I for one do not miss driving around that island at the intersection where the end of the bridge ran into Wampum Avenue (west), Todd Avenue, North Street, and Wampum Avenue (east).
      In the one picture you can still see that under portion of the bridge closet to the bank where outside pillars are cement, there used to be a large arch like a road ran under the bridge. Does anyone know if there was a road or walkway that ran under the bridge?
Speaking of under the bridge, that pathway they built to get the cranes and cement trucks to the creek would have been a fantastic addition to Ellwood City. A pathway to the creek and a path wide enough to ride a bicycle to Ewing Park would have been a nice little side effect project. There is still a pathway up from the creek at the Ewing Park Bridge. A smaller foot bridge at the site of the old Harmony Line Bridge connecting the path to Ewing Park would have been nice and maybe someday might happen. You can see that the construction workers built a temporary bridge across the creek in one of these pictures so I guess I can hope.
      Back to the bridge, who remembers the 4′ x 4′ sheets of steel they used to cover up the holes on the sidewalk of the old bridge? I remember walking to school across that bridge and the cement would be crumbling away exposing the steel grid under the cement until one day you are walking to school (freezing) and then all of a sudden there was a hole. After a couple of days, they would just cover the hole with a steel plate and you would start watching the next spot wear away.
Speaking of the sidewalks, do you remember the large cement barriers separating the sidewalks from the roads? Those were not there when the bridge was originally built. The only thing separating the road and sidewalk originally was a normal six inch curb. I remember the way the bridge moved when the Forge trucks or Blanks trucks went across, who ever decided to add the barriers, thank you.

      I might be a little weird but I enjoy pictures like this; more of a scene than a picture of something specific. I look at a picture like this and find all kind of things and notice things that are not there anymore.
        For example I did not know that there was a Mobil Service Station on the corner of Fifth Street and Spring Avenue where the old trolley station once stood. I know a lot of you remember that station, but if it wasn’t for this one picture, I may have never known that. It took a magnifying glass, but when this picture was taken, a sign for Smith Drug Store is on the corner diagonal from St. Agatha.
      When you look at the zoomed in picture of the former Veterans Memorial Bridge, it looks like you can make out the “dummy” at the far end of the bridge but I believe that was long gone by the time this picture was taken. Speaking of that particular zoomed in portion, it is still strange to not see McDonald’s and now Rite-Aid. Its funny how quickly we become accustomed to something.
      I have faith that many of you will be able to date this picture. There are one or two of you that might be able to look at the business that were open at this time and say, something like: “Abbaticchio and the hardware store two doors down were both open between 1962-71″ and “the price of gas at Sinclair, makes this picture 1967″. But more likely, there are a few of you that can very easily give us a date of the picture by looking at the vehicles on the road.
      Speaking of vehicles on the road, I need a little help with the blurry delivery truck on the left hand side. Are my eyes deceiving me or does that say Winky’s on the side or is that the old Park Pharmacy delivery van? The letters inside the circle on the front of the van are just blurry enough that I can not make it out. I know someone knows if this was a delivery van or if it was owned by the radio station that broadcasted from Ellwood City. If you know the answer to these questions, or notice something else I missed, please share below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

North Side School has by far had more memories shared on this web site than any other elementary school in the area. On the post North Side Elementary School Class Pictures, we had a number of people that shared their rich memories. Instead of writing my own post, I am just going to quote some memories and share some new pictures.

      Quoting R. Scott Mackey: “North Side Elementary was…in a time and place where fundamental values were taught both by rote and by example, and we who were fortunate enough to live within this atmosphere became better adults because of the association.”
-R. Scott Mackey: I recall having attended North Side Elementary from approximately October 1954 when I transferred into second grade from Hartman Elementary until June 1959 upon ‘graduation’ from sixth grade. I believe students rotated classrooms while teachers were stationary and taught either general subjects through grade four and their specialty subjects for grades five and six. The teachers I can recall from that era were:
Mrs. (Lorraine) Battersby (2nd grade), Mrs. Wilson (3rd grade),  Miss (Julie ?)Kelly (4th grade / Health), Mrs. (Estelle) Franz (5th grade / Geography), Miss Calvert (Art), Miss (Blanche) Shively (6th grade / Homeroom / English), Mr. (Joseph) Lanzi (6th grade / History / Geography), Miss (Josephine) Hartzell (Principal)
Beyond academics, the massive wintertime snowball fights between 5th and 6th graders which turned the grounds into a veritable war zone at lunchtime were most memorable.
-Jim Hardie: This time of the year brings back memories of the Christmas plays held each year by the N. S. pupils. It was always a time of excitement for not only the actors but also the audience. I remember one year when “Joseph” fainted and tumbled down on the manger propelling the baby doll “Jesus” to fly out of his bed and into the air. …
-Dave Larson: I remember…
- Saying the “Pledge of Allegiance” every morning
- Exchanging valentines…I must have given Brenda Snare at least a 1,000
- Snowball fights…back outside when the streetlights went on…to fight again!
- Going home for lunch…that in itself may have made the values take hold
- President Eisenhower’s photograph displayed proudly in your home room
I remember Mrs. Wilson. To this day I will never be caught without a handkerchief.
I remember Mrs. Calvert. How could you forget someone who told you that you could draw?
       Jim Hardie: Miss Calvert … I think it was this time (December) in 1956 when she had us all come to school in the evening to have a Christmas party. We met and walked around caroling for a while until we crossed the 5th Street Bridge and walked to our principal’s (Miss Hartzell) apartment. We started singing and she came out on her balcony to greet us. The snow began in earnest on our walk to her house and on our return everything was covered with a new layer of snow and the storm kept on all evening. The lights of the bridge were beautiful in their turn -of- the- century style covered with snow. Like a postcard.
-Chris Pavkovich: What a school! Floors that creaked, no air conditioning, and a gym that echoed to high heaven and flooded during rain spells. I remember the kick ball tournaments toward the end of the year, spinning on the merry go around immediately after lunch until we were sick, and the old basketball courts (at one time this was the place to play).
-Quoting R. Scott Mackey again: I offer my thanks to those now departed who provided the examples which we learned and by which we still live in the present day. Hopefully, we have all had the opportunity and the sense of responsibility to pass along those same values to the generations who succeeded us.
We all would enjoy hearing any memories you may have of attending North Side Elementary School. Please share your memories below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com.

