Posts Tagged hartman

      The single story stone and brick building on the corner of Ninth Street and Lawrence Avenue has one of the most storied histories in Ellwood City. Originally built as a two story stone building, it housed the Pittsburg Company Offices and was officially named the Bank Building of the Pittsburg Company. The second story housed the offices of the company Hartman used to build his town. The first floor was home to the First National Bank of Ellwood City which was organized in 1892. Many of the young town’s most influential men were at one time or another involved in the bank including J.H. Gelbach, president; H. S. Blatt, vice-president, and former board of directors’ members Frank Moore and Captain A.C. Grove.
      The Ellwood City Ledger would later operate out of the stone building, but expansion was necessary. A brick addition was added to the east side and rear (south) of the building. Additional office space was added out the East side and in 1963 the second story of the original building was removed.
      The giant safe of First National Bank is still located inside the Ledger building today but was sealed shut for many years as no one had the combination to open it. When the safe was finally cracked open, to everyone’s disappointment nothing of significant value was found inside.

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.

          I was talking to a young man that is in the fifth grade about what he thought about going to Hartman “Intermediate School” this year instead of North Side Elementary as he did last year. His biggest complaint was the different playgrounds. I agreed, there was a big difference, but I told him “Back in my day…”, you know, etc. etc.
I have never been on Perry’s Elementary school’s playground but have heard from former students that claim it was the largest recess area of all the schools. I will have to take their word for it as I said I have never seen it, but I have heard of the big field behind the former Wayne Elementary School that also had two playgrounds. Another school with an exceptionally large recess area was the former Walnut Ridge Elementary school as its yard was bigger than the school itself. As a kid, I remember having little league baseball practice there and we would not even come close to disturbing anyone who was playing on the playground at the time.

I was also fortunate enough to attend the old North Side Elementary school when the yard was located where the current school stands. The field behind the school was big enough to have a game of kickball going on at one end and a game of football at the other end. The flat field was big enough that when you were down at the other end, it felt like you were no longer even at school. All of a sudden you were just out playing with friends in a field.

The yard at Ewing Park Elementary School at one time had a slide and swing set, but little else except grass. Kickball and tag were the more common games played at recess. From what I have heard, another popular game at Ewing Park School was “chase the ball across the road”.

Then we get to Hartman Elementary School. Not the fancy state of the art one that stands today, but I am talking about the original one that had coat rooms, old wooden creaky floors and eight foot wooden heavy doors. That school had a unique playground to say the least. It had a very big metal swing set, metal slides, eight foot high metal monkey bars, a big metal jungle gym; all on blacktop. Ahh, just what every kid wants, to have recess in a parking lot. At least the modern school today has a grassy area, it’s only 8 foot by 8 foot, but there is grass. Today, Holy Redeemer is the only school where the children scrape knees and elbows and occasionally rip a pair of pants playing on blacktop. At least the playground equipment at Holy Redeemer is not bent and crooked from cars backing into them as was usually the case at Hartman.

We have heard from a couple of you about the playground at the former North Side School, but we would like to hear your memories. Please share your memories of recess in Ellwood below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      The First United Methodist Church was organized one year after Henry W. Hartman founded Ellwood City. The land for the church on Fourth Street and Park Avenue was donated by Hartman’s organization, the Pittsburg Company. After only twenty-five years, the building became inadequate for the number of members that attended the church. On August 2, 1925 the church acquired prime real estate in the young town on Crescent Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Street. The original building along Park Avenue was sold to the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Church.

