The new block of 4th Street: Park Road to Ohio River Blvd., 1945 - '46

 

Intersection of Park Rd. and 4th St.
April 10, 1946
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

The photo above shows the practically brand-new intersection of Park Rd. and 4th St. The photo must have been taken from the American Bridge Office building which stood southwest of the new intersection.

John Domansky IDed the small building on the southwest corner of the intersection as belonging to the gas company. But so far, I don't have any confirming information.

Here are more views of the new brick-paved intersection:

Intersection of Park Rd. and 4th St.
north side of American Bridge Office shown on upper left
American Bridge Co. plant in background, right
April 10, 1946
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Intersection of Park Rd. and 4th St.
looking west toward American Bridge Co. plant
American Bridge Office building on left
April 10, 1946
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Intersection of Park Rd. and 4th St.
American Bridge Park on right
American Bridge Co. plant in background
April 4, 1946
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Intersection of Park Rd. and 4th St.
looking toward 400 block of Park Rd.
April 10, 1946
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

That house on the corner of Park Rd. and 4th St. is still there, as is the darker house on Park Rd. above it, only now there's another house between them. 

During the spring and summer of 1945, that new block of 4th St. had been constructed to connect Park Rd. to the new extension of Ohio River Blvd. from the Allegheny County line to Ambridge's 8th St.

Ohio River Blvd. and 4th St.
construction
looking east from Ohio River Blvd.
American Bridge Office building on right
October 18, 1945
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Ohio River Blvd. and 4th St. 
construction on 4th St.
American Bridge Co. plant in background
October 18, 1945
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Construction of 4th St. between Park Rd. and Ohio River Blvd.
north side of American Bridge Office bldg.
October 18, 1945
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Intersection of Park Rd. and 4th St.
looking west toward American Bridge plant
October 18, 1945
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

I believe that the sign to the right of the parked car says:

"Entrance at Merchant St. to American Bridge Co. and Penna. R. R. Station"

But extending 4th St. from Park Rd. to the boulevard had a legal complication: the land needed for the extension was owned by the American Bridge Co. The extension would go right through the American Bridge Park.

The legal issues involved in extending 4th St. through American Bridge's private property was nicely resolved in a "Deed of Dedication" which was memorialized as Ambridge Borough's Ordinance No. 562. Here's the beginning of the lengthy handwritten ordinance which included the signed deed:

An ordinance approving and accepting a Deed of Dedication from the American Bridge Company for the purpose of dedicating to public use that portion of Fourth Street, extended, in the said Borough of Ambridge, between Park Road and the new Pennsylvania State Highway.

In the deed, the American Bridge Co. agreed to give Ambridge Borough the legal right to the portion of 4th St. between Park Rd. and the new extension of Ohio River Blvd. For that right, Ambridge paid American Bridge Co. $1.00.

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Thanks to the Borough of Ambridge's Marilyn Sheleheda for scanning Ordinance No. 562 for me. The ordinance was not only not available online, but bound in a large book with other old handwritten ordinances. Scanning that couldn't have been easy.

Big Sewickley Creek Bridge 1917: "Longer to complete than did the building of the Panama Canal"

 

Big Sewickley Creek Bridge
From Allegheny Co. looking north into Ambridge, Beaver County
1917
credit: Allegheny Co. Dept. of Public Works

About the photo above:

Streetcar tracks crossed the bridge in 1917. The dark building just above the photo's center and the first building on the right were on the part of Beaver Rd./Beaver St. that leads into Ambridge from the bridge. To the dark building's left is a home that I think was on Bank St. and the backs of some buildings in the 300 block of First St. The dark building and all buildings to its left have been razed. The tall building farther up the left side of the street must be the S. P. Kristufek Department Store. If you enlarge the photo enough, you can see a horse standing next to the Kristufek store. And, above the first utility pole on the right, a carriage.

The nearest building on the right is still standing; Hark's Place bar is now there, 70 Beaver St./Rd. Beyond that, the building with all the porches was one of the infamous "Crackerbox" tenements that stood on the hill above Merchant St./Beaver Rd., razed in 1960.

Far in the background are homes in the 100 block of Merchant St. And behind them, the domes of Holy Ghost Orthodox Church, 210 Maplewood Ave.

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Long before Ohio River Boulevard connected Ambridge with Allegheny Co., the small Big Sewickley Creek Bridge provided the connection.

The Economy Centennial was being celebrated when Ambridge's June 6, 1924, Citizen* newspaper noted on its front page: 

an important milestone in the history of Ambridge...the beginning of the end of the work on the Big Sewickley Creek bridge between Ambridge and Fair Oaks, which has been a bone of contention between two counties, a street car company, residents of three boroughs and tourists of 48 States for a number of years.

Because that very morning, a contractor had started pouring concrete in the bridge's road bed and expected the work to be completed "in about two weeks."

Even though the bridge is only about 200 feet long, that same Citizen article claimed it took "longer to complete than did the building of the Panama Canal and has cost enough to build a bridge across the Ohio River."

The history of the bridge's construction is murky. The Citizen article said Allegheny County records showed a bridge at the site    "[96] years ago" according to a construction inspector, who said he had found a 1828 "road view plan" showing a bridge at the same location.

