Ambridge view from a hill, 1905

I remember seeing the postcard below before I became so interested in Ambridge history and wondering back then if the photo was really of Ambridge. It's hard to identify old buildings from the sides, backs, and roofs, especially when the photo isn't sharp. Nothing looked familiar to me. And I couldn't see any of the familiar landmarks that would tell me "this can only be Ambridge," like the Old Economy church tower or the American Bridge office building. Is it possible the town might have been misidentified?

I know I wasn't the only person wondering about the identity of the town in the photo, because I've been asked "Is this really Ambridge?" several times. But I can now say with confidence, yes, it is Ambridge, because I have learned enough in the past several years to identify a few of the buildings. And a postcard message from 1905 helps too.

I've numbered the buildings I have IDed on the postcard. To see a larger view, click on the card:

Ambridge looking northwest from hill
circa 1905

While I've numbered the buildings from left to right, I'm going to start with #4 on the far right side, because, several years ago, that's the first building I thought I could identify.

#4. First St. Veronica Church, 8th St. and Glenwood Ave. Since razed.

St. Veronica Church
postcard
circa 1906

The next building I identified was #2, near the center:

#2. The long building with five single windows on the top floor, then groups of windows on the floor below, looks to me like the Ambridge Savings and Trust Co. building, once on the northeast corner of 5th and Merchant Sts., now also gone. The roof line is right.

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

#1. Based on the distinctive roof line with a cube on each end, I believe that #1 might be 439 Merchant St.  Vintage colored postcards show that building as red brick, with second and third floor balconies. It's the third building on the left side of the postcard below. That building still stands, but it's now painted white and its balconies are gone.

400 block of Merchant looking north
1909
postcard

439 Merchant St.
October 3, 2014
credit: Nancy Knisley

3. The identical, closely spaced row of roofs are probably the houses on Melrose Ave. They're still there more than a century later.

"Melrose Avenue Looking West, Ambridge, Pa."
500 block of Melrose looking north
postcard
postmarked September 28, 1911

The message on a mailed copy of the postcard below clinched the identification for me, plus provided some interesting facts about early Ambridge I hadn't heard before--including why the postcard scene might be as hazy as it is.

"View of Ambridge, PA"
postcard
postmarked 1905 

The message on the card says:

My dear Uncle, You can't see the Bridge works in this picture--just a little smoke. We are 25 minutes ride from Pittsburg. Have been here over four months and haven't seen a bright morning yet. Pittsburg smoke covers us up. Like the work but don't like the country. Am going to move pretty soon. Am working on sky scrapers now. 8 hr days with Sat. P.M. off. Wages are good too Living expenses are correspondingly high. Sincerely Rex. (I think its signed Rex, but maybe Ray?)

Here's a scan of the reverse of the mailed postcard immediately above:

reverse of mailed postcard
Nov. 7, 1905

It looks to me as if the card's photo might have been taken from a hill near 3rd St. Any thoughts on the hill's location?
_____

Thank you, Tom Martin, for the unmailed postcard at the top of this post.

St. Veronica R. C. Church, 1904 - 2004

St. Veronica Church
Glenwood Ave. and 8th St., northeast corner
circa 1906
Good Samaritan Parish Archives

St. Veronica Roman Catholic Church was the first Catholic church built in Ambridge. Construction began in 1904, and the church dedicated in 1906. The church was located on the southwest corner of 8th St. (then called Bryden Rd.) and Glenwood Ave, on land the church's history says was formerly a Harmony Society wheat field.

Catholic mass was offered in Ambridge even before the church was built. On May 8, 1903, mass was held on the third floor of the Ambridge Savings and Trust Building, at the intersection of 5th and Merchant Sts.

Construction of the church began in late 1904, but bad weather caused work to be suspended until the following spring. The bad weather delayed progress on the building even further, because it had caused damage to some of the existing bricks, and those had to be replaced. The replacement of the bricks may explain the change in the color of the bricks near the top of the front of the church, visible in the photo above, but not as apparent in later photos.

In the meantime, attendance at Sunday mass had continued to grow, and in August 1905, Sunday masses were moved to Jenny's Hall, located above a livery stable, on the corner of 8th St. and Merchant Sts. 

As you can imagine, the location above a stable was less than pleasant, especially in the summer months, so services were moved into the still-unfinished church building on Aug. 5, 1906. At the time, not all the church windows were yet in place, and there was no furniture inside the building--but at least there were no horses sharing it.

St. Veronica Church
postcard
circa 1906

St. Veronica Church altar
1906
Good Samaritan Parish Archives

Eventually, the parish built a rectory in 1913, a school in 1922-23, and a convent in 1926. The rectory and convent are still standing. The original school building was razed in 1970; its location is now a parking lot for Good Samaritan Parish.

"St Veronica's Church and Rectory"
postcard
circa 1913

St. Veronica Church interior
1938
Good Samaritan Parish Archives

St. Veronica School and Convent
postcard
postmarked Aug. 27, 1929

St. Veronica parish buildings, looking west
clockwise from lower right: church, rectory, convent, school
Daily Citizen Trade Area Directory
1956

As the parish grew, plans were made in the mid-1950s for new church and school buildings, and construction started in 1958. In 1959, after part of the first building was completed, on the corner of 7th St. and Glenwood Ave., church services temporarily moved into what was planned to eventually be the building's gymnasium, shown in photo below.

