Marketing the new town of Ambridge: Part 1: Porter Locomotive is coming! Porter Locomotive is coming! But did it?

Real Estate Trust Co. ad for Economy-Ambridge
"The H. K. Porter Company"
"Locomotive Shops to Employ 2,000 to 3,000 Men"
Pittsburg Press,
April 18, 1906

In 1903, the American Bridge Company started building the world's largest structural steel fabricating plant along the east side of the Ohio River. The building site was on land that had once belonged to the Harmony Society, which by then, had faded away, becoming history.

In the former Harmonist village of Economy, north of the new plant, a small number of non-Harmonist businesses and employees of the Society remained. But beyond the village, there was mostly undeveloped land: fields, orchards, vineyards, and pastures, occasionally punctuated by coke ovens and oil and gas wells.

Now think of what the American Bridge Co. had to do to start a thriving industrial town from basically scratch.

Sure, the company might have no problem attracting the massive labor force needed to build, then work in, their new plant. But think of everything those workers would need. Homes, food, supplies, transportation, banks, postal service, schools, churches. And what about infrastructure? Who would build streets, sidewalks, sewers, a water system? How do you attract professionals needed to care for the sick or bury the dead?

American Bridge did pretty much what's still done today. It hired a real estate company. And that company advertised.

The Real Estate Trust Co. of Pittsburgh, which had a branch office at the corner of Park Rd. and 5th St. in Ambridge, was given the task of selling the new town of Ambridge to potential businesses, investors, and residents. Early on, the company published a multi-page sales brochure, "Ambridge, Reasons for Her Coming Greatness," with descriptions and photos of the very early stages of the building of the American Bridge plant and Ambridge's infrastructure.

In May 1904, the real estate company placed two full-page ads in the Pittsburg* Press, touting the marvels of the new "manufacturing city" of Economy. The "Ambridge" name hadn't caught on yet.

The first ad, full of hyperbole and fantastic predictions, offered a free train excursion to see "the greatest industrial and city building progress in modern times." I highly recommend reading the ad; it's not only entertaining, but offers a jaw-dropping view of the early plans for Ambridge's development. (The ad's easiest to read if you visit the digital Pittsburg Press from May 3, 1904.)

Ad for "The Marvel City"
Pittsburg Press
May 23, 1904

The following day, the Press featured another full-page ad.

Ad for "The Marvel City"
Pittsburg Press
May 24, 1904

This second ad still contained some of the same amazing predictions about the future Ambridge as the previous day's ad did. But I think the seconds ad's most astonishing selling point was that it featured former Harmony Society trustee, "world's famous bandmaster," John Duss, saying his "greatest achievement" was selling "miles of level plateau to capitalists." (Click here to read the ad in the digital Pittsburg Press.)

In the spring of 1906, the same real estate company started placing a series of smaller ads in the Pittsburg Press, Pittsburgh Post, and Pittsburgh Gazette, this time focusing not on what Ambridge was going to become, but rather on what Ambridge already was.

The exception to these ads featuring Ambridge's already-existing amenities, buildings, and infrastructure were the earliest five that I found. Those five ads announced that the famous Porter Locomotive Co., which made small industrial locomotives used in places like mills, lumberyards, and mines, had plans for a huge new plant in Ambridge.

These Porter Locomotive ads were the only ones I've found in the series that were about an industry that was yet to come to Ambridge. And the only ads to feature the same reason Ambridge was wonderful more than once. Later, Porter Locomotive's coming to Ambridge was mentioned in several subsequent ads which I plan to feature in separate posts.

Real Estate Trust Co. ad for Economy-Ambridge
"Porter Locomotives Will Haul Money into Economy-Ambridge"
Pittsburgh Post,
April 20, 1906

Real Estate Trust Co. ad for Economy-Ambridge
"Porter Locomotive Shops"
"Double The Capacity of The Company's Present Shops"
Pittsburg Press,
April 22, 1906

Real Estate Trust Co. ad for Economy-Ambridge
"A Wonderful Engine"
"Economy = Ambridge"
Pittsburgh Post
April 24, 1906

Real Estate Trust Co. ad for Economy-Ambridge
"Realty Values in Economy-Ambridge Forge Ahead"
"one of the largest locomotive works in the world will commence operations"
Pittsburgh Post
April 26, 1906

Did Porter Locomotive ever come to Ambridge?