However, the inspector's history was questioned by John Frederick (Fred) Knoedler, who was a non-Harmonist caretaker of Old Economy and its property both before and after the Harmony Society dissolved. Knoedler said that according to Harmonist records, "the Economites drove through the creek to get to Leetsdale" during their early years in Economy. But, he says, "much later," there was a bridge across the creek when the Harmonists had pastures on both sides of Big Sewickley Creek. Knoedler remembered "wire gates hung from the bridge to keep the [Harmony Society's] cattle from going up the creek." 

The Citizen also said that "during the youth of John Duss," who was born in 1860, the bridge was condemned, and Duss designed an arch under the bridge to strengthen it. "The original arch still stands, but is is now encased in concrete."

A 1906 G. M. Hopkins & Co. map shows a narrow bridge in that spot. Eventually, the bridge was raised and the walls heighted to accommodate street cars.

Then, during the WWI years, a decision was made by some entity to further widen and rebuild the bridge. Beaver County's commissioners claimed they had no money for such a project. So Allegheny Co. undertook the work on its own. I believe the photo above shows that reconstruction project. 

But the work did not go well. In fact it went so wrong that The Citizen said:

The [whale] may have swallowed Jonah, according to tradition, but no one who ever had any thing to do with the Big Sewickley Creek Bridge from that time on would believe that Jonah was anywhere but right handy to that bridge. His hoodoo seemed to be always present.

What was supposed to be a one year project took two. Twice high water moved the derrick. Once all the bridge's "large stones were washed down the creek, requiring lines to be tied to them to 'snake' them out of the creek." 

Even after the construction project finished, problems continued when the streetcar company said it wouldn't pay to move its tracks. So in 1923, the two counties agreed to do the job themselves. But then, after the contractor had moved one of the tracks, he claimed that he didn't have enough money to finish the job. And the work dragged on and on into the spring on 1924--bad weather didn't help. But finally--finally--the bridge construction appeared to be nearing completion.

But wait, there's more!

If you enlarge the photo at the top, you can see what appears to be the back of a carriage, and near that carriage, part of a sign peeking out on the right side of a pole. And if you're like me, you thought, "I wish I could read what that sign says. 

Well, wish granted. Because there's another photo! And while the photo was focused on the bridge's stone arch, it shows more than that.

Big Sewickley Creek Bridge
from the Allegheny County side of Big Sewickley Creek
1917
credit: Allegheny Co. Dept. of Public Works

First, an enlargement of the sign: 

Ambridge speed limit sign
Merchant St. near Valley Rd.
1917

About the photo above:

The sign says "Ambridge Borough, Speed Limit, 15 miles per hour." It appears to have stood about where the "Welcome to the Borough of Ambridge" sign is now, just north of the intersection of Valley Rd. and Merchant St.

An enlarged photo also shows a tailor's signs painted on the windows of the building with the awning, now Hark's Place.  I think the left window says "Merchant Tailor." The one on the right window says "John [last name I couldn't read], Tailor."

The sign on the side of the one story wooden building says "Favorite Cigarettes." While there are more signs on the side and on the front, I can't make them out. 

Could the house on the right side of the photo, above those two buildings, have been on Valley Rd.? And the houses on the very top of the hill on Glenwood Dr.?

And towards the right side of the photo, a man wearing a hat is standing, looking toward the photographer. And us.

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Thanks to Debby Rabold, Bell Acres Borough's historian, for sending me the two photos above. Debby has also written about the Ambridge-Leetsdale Big Sewickley Creek Bridge and provides a somewhat different history of its construction than the one written in The Citizen. She also has included some early photos of that bridge. Here's a link to Debby's article: "Big Sewickley Creek...Early Bridges," which also includes information about other bridges that cross Big Sewickley Creek. 

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* The Citizen's June 6, 1924, article was republished in the March 21, 1939, Daily Citizen. The latter did correct several typos in the original article, including that a bridge was at the site "6 years ago." That befuddled me at first, because I knew that the bridge had been built before 1918. In 1939, the bridge was referred to as the "Ambridge-Fair Oaks Bridge."

The Ambridge Savings and Trust Co. buildings

Ambridge Savings and Trust buildings
5th and Merchant Sts.
circa 1920s
Louis Vukovcan collection
courtesy Jackie Vukovcan

The three-story, red brick Ambridge Savings and Trust Co. (AS&TC) building on the northeast corner of 5th and Merchant Sts. is reputed to have been the first building constructed on Merchant St. in Ambridge. While there were older buildings further north on Merchant, in the area of 14th St., those buildings were in built in what was still Economy, not Ambridge.

The AS&TC, advertised as "The Oldest Bank in Ambridge," was chartered in 1902, and opened for business in 1903--two years before Ambridge was incorporated.

The upper floors of the AS&TC building were the location of some historically notable Ambridge events: The organizational meeting of Ambridge's Methodist Church was held there in 1903. In January 1904, the first Roman Catholic mass in Ambridge was celebrated there. Also in 1904, the young Ambridge Citizen newspaper opened an office there.

In 1911, AS&TC built and moved into an elegant two-story limestone building next door to its first one. You can see it immediately to the left of the original building in the photo above and the postcard below.

