The Big Celebration

      This picture was taken about 1920 in front of the place the stairs to the Lincoln High School auditorium now stand. The picture was given to a man in Fallston and hung in a barroom in the same town where the locals took bets on which community it was. E.J. Wright of Beaver formerly worked at the Aetna-Standard here in town and recognized the background as Ellwood City.
      Although it is fairly easy to establish the date of the picture as 1920, since that was the date the Simon Building in the background was completed, and it is still under construction in this picture, nobody seems to know for certain just what the occasion was. There are some that seem to think it was a Knights of Pythias program, but that has not been substantiated. A graduation ceremony can be eliminated as Lincoln High School was not built until 1925 and at this time students attended Central Public School on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Sixth Street. The older gentlemen on the left, just right of the band are wearing grand uniforms that tend to be more closely associated with the Knights or with the Odd Fellows. The front row of the picture appears to be younger children wearing “sailor” uniforms with round discs on their heads. The flag on the left would be the biggest indicator as to who these folks were and what they were celebrating.
      Notice the bricks on the left where a house is about to be erected (Evans Home) and the vacant spot where the First Methodist Church now stands. At the time of the picture, the Hotel Lawrence was still standing. At the time of the picture there was a half circle (or crescent, if you will) on Crescent Avenue in front of the old hotel. The hotel could not be accessed from Crescent Avenue, but rather it had a driveway that jutted through Oliver Park behind the hotel and circled up to the front. Crescent Avenue had to have the half circle to accommodate the driveway in front. If you look closely, you can still see the crescent in this picture.
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Clubs, Organizations, Views of the City circle, lincoln, school