Over many months I've looked for information about the Porter Locomotive plant in Ambridge, so highly anticipated in 1906 and '07.

To be sure, Porter Locomotive's plans to move its existing Pittsburgh plant to a new plant in Ambridge wasn't just some advertising hoopla dreamed up by the Real Estate Trust Company to sell property. Not only was there information about the planned move in several newspapers, but also, thanks to Sarah Buffington, Old Economy Village's curator, I now have a copy of a 1906 deed showing that the H. K. Porter Co. bought property, not exactly in Ambridge, but rather a bit north, in Harmony Township's Legionville.   

And yes, in 1959, the H. K. Porter Corp. purchased Ambridge's National Electric plant. But by then Porter was no longer making locomotives, and National Electric, which produced electrical products, wasn't located on the property that Porter Locomotive bought in Legionville in 1906.

It looks to me as if Porter Locomotive's Pittsburgh plant remained opened. And that Porter Locomotive may have opened additional plants in locations other than Ambridge. 

I found no information about Porter Locomotive ever building a plant, hiring workers, or producing locomotives in Legionville or Ambridge. Did any of that ever happen?

I've seen Porter Locomotive listed among Ambridge's industries in several places, but none provide more information than the name, and perhaps, mention that it was north of Ambridge. Although I checked with a couple of the writers who had said Porter Locomotive was in Ambridge, they couldn't offer me more information.

So, did Porter Locomotives ever build a plant and manufacture locomotives in or near Ambridge? I don't have the definitive answer to that yet. But right now, I'm inclined to say "no."

I do know that in 1917, Porter sold at least some of the Legionville property to the Firth Sterling Steel Co., and that Firth Sterling later sold the property to several buyers, but that's about it. One of the buyers was Spang Chalfant Co. which according to a March 21, 1939, Daily Citizen article, bought 55 acres on the flat area between the railroad and the Ohio River, previously an "old dairy farm."

There may be people who can tell me about Legionville's history during 1906 - 1917, and I know there are people who know a lot about the history of the Porter Locomotive Co. If anyone can help with additional information about what happened with the plan to move Pittsburgh's Porter Locomotive plant to Legionville, I'd be grateful.

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* For a time, the Pittsburgh Press spelled its name "Pittsburg Press," the no "h" spelling dictated by the United States Board on Geographic Names. Other Pittsburgh papers kept the "h". Eventually, the Pittsburgh Press added the "h" back.

Ambridge's "crackerbox" tenements

I don't know why so many people ask about Ambridge's "crackerbox" housing. Perhaps it's because they came across a photo with a building labeled "crackerbox" and want to know more about it. Or maybe it's because they are confused, since the photo they find doesn't match their memories of a building they remember as the "crackerbox." Maybe they're just intrigued by the "crackerbox" name.

Ambridge once had at least two groups of flimsy, crowded, and plain tenement apartments referred to as "crackerboxes." And that's one source of confusion.

Crackerbox #1:
People sometimes come across this 1907 photo of "crackerbox" tenements surrounded by flood waters, online or elsewhere.

Local historian Bill Bowan owned the copy of the photo below, and it's now in Laughlin Memorial Library's archives.

Crackerbox tenements in flood
1907
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Bill Bowan's caption:

Amer. Bridge Co. - Cracker Box Tenement Flooded in 1907. Ambridge Pa - This is the last of several Tenements constructed for Laborers building the Plant from 1903. Located near the foot of 7th & Eighth Sts.

Although it's hard to see, there's an "x" below a woman in a white dress who is standing close to the west (river) side of the tracks. Bowan made more extensive notes on the back of the photo* which included the identity of that woman. Here's what those notes said:

Enlargement Scene from 1907 flood as seen at American Br. Co. Tenement "Cracker Box" Housing 20 families each - Row - Some with Boarders at one time 3 or 4 rows were there.  

