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.

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 curious carved pillars on Wagner Ave.

Pillar with the date "1884" on Wagner Ave.
April 16, 2016
credit: Nancy Knisley

Pillar with letters on Wagner Ave.
April 16, 2016
credit: Nancy Knisley

The 200 block of Ambridge's Wagner Ave. is a narrow, one-way street in the historic district, running between Church St. and Merchant St. The block is lined with a few modest non-Harmonist houses and not heavily traveled. If you did drive through it, you might not have even noticed the two tall stone pillars, one on either side of the steps in front of 269 Wagner.

269 Wagner Ave.
Google street view
October 2013

But if you were one of the street's occasional pedestrians, and particularly observant, you might have been struck by the odd pillars and stopped to take a better look. They are worn and look old and unlike anything else in Ambridge. On them, near the top, are carvings of six pointed stars, near the bottom are what appear to be letters. In addition, below their stars, the right pillar has the date 1884; the left, the letters "H" and "L" separated by a symbol. What do the carvings and letters mean? And why are the pillars in the tiny front yard of 269 Wagner where they seem out of place?

Here's what I know:

John Frederick (Fred) Knoedler, a stonemason by trade, helped carve the pillars. Fred and his wife, Katherine Kroll Knoedler, were long time employees of the Harmony Society, performing a variety of duties, but not Harmonists themselves.

The pillars originally stood in front of Economy School, built by the Harmony Society for the area's children. The letters "H" and "L" on one pillar stood for Jacob Henrici and Jonathan Lenz, the two Harmony Society trustees at the time the school was built in 1884, the year on the second pillar. (Beaver County Times, August 20, 1974)

The Economy School was built at the corner of what is now the northeast corner of Church and Laughlin Sts. You can see it in the left foreground of the photo below. The building to the right is the Blaine House, used as a school before the Economy School was built. The building in the background between the Blaine House and Economy School is Ambridge's Fourth Ward School.

"All Three Economy Schools"
Manuscript Group 354: Old Economy Village Collection
Photo Number 2404
courtesy of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Old Economy Village
used with permission

The photo below shows students in front of the Economy School in 1898. You can see the pillars on the sides of the student group.

"Economy School - 1898"
Manuscript Group 354: Old Economy Village Collection
Photo Number 2369
courtesy of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Old Economy Village
used with permission

The former Economy School building is now an apartment building:

Former Economy School building, now converted to apartments
1514 Church St.
April 6, 2016
credit: Nancy Knisley

After the Economy School was closed, its pillars were relocated, although I don't know when they ended up in front of 269 Wagner, once the home of Fred and Katherine Knoedler's daughters, Christiana Knoedler and Katherine Brown.

Christiana Knoedler standing with one of the pillars in front of her Wagner Ave. home
Beaver County Times
 August 20, 1974

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).

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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. 
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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.
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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.
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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.

Fire destroys Moose Lodge, former Grand Hotel, 1937

Moose Lodge fire
1300 Merchant St.
September 19, 1937
courtesy John Dunn collection

Many of us remember when the Moose Lodge occupied the building that is now Franzee's and Javy's Banquet Hall at 1300 Merchant St. But that wasn't the original Moose Lodge at that location. This was:

"Moose Club,"
Economy Centennial Souvenir Program, Economy of Old and Ambridge of Today,
1924

That building had started its life as the Grand Hotel, built in 1903, by Frank Workman of Rochester. The hotel was cited in a Real Estate Trust Co. sales ad in the May 15, 1906, Pittsburgh Press as an example of the "high class" buildings being built on Merchant St. at the time.

Real Estate Trust Co. ad, excerpt
Pittsburgh Press
May 15, 1906

The ad begins:

This Modern Hotel at Economy-Ambridge Typifies City's Progress. 

The Hotel Grand, picture above, is located at Merchant and 13th Streets, in the Economy part of Economy-Ambridge. As may be seen from the picture, the building is a brick 4-story structure and is far ahead of hotels usually built in industrial towns. It is an example of the high class of buildings that have been erected during the past two years along Merchant Street, the remarkable business avenue of Economy-Ambridge. The growth of this street in modern business buildings is without parallel in Western Pennsylvania. No frame structures are allowed and every building erected has been a substantial contribution to the appearance of the street and to the improvements of the community.

Grand Hotel
Economy PA
postcard dated June 30, 1906

During Ambridge's early years, the Grand Hotel/Hotel Grand was one of the three large hotels in the northern part of the current Ambridge Borough that was still called Economy; the other two were the Ambridge Hotel at the northwest corner of 8th and Merchant Sts. and the Old Economy Hotel on the southwest corner of 14th and Merchant.

