Posts Tagged fire

I have come across a dozen various pictures, postcards, and advertisements showing the outside of the Hotel Oliver (later named the Hotel Lawrence) on Crescent Avenue. The only interior picture I had come across was taken inside the elaborate dining room. Then I had someone share this picture of the interior of the lobby of the Hotel Lawrence and I was very excited to share it with you. This picture gives us a good idea of how elaborate the hotel was in a town that still had unpaved muddy streets.

     The wood work and dental molding around the front desk and fireplace is very elaborate and detailed. The trim around the ceiling of the room and the wainscot below the chair railing around the room are also very intricate. In addition to the hard wood floors and pocket doors, you might notice the decorative details on the ceiling and the florals on the lamps hanging also hanging from the ceiling.

     The picture from inside the hotel’s dining room shows us that the fine details continued throughout the modern building. The finely uniformed staff is posing around the elaborately decorated banquet table. The table appears to be set for forty guests with fine linens, decorative serving pieces, cutlery, glassware and other ornate table settings. The settings are made complete with high back solid wood chairs and numerous fresh flowers. Other details from around the room include windows that seem to stretch from the hardwood floors to the ten to twelve foot ceiling. Eight foot tall doorways, decorative wood trim including crown molding and electric lights. The Hotel was the first building in town that had electric power provided from the dam on the Connoquenessing Creek.

If you notice something we missed in the pictures or feel that the two large dark colored bowls on the floor by the front desk were something other than spittoons, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

1. George Buck, 2. Logan Benninghoff, 3. Billy Williams, 4. Bion E. Leech, 5. Luthar P. Shaffer, 6. Bob Gillespie, 7 Ray Leech, 8 Alex Orr, 9 Fred Foxall, 10 Mike Curran, 11 Edward Hildebrand, 12 Frank “Indian” Craig, 13 Harry Y. McCool, 14 Dave Carson, 15 Rex Piersol, 16 Herman Buck, 17 LeRoy Beatty, 18 Edwin “Shaggy” Logan, 19 Charles Keefer, 20 Charles Carson.

I have posted a number of pictures from older football teams from Ellwood City  and heard many stories of the great Shelby baseball teams and Shelby basketball teams but no one mentioned the 1906 Shelby Tube Mill Football Team (oops Foot Ball Team, in 1906 that was two words.)

    I have to thank Ms. Miriam Filer for taking the time to send me all of these pictures along with the story of the 1906 Shelby team that was another great team that before now, seems to have been forgotten and to be honest, great is not a strong enough superlative. The 1906 team beat teams such as Youngstown, Sharon and Butler by scores of 10-0, 27-0, 23-0, 21-0, 44-0. Franklin was the only team all season to score a point against our boys in a 5-5 tie; touchdowns then were only worth five points.

    The more recent photographs are from 1949 when ten members of the 1906 Shelby Team held a reunion dinner at The Fireplace but got together at Robert W. Gillespie Sr.’s home to share stories and catch up. Those attending the reunion included 1. Bion E. Leech, 2. Harry Y. McCool, 3. Logan Benninghoff, 4. Mr. Gillespie, 5. Luthar P. Shaffer, 6. Edwin Logan, 7. W.R. Williams, 8. Fred Foxall (manager), and 9. M. J. Curran. George G. Buck was also at the reunion but was not pictured. He must be the one taking the picture (?). Only four other members of the 1906 undefeated team were still living in 1949 but were unable to attend the reunion including Frank Craig, Herman Buck, Charles Carson, and Edward Hildebrand.

    I would like to thank Ms. Filer again and apologize at the same time. She had sent me these pictures in April of 2011 and I am just now (January 2012) putting these onto the site. I was very excited when I received these pictures especially since I had never heard of them and do not know how they were skipped.