      There are seven bridges across the Connoquenessing Creek in the Ellwood City area but none closer to the creek itself than the Country Club Bridge. Before Stonewall Golf Course was built, it did not take much for this bridge to be forced closed due to flooding. Of course this picture was taken before then; in fact it was taken January of 1976.
There are a lot of little details that make this a very interesting picture. If you look at the pillar of the old bridge on the opposite shore, notice that the stone is still there from the original wooden bridge. It looks like there was a steel or cement bridge that used the same pillars when the wooden bridge was replaced. Guess those guys knew how to build things to last back then. For the thousands of times I have personally driven across this bridge, I do not remember it being this wide.
Of the four houses that are standing on the opposite shore along Route Sixty Five, only one still stands today. I do not know if they were torn down before or after the land was purchased for the golf course, but they have been replaced by a large grounds keeping garage for the golf course. Along the creek, on this side of the garage and barn, you can still see the dirt lane that lead to the popular Hubers Beach (later called the Nedda Lake Park).

      The former Park Gate School was built in 1923 and continued in operation for forty two years. Attendance continually increased and by 1925 enrollment had already reached close to 150 students. The school was originally built with only three classrooms, but was remodeled to add another classroom due to the influx of students.
      The Park Gate School House was located near the Ellwood/Koppel Bridge across from the former Greenberg Auto Parts building. The building itself was torn down shortly after the last semester of school in 1965. We would enjoy hearing your memories of the old school. Please email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com or share your memory in the “comments” section below.

      Yet another remaining building from the Hazel Dell Business District that survived the construction of the new Veterans Memorial Bridge is this building along North Street. Many people from yester year remember this as Jake Britton’s North Side Market. Jake’s supported a good portion of the Northside and like a lot of neighborhood corner stores of the time, ran credit accounts and everyone would go in on payday and clear their accounts. “Jakies” is also recalled as the place to get Kosier foods and during the hard times one could still get groceries on tab. During the Great Depression, Jake’s was a place in town where you were able to get food with the small paper stamps.
      At the North end of the building (left side when facing the building) was a “beer garden” where humorously Kathy Blank recalled women would wait for their husbands on payday to get their paychecks before they went into the store. More recently memories recall a feed and grain store at the present location of Snyder Saw and the North Side News had a separate entrance north of the grain store. . The second floor has always been an apartment complex, and still is today.
      If you remember these stores and would like to share any memories you may have, please email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com or share your memories below.

      All along the Ellwood Short-line large crowds gathered to see the funeral train of President William McKinley as it passed through Ellwood City on its way from Washington DC to Ohio.
      The event was well documented with several pictures taken from the viaduct where Second Street crosses the railroad tracks. However this picture was taken of the crowd gathered at the overpass from the grounds of the United Steel Tube Mill. This unique picture shows the wooden bridge as it looked in 1901. There are a number of other things beside the bridge that stands out from this picture including the large locomotive engine on the right and all the tube mill workers sitting upon the eight foot wooden fence on the left. Something else we noticed were the houses in the far right.
      The viaduct over the tracks as it is today was completed towards the end of 1931. At that time, there was an effort to name it “Columbus Bridge” but the motion failed to generate much interest.

      The Ewing Park Bridge originally opened as a toll bridge connecting the tube mill to the houses the mill built for it’s employees in what would become Ewing Park. “Old Big Blue” stood until 1998 when it was torn down and the current Ewing Park Bridge was built in the same location.

      Growing up in Ellwood City, we always heard the story of Mr. Foley jumping off the bridge as a bet for a case of beer. For some reason though, the person telling the story always would leave out the part about the dam still being in use at the time and it was not quite the drop it is today.

      We have heard a lot of different memories that involve the old Ewing Park Bridge. Wheter it be riding your bike across to baseball practice, how nervous you felt driving across it with the narrow lanes, or even dropping things on the old steel roof of the abandoned building below the bridge. We would like to hear your memories of the old blue bridge with the tunnel under the northeast end. Please email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com or leave your comment below.