Posts Tagged tube

      The massive facility known as the Shelby Social Club or the Shelby Clubhouse was built only a very short walk from Shelby Works Park located on the corner of First Street and Fountain Avenue. Mrs. Thornhill shared with us that she remembers the park had an outside swimming pool, tennis courts, playground, a place to wash automobiles and a rooming house.
      The clubhouse on the corner of Pittsburgh Circle and First Street was home to an Olympic size indoor swimming pool, a meeting room, a gymnasium, a six lane bowling alley, billiards, an auditorium, a soda grill, lounge room, cafeteria and a basketball court among other things.  The one thing it was missing was a baseball field, but the tube mill already had one; Shelby Field in the Shelby Land Company’s Plan (later to become Ewing Park.)
      Situated directly beside the P.H.B.&N.C. trolley tracks (today Joffre Street) and Foch Street, the tube mill already owned perhaps the most popular recreation of the time, a baseball field.
      An excerpt from “Hack” written by Bob Boone; “People frequently walked far out of their way just to pass Shelby Field to watch Lew (“Hack” Wilson) bat out long home runs and slide on his belly around the outfield. Careful coaching from (Connie) Wardman combined with Lew’s natural talent produced a ten-year-old who played as well as boys many years older. Most of the adults who came to watch this talented youngster also noted that he did little to conceal his pleasure at playing before an audience.”
      When you combine the Shelby Clubhouse, Shelby Park, and Shelby Field; there is not a popular recreation that is not accounted for. The large recreational plan was all within walking distance of work at the tube mill and the employee’s homes in the Shelby Land Company’s Plan.
      We would enjoy hearing from anyone else that remembers Shelby Works Park. There is very little evidence of it’s existence today except this photograph that simply says “Ellwood City” across the back and the memories of but a few. Please share below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      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.

      This picture is from a collection of pictures that were recently shared with us. The picture is of the former tube mill taken from the grounds of the old baseball field known as “Tunnel Field”. In the immediate background of the picture is the small village of Burnstown.

      Burnstown is located along the south side of route 488 between Ellwood City and Ellport in the third ward. The area was built up upon the Burns farm that stretched from the Northeastern edge of Ellwood City, east, and included parts of Ellport, Rock Dell, and Wurtemburg Heights. When Merrit Greene was purchasing land for the Pittsburg Company, Burns refused to sell any of his property to the group.

      Burnstown was home to many large homes as you can see in the pictures, and was largely made up of families that worked in the tube mill. Burnstown also housed a number of business including corner grocery stores and barber shops and even had its own school.

      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 Ewing Park Bridge originally opened as a toll bridge connecting the tube mill to the houses the mill built for its employees in what would become Ewing Park. “Old Big Blue” stood until 1998 when it was torn down and the current Ewing Park Bridge was built in the same location.

Growing up in Ellwood City, we always heard the story of Mr. Foley jumping off the bridge as a bet for a case of beer. For some reason though, the person telling the story always would leave out the part about the dam still being in use at the time and it was not quite the drop it is today.

      We have heard a lot of different memories that involve the old Ewing Park Bridge. Wheter it be riding your bike across to baseball practice, how nervous you felt driving across it with the narrow lanes, or even dropping things on the old steel roof of the abandoned building below the bridge. We would like to hear your memories of the old blue bridge with the tunnel under the northeast end. Please email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com or leave your comment below.