    You can’t tell by all of the trucks, but this trailer fire on South Second Street on July 27, 1957 was actually very small. Firefighters did not carry pagers twenty four hours a day, instead relied solely on the fire siren. The number of blasts told the firemen where the fire was, one blast for the first ward, two blasts for the second ward and so on. Without any operators relaying information back and forth between the men on the scene and the guys at the station, the firemen brought everything. For this small fire, they brought out the Fire Chiefs car (52 Chevy), a ladder truck, 1954 American LaFrance pumper, 57 mercury rescue squad vehicle, 49 pumper.
    This was before men wore all the current firefighting gear. Towards the middle of the picture are five of the firemen on the scene, all just wearing street clothes. One firefighter is wearing a white suit but is hard to make out. We were told that the men didn’t wear a lot of gear then. They would get to the fire as fast as possible, try to get inside if they could and try to attack the fire at the point of origin. When it got to bad inside, they fought it from outside the house. The firefighter walking towards the photographer is Bob Henry, one of three full time paid firemen. The other two paid firefighters in Ellwood City were Bob Dambaugh & Chuck West.

    The second photograph is another example of the firemen bringing everything they have or may need. You can see the towns first American Lafrance, the 49 LaFrance, the 54 LaFrance in the background, the chiefs car, the rescue squad car and more. All of these vehicles were rolled out for this small fire at Dr Painters house on Pittsburgh Circle by the end of Second Street back on Feb 16, 1960 (notice the fancy street light).
In the third picture we see the other two paid firefighters at a small shack fire on Aiken Avenue. Police Officer Tom Magnifico shines a flashlight for firefighter Bob Dambach as he pulls a mattress from the ruins as fellow firefighter Chuck West continues to hit the “hot” spots. The picture was taken Nov 18, 1956.

If you would like to share a story you have of any of these firefighters or even memories you have of any of these vehicles, please email us or leave a comment below.

      While Americans were overseas fighting in World War II the Tube Mill’s here in Ellwood City had guards stationed twenty four hours a day around the buildings as they were making casings for rockets.
      During that time, disaster struck the United Tube that destroyed the building. As you can see in the picture, fire erupted from one of the United Tube Mills on April 13, 1944. The thick black smoke laid a thick haze on the entire area. Despite the haze, you can still make out the firemen, fire trucks, hose lines and of course the spectators.
      When the fireman finally got the fire under control all that remained was rubble and debris.

    We would like to thank Rob Wilson for sending us these great pictures of his old service station on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Fourth Street. The small brick building that was torn down to make room for Rob’s Ignition and Taco Bell Express looks a little different then what I remember. As you can see, in 1933 there was no attached garage to the building. In fact there was a massive brick building directly west of the service station. Does anybody remember this building? I do not know if this was a residence, business, or more likely if had something to do with the railroad. Whatever it was, it was large enough to have three fireplaces.
    Even though the Gulf Station did not have a garage then, it does not mean that it was not able to work on cars. If you look closely at the pictures you can see that J.V. “Vic” Rabberman had a car lift, it was just outside the building on the Fourth Street side. At the time of the pictures, “That Good Gulf” only charged ten and a half cents a gallon plus a three cents tax for gas. Not to bad actually as Charley Turner used to cut hair diagonal from the service station at Turners Barber Shop for thirty five cents.
    Some other things we noticed about the pictures were the brick roads. Fourth Street was lined with bricks as you can see but it appears that Lawrence Avenue past Fourth Street was still a dirt road. Across the railroad tracks was a familiar scene but with little differences. The VFW as we know it today was still the Merchants and Manufacturers Club, and across Fourth Street is the long building along the North side of the railroad tracks that burned to the ground around the turn of the century. You may also notice that there is no Uneeda Tire on Lawrence Avenue across from the Gulf Station. Instead there is a row of houses, nice large houses at that too.
If you know the stories behind any of the mystery buildings, or want to share anything about the pictures please leave a comment below or email us by clicking HERE.

