Posts Tagged creek

    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.

    Legend has it that Tom Foley jumped off the Ewing Park Bridge for a case of beer.
    On a bet, Tom was supposed to jump off of the old Ewing Park Bridge into the Connoquenessing during the Shelby company picnic in Ewing Park. Company authorities heard of the wager and prevented Tom from making the jump. But the following day Tom showed up wearing a bright red bathing suit and jumped off of the Ewing Park Bridge.
    Tom’s world famous jump was from the middle of the blue steel bridge into the water and yes, he survived to collect his winnings. I have not yet discovered if the wager was for a case of beer as legend has it or if it was for a monetary value. PLEASE NOTE: Before you try this yourself, there are some things you need to know. Foley was in the Navy and was specifically trained to dive into the ocean from the masts of ships while at sea. Also when Foley made his legendary dive, there was a damn just West of the bridge that made the creek deep enough for the dive. On maps of the area in the early part of Ellwood City, this area was actually listed as Connoquenessing Pond. The dam is no longer there making this feat impossible to duplicate so please do not try this. Ever.

    As early as 1850, families in Wurtemburg began meeting in each others homes for a Methodist Church service. The church without a church was known as the Wurtemburg Society of Methodists and continued their weekly meetings in homes (usually the Dobbs Home in North Sewickley) until finding a home at the Wurtemburg’s schoolhouse.
    In 1876, the Methodists got their own building on land donated by Reverend John J. Liebendorfer as was named the “The Centennial Methodist Church”. When the church was built in 1876, there were 15 charter members.  The church remained largely the same until 1934 when a basement was dug out underneath the original church, creating an area for classrooms for Sunday School classes.
    In the late part of the 1930′s the Sunday School department raised enough money to purchase a parsonage on Cutoff Street. It was not until the late 1940′s that the church grounds would undergo some major remodeling with the addition of a stone fireplace, shuffle board court, horseshoe courts, and a volleyball court. A couple of years after the current parsonage was purchased the church continued to grow with a new educational building added to the grounds in 1960.
    Though the church’s history goes back many years, it was not until 1968 when the Methodist Church combined with the Evangelical United Brethren, that the church got the name “United Methodist Church”. The church in Wurtemburg was at one time known as the Centennial Methodist Episcopal Church in Wurtemburg, but we have not yet been able to find out exactly when it was called that.

    During the early years the church was on a circuit with Ellwood City, Brush Creek, Harmony, Unionville, and Concord until it became a Station in 1923. By the year 2000, the church has grown to over 300 members and still continues to meet Sunday mornings 10:20AM-11:30AM with Sunday school classes meeting 9:15AM-10AM. There is a nursery available for those with younger children during the Worship service.

    Now we have listed the history of the church but here is where we need your help. We need the good stories of the people who have attended, of the things that have happened, the MEMORIES. We have heard thet the two doors in the front of the black and white picture above had a special purpose. One door was for the men and the other door was for the women. Was this true?

    If you would like to share your memories of the United Methodist Church in Wurtemburg, please leave a comment below or email us by CLICKING HERE. We would especially like to thank Jonica Walters for providing information and pictures used for this post.

    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.

    Slippery Rock is one of the original churches in the area. The first meeting took place April 13, 1802 at the Allen Grist Mill at the mouth of the Slippery Rock Creek. The original church structure “log Church” was built towards the end of 1802, built on the hill near present building. The first pastor, Mr. Alexander Cook and the congregation Worshipped at the Log Church until 1825 when a frame building was erected. The framed building stood until 1863 when the present building was erected. Until 1835, it was customery to have one service with 2 sermons. Between sermons there was an one hour break when people would eat their lunch, discuss the sermon, talk about the topics of the day & perhaps take a smoke.

