“Grasshopper” Meeting with Mr. Chapman
A lot of very nice people have shared their memories with me either by phone, in person, by email or through this web site; however one gentleman went one step further. Leonard Chapman and I had conversed previously on the location of the Jockey Moore One Room Schoolhouse on the old Clark farm that I just could not seem to find. I got a call from Mr. Chapman two years ago to inform me that he was in town visiting family and wanted to know if I had some time to talk. I agreed to meet him and was in for a treat.
Most meetings I attend usually are sit down, sip coffee, mention one memory and let the other memories build from there similar to a snow ball rolling down a hill of snow, all the while I try to write as fast as I can. This meeting was a little different. As soon as I showed up, Mr. Chapman said, “Okay, hop in” pointing to his mini-van. We drove through the North side and the memories started. Instead of someone sitting in a comfortable chair recollecting, Mr. Chapman was pointing to things and sharing his memories.
At the end of the Veterans Bridge (or Fifth Street Bridge) he pointed to the B&O empty lot and shared that he remembered the little shop that used to sell garden plants by the big billboard at the end of the bridge. I looked at him, looked at the sign, grabbed my notebook and started writing as fast as I could trying to keep up. Someone was outside washing their car which reminded Leonard there used to be cement slabs with hoses on First Street by Spring Avenue. The area was owned by the tube mill and it was available to the mill workers so they could go and wash their car.
We drove past Merrit Brooke and he recalled the ice rinks that I have been looking for pictures of for quite a while. He shared that there were actually two rinks there at the end of Todd Avenue when they would damn up the small little creek that runs through today. The upper ice skating pond was run by the city and Buccelli’s ran the lower rink out of their house. The basement of the Buccelli house had ice skates you could rent and a place to put them on.
I had been trying to find information on the ice rink(s) for some time and was writing as fast as I could but Mr. Chapman was onto his next memory as we drove past the Ben Parker Farm. Today you would have a hard time guessing it was once a farm except the old rusty combine sitting in the field. Mr. Chapman assured me that it was once a farm, in fact a dairy farm. Ben Parker owned the dairy farm, processed his own milk and delivered in his old 1933 Ford like John Dillinger used to drive and made famous. He also shared that the Parker farm is where the circus would set up for a number of years when it would come to Ellwood City.
As we continued on down Wampum Avenue a number of other topics were discussed the old abandoned Matheny House that belonged to Joe Methany, the Matheny graveyard, who built the Spanish style home by Jockey Moore, the empty garage that was once Strabellas Garage, which foreman played Santa at the Shelby Clubhouse Christmas parties, and of course the day the earth moved. Oh by the way, inside the Matheny graveyard, according to the headstone, was a person born during the Revolutionary War.
We did eventually make it to Jockey Moore and right where he told me was the old schoolhouse. Right in the middle of the room is the hole in the ceiling where the old stove pipe chimney once exited the room. Old slate chalkboards still hung from the walls. It was a step back in time.
On the way back into town, Mr. Chapman pointed to the left and said this used to be McQuiston’s farm, then he’d point to the right, this was Phelner’s farm, point to the left Koser and so on. To read more about the farms, click here.
If my little drive down Chapman’s memory lane sparked any memories in your mind, please share below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. If you have any pictures, especially of the ice rinks, I would love to use those as well. Please email them to info@ellwoodwoodcitymemories.com
Thank you Mr. Chapman and I apologize it took so long to post a lot of these stories as I was hoping to get pictures to go with most of them. I apologize for not giving credit to the person who donated the picture of the old McCandless farm that was located on West Line Avenue Extension but I did not write down who it was. I believe it was Jim Spielvogel, but not positive. Whomever it was, thank you.
I remember “Old man McCandless” still living on the farm and driving a ’40 Ford Coupe up Line Ave Ext.What year you ask?????? All I can say is early ’60s
Awesome! I love this stuff. Ben, does anyone now own the old one room schoolhouse? It would be a shame to see it succomb anymore to the elements. Being a former resident on the North Side and spending many afternoons at Merrit Brooke, I remember hearing stories of an ice rink. Could you take some pictures as to where they would have been? Thanks and keep up the great work!