Original photo owned by Mrs. Z. Bankowski #314B Wagner Ave Ambridge PA 

Copied April 1978 

X marks Mrs Zigmundt Bankowski's Mother - a resident "Cracker Box"

Did the builders not foresee that any structure constructed on the low land between the rail tracks and the Ohio River in that part of Ambridge would be subject to flooding? Or did they not care?

I don't know if that crackerbox building was razed as a result of the flood or sometime later.

Crackerbox(es) #2:

The other group of crackerboxes were two side-by-side tenement apartment buildings separated by a narrow alley. These were unlikely to flood, as they were constructed a number of blocks east of the river, on a hill above the 100 block of Beaver Rd., on land that, as far as I know, was still part of Harmony Township when they were built.

This snip from a 1917 Sanborn Insurance map shows the location of the crackerboxes. They're the large yellow rectangles labeled "tenements." By then, the land they were on had been annexed by Ambridge.

Location of crackerbox tenements
100 block of Beaver Rd.
snip from 1917 Sanborn Insurance map

These buildings survived longer than the one in the flood photo above, and much longer than its neighbors and Ambridge authorities would have preferred.

The photo below is from the private collection of Karl Urda, grandson of Charles Kristufek, who built the two crackerbox buildings under contract. Urda said that while Kristufek reluctantly agreed to manage the apartments after he built them, he never owned them.

Crackerbox tenements
circa 1910
courtesy of Karl Urda

Urda told me that the crackerboxes were "built as slums," and they remained that until they were razed 50 years later. The two buildings were home to the poorest of the poor and people who had no other housing options in Ambridge, including black residents. Rent originally was $1 a month.

Urda said the crackerbox apartments were built without bathrooms or kitchens, although a communal kitchen was located at the end of each hallway. Outhouses were in the back of the buildings; later, those were replaced by communal toilets and tubs.

These crackerboxes were considered a blight on the lower Ambridge neighborhood for years, perhaps from the day they were constructed.

On November 18, 1955, a fire that began on the third floor of the 120 Beaver Rd. building routed residents. Depending on which local paper you relied on, either 12 or 20 families were forced to flee. And the damage was estimated at either $5,000 (Daily Citizen and Beaver Valley Times) or between $35,000 and $50,000 (Pittsburgh Post Gazette).

Crackerbox fire
Daily Citizen
November 19, 1955
(handwritten date of 1958 is wrong)
Louis Vukovcan collection

Daily Citizen caption:

CENTER OF THE FIRE IN THE "CRACKER-BOX" Friday night was covered from all angles by members of fire departments from Ambridge and the immediate area.

The Daily Citizen article said:

Called (sic) living conditions deplorable and a slum which has no place in Ambridge, councilmen and health authorities have been caustic in their criticism in past years of the housing. Efforts to have the structures razed have been snagged from time to time.

Persons who have kept up a running fight against the "eye-sore" and included are borough officials and people generally, the next move by Owner Snyder will be watched.

The Beaver Valley Times article about the fire noted "the fire department has been trying to have the building condemned for some time."

"Owner Snyder" was Dr. A. M. Snyder of Pittsburgh.

The borough was still complaining about the conditions of the building the year after the fire. The May 24, 1956, Beaver Valley Times reported that Snyder had been given until June 8 to submit a plan to improve the buildings to meet the Ambridge housing code.

The next year, Snyder finally took some minimal action and razed some sheds near the crackerboxes. The May 15, 1957, Beaver Valley Times reported that other improvements to bring the property up to code were still needed. The Times also said that the Ambridge council had "reached the end of their patience" and "hinted" that if Snyder didn't bring his buildings up to code, he would be fined. I haven't yet found information about what action, if any, the council may have taken against Snyder and when.

I'm not sure of the date of the photo below, also from Bowan's collection, but it may be shortly before the crackerboxes finally were razed to make room for public housing.