    The United Methodist Church is under the direction of the Reverend James A. Cannistraci and continues to be a presence in the community.
The Cub Scouts of America have used the basement of the church as their den for years and I look forward to the Wednesday’s during the winter as the church offers some of the best homemade soup for lunch.
If you have a story you would like to share about the Methodist Church in Ellwood City, please share your memories below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    The enormous house at 301 Fountain Avenue was not quite as large as the Stiefel home less than a block away, but was still referred to as the “southern mansion” of Ellwood City. The nickname may have had more to do with the ornamental ironwork on the flat roof of the house and the railing on the front porch roof similar to the large estates in the southern states.
The house was the home of John Gelbach, who was considered the most powerful man in Ellwood City not involved in the tube mills. He was part of the group that controlled First National Bank of Ellwood City and part of the group that purchased the assets of the Pittsburg Company in 1905 after its head man and Ellwood’s founder, Henry Hartman moved to Denver. The assets of the Pittsburg Company at the time included the power company, water company, the short line railroad and the hotel company, all of which Mr. Gelbach guided until 1933. He was very active in the First Presbyterian Church and one of the organizers of the Ellwood City Country Club.
If you would like to share something either about the house, the current owners and renovations they are making, any of the other folks that have owned the house since the Gelbach’s, or about Mr. Gelbach himself, we would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below or email us your memories by CLICKING HERE. Don’t forget to mention the “prize” lamp in the large picture window at Christmas time.
Information for this post was gathered from the book Ellwood City Houses and the People Who Lived in Them by Charles R. Moser available at the Ellwood City Historical Society.

      As we mentioned in one of our most popular posts “Ellwood City 100 Years Ago“, Ellwood City owes its birth to the railroad. Ellwood’s founder H.W. Hartman heard the railroad was planning to build the tunnel to bypass the slower railroad line through Hazel Dell and put his plan for an industrial resort town into action.
      The railroad did indeed play a vital role in the growth of Ellwood City and at one time ran four main lines wide through town. There were places it looked like the tracks ran eight wide as there were a number of side tracks owned by the various industries in town. We have heard from a number of people that recall the freight yard from Sixth Street to Blanks Cement that ran six to eight lines wide.
      There are numerous pictures from many different angles of the Union station that was used by both the P&LE Railroad and the B&O Railroad as a passenger station. The beautifully ornate building that sat so prominently beside the subway on Fifth Street is no longer there. The P&LE Freight Station is still standing today, however the B&O Freight Station was torn down in the 80′s. As you can see from the 1908 map of Ellwood City, The B&O freight house and the Union Station are not the only buildings associated with the railroad that are long gone. The first P&L freight and Passenger station used to stand in front of “Mill B” of the tube mill on Sixth Street. Another structure that many people did not even know existed was the engine turn table behind the old B&O Freight Station. Unfortunately, there are no traces of any of these buildings today.
      The trains came through town so often and so fast, a number of people were severely injured or even killed just trying to cross the tracks. Mrs. Kathy Blank shared a memory… “It was during one of those days (when the circus came to town), that I broke away from my Mom and wondered toward the railroad tracks. I can still hear my Mother screaming for me to “stand still”-”stand very still” as she lay on the ground and I was in between two moving trains. I can still feel the wind blowing my hair, as those trains moved. My dad was at work at the “Little Tube mill” and someone must have gotten him ’cause when those trains ended and left town there stood my Dad on one side and Mom on the other crying. That was when I started to cry, never realizing the danger I was in, but crying because my parents were crying. I received many hugs and kisses and a scolding and a BIG smack across, you know where!!!”
      Today there is only one main line running through Ellwood City. A train might come through two times a day with no stops, or anywhere to stop. There are only two side tracks but they rarely, if ever get used. Only shadows remain of what was once there along what is now the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Rail line.