Boy I wish I had some pictures of the ponds. They were both on the end of Todd Ave.down the hill The upper one was free I think the Houk family’s boys cleared the snow and the lower one was 25 cents. WE did a lot of skating and the winters were much colder so we had a great skating season. I at the time lived on 12th street ext. so it was eat supper( we called dinner supper back then) then the long walk to skate. It was cold going over the bridge but gotta’ do what you gotta’ do. The bottom pond was nicer because they would flood it and have smooth ice all the time. But a quater back then was hard to come by. I was a good skater and wanted to be a Sonja Henie or be in the ice capades, which I did try out for. But along came marriage. Barbara Franus Osborne
To Grasshopper: I was a child of the North Side and a HOUK
grandchild. I lived on the hill above the Ice Skating PONDS
at Todd & Gregg Street. I have many wonderful memories of the “The Ponds”. My Grandmother- Dorothy Forbush Houk ran the upper pond which existed before Mr.Buccelli’s pond. If
my memory serves me correctly, we kept a fire going to warm
ourselves. I’ll check with my uncle but I think there was a
small building for shelter as well. When Mr Buccelli opened
his pond he hired me and my cousins, Eddie Jim and Joy Cable to shovel the ice and water it for smooth skating.(the shovels were rounded. The payment was “FREE” skating.
Carolyn, you must have lived very close to where I grew up. I remember Joy Cable’s house at the top of the Gregg St. hill near Clover Ave. I lived halfway down that (Gregg St.) hill going towards Wampum Ave. When I was little, my brother and I skated at Mr. Buccelli’s pond every night in the winter. I must have met you either on the ice or in his basement when I was putting on, or taking off, my skates. I don’t remember another pond. That must have been before I started skating. You brought back some very nice memories for me. Thanks.
My first pair of ice skates were Larry Turner’s hand-me-down black hockey skates that his Mom, Vi (a golfing buddy of my Mom’s) gave me. I remember skating at Buccelli’s pond. A footnote…when Mom & Dad bought me white ice skates for Christmas, they bought a size larger than my feet to “allow for my feet to grow” (which they didn’t). I ended up wearing 3 heavy pairs of socks when I skated!
Carole, I’m sure our paths crossed at Buccelli’s once or twice–ha,ha. The Cable house is still in the family. Uncle
Pewee Houk’s grandson bought the house. And now he lives beside his Grandparents. I lived the other end of Gregg St
at Line and Gregg but I spent most of my time at the Cables and my grandparents house at the corner of Todd and Gregg. Across Todd was VanGorder’s house. I love talking about my childhood since I think I had the best one ever. Especially
since I moved back to Ellwood after 50yrs of living away.On
your section of Gregg St do you remember the old Italian woman who used to make cheese Pizzas on Fridays and went door-to-door selling them? I loved those pizzas but I can’t remember her name. PS. I still have a pair of ICE SKATES hanging in my garage. Thanks for the memories!! Carolyn (Tootsie) Noel(Grundy)
Tootsie, you must have lived close to my friend Karen Pavick. She was on Line Ave. very close to Gregg St.
The only older Italian woman I knew on my end of Gregg St. was my next door neighbor, Mrs. Ionelli. I don’t know if she sold pizzas. I would have loved them if she did. She was a wonderful cook and a lovely lady. She and her daughter, Tressa (DaMata?), were so good to me when I was a little girl. They taught me some Italian words for different foods and my mother would have to call the Ionellis to find out what asking her to make for dinner.
I remember my Hockey skates too, they were so big I too had to wear 3 or 4 pr of socks. I think I skated a Buccellis once, We use to skate up Chicken Coop Hill way. Youd go up the hill, turn left follow that til it turned into an alley, down a little hill and it was on the right. Ernie can probably tell the names of the street and the pond! I fell through the ice once…..MAN was that water cold!!!!!!
Yes I spent a lot of time at the “Pond” as you did Donnie. By the way the Pond was the only name I ever knew it by. Ice skating in the winter and cat fishing in the summer. Your directions were right on the money Donnie. Today there is very little water and a whole lot of cattails. I must say you were in good company about falling through the ice. Several people did that.
Getting back to today at the pond. I believe the cattails will keep anything from happening there with the EPA’s attitude towards standing water with cattails. It’s pretty shabby looking today.
Carole and Carolyn, I lived on First Ave. and remember both ponds. I didn’t own skates, but remember walking-sliding on the ice, just hanging out. The small warm up shed on the upper pond was moved to the back of the ball field at the end of Todd Ave. when the upper pond closed for good. I believe it sat there, unused, for years. We did a lot of sled riding down the Todd Ave. hill at Gregg St. past the ponds. Speaking of the McCandless farm, do you remember when the field on top of the hill caught fire? It could be seen from all over the city. The story was that some kids (of course) started it. I spent a lot of time on “the hill” and hiking through the strip mines. On my last visit to Ellwood, I noticed that the hill and strip mines are totally overgrown now, completely changing the landscape. The McCandless farm appears to be torn down and that location overgrown. We used to call Line Ave. ext. “Pumpkin Road”. Ring a bell for anyone?