Class photo: First Grade, First Ward School, 1910

Ed Halleman, center

Miss Grey, teacher

First Grade

First Ward School

1910

courtesy of Tim Halleman

used with permission

Back of photo

Ed Halleman is the first grader circled in the class photo, which came from Ed Halleman's grandson, Tim Halleman. Ed Halleman is the only student identified. If you know the identities of any of the other students, please leave a comment. It looks as though there were some students cut off on the right side of the photo.

First Ward School, 215 Merchant Street, opened in 1910 and was razed in 1964.

Ambridge memorabilia: H.H. Robertson bag

Bill Orlowski sent me this bag. Thanks, Bill!

H. H. Robertson Company bag
front

The bag is made of a muslin-like material with a thin drawstring at the top. It's approximately 9 1/2 inches from top to bottom and 5 inches wide.

One side of the bag is printed with:

H. H. ROBERTSON COMPANY

AMBRIDGE, PA.

Robertson Protected Metal Roofing, Siding, Trim, Galbestos Roofing & Siding, Louvres, Ducts, Hoods and Sheet-Lites. Robertson "Q" Flooring, Steel Decks, Gravity Type Ventilators, Fan Ventilators, Structural Skylights and Sash, Robertson Asphaltic Coatings, Hubbellite Floors.

H. H. Robertson Company bag
back

On the reverse side is hand-printed "AIR GAUGES." Was this for employees to carry small parts in? And if so, why list all the company's products on the front?

H. H. Robertson was a 40 acre industrial plant once located in an area that stretched from the north side of 14th St. to 19th St, and from Oak Alley on the east to the old Belt Line Railroad tracks on the west, just east of Merchant St.

The Beaver County Emergency Services (911) building is now located on the 14th St. end of the company's former property.

When Ambridge was "The Marvel City" and John Duss the musician was a selling point

On March 23, 2015, I posted "The selling of 'The Marvel City,'" about a May 23, 1904, Pittsburg Press* ad in which a real estate company touted to potential investors the wonders of the "grand central City of Economy" and then-embryonic Ambridge. If you haven't read that blog post, I urge you do to so, and click on the link there to the ad itself, which is astonishing in its aggrandizement of the Ambridge-Economy area, both as it was then, and as it was predicted to become.

That ad was followed the next day by a second, equally astonishing, I think, but for a different reason. This ad repeats some of the hyperbole of the previous day's ad, but features "the masterly musical triumphs" of John Duss in its sales pitch.

Praise of John Duss--one of the last trustees of, and when he died in 1951, the last surviving member of, The Harmony Society--the world's famous bandmaster," topped the ad, applauding the "music of prosperity" he brought to the "Marvelous New City of Economy" by selling off the Society's land. And behind a sketch of the new American Bridge plant, there's a huge one of Duss the conductor.

I suspect few people today remember Duss for his musical talents. I know how surprised I was when I first read about his career as conductor and composer shortly after I started this blog.

I've wondered if Duss, who surely thought very highly of his musical abilities, helped compose the ad.

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

You can read the ad much better in the online digitized edition of the Pittsburg Press by clicking here.

History has not been exactly kind to the reputation of Duss, accused of misappropriating the Society's money to support his lavish lifestyle, including taking "the New York City Metropolitan Opera Orchestra on a coast-to-coast tour as their 'guest conductor'–at the community's expense." His wife's decision to dissolve the Society and keep its assets led to an 11-year legal battle.

I've read some of the reviews written during Duss' musical career, and they range from raves, to pans of his performances and compositions as mere vanity projects. A good summary can be found at the Pittsburgh Music History site, which includes his dismissal by some critics as a "narcissistic buffoon."

Among Duss' contributions to Ambridge's music scene was the composition of a St. Veronica's mass that he conducted in the church in 1916. He conducted the music, much of it composed by him, during the Economy Centennial in 1924. Years after his "last public appearance as a conductor" at St. John's Lutheran Church in 1929, Duss exhibited his musical talents, whatever they may have been, at a 1947 concert at Old Economy.
_____

* Using the spelling "Pittsburg" used by the newspaper at that time.

Hidden between the walls #2

Yesterday, I updated a post from February 2, 2015: Hidden between the walls. Then Jim Ernst mentioned that as Rooks Cantina 505 was being razed after that sport bar's July 2, 2014, fire, an ad on the wall of the building next door, Perri's Barber Shop, 280 Fourth St., was exposed, adding that the ad has since been covered over.

I think this photo shows the ad Jim is referring to:

Post-fire rubble
Rooks Cantina 505,
282 Fourth St.
September 28, 2014
credit: Nancy Knisley

The ad, on the dark brickwork on the right, is rather faint, but I believe that the larger letters say "WALLPAPER." Above that, among the smaller lettering, I think I see "OUSE" (house?) and very faintly, "PAINT."

Laman's Wallpaper & Paint was once at 294 Fourth St., but I don't know if the ad was for that store or not.

Ambridge memorabilia: business card of Wm. C. Ott

Business card, Wm. C. Ott, front

Business card, Wm. C. Ott, back

I've been looking, without success, for information on Wm. C. Ott and Jacob Bros. Pianos ever since I acquired this card many months ago.

I'm not quite sure what the script on the front of the card says. Alma Conkle? Was that person a customer or potential customer? I have no idea.

As to year, maybe pre-1910? The Ambridge Borough once ended at what is now called 8th St., previously called Bryden Rd. Land north of Bryden was called Economy, even after the land had been sold by the Harmony Society. Old ads frequently give the location of a business north of Bryden as "Economy."

[Update October 20, 2015: Butch O'Keefe found some information about Jacob Bros. Pianos at Antique Piano Shop. According that website, the piano company started in 1878 in New York and Boston, selling pianos made by another company. In 1905, they started building pianos in Massachusetts, selling them at both retail and wholesale. "There is no mention of Jacob Brothers after about 1955."

While I now know more about Jacob Bros. Pianos, because that company existed for decades and wasn't local, I still know nothing about Wm. C. Ott, "Sole Agent" in Beaver County for the company.]

[Update October 25, 2015:
Relentless researcher Maria Notarianni has found some information on a Wm. C. Ott, and there's a connection to John S. Duss and his music career. I can't say for certain that this is the same Wm. C. Ott of the business card above. But it's nevertheless interesting:

The Wm. C. Ott Co. of Beaver Falls published some of Duss' music. You can see a scan of the 1895 sheet music for "Lifes Voyage: Waltz Song and Refrain" that's in the Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection held by Johns Hopkins University.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh lists sheet music published by Wm. C. Ott of Beaver Falls in its Pittsburgh Sheet Music Collection, including some composed by Duss.

Good work, Maria!]