Ambridge's first Post Office building had been on 5th St., adjacent to the back of the first AS&TC building. Sometime after AS&TC moved into its new building next door, the post office took over the older one on the corner. It didn't stay there long; by 1923, the post office had moved into a building on the southeast corner of 7th and Merchant Sts.

Ambridge's post office (right) and 1911 Ambridge Savings and Trust Co. building to the left
5th and Merchant Sts., northeast corner
circa 1920s

You can see both the original AS&TC building and the 1911 building on the right side of the photo of the intersection of 5th and Merchant Sts. in the photo below.

"COR. 5th & MERCHANT BEFORE BEING REPAVED.
NOTE THE DOUBLE TRACK AND ROUGH STREET."
5th and Merchant Sts. looking north
circa 1920s
Louis Vukovcan collection
courtesy Jackie Vukovcan

Here's what that same intersection looked like not long ago:

5th and Merchant Sts. looking north
credit: P. J. Fletcher Shotter, used with permission

According to notes left by the late local historian William (Bill) Bowan, Ambridge Savings & Trust later remodeled both the brick and limestone buildings to create a single, large Ambridge Savings & Trust headquarters building.

At one time, Ambridge Savings & Trust reportedly had the largest deposits of any bank in Beaver County (Economy Centennial Souvenir Program, 1924). Like many banks, it ran into financial trouble during the depression and reorganized in 1933. According to Bowan, it became The Economy Bank of Ambridge.

Economy Bank of Ambridge
5th and Merchant Sts., northeast corner
1967 Ambridge Bridger yearbook

That beautiful Economy Bank of Ambridge building was razed in 1984; its location is now the drive-through of WesBanco bank. The only part of the AS&TC/Economy Bank building that remains are its gates, incorporated into the Merchant St. side of the drive-through.
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Update February 2, 2018: I thought I should add that I've been puzzled about the dates of the postcard and the undated photo at the top of the blog article.

From the cars, I would have said that the postcard was older. But the postcard also shows the corner building is the post office, which as the article says, moved into the building for a few years after the Savings and Trust Co. moved out.

On the other hand, the photo shows that the Savings and Trust Co. is in the corner building. Maybe it shows a period after the Savings and Trust Co. moved back into the building before remodeling the facade and converting it and the smaller building next to it into one large building. 

Ambridge memorabilia: National Air Mail Week cacheted envelope, 1938

Ambridge National Air Mail Week postal cover
May 19, 1938

I've added postal cachets to my growing list of "random things I now know something about only because I've been researching Ambridge's history":

This envelope, postmarked May 19, 1938, in Ambridge, was part of a U.S. Postal Service week-long promotion of air mail. I think most of us now assume that mail going any distance travels by air. But not so in 1938, when mail primarily traveled by trucks, trains, and ships. Cross-country or overseas letters could take weeks to arrive at their destination.

The Postmaster General at the time, James Farley, declared May 15 - 21, 1938, "National Air Mail Week" (NAMW) to mark the 20th Anniversary of the first scheduled delivery of mail by plane. All local postmasters were encouraged to create a unique commemorative NAMW “cachet”-- that design on the left side of the envelope--to mark the event. And they were supposed to bring attention to the benefits of air mail. Citizens were urged to send at least one letter by air mail during the NAMW celebration.

May 19, the day of the postmark on the never-mailed envelope above, was the day chosen for special NAMW events. Among the events were one-time-only NAMW plane flights, with planes carrying mail between the many towns celebrating NAMW. Many of those towns didn't have airports, but landing strips for small planes were prepared on local streets and fields.

Ambridge's NAMW cachet, featuring Old Economy Village, was one of an estimated 10,000 that were used in towns across the country. I don't know if a plane landed in Ambridge on May 19, 1938, but I'm going to try to find out. I'll update this post if I find any more information.

Here's a closeup view of the Ambridge cachet:

Ambridge NAMW cachet

No bars allowed: when Ambridge was dry--or at least supposed to be

"What was the most surprising thing you've learned about Ambridge from your research?" Lois Himes, a librarian at Laughlin Memorial Library, who died on October 17, asked me earlier this year.

I had to think about Lois' question for a while, but then the answer came to me with absolute certainty, and no other fact about Ambridge I've discovered so far even comes close: the most surprising thing I've learned about Ambridge was that it was once dry. Dry as in alcoholic beverages could not be sold legally. And I'm not talking about just during the Prohibition years; I'm talking about the first 50 years of Ambridge's existence.

At least it was supposed to be dry for 50 years.

Yes, Ambridge, where long-time residents still boast about the number of bars the borough had back in the day when the mills employed thousands of hardworking, thirsty workers. I've heard the claim there were once 200 or so bars where millworkers could stop for a shot and a beer on their way home, no matter what shift they worked. Or maybe on their way to work, although the mills frowned on that.

"Steelworkers in corner beer parlor. Ambridge, Pennsylvania"
John Vachon
January 1941
Library of Congress

Yes, Ambridge, which people proudly claim once held the Guinness World Record for being the town with the largest combined total of bars and churches per capita. (But although I wouldn't be surprised to find that Ambridge indeed once may have had bragging rights to such a record, I've searched the Guinness database and could find no entry for Ambridge or "bars and churches." Nor have I been able to find evidence of any similar kind of official record elsewhere.)