The September 20, 1937, Ambridge Daily Citizen, described the building as "long a landmark and once a thriving hotel." The paper went on to say, "The place was operated as a hotel and bar with varying success until the advent of national prohibition. At the time it passed into the hands of the Loyal Order of the Moose, its present owners."

The Daily Citizen wrote of the fire:

Starting on the fourth floor of the old structure about 3:30 p.m. fire, fanned by a stiff wind, ate rapidly through the dried wood of the building, completely gutting the third and fourth floors before firemen of three communities--Ambridge, Sewickley and Leetsdale --brought the flames under control. Almost 20 people were driven out of neighboring houses by danger of fire spreading.

It took seven hours for firefighters to get the flames under control.

Moose Lodge fire
1300 Merchant St.
September 19, 1937
courtesy John Dunn collection

The Daily Citizen reported:

Thousands of spectators jammed the streets as firemen fought the blaze, adding traffic congestion to the general confusion....Police worked feverishly to hold back crowds from the burning building as fire-warped walls crumbled and fell to the street below. 

Moose Lodge fire
1300 Merchant St.
September 19, 1937
courtesy John Dunn collection

The occupants of an adjoining house--Michael Kentsler,* his wife, a son, and ten roomers--had to vacate the house for the night because of concern about fire-weakened walls collapsing. Firemen pulled down the building's badly damaged wall on the Merchant St. side as a safety measure the night of the fire.

Fire-damaged Moose Lodge
1300 Merchant St.
September 19, 1937
courtesy John Dunn collection

Fortunately, at the time of the fire, the building was vacant except for the Grand Restaurant, owned by Gus Kellas, on the building's ground floor. While the fire itself didn't reach the restaurant, it was severely damaged by water, smoke, and falling debris. The Grand Restaurant later moved across the street to 1231 Merchant.

I don't know if the cause of the fire was ever determined.
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There was some discrepancy in the reporting about the fire. For example, the September 20, 1937, Daily Times reported that the fire had started on the third floor at 7 P.M., and that the volunteer fire departments of Baden and Fair Oaks also helped fight the fire.

*Spelled "Kensler" in the Daily Times article. I don't know which spelling is correct.

Even though the Grand Hotel/Moose Lodge building was gone long before I was born, I have a special fondness for it, and previously wrote about it in my February 24, 2014, blog article "Ambridge History: The Grand Hotel and the Moose." If I hadn't done some research trying to find out about the building shown in an old undated news clipping, I might never have caught the Ambridge history bug.

Economy's Grand Historic Pageant, the Centennial Parade, June 7, 1924

Economy Centennial Celebration postcard, front
1924

Economy Centennial Celebration postcard, back
1924

The former village of Economy, established by the Harmony Society in 1824, later absorbed into the borough of Ambridge, celebrated its centennial from Friday, June 6 through Sunday, June 8, 1924. The weekend was full of ceremony and entertainment, but the Grand Historic Pageant--also known as a parade--probably was the most attended event.

According to the Centennial Program, the Saturday, June 7, parade was scheduled to begin at 2:30 P.M. on Park Rd., turn east on 1st Street, turn north on Merchant, march to French Point, then proceed to Ohioview Ave., 12th St., Church St, 11th St., Melrose, and finish on 10th St. Since many of the photos below were taken on Maplewood Ave. at 8th St., I'm not sure how accurate that description of the planned route turned out to be.

The June 9 Ambridge Citizen proclaimed the parade, "The greatest spectacle in the history of Beaver County."

The Citizen reported:

As the great procession held in connection with the Economy Centennial passed before the vast throngs that had gathered from far and wide records were being established that placed Ambridge at the very pinnacle in the county chronicles. For size, for originality, for picturesqueness, for beauty, for historical value, the Ambridge pageant and parade surpassed anything that had ever before been attempted in this valley. Over 2,500 persons and over 200 autos and floats formed a procession about three miles long, requiring 45 minutes to pass a given point.

...

The background for the paraders formed a great sight itself. The brightly decorated buildings, with every available window, nook and corner filled with people; many roofs filled with daring spectators, the line of parade on both sides massed with 40,000 people from various parts of the country; every accessible, vacant, lot, filled with automobiles parked during the procession; the Legion's avenue of flags and the American colors everywhere, the town was veritably a mass of color and humanity.

The Citizen said that after the parade had passed, "It required over an hour for the crowds to disperse from Merchant street [sic]."

The parade's tremendous success may have surprised former Harmony Society trustee John S. Duss. When the plans for the Centennial's events, including the ambitious ideas for the parade were discussed in December 1923, the Daily Times reported, "It is the opinion of Mr. Duss, however, that the time is too short to adequately stage such a pageant."