Crackerbox Tenement
circa 1960
Laughlin Memorial Library archives

Several more years passed before the November 26, 1960, Beaver County Times could report that the crackerboxes, a "notorious Ambridge eyesore," would finally be razed "to the regret of few people in the community."

Razing of crackerbox tenements
Beaver County Times
December 3, 1960

Times caption:

RAZING CRACKER BOX APARTMENTS -- Workmen are putting finishing touches to demolition work at the site where two three story frame tenement buildings know (sic) as "the cracker box," Merchant Street and Beaver Road, stood. They will be replaced by a three-story brick and concrete apartment building to accommodate 26 families of low and moderate income. Two other housing units also will be constructed in Ambridge by the Beaver County Housing authority. 

The building at 300 Locust St. that replaced the crackerboxes provides subsidized family housing.

P. J. Shotter took this recent photo of that building from the Merchant St. side.

300 Locust St. from Merchant St.
January 22, 2017
credit: P. J. Shotter
used with permission

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* Bowan also provided some information on the buildings shown in the photo on the west bank of the Ohio: "Stable and Hotel with Out buildings across the River below todays 11th St Bridge at 'West Economy'"

** The late Charles Kristufek, a harness maker by trade, built many of Ambridge's early buildings--houses, commercial buildings, churches, and convents. Later he became one of Ambridge's most prominent businessmen. He started a bank that he later sold to Mellon Bank, and he built and owned the large Economy Lumber and Building Co. on Duss Ave. His successful real estate and insurance business, The Kristufek Agency, is now in the hands of his grandson, Karl Urda.

The Dead-End Pool

In the summer of 1938, this was the Ambridge swimming pool:

Dead-End Pool
Photographer: Arthur Rothstein *
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
July 1938

Dead-End Pool
Beaver County Times,
June 22, 2011

The Dead-End Pool, reportedly named for the 1937 movie Dead End, was built by the depression era children of the First Street neighborhood by damming the Bank Street Creek, the local name for the section of Big Sewickley Creek that flowed past Bank Street**, and is a testimony to their ingenuity, resourcefulness, and work ethic. My aunt Helen(Sokolosky) Gause, then 11 years-old, says she was one of the neighborhood children who helped fill 100 sandbags with sand to make the pool.

Note the Life Guard Station on the upper left side of the top photo.

But then came those darn grownups and their concerns about things like safety.

A brief mention in The Daily Times of August 1, 1938, said the authorities were testing the pool's water, and the pool's fate rested in the test results.

On August 3, the same paper announced that the test results were in and showed that the pool was "grossly polluted with intestinal bacteria and wholly unfit for bathing purposes." The chemist from the Board of Health was quoted as saying, "It is a public health menace and should be destroyed." And so, the Dead-End Pool was condemned.

However, the children of First Street were determined, tenacious, assertive--and angry. And perhaps they had learned some strategies from the union organizers in the community.

The August 6, 1938, Pittsburgh Press reported that the borough had drained the Dead-End Pool the day before, although it had left the dam walls to provide ice skating in colder weather. The article also reported that the borough boys had circulated petitions demanding a municipal pool and had planned a parade for that afternoon to march to the borough building to demand a pool.

In news that may shock people used to dealing more recently with Ambridge authorities, the August 9 Press reported that "between 50 and 60 Dead-End Kids deprived of their swimming hole in Big Sewickley Creek when it was drained last week, took their complaint before Borough Council last night and came away from the meeting cheering." The Council agreed to put a bond proposal on the November ballot that would pay for the construction of a $110,000 swimming pool. And until a pool was constructed, the fire department would provide sprinklers for the kids to splash in. Wow.

So the end of the Dead-End Pool led to the birth of the borough pool so many of us enjoyed from the 1940s through the early 1990s.

The borough pool was built ***  on top of a steep hill on borough property currently called Walter Panek Park, about as far away from First Street as you could get and still be in Ambridge. But kids didn't seem to care. For generations, kids in Ambridge and beyond made the trek to the pool. It was where many of us spent long summer days providing wonderful memories.
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*Arthur Rothstein was an acclaimed American photojournalist. He was one of the photographers employed by the Farm Service Administration to document the hardship of people's lives during the Great Depression. You can learn more about him and his work at the Arthur Rothstein Archive. Rothstein took a series of photographs in the First Street neighborhood that were published in July 1938.