In addition to all the bars, there were dozens of ethnic social clubs that supported themselves with their liquor and beer sales, made all the more lucrative because they were open on Sundays when the bars couldn't open.

"Bar at Catholic Sokol Club. Ambridge, Pennsylvania"
John Vachon
January 1941
Library of Congress

To be clear, not all of the area within the current boundaries of Ambridge Borough was dry, only the original Ambridge, located on land once owned by the American Bridge Co. and later sold through the company's real estate arm, the Ambridge Land Co. That property, which became the borough's First and Second Wards, extended from Big Sewickley Creek on the south to the current 8th St. (then called Bryden Rd.) on the north, and from Park Rd. on the west to Merchant St. and Duss Ave. on the east. I'll refer to it as the "dry area."

I think I first came across the startling information about the dry area in 2014, when I found a news clipping of a car in front of Ambridge's old Davis Hotel, in one of Bill Bowan's albums in Ambridge's Laughlin Memorial Library's archives. The clipping was one of the "Looking Back" photos the Beaver County Times once did from time to time.*

Group showing off car, George S. Capp at far right
at Davis Hotel, 1913
300 Merchant St.
Beaver County Times
July 9, 1984
courtesy Laughlin Memorial Library archives

I'm sure the focus of the original photo was the car--not common in 1913 Ambridge--and the group of men posing with it. But information about the photo, probably provided by Bowan since he was the one who had submitted the photo for publication, included this:

The hotel was almost on the boundary line of Harmony Township on Beaver Road. On the east side of Beaver Road was the township, where liquor sales were permitted.

The location of the hotel was controversial because Ambridge prohibited liquor sales before World War I...But its proximity to the Harmony Township boundary allowed liquor sale in the Beaver Road and Third Street area.

Well, that was a startling bit of Ambridge history. I've been looking for more information about Ambridge's dry area ever since. What I've found since 2014 has gaps, leaving important questions unanswered--including the big one, "Given the legal restriction against the sale of liquor, how did the southern end of Ambridge end up with so many bars long before 50 years had passed?!"

I am continuing my search, but here's what I know so far:

I've mentioned my research about "dry Ambridge" to a few people who have an interest in Ambridge history, and none knew about the restriction on liquor sales. And they'd immediately jump to the conclusion that the Harmony Society, once the owner of the land, was responsible for the alcohol prohibition. But while the Harmony Society's members may have practiced celibacy, they were not adverse to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The Harmonists were famous for their winemaking skills. In addition, they owned a brewery and a distillery.

Although I haven't seen the legal document that created the dry area, it's pretty clear from newspaper articles that the liquor restriction was at the behest of the American Bridge Co. American Bridge's interest in keeping bars out of Ambridge was obvious: they didn't want their workers coming to work under the influence or lose workers to alcoholism. Newspaper articles show that over many years dating back at least to 1904, American Bridge made a practice of challenging liquor licence applications in the Ambridge area, even applications coming from areas where liquor sales were legal, such as Ambridge properties to the north of 8th St. or in Harmony Township.

As far as I can determine, the dry area's liquor restrictions were put in place in 1903, so before Ambridge was incorporated in 1905.

The Pittsburgh Press, writing about a court case involving the liquor licenses of Ambridge bars in 1938, said that "The American [Ambridge?] Land Co., in turning over that section to the borough in 1903, specified in the grant that no liquor be sold there for 50 years." (Pittsburgh Press, April 30, 1938)

But that legal restriction didn't keep astute entrepreneurs from seeing and seizing the opportunity presented by Ambridge's dry area. Hence, the location of the Davis Hotel, which wasn't in dry Ambridge, but conveniently across Merchant St. from it. And that hotel wasn't the only such business.

In 1904, American Bridge Co. made "strenuous opposition" to granting liquor licenses to five Harmony Township businesses: two for retail licenses, two for wholesale licenses, and one for a brewery. "The deeds of all lots sold in Ambridge contain a clause prohibiting the sale of liquor on the property for 50 years, but several persons have applied for licenses just on the border of the town, where there are no restrictions regarding liquor." (Pittsburgh Press, March 29, 1904)

Yes, in real estate, it's location, location, location!

Ambridge Hotel
Eighth and Merchant Sts., northwest corner
circa 1905
courtesy Ambridge Borough

Location also may explain the seemingly odd site chosen for the Ambridge Hotel when it was built in 1905. It wasn't built in rapidly developing, but dry, Ambridge, which would have placed it nearer the train station, and would have been conveniently located for the growing number of potential guests. And the new hotel didn't join the other businesses clustered in the area that once was the Harmony Society's village of Economy, from 12th Street and north. But rather the Ambridge Hotel was built on the northwest corner of Merchant St. and Bryden Rd (now 8th St.), just a stroll across the street from dry Ambridge, making the hotel the first--and for years the only--Merchant St. business from that northern corner of Bryden Rd. to 12th St.

While liquor sales were always legal in the parts of Ambridge other than the dry area--except, of course, during the Prohibition era (1920 -33)--when were liquor licenses first issued in the dry area? I don't know the answer to that.

