Posts Tagged hartman

    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.

    The house at 319 Fourth Street was built in 1925 for Charles and Emma French. Mr. French purchased the lot from Ellwood City’s founder Henry W. Hartman’s sons Holliday Hartman of Zelienople and “Waters” Hartman of Denver, Colorado. Mr. French would later become Pennsylvania’s first Fish Commissioner and later was appointed the Executive Director of Fish Commissioner. During the time Charles worked for The Pennsylvania General Service Administration as a land agent, he was responsible for purchasing most of the land for Moraine State Park.
    On August 27, 1963, Carl “Rizzo” Mantz purchased the home on Fourth Street for his sister Helen (Helen’s Dress Shop) and himself. Rizzo was a star athlete for Ellwood City and would later serve as golf coach and head football coach for Lincoln High School. Mr. Mantz became one of Ellwood City’s finest golfers and was named to Ellwood City Ledger’s Golf Hall of Fame.
    If you have any memories about this house or the families that have lived here, please leave a comment below or email us your memories at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    The house at 18 Fifth Street was built in 1891 for James J. Meneize, a hand picked associate of Ellwood City’s founder Henry W. Hartman. James worked for Mr. Hartman in Beaver Falls but when Hartman began building his town, he brought James here to Ellwood City to work for the Pittsburgh Company and help develop the area. The house was built in a nice upper class area at the time. In 1891 when the house was built, the subway under the tracks did not exist and the bridge connecting Hazel Dell was on Sixth Street.
    Meneize’s daughter Mary Ellwood Meneize was the first baby born in the new town of Ellwood City. The Meneize family also holds other distinctions like they were the first family in Ellwood to have three generations serve on the borough council. James J.’s son James P. and his son Raymond all served the community through the council. James son Robert was one of the young men that made the ultimate sacrifice for us in World War II. Since he was stationed in the Philippians when the War broke out, he possibly was Ellwood City’s first casualty in Corregidor (since the date is unknown, this is unconfirmed).
    We are trying to uncover more of the history behind not only this house but also the families that have lived here. If you have any memories about this house, whether it be who lived here or who turned it into a bait shop, please leave a comment below or email us your memories at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. 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.

    When Andrew C. Cole built his house at 824 Wampum Avenue across from the Cole family homestead, the B&O railroad was almost at the front door. The now abandoned line ran from this house East right beside the Cole barn (today 110 Gregg Street) through some present alleys that were all part of the Cole farm, right through what is today Tony’s Distributing Company drive through. The empty lot at the end of the Fifth Street Bridge is all part of the abandoned B&O line that continued East along Wampum Avenue.
     The Cole’s were one of the original twelve landowners in the area when Henry W. Hartman began buying up the farms for his new town. Andrew’s grandfather, Isaac Cole came to Wayne Township during the 1790’s and his father, Abraham Cole, was born forty years later. Abraham’s house is still standing on the southern side of Wampum Avenue between Gregg Street and McKinley Street. Abraham’s daughter also built her house on the Cole farm and still stands there today at the corner of Line Avenue and North Street. 
     Andrew Cole’s house was purchased by John and Mildred Novakovich in 1957 and has undergone dramatic updating and remodeling. We are trying to uncover more of the history of the families that have lived here. If you have any memories about this house including who lived in the historic house, please leave a comment below or email us your memories at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. 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.

    These maps are amazingly detailed snapshots of the Ellwood City in 1894, they were donated to us by Jan Williams of Wayne Avenue. As you can see, there are many things in the picture that have not only disappeared from the skyline, but there are not many people left that remember what these places looked like outside of the few exterior pictures we have.
    Almost at the center of the picture is the Ellwood Shafting & Tube Company (later to be known as “Mill B” of the National Tube Company a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation). The picture gives a general idea of the structure, but is detailed enough to show each of the different departments inside of the building. The other industrial building shown is the Hartman Manufacturing Company (on both sides of the railroad tracks). Again, all of the various departments like drawing and weaving department are broken out. Additional items on the first map include the freight house off of Sixth Street and a Railroad turn table behind it. On the North side of Lawrence Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street is the Ellwood City Opera House. Again, so detailed are these maps that it shows the billiards room on the west side of the first floor and a bakery on the east side. It even shows where the stage on the second floor was located. Also on the corner of Seventh Street and Lawrence Avenue, you can clearly see the Honorable Henry S. Blatt’s and Captain A.C. Grove’s hardware store buildings.
    The second map is more of a collage of the more prominent buildings in the town in 1894 than a map. The detailed map includes the Derwent Foundary and Peerless Glass Lead Works, the Ellwood Enamel Company and Ellwood Gas Stove and Stamping Company on Tenth Street, the Ellwood Tin Plate Company and Northwood Glass Company on Factory Avenue, and the layout of the Ellwood Brick Company Limited and G.W. Wallace. Notice in the drawing of the Ellwood Brick Company Limited, there is a foundation laid out for a proposed forge but not yet built.
    In the zoomed in picture of the Hotel Oliver, you get a clearer picture of the layout of the Hotel. In 1894, there were two separate cottages on the grounds and the saloon was also a separate building in the courtyard. You can also see just how large the legendary dining hall and kitchen were as they took up almost the entire first floor of the south wing of the Hotel.   
    At the time of this survey, the population of Ellwood City was approximately eight hundred people. The buildings with a large ‘D’ are “dwellings” or residential houses. If you would like to leave any comments please feel free below or email us by CLICKING HERE.