    This picture was taken by Harry W. Horton who was the Assistant Borough engineer under Alex Main from 1920-1925. The picture shows Ellwood City in an important stage of its development, when it was getting more of the community out of the infamous muddy roads following World War I.
     The picture is taken from the front yard of town founder Henry W. Hartman on Fourth Street looking west up Crescent Avenue. The picture was originally taken to shows Crescent Avenue being paved with bricks made in Ellwood City. As you can clearly see, Fourth Street was already bricked and looked beautiful.
    The picture was taken before Hartman Elementary School was built and while the old Lawrence Hotel was still standing. At the time or this picture, the hotel was no longer in business as it was sold to the Ellwood City School Board in 1915 and converted to a school building and apartments. The building in this picture in front of the hotel (approximately where the Statue of Liberty is located today) is probably a temporary building for school purposes.
    There are a number of homes that have not yet been built along the north side of Crescent Avenue as you can see but there are a lot of things in the picture that are no longer there. The Methodist Church on the corner of Crescent and Fifth Street is still the original wooden structure (barely visible) and we are not sure what the steeple is beyond the hotel, approximately where the Saxon Club would build their first building (today the Denny Schill apartments stands on this ground). Also in the picture is just the very edge of the trees that lined Oliver Park that surrounded the hotel and gave Park Avenue its name.
    This is another one of those great pictures where we are sure that we missed something so please leave any comments you might have below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com
 

      From the time it opened in the early summer of 1891 until W.G. Clark from Altoona took over, Hotel Lawrence was named Hotel Oliver. Hotel Lawrence was a summer resort for people from the cities and was surrounded by a beautiful park and picnic grounds. The hotel itself had electric lights, steam heat, pool halls, and a bowling alley.

      Mr. Clark had already been in the hotel business for many years when he took over the lease, changed the name of the hotel, and became the manager of the Hotel Lawrence. W.G. Clark ran the hotel but the popularity of the beautiful hotel and park continued to decline. Finally in 1915, the building and land were sold to the Ellwood City school board and converted to a school building and apartments until it was torn down in 1925 to make room for the newly planned civic center that included Lincoln High School, Hartman Elementary School, a public library and more. 

     The civic center obviously never happened due in a large part to the Great Depression and the lack of money needed for a project so large. If you would like to leave a comment, please do so below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    Construction for the School in what is now Ewing Park began in 1925 when the area was still part of Wayne Township. The eight room school was officially dedicated January 1st 1926 as an independent school and not part of the Ellwood City School District. The park area continued to be a part of Wayne Township until 1931 when it became the fifth ward of Ellwood City at which time the school became part of the Ellwood City Area School District and became the Ewing Park Elementary School.
    The area was originally called Wayne Park before becoming more commonly known as the Shelby Land Company’s Plan. The mill decided to honor the Generals and Admirals of World War I with its street names in the park. The name of the plan was later changed to Ewing Park after Thomas Ewing. Mr. Ewing was the assistant to the Vice President of the National Tube Company and was also the tube mill attorney who did the legal work associated with the building of the community in the park.
    The last time the school was used for education purposes was during the construction of the new Hartman Elementary School on Fourth Street. This was however not the first time displaced students attended the school. After the Wurtemburg School burned down in 1933 grades first through third were bused to the Ewing Park School while fourth through sixth grade were bused to Hazel Dell to attend Northside Elementary. The temporary classrooms were setup in the basement of the school. School children from Wurtemburg and Perry would walk a mile to meet at the old school building and get on a modified bus that the students called the Chicken Coop.
    After the students were back at the current Perry Elementary School, the basement was reverted back to its previous state. I have never personally been inside the school building, but luckily Bob Burrows filled us in on the layout of the basement classrooms. The small room under the entry stairs that faced Wood Street was reserved as a shelter in-case of an emergency and some government supplies were stored in that room as well. The room was also used on occasions to house the visiting dental hygienist and other similar temporary uses. The room to the left (North towards Adams Avenue) was the music room and arts and crafts room. The room to the right (South towards Beatty Street) was used as the indoor dodge ball/gym class when the weather prohibited outdoor physical education.
    After the school closed, the yard was used for a number of years for football and cheerleader practice for the Ellwood City Packers and later the Ellwood City Little Wolverines. I remember running the triangle shaped field before and after each practice. We would love to hear your memories of the school, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    During World War II and on through the Cold War, Ellwood City was ready in case of an attack on our soil with fall out shelters. There are a couple of old rusty yellow and blue signs that still exist in town but the shelters are no longer used as fallout shelters. This brought us to one of our recent “History’s Mystery”, where are the old shelters and what are they used for now.
    Bob Stevenson informed us that there was one of these shelters in the Municipal Building on Lawrence Avenue. The fallout shelter had a complete two hundred bed mobile hospital that was controlled by the Civil Defense Department. The mobile hospital and other similar stored supplies are no longer there as everything was removed in the 1980′s.
    Cheryl Franus recalled that when she started teaching in Ellwood city in 1968 there was a room in the basement of the old Hartman School that was full of food supplies, gas masks, bedding, etc, all marked appropriately with the triangular design of the Civil defense and the fallout shelters. She also pointed out that similar to the Municipal Building, all the supplies were finally removed in the 1980′s. Rumor had it, that the designated shelter was also in the basement at Hartman.
    If you happen to know anything more about the fate of the fallout shelters in Ellwood City? We know one was in the old Hartman Elementary School and another in the Municipal Building but we also heard that there may have been one on Fifth Street, and several others are near or in the High School but weren’t there others in town? Has anyone got any pictures of them or an old map of where they used to be? If you would like to share your memories, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    The annual Soap Box Derby was a big event in Ellwood City. The day usually started at Lincoln High School where officials judged the race cars in the Lincoln High School gym. After the judging, the racers had to get their cars to the top of the hill at the intersection of Line Avenue and Pershing Street with race on the giant hill on Line Avenue. 
    1936 marked the beginning of the annual Soap Box Derby being run in Ellwood City. Bucky Kline won the first local derby and Ellwood City also sent cars that year to be on display in Akron Ohio where the National Championships were run each year. Young Mr. Sitler won best designed car in Akron. One of organizers of the Ellwood City Derby, Denny Schill, took a bus load of boys to see the National Championship Derby in Akron each year.
    The Derby was held each year on the big hill on Line Avenue every year until 1967. Spectators used to line both sides of the street behind barriers that were little more than a rope. More than one person watching the races got injured, including broken legs, over the years as cars would crash into the cheering fans.