I do know that by 1938, there were 30 - 38 businesses in the dry area asking for renewal of their liquor licenses, which means their liquor licenses must have been issued before 1938.

The issue of liquor licenses in the dry area was hotly debated in early 1938. At the time, the "liquor trade" in the dry area reportedly employed 300 people with a payroll of $4,000. The claim was made that the only way to permanently settle the question of legality of liquor licenses in the dry area was by securing a release from every property owner there. (Daily Citizen, February 13, 1938)

And what role did the Borough of Ambridge play when liquor licenses were issued in the dry area before 1938? Again, I don't know. But I do know that in 1938, the Borough was adamantly on the side of the dry area businesses asking for their licenses to be renewed.

From the April 15, 1938, Daily Citizen:

Ambridge borough council will back liquor dealers of the first and second wards to have their licenses renewed despite restrictive property deeds, it indicated last night by voting a resolution against license refusal in the area.

The council said refusing to renew the licenses would "cripple businesses, lower property values and decrease borough revenue from licenses and taxes."

The Liquor Control Board wasn't swayed by the argument about the economic impact of closing bars in the dry area. The LCB refused to renew the liquor licenses of 36 bars in the dry area "after it was discovered" that the 1903 land grant "had specified no liquor be sold there for 50 years." I would have thought the LCB would have "discovered" the deed restriction before 1938, because American Bridge would have told the LCB about it before the licenses were issued, but I need to find information to confirm that.

However, the LCB's decision was quickly reversed in court based on a similar case in Philadelphia that had been decided in favor of the liquor licensees. Plus, the judge reasoned, "the denial of licenses to reputable merchants in the restricted area would allow bootleggers to invade the territory." (Pittsburgh Press, May 1, 1938)

But even after that court decision, American Bridge continued to object to liquor licenses. As late as November 1948, the "restriction against taprooms...under a 1903 property deed" was cited as one of the reasons local clergy and the ever-determined American Bridge Co. opposed the transfer of a liquor license from 348 Maplewood Ave. (also in the formerly dry area) to 398 Park Rd., across Park Rd. from the company's large office. (Daily Citizen, November 19, 1948)

I'll continue to look for information to fill in the current gaps in the history of liquor licenses in the dry area, and I will update this article if I find anything important. If anyone can supply any of missing information about the dry area, please let me know.
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* In 1920, the Davis Hotel was sold to Divine Redeemer Church, which used it for its grade school until 1961. I wonder if the hotel was sold because Prohibition made running it a lot less profitable than it had been when could sell liquor. The building is now used by Karnavas Vending Co.

Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool construction, 1939--and Ambridge's earlier playground pool

This year's summer swimming season may have ended, but for Ambridge children, in 1939, the promise of summers filled with laughter, splashes, and the occasional lifeguard's whistle, was starting to take shape, as shown in the photos below.

Construction of the Ambridge Borough Pool in Borough Park (now called Walter Panek Park) began in 1939, the year after Ambridge children from the First St. neighborhood built their own "Dead-End Pool" in polluted Big Sewickley Creek. When health authorities closed and drained the Dead-End Pool, the children marched to the Borough Council, demanding a public pool. I was surprised to learn while I was researching the Dead-End Pool, that the Council agreed that Ambridge needed a public pool, and voted to put a bond proposal to construct a pool on the November 1938 election ballot. The voters approved the bond measure.

But although pool construction began in 1939, completion was long delayed; the pool wasn't opened for swimming until Memorial Day 1942.

Recently, Winifred Graham Boser donated a set of snapshots to Ambridge's Laughlin Memorial Library, showing the early construction of the Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool. Both of her grandfathers, Peter A. Conrad and Walter A. Graham, worked on the pool construction project. And during my last visit to Ambridge, I was lucky enough to be able to scan the photos to share them with you.

Any ideas about what the first photo below is showing? Construction work, of course. But is this work on the old road that once wound through Borough Park? Or the road leading from the Borough Park road into the site of the eventual pool?

"Boro Park, West Rd." ?
May 11, 1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Early Ambridge Borough Pool construction
"Boro Park"
May 11, 1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Fill was added during early construction
of the Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool
May 11, 1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Early construction "Boro Park Pool"
May 11, 1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

"Pool cut"
Early construction of Ambridge Borough Pool
May 11, 1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

"First Concrete"
Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool
June 24, 1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Work on the walls of the main pool
Ambridge Borough Park
1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Walls of the main pool being built
Ambridge Borough Pool
1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Work on main pool
Ambridge Borough Park
1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Uncovering concrete on main pool bottom?
Borough employee Peter A. Conrad on right
1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Main pool closer to completion
Walter A. Graham in forefront, head man on project
1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Digging out ground for diving pool
Ambridge Borough Park
July 24, 1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

More work on diving pool
Ambridge Borough Park
1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Working on diving pool
Ambridge Borough Park
1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Construction of diving pool
Ambridge Borough Park
1939
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

The playground pool--Ambridge's first public pool

While doing research on the construction of Ambridge's first Jr. High School on Duss Ave. (later, after an annex was built, the Jr. - Sr. High School), I was really surprised to find out that a public pool once stood on the school's property in the 1920s.