    The picture here, we are told, is a picture of an I.O.O.F. funeral parade. The men of the club are in full uniform and heading South up the hill of Fourth Street towards the Locust Grove Cemetery on the hill. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows had two lodges in Ellwood City, the Glenn Park Lodge and the Alferetta Rebekah Lodge.

    A number of the houses along Fourth Street in this picture are still standing today, however the miniature farm on the left is no longer there. There are a multitude of other things that are different from this picture to today. We can clearly see that Fourth Street is still a dirt road in this picture yet the sidewalks are paved. We have to question if this was not a funeral parade and rather a holiday parade by the attire of the folks on the sidewalks watching the parade. The little girls are dressed in there fancy white dresses, the men are dressed in suits and almost everyone has on a hat.

    The First Christian Church on the corner of Fourth Street and Wayne Avenue was a wooden structure at the time of the picture and you can see its steeple peeking above the houses. Even a little more North on Fourth Street you can see a row of trees lining the left side of the road. This is Oliver Park which was part of the Hotel Oliver (later Hotel Lawrence) and the site of the first murder in Ellwood City.

    Finally on the left side of the picture, you can see the Hotel Lawrence. The “crown jewel” of founder Henry W. Hartman’s plan for Ellwood City. This view is of the back of the building and as you can see, it is still quite an impressive sight. Between the Hotel, Oliver Park, and the unseen Glenn Park, and nearby amusement park Rock Point Park, it is easy to understand why Ellwood City was considered a resort town in its earliest days.

    I am sure there are many more things you notice about this picture that others might not have noticed. If you would like to leave a comment about this picture, please do so below or email us your memories 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.

    Ellwood Shafting & Tubing Company was the first manufacturing institution to establish itself in Ellwood City in 1891 and the first to manufacture seamless tubing in the United States. Just three years later in October of 1894, the Ellwood Shafting & Tube Company was sold to H.A. Lozier the “Bicycle King of America” and the name of the company was changed to Ellwood Weldless Tube Company. The founder of Ellwood City, Henry W. Hartman was appointed vice president of the new company. The Ellwood plant was only the second seamless tube plant in America. Also in 1894, Ralph C. Stiefel came to the Ellwood City from England for the company. Along with becoming a stockholder in the company, Stiefel accepted the position of general manager and introduced his own patented process for making seamless tubing. Ellwood Weldless became the first company in the United States to make tubing by the Stiefel method making it one of the leaders in the tubing industry.
     In the early part of 1897, The Weldless Tubing Co. built a new plant located between Sixth and Eighth Street stretching from Beaver to Factory Streets. By the fall of the same year, the new plant was absorbed by the Shelby Steel Tube Company and would become known as Mill “B”. Ellwood Weldless Tube Co.’s name was also changed to the Shelby Steel Tube Company. The newly formed Shelby Steel Tube Co. was actually a merger of plants in Shelby Ohio, Greenville PA, and the Ellwood Weldless Tube Company. Mr. Emsworth of Ellwood City was named the first Superintendent and R.C. Stiefel was appointed manager.
    From the time Ralph C. Stiefel accepted the position of Superintendent at Ellwood Seamless Tube Co. straight from England, he was connected with the Shelby Seamless Tube Company until 1899. At that time along with J.H. Nicholson, he left the Shelby Company and erected the Standard Seamless Tube Company with some friends in Ellwood City and was in direct competition with Shelby Seamless. The National Steel Tube Co. bought the Standard Company in 1901.
   Soon after National purchased Standard, the United States Steel Corporation absorbed National Tube and at the end of June 1901, it also absorbed the Shelby Steel Tube Company and Mr. Stiefel was made General Superintendent of all the plants in the country. Now all the seamless tube works were now conducted under the name of the Shelby Steel Tube Company.
    In 1905, the U.S. Steel Ellwood plant consolidated Shelby Steel Tube Company (Mill A) and National Steel Tube Company (Mill B) and became National Tube Company (a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation). After a fire destroyed the Shelby Ohio Works plant in 1908, all the seamless tube works was produced in Ellwood City. Due to the growth, the Ellwood City Works of the National Tube Company expanded to 127 total acres with 23 acres under a roof.  The plants were served by direct connection with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and by the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad.  The Ellwood Works had an annual capacity of 350,000 gross tons of tubular goods in 1942. Employment during World War II reached 4,000 employees.
    August 1,1946 an announcement was made that operations at the Ellwood Works would be phased out over a three year period. The closing was avoided and 1959 saw major expansion adding two new structures for stainless steel adding 40,000 more square feet. In 1974, U.S. Steel closed its doors in Ellwood City and the last seamless tube was produced at the National Tube Company. When the plant closed employment had dipped down to a little over one thousand people.
    Please share your memories of these mills or of Mr. Stiefel by leaving a comment below or email us by CLICKING HERE.