      The tragic death of Charles Johns and his son George on the evening of April 6th was shrouded in mystery and suspicion.
      On the morning of April 7, the bodies of Charles Johns and his son George, burned almost beyond recognition, were found in the ruins of their shanty-home which was destroyed by fire the night before. Their bodies were discovered by J. C. Wardman, Larry Yoho, and Carl Lattimer who lived nearby and were sifting through the ashes looking for anything that may be salvageable, not bodies.
      Neighbors watched the shack burn the night before but were led to believe that there was no one inside it. The bunkhouse was located on the John Newton farm in Wayne Township near Ellwood City. Both victims were miners and were employed in a mine on a nearby farm. Father and son evidently were burned to death while sleeping, the bodies having been found in a corner where a bed had stood. At the morgue it was said that the father looked to be aged about 50 and the son between 18 and 20.
      Reports are that a man who lived with the Johns was standing in the road while the shack burned. He is said to have had a large bundle under his arm and when asked if there was anyone in the place he replied in the negative. Sheriff Reynolds and deputies are investigating and are looking for two other men who are said to have lived at the same place.
      By noon, the day after the fire, Sheriff Reynolds said he had learned nothing as a result of his investigation so far. He said he was not looking for anyone in particular, but hopes to find someone who saw the victims the evening before. On April 9th an inquest into the death of the two Johns, father and son, was held in Ellwood City.
      A note of interest is that April 6th, the day of the fire, was pay day for the miners.

      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.

      The first school in Hazel Dell on the north side of the creek was located at the corner of Line Avenue and College Street. Built in 1892, the school was originally two rooms, but more rooms were added later. When Hazel Dell became part of Ellwood City in 1914, the school was still in use.
     Through the years there were many who taught at the school including Mary Morrison, Bell McKnight, Etta Freshcorn, John Houk, Miss Springer and Edna Book. Ms. Book’s class is pictured here in the photograph that once belonged to Minnie Mingione (third girl in the second row).
      The Ellwood City School Board decided to build a new school (North Side) on the corner of Orchard Avenue and North Street in 1916, the Hazel Dell School was closed shortly after.
      In later years a factory was built on the corner of Line Avenue and College Street to produce Jessie Jeans. After a fire destroyed the factory, a portion of the building was salvaged and converted into a YMCA. Today, the building is used for the Family Fitness Center.

     During Wampum’s 200th Anniversary Celebration, the smell of black powder and musket rifle fire filled the air. On August fourth, the 19th Ohio Light Artillery and the 63rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Company C reenacted battles fought during the Civil War.
    Captain Bill Smith of the 19th Ohio Independent Battery is standing here with an authentic Civil War cannon that was on hand during the event in Wampum.

    This small building at the five-point intersection in Ewing Park was torn down in the spring of 1967 and the site sat empty for many years before the gazebo that stands today was built. The building that was commonly mistaken for an old one room school house was built around 1922. It served many functions over the years including a place to store tools, as a voting place, to store the fire department’s hand cart, for clerical work in connection with driver’s tests and as a storage place for borough materials.
    In this picture, you can see the local “hangout” Dairy Queen in the background on Sims Street.
 

     On a cold and rainy Sunday morning tragedy struck the beautiful stone Christ Presbyterian Church on the corner of Spring Avenue and Fourth Street. On the morning of Sunday April 23, 1950 the call went out, that the church was on fire. The fire did extensive damage to the interior of the church but the structure itself was not a loss and most importantly, no one was hurt in the fire.

    For the next several months, the nearby First Baptist Church opened their doors to the Presbyterian Church and permitted them to hold their service inside the Baptist sanctuary. The Christ Presbyterian Church was remodeled and continues to be a strong church in Ellwood City today. If you remember the fire and would like to share any memories you might have of the event, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    At the corner of North Street and Line Avenue was Pinkey James Gulf Station. The service station used to be the hang out for the Road Rebel Car Club which Pinkeys son, Earl was a member.

     Pinkey’s Gulf Station later became Luttons Atlantic and then eventually Buccelli’s ARCO. In the 70′s, Buccelli’s added a restaurant in the back of the service station. Those that lived in Hazel Dell around the service station all knew when there was a fire because the fire whistle was located on top of the gas station and an older gentleman, Mr. Potter would go out and direct traffic for the firemen and tell them where the fire was.

    If you remember when the Central Tax Bureau building was a gas station, we would love to hear your memories, or any memories you might have of the Road Rebel Car Club. Please share your memories below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com