I'm not talking about the pool in the Jr. High building, but rather an outdoor pool, run by a group called the Ambridge Playground Association, spearheaded by the Ambridge Rotary Club.

The first playground the group built was at the Duss Ave. site in the early 1920s, perhaps 1923. In 1925, the group added playgrounds at First and Fourth Ward Schools. When I was growing up, the playground at the Jr. - Sr. High School was between the northern end of the building and the Bollinger Co. office building. The playground was later moved to the south side of the building when the school's tennis courts/skating rink were built in the 1960s.

The Jr. High playground featured a swimming pool during the summer months. Since it was operated as part of the summer playground program, I think it was probably only open to children, but I haven't yet found confirmation of that.

I don't have a photo or a good description of the pool, but I assume was above ground and fairly large--75 swimmers at a time were allowed in it. And it was deep enough that parents were urged to insist that children who couldn't swim stay in the shallow end of the pool.

Two showers were provided so that swimmers could shower before they entered the pool.

In the summer of 1925, that pool's water pump needed repairs, and its opening was delayed until June 22, when the Citizen announced that the pool would open that afternoon. Two days later, the paper reported that the June 23 crowd was a record, with 300 swimmers enjoying the pool.

But confusingly, the same newspaper reported on July 20 that the swimming pool on the Jr. High School grounds had "not yet been opened." The reason was the "sewer is clogged and repairs not yet made." It further reported that the school board had decided not to open the playground pool that year, because a new sewer was required, and since the new school was under construction, it would be better to wait and connect both the playground pool and school to the sewer system at the same time. Did the Citizen mean re-opened? I'm still looking for the answer.

When the Jr. High athletic field was being planned in 1926, the construction of a fence that would include the playground and its swimming pool was discussed.

As of now, I don't know the last year the playground swimming pool was open.

Later, the Playground Assn. added two more playgrounds, one near Second Ward School, and the other at the then-new Anthony Wayne Elementary School. I don't know yet who was responsible for the construction of the playground near Liberty School.

When black sugar rained on Ambridge

Recently, the American Lung Association found that although the air quality in Beaver County remains among the worst in the country, the area got a "pass" on "particle pollution." That news made me think--not fondly--of "black sugar"--gritty soot that fell on Ambridge and nearby communities during my growing up years in the 1950s and '60s.

Fireman Russell McCutcheon hosing away black sugar

first Ambridge Municipal Building

10th and Merchant Sts.

1960

Courtesy Borough of Ambridge

Black sugar memories

I have vivid memories of my grandmother sweeping black sugar from the front porch every day, day after day, sometimes twice a day. The black sugar was light enough that each sweep of the broom would scatter the black sugar forward as if the soot were a dusting of dry snow.

I also remember my grandmother sitting on that porch's swing, talking with our next door neighbor, Mrs. Olkowski, who was sitting on her porch swing, about how it looked like blame for the black sugar could be traced to the power plant in South Heights, across the Ohio River.

Black sugar would find its way into the house too, deposited on window sills that had to be dusted daily when the windows were open during warm weather--which they frequently were in those days before homes had air conditioners.

Another summer memory was black sugar floating in the gutters along the sides of the Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool, or in drifts along the pool's bottom, carried by the current created by the pool filter. Before the pool would open, lifeguards would hose off the pool decks to clean them of black sugar.

In the winter, snow never stayed white for long before it was coated with a layer of black sugar. You could tell how many breaks in the snowfall had occurred by counting the number of layers of snow separated by black sugar.

The white sand in my backyard sandbox similarly would be topped regularly by a fresh layer of black sugar.

My family wasn't one to buy the latest in home appliances--I believe my mom was still using a wringer washer when I left for college in 1967--but my dad bought a gas dryer in the early '50s after he found my mom bringing in the freshly washed diapers she had hung in our backyard to dry, in order to rewash them, after black sugar had made them too filthy to use.

A rather gross childhood memory was my nose producing black and gray snot and "boogers" that I didn't realize at the time weren't the normal color of nasal mucous. How would I even know that? No adult who cared for me ever mentioned it, and I wasn't the kind of kid who went around comparing boogers with other kids. At least my nose mucous was trying to do its job, keeping at least some of the inhaled black sugar from traveling further into my body.


The history of the black sugar rain of aggravation

In the photo below, the dark areas of the sidewalk being swept in front of 997 Merchant St. are not puddles; they're black sugar. I believe that when the photo was taken in 1962, 997 Merchant was the Motive Parts store; it's now F. D. Strano Sales. The building to the right of 997 was the Pennsylvania State Liquor Store at 999 Merchant St; you can see part of its sign at the top of the photo. It still sells wine and liquor as the Ambridge Wine & Spirits Shop. Beyond that, across 10th St., are the old Ambridge Municipal Building and to the right of that, Pittsburgh Auto Equipment Co., 1007 Merchant St., now the home of Pizza House "Police Station" Pizza.

The photo once had a typed caption that's partly cut off in the copy of the photo I have. This is what I can read:

The 'black sugar' mess has scared away his customers...having nothing else to do--at least HE tries to keep Ambridge clean.

