Five young men, 5th and Merchant Sts., 1947

 

3rd from left, Pete Lusty
2nd from left, John Smetanka
other young men unknown
1947
courtesy Dave Lusty

Dave Lusty, AHS '72, sent me this photo of his father, Pete Lusty, and four of his buddies, posing on the west side of Merchant St. near 5th St. in 1947. Pete Lusty would have been 20 years old at the time.

John Smetanka is the only of the four other young men that Dave could identify. If you know who any of the other three are, please leave a comment or contact me.

Note the streetcar tracks on Merchant St. Street cars through Ambridge were replaced by buses in 1934, but the tracks on Merchant St. weren't covered until 1958.

On the east side of Merchant, you can see the Penn Theatre's marquee. To the theater's right: The Penn Grill restaurant and Denmark's shoe store,

The building with the clock is the Economy Bank of Ambridge which was across 5th St. at 500 Merchant.

The Penn Theatre closed in the early 1950s, and the Melody Ballroom opened in the theater's former location in September 1953. The ballroom, Penn Grill, and Denmark's were all badly damaged in a big July 1954 fire. Another massive fire damaged the businesses that occupied the former theater in February 1963: the Bride and Deb Shop on the corner, Penn Grill, and Hankins Shoe Store. 

The former Penn Theatre building was razed after the 1963 fire, replaced by a parking lot. More recently, that corner was the location of the now-closed PNC Bank in 1984

The Economy Bank building was razed in 1984. WesBanco's drive though is now located where the bank once stood.