    The last race on Line Avenue was in 1967 at which time the races were moved to Lawrence Avenue. The slower track had to have a large ramp installed at the starting line to help the boys get going. The last couple of races were moved to a longer and much faster course on Fourth Street. The new track proved to be more dangerous as only ten of the fifty five racers competed before and cars were reaching speeds of 30-35 miles per hour. It is estimated that three to four thousand people lined Fourth Street to see the races.
    After Chevrolet stopped sponsoring the Derby, The Ellwood City Derby was sponsored by the Jaycees. Up to seventy five boys raced in heats of two with the winner moving on until the final winner was named champion.  The champions over the years were…
1936 – Bucky Kline
1937 – Bob Sitler
1938 – Tom Sitler
1939 – Sherby Rodgers
1940 – Omar Newton
1941 – Jack Forsyth
1942 – 1945 – Races were suspended during World War II
1946 – Ken Bauder
1947 – Joe DeNome
1948 – Ray Colavincenzo
1949 – Amos Mazzant
1950 – Alfred Mazzant (also finished 5th in the country at Akron)
1951 – Boyd Gardner
1952 – Tony Trombello
1953 – Dick Lackey
1954 -Eric Bell
1955 – Robert Hartman
1956 – Ronald Cimino
1957 – Duane Weingartner
1958 – Randy Chesko
1959 -Ed Berendt
1960 – Larry Blews
1961 – Bundy Palatka
1962 -Tom Badger
1963 – Tark Kolch
1964 – Dave Chapman
1965 – Joe Gagliardo
1966 – Danny Boy
1967 – Gary Rychlicki
1968 – Johnny Fray
1969 – Bill Barkay (we’ve been informed Bill still has his car today)
1970 – Randy Houk
1971 – Ray Marinaccio
1972 – Unknown
1973 – Unknown

    Unfortunately we do not have any pictures yet of the races or the cars themselves to put with this post. If you have a picture or a story you would like to share about the races in Ellwood City, please leave a comment below or email us by CLICKING HERE.

    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.