Only a few of the parade photos I've found identify the scene shown, so I tried to match the Citizen's and Centennial program's descriptions with the unidentified photos and to put the photos in order of their appearance in the parade. None of the original photographers for any of the photographs are identified.

The parade was organized into four divisions.

Division A had the Ambridge Police Force; three Legion color bearers (J. R. Armington, Walter Shephard, and Victor Pate); a car with Centennial President John T. Jessen and three women from "the Old Folks Home"; and a float of Uncle Sam and Columbia.

The Citizen said Ambridge Police "Chief P. J. Caul and his force of six" marched. So this may be them; the uniforms look like theirs, but I'd like to confirm that identification:

Ambridge police force?
Economy Centennial Parade
8th St. and Maplewood Ave.
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

This must be, without a doubt, the "Uncle Sam and Columbia" float. The Citizen identified R. K. Smith as Uncle Sam and Miss Janet Bianchi as Columbia. The location where the photo was taken doesn't look familiar to me. Any ideas?

Uncle Sam and Columbia float
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

Division B represented the area's early history, 1784 - 1824. The Citizen described this division: "Every important event that history records for this section was shown and noted in order of their happenings."

The photo below must be from that division. The photo is very faded, but there's a man in a colonial uniform plus an Indian wearing a headdress on the float. The Centennial program lists the floats in this group. Could the float in front be "Conrad Wersser [sic] raising the British flag at Logstown in presence of the English trader Geo. Croghan and a group of Indians"? (Conrad Weiser was the colonial ambassador to the Indians.) Or perhaps, "George Washington in 1753 in conference with Sachems of the Six Nations, at Logstown"?

"Early history" floats
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

The Citizen mentioned one colonial rider on horseback: General Anthony Wayne portrayed by Dr. C. R. Bonzo. Maybe the below photo shows him.

General Anthony Wayne ?
Economy Centennial Parade
8th St. and Maplewood Ave.
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

The parade's Division C was the Harmony Society era in Economy, featuring floats depicting daily Harmonist life.

Harmony Society haymakers float
Economy Centennial Parade
8th St. and Maplewood Ave.
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

The 1826 Economite fire engine was borrowed from the Carnegie Museum for the occasion.

Economite fire engine
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
courtesy Borough of Ambridge

Mrs. John S. Duss, one of the last trustees of the Harmony Society, and John Duss, Jr. rode in the Duss coach.

Coach carrying Mrs. John Duss and John Duss, Jr.
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
courtesy Borough of Ambridge 

Division D was the "Modern Ambridge" section, with Ambridge officials followed by bands, floats, decorated trucks, and marchers from schools, organizations, industries, and businesses.

Several local fire departments participated in the parade, but only one had a name ending in "sdale" as shown on the truck in the photo below, Leetsdale.

Leetsdale Vol. FD firetruck and firefighters
Economy Centennial Parade
8th St. and Maplewood Ave.
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

The next photo may be Ambridge's Hook and Ladder Co., No. 1. While this photo is unidentified, the fire truck looks very much like Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1's in a photo in the Centennial program.

Ambridge Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1 ?
Economy Centennial Parade
8th St. and Maplewood Ave.
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

The Kemena Lumber Co., located at 10th and Merchant Sts. in 1924, built a tiny house on their float, "complete in every detail, even to the gardens and lawn in front of the porch on which sat little Virginia and Frank McCabe," said the Citizen.

Kemena Lumber Co. float
Economy Centennial Parade
8th St. and Maplewood Ave.
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

According to the Citizen, the American Bridge Co. float "represented a railroad bridge span, complete in every detail."

American Bridge Company float
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
courtesy Borough of Ambridge

I can't even guess at the identity of this band, one of a number of local bands that marched. Nor can I identify the street shown. Does the street look familiar to anyone?

Band (unidentified)
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

The Citizen described the Ambridge Woman's Club float as decorated with 5,000 Richmond roses and said the women riding on the float represented the club's activities: "Alberta Budd represented the Spirit of Woman's Club; Zilpha Miller, the nurse; Dorothy Kelley, an injured child; Mary Bittinger and Betty Fitzgerald, the library; and Mildred Schermerhorn, health. Mrs. Thos. D. Norris drove the float."

I'm still trying to identify the building behind the float. The brick street narrows down the location a bit to "not Merchant St.," and the trolley tracks should narrow it further. Perhaps Park Rd. or 1st St.?

Ambridge Woman's Club float
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
courtesy Borough of Ambridge

The list of Ambridge organizations participating in the parade was extensive. The photo below shows the Patriotic Order Sons of America.