Sweeping black sugar
997 Merchant St.
July 30, 1962
Courtesy Borough of Ambridge

I don't know yet when the black sugar problem began in Ambridge, but it may have started when the area plants and mills switched to burning a different kind of coal than they'd previously used, maybe in the 1940s. Does anyone remember Ambridge before black sugar was such a nuisance?

The black sugar must have been especially bad in the summer of 1953. Ambridge residents were angry about the exceptionally heavy amount of black sugar that had fallen at least twice that summer. As a result the Ambridge Chamber of Commerce formed a committee to investigate the source of the problem.

The July 8, 1953, Beaver Valley Times quoted Art Bray, the Chamber's Executive Secretary, saying:

In an industrial area such as Ambridge, the residents can expect a certain amount of dirt. But the complaints have become so numerous that we couldn't side-step the issue...The chamber realizes that we are living in an industrial area and matters such as these take time to alleviate.

The "time to alleviate" the problem turned out to be more than a decade, even though the primary source of black sugar was quickly identified as the J&L steel mill across the Ohio River in Aliquippa, perhaps with a contribution by Duquesne Light Co.'s Phillips Power Station in South Heights, also across the river.

Ambridge Burgess Walter Panek also appointed a committee after hundreds of complaints from residents poured in, and the Chamber didn't seem to be taking action quickly enough. Panek was quoted in the August 25, 1953, Beaver Valley Times as saying, "The situation has become unbearable."

One of the members of that committee, Dr. George H. Foster, complained, "We hear about the wonderful advances in science on smoke control, but where?--certainly not here!"

Jump forward to February 11, 1958, when, according to the Beaver Valley Times, the Ambridge Borough Council was again discussing the black sugar problem. Panek said that J&L had promised to correct the situation two years before, but had failed to do so. The Ambridge Board of Health reported that the black sugar actually was getting worse. Panek said, "Ambridge would be a fine place to live if it wasn't for the black sugar." But a Beaver Valley Times editorial two days later didn't sound sympathetic to Ambridge's plight: "It is a vexing problem, assuredly. But since Beaver County's economy is so greatly dependent upon heavy industry, we can all expect to put up with a certain degree of smoke and air pollution."

The October 6, 1958, Beaver Valley Times, wrote that black sugar continued to plague Ambridge, but suggested that the Phillips Power Station might be to blame, because black sugar had continued falling even though J&L and other local steel mills had been closed because of a steel strike.

In the late 1950s, the Air Pollution Control Section of the Pennsylvania Division of Occupational Health had done a study and found Ambridge had a "definite problem" with "particulate matter in the atmosphere." [Ambridge residents were shocked at this finding! Yes, that's sarcasm.] The "large and coarse" particulates were traced to the burning of pulverized coal. The report went on to say that Ambridge had a "relatively high concentration of suspended particulate matter," but couldn't pinpoint the exact nature of the soot or its source. (Daily Citizen, February 10, 1959)

Although Ambridge had passed the first air pollution control ordinance in Beaver County, the law couldn't be enforced beyond the borough's borders, so there was little Ambridge could do alone to control black sugar blowing from elsewhere. Finally, in 1960, the state passed the Air Pollution Control Act which addressed that issue, but apparently never enforced it in the Ambridge area.

The July 12, 1961, the Beaver County Times noticed that Ambridge had been plagued by black sugar "for several years." Only several years?!

By that time, the thoroughly fed up Ambridge Council President, Floree Aquino, was spearheading the fight against black sugar, and threatening to take legal action against J&L, noting in August 1961, "J&L corrected the pollution problem at its Pittsburgh plant and there is no reason why the firm can't do the same thing in Aliquippa." J&L claimed that it had already spent $5,000,000 to control air pollution at the Aliquippa mill and planned to spend more. (Beaver County Times, Aug. 15, 1961)

Later that month, Aquino, Panek, and other borough officials met with J&L Board Chairman Avery C. Adams at J&L headquaters in Pittsburgh. Aquino told Adams that black sugar was a health nuisance and "actually causing people to choose to live elsewhere." Adams told the Ambridge representatives that J&L knew the company had a serious problem at its South Mill in Aliquippa. "I assure you that we will start the engineering necessary to install the proper new control equipment immediately....We will solve this problem although it is going to take both time and money to do it." Aquino left the meeting feeling "well pleased." (Pittsburgh Press, August 24, 1961)

In January 1962, Aquino blamed black sugar for making Ambridge the "dirtiest community in western Pennsylvania" during a State Health Department hearing about air pollution regulations. The department and the Region 3 Air Pollution Control Association were taken on a bus tour of Ambridge and other Beaver County communities to see the smoke emitted by pollution sources. An extensive study of county air pollution and its sources was going to be started and would take about a year to complete. (Beaver County Times, January 18, 1962; Gettysburg Times, January 18, 1962)

Four months later, the Beaver County Times reported, "Ambridge has been plagued for some time by 'black sugar,' a soot-like substance, but Saturday's deluge was the worst seen here by Floree Aquino." Aquino blamed J&L of "gross negligence" and said he was going to contact J&L officials. Again. (Beaver County Times, May 21, 1962)

Over a year later, J&L again promised to do something about black sugar:

In response to a request from the Pennsylvania Air Pollution Control Commission, the company has agreed to install equipment at its South Mills boiler house, the alleged source of the "black sugar," to abate the pollutant. Work on the installation is expect to be started early next year.