St. Veronica Church
7th St. and Glenwood Ave.
1959
Archives & Records Center of the Diocese of Pittsburgh

It later became clear that completion of the planned new church would be too costly, and the temporary church became a permanent one. After the closing of the other four of Ambridge's Roman Catholic churches--Divine Redeemer, St. Stanislaus, Christ the King, and Holy Trinity--in 2004, St. Veronica Church was renamed Good Samaritan Church.

In 1962, the original church building was razed to make room for a new grade school building, notable for its round design. That school building still exists as Good Samaritan parish's Jericho Hall.

Razing of original St. Veronica Church
Beaver County Times
January 19, 1962

Beaver County Times caption:

OLD CHURCH RAZED -- Built when Ambridge became a borough in 1905, the old St. Veronica Catholic Church was razed Thursday to make room for a new elementary school. The St. Veronica congregation has been occupying a portion of the new school for over two years as a church.

The photo below shows the former St. Veronica Elementary School building, built where the original St. Veronica Church had been. (That's the first St. Veronica School back right; rectory back left.)

Former St. Veronica Elementary School
now Good Samaritan Church's Jericho Hall
1963
Good Samaritan Parish Archives

When Good Samaritan Parish was created, the school became the Good Samaritan Catholic School. The school closed in 2005 because of declining enrollment and financial difficulties. Among other uses, the former school building serves as the location of the Good Samaritan Parish Archives.

American Bridge Company office building, 1903

American Bridge Company Office
1903
Beaver County Historical Research & Landmark Foundation archives

The photo above shows the west side of the American Bridge Company office shortly after the building was completed in 1903. The building, which was at the southwest corner of Park Rd. and 4th St., was razed in 2014.

The photo was donated to BCHRLF by the Zahn family and a copy passed on to me by Jeffrey Snedden, writer of the Beaver County Times' "Histories & Mysteries" column. Jeffrey said, "Jesse Zahn was one of the original employees of the American Bridge Co. in 1903 and retired with 47 years of service. He and his family lived in Ambridge early on, but moved to Rochester later. "

Thanks, Jeffrey!

You can see photos of the "Bridge Works" office being constructed in these other blog posts:

"The American Bridge office: Going up and coming down," February 16, 2014

"American Bridge Office building, early design," July 10, 2017

A. M. Byers Co. 1930 - 1969

A. M. Byers Co. plant under construction
Duss Ave.
Daily Citizen supplement
August 10, 1929

The A. M. Byers Co. plant was the last of the large industrial plants to be built in Ambridge.* It opened in October 1930, producing wrought iron and wrought iron pipes, using a new mechanized production method, the Ashton process, which allowed the plant to produce higher-quality wrought iron--and produce it faster and at a lower cost.

When Ambridge's Byers plant was working at capacity, it reportedly produced more wrought iron than all the other wrought iron plants in the U.S. did combined.

A.M Byers Ambridge plant in lower half  of photo
(J & L across the Ohio River)
courtesy Beaver County Industrial Museum
used with permission

The plant closed with only two weeks notice in December 1969, the victim of declining demand for wrought iron products and increasing costs.

A. M. Byers Co. Ambridge plant
Duss Ave.
Beaver County Times
December 19, 1969

Beaver County Times caption:

DOORS TO BE CLOSED -- The Harmony Township Plant of the A. M. Byers Co., experiencing economic difficulties as a result of rising costs and product demand decline, will be shut down Dec. 31, bringing to a close 40 years of operations. At stake are 485 jobs including 127 office and supervisory personnel. Employment at the plant has been down for several months.

The former Byers production buildings are used by several businesses: Brunner Recyling, O'Neal Manufacturing, and Leeco Steel. The former Byers office is a U.S. Air Force Recruiting Center.

It was emotionally comforting for me to see that the Byers smokestacks still stand tall.

A. M. Byers smokestacks
Duss Ave.
April 29, 2015
credit: Nancy Knisley

My memories of the Byers plant

Two things stand out in my memories of the Byers plant, besides the fact that my Uncle Fritz Yerzek worked there.

The one memory I'm sure I share with anyone who lived in the area while Byers was operating, is the inferno produced by the Bessemer converter, located only about 150 feet from the west side of Duss Ave. The working converter would light up the night sky in shades of gold and orange. Multicolored smoke would rise high into the air. And sparks would drift into Duss Ave. onto passing cars if the wind was right.

Even as a kid I was astonished that Byers was allowed to put the converter so close to what was a major road at the time.

Byers' Bessemer Converter
courtesy Laughlin Memorial Library archives

If our family car drove past Byers while the converter was working, my mom would say, "Don't look! Don't look! You'll hurt your eyes. You might go blind." But of course, I always snuck a look. The scene was awe inspiring in a somewhat terrifying way.

My other memory is the large, round, wrought iron plate that hung on a frame on the Duss Ave. side of the Byers office. I don't know what the plate really was called, but we always referred to it as the "gong."