Patriotic Order Sons of America

Economy Centennial Parade

June 7, 1924

courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

The Citizen says the Loyal Order of Moose float: "decorated in lavender and white, represented Mooseheart and Moose Haven homes; the former by a number of children and the latter, an elderly couple at a desk." The scene was shot at the Moose Palace building, formerly at the northeast corner of 13th and Merchant Sts., destroyed by a fire in 1937.

Loyal Order of Moose float
Economy Centennial Parade
Moose Palace, 13th and Merchant Sts.
June 7, 1924
courtesy of Lorianne Stangl Burgess

According to the Citizen, 400 students of St. Stanislaus parochial school "marched in the formation of the American flag." The children in the flag's staff wore yellow hats; those in the stripes wore red and white hats; and those in the canton (the rectangle with the stars) wore blue and white hats. The photo below might show some of the students.

St. Stanislaus parochial school children?
Economy Centennial Parade
8th St. and Maplewood Ave.
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center 

I have no idea who this group of girls carrying U.S. flags represented.

Girls with U. S. flags

Economy Centennial Parade

8th St. and Maplewood Ave.

June 7, 1924

courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center 

The Ambridge Savings and Trust Co. float "represented its Liberty Bell savings accounts, with Miss Liberty (Miss [name unreadable]) sitting by the Liberty Bell," the Citizen said.

Ambridge Savings and Trust float

Economy Centennial Parade

8th St. and Maplewood Ave.

June 7, 1924

courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center 

The Citizen reported, "The Ukrainian Nationality of Ambridge had a large turnout."

Ukrainian Nationality of Ambridge marchers

Economy Centennial Parade

8th St. and Maplewood Ave.

June 7, 1924

courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center 

The Citizen described the J. M. Breen's Furniture float as "a bower of ferns and palms" and playing the role of a newly married couple who furnished their home at Breen's were Virginia Goerman and William Goerman.

Breen's Furniture float
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
courtesy Beaver County Genealogy and History Center

I wish I had photos of some of the other business participants' entries like the Briola Brothers ice plant's truck "loaded with large cakes of ice, in which had been frozen fish and fruit." Or the Ambridge-Economy Bottling Works truck which dispensed free pop.

Be on the lookout for memorabilia from the Economy Centennial parade. The Citizen noted, "Most of the business firms represented in the parade threw souvenirs of all descriptions all along the route of the parade."

Update: Sept. 29, 2016

More parade photos!

First, four photos from the Old Economy Village Archives:

Father Rapp's coach was borrowed from the Carnegie Museum for the occasion. It would have been at the beginning of the Harmony Society section of the parade. According to the Ambridge Citizen, 18 men in silk coats and high hats formed the guard of honor.

Father Rapp's coach
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
Old Economy Village Archives

Float depicting Harmony Society Women spinning
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
Old Economy Village Archives

The Citizen reported, "The old Economy milk wagon with the daily bulletin, announced the loss of a 'hen with red band on left leg.'"

Economy milk wagon with daily bulletin
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
Old Economy Village Archives

Another photo of the Economy haymakers float:

Economy haymakers float
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
Old Economy Village Archives

Two photos belonged to the late Eddie Dzubak, Sr. and are posted courtesy of his children, Lesabeth Trzcianka and Eddie Dzubak, Jr. :

The Knights of Columbus contingent had 65 (85? hard to read microfilm) marchers as well as a float showing the landing of Columbus.

Knights of Columbus
Ambridge Council No. 1780
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
Eddie Dzubak, Sr. Collection

The Citizen reported that "St. Michael's Russian Society had 70 members in line."

Beneficial Russian Society of St. Michael of Ambridge
No. 121 of R.B.O.
Economy Centennial Parade
June 7, 1924
Eddie Dzubak, Sr. Collection

The final new photo, published in the August 25, 1954, Ambridge Daily Citizen, shows some of the crowd watching the Economy Centennial parade at 4th and Merchant Sts. and provides a view of some of the east side of the 400 block of Merchant. Look at the men hanging on the utility pole on the far left!:

Wagons and floats
Economy Centennial Parade
4th and Merchant Sts.
Daily Citizen
August 25, 1954

Daily Citizen caption:

Pictured above is one of the original United Dairy white horse and single wagons which participated in the Economite Centennial Parade during the summer of 1924. The picture was taken at 4th and Merchant Sts.

_____

Many of the photos above credited to the Beaver County Genealogy and History Center were taken at the intersection of Maplewood Ave. and 8th St. The brick house with front porch in the background is still there, now the Anglican Church in North America Provincial Office, 800 Maplewood. The porch is now enclosed. The large three-story building behind the house is the Ambridge Hotel, Merchant St., built in 1905, razed in 1964.

As big and grand as the Economy Grand Historic Pageant may have been, Ambridge's Golden Jubilee parade, described as a "mammoth spectacle", held in 1955, topped it in number of units and length.