The June 24, 1963, Beaver County Times ominously noted:

This will be a costly project for J and L, whose Aliquippa Works is Beaver County's biggest industry. It comes at a time when J and L, like other American steel firms, is losing sales to foreign competitors. This competition from abroad is cutting into J and L's jobs and profits, yet the cost of the air pollution control equipment must be financed from profits.

The next month, the Times wrote that the Region III Air Pollution Control Association had decided to ask the Pennsylvania Air Pollution Commission to adopt regulations to control the county's air pollution.

Tests of the air over the county made during the past two years by the State Department of Health have revealed that the volume of air pollution here is among the highest in the country. County residents pay heavily for these pollutants through medical bills, cleaning costs and home maintenance expenses. 

The Times said that local pollution was heaviest in Ambridge, Aliquippa, and Midland, with Ambridge especially suffering because of black sugar. (Beaver County Times, July 16, 1963)

Over a year later, the Commission hadn't yet approved air pollution regulations for Beaver County, and Aquino accused it of "dragging its feet." But there was good news. Aquino said that by October 15, the black sugar problem in Ambridge should end, as that was the date J&L was scheduled to begin operating air pollution controls in Aliquippa. (Beaver County Times, August 11, 1964)

If you guessed J&L missed that scheduled date, you guessed right. The company said delays in the shipment of vital parts of the smoke control equipment meant that its operation would need to be postponed for "a few weeks." J&L said it expected to have the equipment running before a January 1965 deadline.

I'm still looking for the date when J&L finally started operating its air pollution controls, and black sugar finally stopped falling on Ambridge. It does appear to have been sometime in 1964, as an article in the August 4, 1965, Times said that J&L was adding more smoke control equipment to clean dust from blast furnaces "in addition to the electrostatic precipitators and mechanical dust collectors which went into operation on the South Mills Boiler House last year." I'll update this article when I find a more exact date than "last year."

Morton Chevrolet & KDKA election results ad, 1948

In 1948, the technology that provided election results wasn't as up-to-the-minute as it is today. Voters relied on radios, or their daily papers, to find out the election's outcome.

According to the November 2, 1948, Beaver Valley Times, that evening's KDKA election results radio broadcast would be the 28th anniversary of the first public radio election returns broadcast in Beaver County. Even reporting the election returns on the radio was quite the process back in 1920:

The returns were broadcast by KDKA, Pittsburgh, in its initial regularly-scheduled service and were received by the Daily Times, forerunner of the Beaver County Times, in Beaver.

Reception of the returns was made possible by Walter Barnhart, head of the Barnhart radio and electric store in Beaver, who built and operated the receiving equipment and amplifier used by the newspaper. No loud speakers were available, but Mr. Barnhart devised an amplifier by using a large megaphone loaned by Beaver high school.
...
A large crowd listened to the broadcast at the office of the Daily Times on Third street.

Morton Chevrolet, KDKA election results ad
Daily Citizen
November 1, 1948

1948, the year of the ad above, was also the year of the upset election in which the polls had predicted Republican Thomas E. Dewey would win the presidential election; but the polls were wrong, and Harry S. Truman became president. Truman was famously pictured gleefully holding up the erroneous November 3, 1948, Chicago Daily Tribune, with the large banner headline "Dewey Defeats Truman," and reportedly said, "That ain't the way I heard it."

Even though Dewey won Pennsylvania's presidential vote, the Daily Times reported that Ambridge had voted 2 - 1 for Truman.

American Bridge Co. testing Army gun containers

When I first wrote this article, I had only the first two photos below. But now I have a third, and there's more information about this American Bridge project written on its back, so see the update below.

 I don't know more about this American Bridge Co. project than the notes written on the back of these two press photos.

If you know any additional details about the project, please leave a comment.

This is the press note on the back of the first photo below:

"U. S. Army containers. Made by the American Bridge co. being tested on the Ohio R. These containers are made to keep guns dry."

Testing Army gun containers on Ohio River
American Bridge Co.
Ambridge
January 7, 1946

Testing Army gun containers on Ohio River
American Bridge Co. 
Ambridge
January 7, 1946

That's the still-standing historic Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge in the background of the photos above.

Update July 15, 2017, another photo, more information:

Final test of ammo containers
American Bridge Co.
Ambridge
January 11, 1946

Here what the back of the photo above says:

The final test for Army storage cans, Pittsburgh, PA.--Big cans, designed for the Army as protective containers for preserving Army equipment, went through the final test of their efficiency and came through successfully. As a test of waterproofness, they were dunked in the Ohio River, near Pittsburgh, and proved to be watertight. The loaded cans can be tossed overboard in places where there are no dock facilities, and be towed to shore by smaller boats or allowed to wash ashore. Photo shows: After the test, the can is loaded back on the flatcar on which it traveled 6300 miles from Pittsburgh to the West Coast and back, to test its endurance in all climates. 

If you look closely, you can see a bit of the Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge in the background of this photo too.