Economy's Lover's Lane

Lover's Lane, Economy, PA
State Library of Pennsylvania
Old Economy Village archives

The Harmonites, noted for their celibacy, may have refrained from sex, but that doesn't mean they refrained from romance. And apparently romance was common enough that 14th Street between Duss Avenue and Beaver Road became known as Lover's Lane.

Lover's Lane, Economy, Pa.
postcard
postmarked January 22, 1909

The December 26, 1916, Daily Times, explained how Economy's Lover's Lane got its nickname:

On Sundays in the olden time the young people of the village were not allowed to leave the town, not even to visit the farmers on the outlying districts and so by degrees they began to appropriate this grassy, shaded lane, where they strolled by twos, dreamed dreams, and said pleasant nothings fraught with much meaning as has been the custom of lovers for centuries and so "The Lane" became "Lover's Lane." 

Lover's Lane, Economy, PA
State Library of Pennsylvania
Old Economy Village archives

The 1924 Economy Centennial Souvenir Program, Economy of Old, Ambridge of Today, compiled by Elise Mercur Wagner, described Lover's Lane: "Heavily shaded on both sides with trees, with a wide path of well-trodden grass between, it was the favorite walk of young people at eventide."

That program says that Lover's Lane's real name was "Mulberry Lane." Among their many industries, the Harmonites had a silk mill, and mulberry leaves from the trees they planted were used to feed the silkworms they raised. But the mulberry trees weren't well-suited to the area's climate, and the "cocoonery" was shut down in the 1850s.

Apple trees replaced the mulberries in the Lover's Lane area, and Mulberry Lane became Apple Lane. The handwritten note on the photo below says, "Apple trees planted in the 1870's to replace a row of mulberry trees (Morus Multicaulia) east of the silk factory at 14th St."

Apple Lane, Economy, PA
State Library of Pennsylvania
Old Economy Village archives

Apple Lane, Economy, PA
State Library of Pennsylvania
Old Economy Village archives

The 1916 Daily Times article says that once Economy was sold, and the Liberty Land Company opened the formerly-gated Apple Lane as a street in 1903, "the old apple trees began to decay and become scraggy. Now they are nearly all dead."

The newspaper mourned the end of Lover's Lane which it called "one of the historic old land marks of Economy":

"Lover's Lane" in Economy carries with it more than historic interest to many who resided in the village before the modern spirit of progress had transformed a beauty spot into an ordinary city street.

The paper said Ambridge's street commissioner was in the process of removing the trunks and broken limbs, noting, "The street is nearly all built up now."
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Update December 19, 2018: I'm aware that the people in one of the photos above are not wearing Harmonist clothing. But even before the Harmony Society sold its property in Economy, it had hired workers who lived in the community, but were not Harmony Society members. And Sarah Buffington, curator at Old Economy Village, told me that the Harmony Society did not prohibit visitors from strolling in Economy.