** I'm not sure where Bank Street Creek was/is. I haven't found it yet on a map. I'm going to take a wild guess that it was near Bank Street in southwest Ambridge off First Street. Perhaps it was the name given to Big Sewickley Creek as it flowed through the Bank Street area. I'm not sure what bridge that is painted with the Dead-End Pool sign, but it looks like it may have been the railroad bridge that I'm told was once west of the bridge over Big Sewickley Creek that connects Merchant Street in Beaver County with Beaver Street in Allegheny County. If anyone can provide more information, please leave a comment.

Update: I have been assured by residents of the First Street neighborhood that "Bank Street Creek" was the name that locals gave to the section of Big Sewickley Creek that flowed past Bank Street. And that the bridge shown in the photo is the railroad bridge that once crossed Big Sewickley Creek west of the stone Big Sewickley Creek Bridge.

*** I have been hunting for a long time for information on the construction and opening of the borough pool, but rather than delay the post about the Dead-End Pool further, I've decided I'll post the information on the construction and opening if and when I find it. If you have any information, please leave a comment.

Update: the Ambridge Borough Pool opened on Memorial Day, 1942 and was formally dedicated on July 12, 1942. You can see photos of its construction in the September 15, 2017, Ambridge Memories blog post "Ambridge Borough Swimming Pool construction, 1939--and Ambridge's earlier playground pool." In that post, I discuss the Ambridge playground pool that once was in the 800 block of Duss Ave. and pre-dated the Dead-End pool. I learned about the short-lived playground pool only after I wrote this blog post.

Ambridge Today: The rubble that once was the American Bridge office building

The last of the American Bridge office building on 4th Street and Park Road was razed in February. So I was rather concerned to see that rubble from the building, in some places, good-sized hills of it, remained on the lot when I was in Ambridge at the end of March. And I've been told it's still there.

American Bridge office building rubble,
March 22, 2014
copyright Nancy Knisley

American Bridge office building rubble,
March 22, 2014
copyright Nancy Knisley

American Bridge office building rubble,
March 22, 2014
copyright Nancy Knisley

American Bridge office building rubble,
March 22, 2014
copyright Nancy Knisley

American Bridge office building rubble,
March 22, 2014
copyright Nancy Knisley

American Bridge office building rubble,
March 22, 2014
copyright Nancy Knisley

It seems to me that the rubble is a worse eyesore than the old building was when it was still standing. And more of a hazard too, especially since there is no fence to keep people out and the rubble in.

The rubble contains bricks, both single ones and sections, concrete slabs, and sharp pieces of wood and metal, plus other debris. I was told that a huge, deep hole--I'm guessing the office's basement--was near the Ohio River Boulevard end of the property. 

I also was told there were two "No Trespassing" signs on the 4th Street side of the lot which, I suppose, some expert determined would be enough to deter unauthorized people from stepping foot on the property. I never saw those signs since I was standing on the Park Road side where I saw none posted. 

And it looked like other trash had been dumped on the property--unless American Bridge had a time machine that allowed it to possess a CRT computer monitor 30-some years ago.

Trash with the American Bridge office rubble
March 22, 2014
copyright Nancy Knisley

Isn't leaving the rubble there for so long allowing pollutants to wash off the property when it rains or blow around in the wind? Aren't the people in charge of things in Ambridge concerned about rats proliferating, or mosquitoes breeding as the weather gets warmer? (If it ever gets warmer. That didn't seem to be happening when I was there. Snowed three times and was unseasonably cold.)

Such an ugly entry into Ambridge.

The Asian Flu is coming!

In November, 1957, the U.S. Public Health Service and the American Medical Association warned us that the "highly contagious" Asian Flu was coming. But, on the bright side, a vaccine was available for the first time.

Asian Flu message from the U.S. Public Health Service and the American Medical Association, warning about the Asian Flu, published in the Beaver Valley Times, November 15, 1957