The Bessemer converter ended up on display at Station Square in Pittsburgh. Does anyone know what happened to the "gong"?
_____

* Technically, the Byers plant was in Harmony Township, not the Borough of Ambridge, but, like other Harmony Township businesses, it used an Ambridge address and advertised itself as being in Ambridge.

French Point Hotel, 1891 - 1902

French Point Hotel
Economy PA
Manuscript Group 354: Old Economy Village Collection
Photo Number 390
courtesy of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Old Economy Village
used with permission

The French Point Hotel was built in 1891, during the waning days of the Harmony Society's existence, at the northern edge of what is now Ambridge--but was then Economy--approximately where Merchant St. currently intersects with Ohio River Blvd. (Rt. 65).

The hotel was one of the important buildings in the historical bridge linking Economy with Ambridge

"Economy Hotel (New)"
French Point Hotel
Economy PA
Manuscript Group 354: Old Economy Village Collection
Photo Number 624
courtesy of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Old Economy Village
used with permission

The vintage panorama below shows the French Point Hotel on the far left. The Harmony Society's lumberyard is on the right, below the hotel. The hotel's being located near the lumberyard led to the hotel's destruction on April 23, 1902.

"Lumber Works. Economy PA."
French Point Hotel (left) above Harmony Society's lumberyard
courtesy Laughlin Memorial Library Archives

Local historian Bill Bowan wrote information about the photo in the bottom margin:

W. K. Shafer Family purch. Hotel from Harmony Socy. 1895. Lumberyard & Hotel burned down in the same fire 1900-1901.

The fire began at the lumberyard, eventually spreading one to two acres, destroying the hotel, lumberyard, and several outbuildings. The source of the fire was thought to be a spark from a passing train engine. So Bowan was right about the fire, but not the year the fire happened.

Although described as the setting for "many brilliant functions...by society people of Pittsburg and Sewickley," the hotel, fortunately, had been vacant for at least five weeks at the time of the fire. (Pittsburg Commercial Journal, April 24, 1902). The reason the building was unoccupied was that it was in the process of being converted into a sanitarium of some kind. A train car of goods for the new sanitarium was also destroyed in the fire.

Previously, the hotel had been a popular stopping point for cycling groups traveling along "the Beaver road." (The Pittsburgh Press, Aug. 22, 1898; May 13, 1899).

_____

Update:
The following information was written as a Facebook post on the Old Economy Village's page on September 18, 2020, by the curator Sarah Kirschensteiner Buffington. Sarah has given me permission to add it to this blog post. It contains information I didn't know until I read Sarah's post: 

Did you know there was another hotel at Economy?  The French Point Hotel was built in 1891 just north of Economy at what was known as French Point.  That was where the Harmonists landed when they arrived in 1824 to their new land.  The location of the hotel is thought to be where Merchant Street enters Ohio River Boulevard.
  

The story of the hotel is not well known at all, and was in fact part of the testimony for the Schwartz vs. Duss court case of 1900.  The "Feucht Faction" (descendants of the infamous Hildegard Mutschler Feucht always feuding with John Duss for control of the Society) claimed that Duss built the "big house" for Cyrus Reed Teed, who claimed that he was God.  Teed supposedly had "spies" at Economy to learn all about the Harmony Society so that he could come in and claim all of their money.  Teed did indeed come to visit in 1892.  Duss on the other hand said that Jacob Henrici had the building built as a boarding house for saw mill workers.

The structure cost $10,000-12,000, had 23-26 rooms, electric lighting, hot air heating, hardwood floors, and was completely furnished.  All of this was very significant at the time and very lavish for boarders of a sawmill.  Who would you believe?

The building was not operated as a hotel until 1896, when Lorenzo D. Schafer leased it from the Harmony Society.  It was a favorite spot for people from Sewickley to Rochester to stay during bike outings and such during the summer.  The hotel was famous for its chicken and waffle dinners.  It closed about 1899.

The French Point Hotel burned on April 23, 1902 reportedly as a result of a spark flying from a passing train that caught a lumber shed on fire.  The flames spread quickly up the hill to the hotel.  No one was there at the time, and the building was empty.  There had been plans to turn it into a sanitarium.  Supplies for its new purpose were sitting in a train car on a siding and also burned.

It is interesting to note that the building burned on the last day of testimony at the appeal of the court case in the United States Supreme Court. 
_____

Since the French Point Hotel was destroyed in 1902, it could not have been one of two hotels where travelers might have stayed in 1906 as stated in the book Ambridge by Larry R. Slater.
_____

Ambridge trivia: Jim Holman, the current owner of the K & N Restaurant, 755 Merchant St., is a descendant of the Shafer family who owned the French Point Hotel. I know this because while I was in K & N one lunchtime, Mr. Holman came out from the kitchen to show me a framed copy of the panorama above and told me that his family had owned the hotel. He added that he had a much larger version of that photo at home.
_____

Thank you to Jeffrey Snedden, the writer of the "Histories & Mysteries" column for the Beaver County Times, for his invaluable help in finding information about the fire that destroyed the French Point Hotel.