Posts Tagged railroad

      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.

      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.

      When this Ellwood City Ledger picture was taken in 1969, the 700 block of Beaver Avenue was a parking lot. The lot was formerly owned by the P&LE Railroad and offered “all day parking” for the exuberant amount of twenty five cents.  Today the pictured area includes Huntington National Bank drive-through and Diamond Milling.
      In the background you can see two railroad freight cars sitting in the freight yard and Michael’s Discount Company.

      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.

      The Merchants and Manufacturers Club was the original Chamber of Commerence with almost all the area’s businesses belonging to the organization. The M.&M. Clubhouse was located beside the Baltimore & Ohio railroad at 236 4th St (currently home to the Veterans of Foreign Wars post 252).
      In the year 1900, Lyman DeHaven & A.C. Frey held a banquet in Hotel Oliver’s 40 foot by 50 foot dining room with hopes to form a club. The heads of the manufactures and local business’ were all in attendance and the Merchants and Manufacturers Club was born. The Club was so large that in the Ellwood Citizen (printed August 11, 1911) was an advertisement for the Merchants and Manufacturers Outing reporting that “Rock Point will see the largest crowd of happy people ever gathered at that popular resort.”
      A man who attended this event and watched the St. Clair Girls balloon ascension is quoted in the Ellwood City Ledger as saying “a man holding one of the ropes on the balloon was lifted 60 feet before he let loose and broke a leg in his fall. One girl jumped with a parachute while over the park & the other stayed with the balloon which landed a few miles away.” After Rock Point Park closed for good after the 1911 Labor Day Weekend, the 1912 Merchants and Manufacturers outing was held at the Country Club grounds in now what is the borough of Ellport.

      The Ellwood City East Side Switcher Crew switched cars from the B&O Railroad to the P&LE Railroad and vise versa from 1917 to 1920. The engineer at the throttle was known as Con Missouri, and the fireman on the platform was William Goodwin. The rest of the crew on the ground consisted of, from left to right, Doggie Wallace, brakeman; Charles Mincer, conductor; and Lonnie Dunbar, brakeman.
     The original picture belongs to Holt Conner.

    Are you aware that the P&LE station is still standing in Ellwood City today?
     According to the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Historical Society web site www.plerrhs.org. The Beaver and Ellwood Railroad Company was organized May 20, 1890 and in April of 1892 The Ellwood Connecting Railroad was incorporated by the P.& L.E. to make the connection to the Beaver and Ellwood Railroad but did not open until June of 1893. In May of 1899, the Beaver and Ellwood Railroad was leased to the P&LE for twenty years. On a side note, July of the same year, the Beaver and Ellwood Railroad acquired the Ellwood Southern Railroad Company.
    Finally June 6, 1910 the P&LE purchased the entire issue of stock of the Beaver and Ellwood Railroad Company and merged it with the Ellwood Connecting Railroad Company in January 1911.
     The P&LE and B&O passenger station in Ellwood City off of Fifth Street beside the subway was torn down long ago, however the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Freight Station is still standing today along Beaver Avenue. In 1966, the freight station was converted into a warehouse and offices by Fotia Brothers Sales & Service owners, Sam & Joseph Fotia. After converting the old P&LE station into a business, they operated their dry goods firm there beside Vinny’s Family Restaurant for a number of years.
     The business took a big hit on Christmas morning in 1985 when fire swept through the Fotia Brothers warehouse on the 600 block of Beaver Avenue. The one story warehouse was gutted by the flames but firefighters from four departments managed to save part of the two story concrete office/store section. The firm made pillows, chair pads, and other dry goods that fueled the flames and produced a thick dark smoke visible from almost all of Ellwood City.
    The B&O freight station along Sixth Street, on the north side of the tracks, was demolished in 1982. That property is now owned by the Ellwood City Forge.
    You can leave any memories you may have about Fotia Brothers or the P&LE Railroad below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    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 110 Gregg Street has had many different looks over the years and dates back along with one of the older structures in Ellwood City. The building that stood almost against the Baltimore & Ohio railroad tracks that ran through Hazel Dell was originally the Cole farm barn. The Coles were one of the original landowners in Hazel Dell and the original farm house still stands on the south side of Wampum Avenue just before the “S” bend at the western border of Ellwood City. Originally the house faced south and was given a Wampum Avenue address (800 Rear). It was not until 2007 that 911 emergency responses changed the street address to the present 110 Gregg Street to eliminate confusion.
    Until the Ellwood City Short-line was completed in 1891, the railroad ran through Hazel Dell. The B&O line ran up what today is Wampum Avenue heading west until it met North Street. From the Southern most point of North Street the line veered a little North and would run right through what is today Tony’s Distributor drive through. From Tony’s, the tracks continued west along the present alleys just north of  Wampum Avenue running right beside the old Cole family barn. After Gregg Street, Wampum Avenue turns north at the “S” bend and meets up with the abandoned railroad right away again. 
    Even after the house was converted into a residence in the early part of the 1920′s it still wasn’t completed. Since that time, there have been four additions to the house, one in all four directions. The extension out of the front of the hose may have been the result of a motor vehicle rolling down the steep hill of Gregg Street. The Beaver County Times reported on April 27, 1982 that an eighteen year old Ellwood City man was in fair condition after being flown by life-flight helicopter to Presbyterian University Hospital in Pittsburgh with head injuries. He was a passenger in a Jeep that crashed into the front porch of the Ralph Bognoski residence causing the living room wall to collapse. Four members of the Bognoski family, who were watching television in the room, were slightly injured from falling debris according to the police report. The house has since been restored and was featured on the 2008 Women’s Auxiliary Christmas House Tour. 
    If you have any memories you would like to share of the house at 110 Gregg Street or of the families that once lived here, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    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.

    During the early part of the 1920′s Mr. Pirzappia came to America in pursuit of the “American Dream” and a better life for his family. Like a lot of men during the time, he came to this country by himself leaving his wife and children in Italy until he could afford to bring them here. He found work in Ellwood City and in 1926; he was able to build a home for his family and would finally be able to bring his family here. Mr. Pirzappia built a solid brick house that he was so proud of that he even had his name put into the structure.
    Then disaster struck. Before he could contact his family and begin bringing them to Ellwood City, Mr. Pirzappia was found dead. His body was discovered on the railroad tracks close to the current site of Blank Concrete and Supply with a bullet wound in the back of his head. It was rumored that he was the unfortunate victim of the Black Hand but we can not confirm this.
    The Pirzappia family never made it to Ellwood City, or even America for that matter. After this tragedy, the family left Italy for Australia where his remaining relatives still live today.

    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.