      Long before Lincoln High School there was the Ellwood City High School out of the Central School on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Sixth Street. The School did not field a football team in 1902 as there were not enough boys in the school to put a team on the field but the community still had a team. A great team as it turns out. 
      The Ellwood Athletic Club put together a football team to take the field for Ellwood and in turn, that team finished undefeated and attracted crowds estimated at 1,000 for most of its games. The climax of that history making season was on a snowy Thursday afternoon in the final game of the season when the Ellwood A.C. team defeated a Grove City team by a score of 11-0. Touchdowns at that time were worth only five points.
      That game and the others played by the team were probably played in Burnstown. The Ellwood Citizens band was on hand that day and furnished some music, according to a Dec. 5, 1902 edition of the Ellwood Citizen.
      The team was organized in September of that year by the Ellwood Athletic Club. John Offutt, superintendent of the Shelby Tube Company, was in charge of finances and also played in the teams first game a 24-0 victory over New Castle – but apparently did not play after that.
      The picture here is of the 1903 Ellwood City Athletic Clubs football team. Pictured include back row Aussin, unknown, Bill Robbins, unknown, unknown, Al Crone, Bid Gillespie, Judd Turner; Front row, Govern (Mack) McMurdo, unknown, Dave Havise, Laughlin McConahy, unknown; Front; Bert Gates. This picture of the team was taken in front of the Central School. It too was an independent team, and not affiliated with the school. It was not until 1904 that the Ellwood City High School fielded its first football team and not until 1925 that Ellwood would triumph over rival New Castle.

       Towards the end of 1932, the area on the Northwest corner of Crescent Avenue and Seventh Street began to be cleared to make room for a new Ellwood City United States Post Office. Mark Barnes has shared with us a number of pictures taken by McGlincy Studios to chronicle the construction of the Post Office beginning in 1932 through completion in 1933. 
    These pictures are an important part of our history not only for the pictures of the Post Office but also for what you can see in the background. Most of the houses pictured here in 1933 are still standing along Crescent Avenue and look very similar today. As the tube mill was only a couple blocks away, it is safe to assume that these were mill workers homes and a couple of the extraordinarily large houses were probably boarding houses.
    The houses are not the only fascinating buildings in the pictures. If you look just beyond the church in the right of the picture, you get an un-obscured view of the old Hospital on the hill. To us at least, this is an incredible view as today it is hard to picture the old hospital without it being mostly hidden from view behind trees.
    Other interesting points include the brick paved roads, the old cars, the two foot diameter telephone pools and the fancy street lights hanging from them, and so on and so on. The town had come a long way in a short forty years when Merrit Green served as Ellwood City’s first Postmaster. If this picture brings back any memories you would like to share, please leave a reply below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    Around the turn of the century, the Shelby Tube Mill team was one of the best in the area consisting of Judd Turner, Bid Gillespie, Bill Robbins, Paul Luther, Bill Bayers, Chip Bayers, Joe Havice, Danny Bookamer, Barney McKay, and former minor leaguer Connie Wardman (who mentored Major League Hall of Fame Hack Wilson).

      Paul Luther was the star pitcher of the team leading the 1909 team to a 19-1 record. Later he played an important role in building the Veterans Memorial swimming pool and the Helling Stadium football field in Ewing Park along with teammate William Bayers.

    The Shelby Tube Mill sponsored a baseball team from 1900 to 1910 and the area’s best players seemed to always find their way onto the team.

     In 1922, the Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler & New Castle Railway Company created the Harmony Short Line Motor Transportation Company primarily for freight purposes but the busses were soon after used to supplement the Beaver Falls branch of the trolley line. Additional bus lines were added by 1924 to supplement Ellwood City and New Castle rail service along with a new route in 1925 between Butler and New Castle where rail service was not present. These bus lines were originally used primarily for getting freight and additional passengers to and from the already established trolley operation. 
     In 1929 a new route was added to the regularly scheduled routes between Pittsburgh and Zelienople which was extended in 1930 to Ellwood City. The extended route connected Pittsburgh to the existing Ellwood City – New Castle route.
     Unfortunately due to increasing popularity of privately owned automobiles and ultimately the Great Depression; in April of 1931, the entire Harmony system including bus and trolleys went into receivership. The Harmony rail service was eliminated and the Ellwood City – Beaver Falls – New Castle portion was converted to bus operation.
     It was reported on August 12, 1954 that two men purchased the Ellwood City Motor Coach Company from Beaver Valley Motor Coach who had purchased the company in 1952. Donald Wooster of Koppel, who was employed at Ellwood City Motor for fifteen years and Gerald Wallace of Ellwood City purchased the bus line and renamed it Wooster-Wallace Motor Coach line. 
     We have heard that there were a number of bus stops in Ellwood City including the main stop at the Jayhawk Restaurant on Lawrence Avenue. Lincoln High School students from Ellport had the option of either walking through Burnstown and around the tube mill to school or pay to ride the city bus each day. Other bus terminals we have heard about included a stop in Wurtemburg, Ellport, Wampum, Chewton, and stops in Hazell Dell. 
     We would love to hear your memories of the busses in and around Ellwood City. Please leave a comment below or email us your memories at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