    We can list the history of the church in Ellwood City, date the locations were built, list the pastors, so on and so on. However that is not really what we started this site for. We need MEMORIES. Funny stories, touching stories, you know, the good stuff. Stories like the time old mister whatzisname snored so loud the preacher had to stop the service, the kids growing up in the church, or the entire church coming together as one to help. If you have a story you would like to share about Slippery Rock Presbyterian Church, please EMAIL us or click on the “comment” link at the bottom of this post.

    Originally located on the present site of the borough of Ellport on the opposite side of the Connoquenessing Creek from the most Eastern end of Ewing Park, The Ellwood City Country Club first elected a Board of Directors in the beginning of April 1912. Later in the same year, the Club added a dance pavilion that would also host picnics to the grounds that already sported a two room building and its own golf course (how Golf Avenue got its name).
    In 1919, The Ellwood City Country Club purchased Dr. J.M. Hazen’s farm in North Sewickley Township and some additional acreage from James Runyan. The old Hazen homestead was renovated with an improved kitchen and added a 16 foot porch for use as a dining room and dance floor.
    Transportation was made possible to and from the club when a “private” stop was added on the “Harmony Route” only a few minutes walk from the clubhouse. The nine hole golf course was in top shape for the grand opening on May 30, 1919. A large number of lots on the Southern shore of the Connoquenessing Creek were leased on extended terms to club members which quickly erected a number of summer cottages.
    The current clubhouse was erected a thousand feet south of the original clubhouse in 1926-27. It wasn’t until the early 1940’s that the club added an additional 9 holes to become one of the finest 18 hole golf courses in the area. Bob Thompson is still considered the best hacker to be a member of the club. Besides being the areas leading golfer for over 25 years, he also was crowned the Connoquenessing Country Club golf champion 18 times. Many amateur and even a couple professional golfers have golfed at the Country Club including one of the greatest of all time, Arnold Palmer.
    If you would like to share a memory you have of the Country Club or any of its members, please leave a comment below or email us by CLICKING HERE.

      The Railroad has played a very important role in the development of Ellwood City. The first lumber was brought in via the Pittsburgh & Western Railroad to the Frisco Station, where it was hauled into Ellwood City by Elmer E. Hazen and his team of horses.
Multiple railroad companies have scheduled Ellwood City as a stop at the Union station including the B&O (Baltimore & Ohio) previously known locally as Pittsburgh & Western and the P&L.E (Pittsburgh & Lake Erie) railroad. Ellwood City was also on the P.H.N.C. & Butler (Pittsburgh, Harmony, and New Castle) interurban railway and housed the Harmony line trolley station on the corner of Fifth Street and Spring Avenue.
       By 1910 horse and buggies shared the paved streets of Ellwood City with more and more automobiles but the city was still divided by the main railroad line. There was already a bridge over the railroad tracks on Second Street but it was not until 1912 that B&O built the Fifth Street underpass “subway” railroad span across Fifth Street.
The Connoquenessing Creek also runs through the middle of Ellwood City so a number of bridges have been necessary over the years. Originally Hazel Dell (North side) and Ellwood City were connected by a covered bridge. This bridge was replaced with the Hazel Dell steel bridge in 1896 that spanned bank to bank and connected Sixth Street with College Street. In 1915 Ellwood City replaced this bridge with the Veterans Memorial Bridge (also known as the Fifth Street Bridge) that connected Fifth Street with Todd Avenue. Eighty years later, this bridge was replaced with a new bridge linking Fifth Street with North Street. The original Ewing Park Bridge was built 1918 by the Shelby Tube Co. and was a toll bridge until the city took it over in 1939. Ellwood City replaced this bridge in 2004 with a new bridge in the same location.

      Ellwood City has been home to a number of beautiful parks. Glen Park was located on 100 acres that stretched 3 miles along the south side of the Connoquenessing Creek beginning at the 5th street bridge and heading west.  Home to the Palisades, the Sentinel Rocks, and the Giant Trees, a writer once wrote about Glen Park as ”having no counterpart for romance and picturesqueness anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains.”

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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