     Mark Barnes recently shared with us a number of pictures taken to chronicle the construction of the Ellwood City Post Office beginning in 1932 through completion in 1933. We will get all of the pictures onto the website soon but we wanted to just give a little glimpse of what is to come. McGlincy Studio took this great picture from atop of either the 7-L building that burned down or from the building that formally housed Four Star Pizza next to the alley.
    This picture quickly became one of our favorites, not only for the picture of the Post Office but more for what you can see in the background. Most of the houses pictured here in 1933 are still standing along Crescent Avenue and look very similar today. As the tube mill was only a couple blocks away, it is safe to assume that these were mill workers homes and a couple of the “giant” houses (sixth and eleventh house on the south side of Crescent Avenue) were probably boarding houses.
    The houses are not the only fascinating buildings in the picture. If you look just beyond the church in the right of the picture, you get an un-obscured view of the old Hospital on the hill. To us at least, this is an incredible view as today it is hard to picture the old hospital without it being mostly hidden from view behind trees.
    With the brick paved roads, the old car, the two foot diameter telephone pools and the fancy street lights hanging from them, and so on and so on. Like we said, it is quickly becoming one of our favorite pictures. If this picture brings back any memories you would like to share, please leave a reply 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

History Links

Ellwood City Area Historical Society www.EllwoodHistory.com

Ellwood City’s Amusement Park www.RockPointPark.com

Fombell Historical Society www.FombellHistory.org

News Links

Ellwood City Ledger www.ellwoodcityledger.com

Government Links

Borough of Ellwood City www.ecboro.com

Ellwood City Chamber  www.ellwoodchamber.org

Ellwood City Revitalization www.ellwoodcityrevitalization.org

Recreactional Links

Ellwood City Library www.ellwoodcitylibrary.com

Ellwood City Baseball Association www.ecabf.com

Ellwood City Memories is not a complete history as much as it is meant to be a collection of memories of Ellwood City. If you would like to read more about the HISTORY of Ellwood City, we recommend the following books…

A History of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania / compiled by A. E. Whittaker, edited by the Ellwood City Historical Association. Imprint Butler, PA. : Printed by Record-Ziegler Printing Co., 1932-1942.

Ellwood City Houses and the People Who Lived in Them / Charles R. Moser ; produced by Steve Shinsky ; photos by Buquo Studios ; c1994.

Ellwood City’s Diamond Jubilee Souvenir Booklet and Program : Ellwood City — 75 years of progress.
Imprint Ellwood City, PA : Ellwood City Ledger, 1967.

100 Years of Memories: Centennial 1892-1992 Ellwood City’s Pennsylvania
Imprint Ellwood City, PA : Ellwood City Ledger, 1967.

Steeltown / Charles R. Walker / Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York / 1950. A book-length study of Ellwood City and its National Tube Co. mill by social science researchers from Yale University in 1946-1948, a time when the mill was threatened with closing.

Infantryman Petitt – By William Gavin

Hack – Bob Boone (story of Hack Wilson, click HERE for an exerpt)

Ellwoodian – Lincoln High School yearbooks, Ellwood City

Pathfinder – Riverside High School yearbooks, Ellwood City

History of the 100th Pennsylvania Roundheads – By William Gavin

History of the 10th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Its Forebearers and Successors in the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean Emergency.
Imprint Allentown, PA : Lithographic Service, Inc.

175th Anniversary Book of Wampum PA –