Joseph Spagnolo Fruits and Vegetables circa 1920

Joe Spagnolo & Co.
501 Merchant St.
circa 1920s
courtesy Beaver County Historical Research and Landmarks Foundation

The only information identifying the photo above that I found in the Beaver County Historical Research and Landmarks Foundation's archives was "Joe Spagnolo, 501 Merchant." I'd love to know who the three people in the photo are.

Joe Spagolo & Co. ad
Economy of Old and Ambridge of Today
1924

Joe Spagnolo was in business for many years, but he didn't start his fruit and vegetable business at 501 Merchant St., and he didn't end up there either. Like many early Ambridge merchants, he moved his business several times.

I don't know where Spagnolo's business was located in 1903, or over a decade after that. The earliest address I could connect to a date was 514 Merchant, published in the Telephone Directory of the Central District Telephone Co., Jan. 10, 1914.

However, in 1914, 514 Merchant was an address on the west side of Merchant. In 1917, building numbers on Merchant were changed, with the odd and even numbers switching sides of the street. After that, buildings on the west side of Merchant had odd numbers. The building that had been numbered 514 Merchant became 523 Merchant.

By the 1920s, Spagnolo had moved his business to 501 Merchant. The 1922 Beaver County Mercantile Appraiser's List shows his business there.

Joe Spagnolo & Co. ad
St. Stanislaus Church dedication book
1928
Good Samaritan Church archives

In the 1930s, Spagnolo had moved again, to 659 Merchant St.

Joe Spagnolo Company ad
United Polish Societies commemorative book
1930
Good Samaritan Church Archives

By 1949, Spagnolo was again at a different location, 4th and Maplewood. Does anyone know which corner?

J. Spagnolo & Co. Fruit Market ad
"Minstrel Varieties" program
Ushers Club of St. Veronica's Church
1949
Good Samaritan Church archives

The 4th and Maplewood address for Spagnolo's fruit market is the last I have found. I don't know if the market moved again, or closed. If anyone can provide that information, please let me know.

People who grew up in Ambridge in the 1940s - 70s, may remember 501 Merchant as the location of the Penn Sweet Shop.

American Bridge emergency ice deflector 1936

"Emergency Ice Deflector"
south end of barge yard
American Bridge Co., Ambridge Plant
February 29, 1936
courtesy Laughlin Memorial Library archives

In February 1936, bitterly cold temperatures caused the Ohio River to freeze over, and a gigantic, frozen-in-place "ice gorge" 15 miles long formed in the river, from the Dashields Lock at Edgeworth north to Vanport.

After several days of subzero temperatures, slowly rising temperatures at the end of the month caused the gorge to break free and the mass of ice started moving north. The ice swept away docked barges and scoured the shoreline. There were fears that if the gorge stopped moving along its journey, any ice following behind it would have no place to go but ashore, damaging or destroying anything in its path. Which may explain American Bridge's "emergency ice deflector."

Following the progress of the the huge chunk of ice floating downstream turned into quite a spectator event, viewed by approximately half a million people (The Daily Times, February 27, 1936). The large crowds caused traffic tie-ups in Rochester and Vanport. The ice gorge finally broke up at the still under construction Montgomey Dam, helped along by the Army Corps of Engineers who had "blasted" the north end of the gorge with dynamite over several days.

Charles Kristufek's two stores, 1903 and 1908

In 1889, Karoly Kristufek, then 13 years old, was sent, alone, by his Slovak family to live with an acquaintance in America. The boy, a trained harness maker, learned English while aboard ship, according to his grandson, the late Karl Urda, who provided the information for this blog post. Upon arriving at Ellis Island, the boy's first name was Americanized to Charles.

Charles Kristufek first lived in McKees Rocks, where he worked in a dairy, as a handyman, and eventually started building homes. In 1902, the American Bridge Co. needed builders to construct homes for the workers then building the new American Bridge plant on land along the Ohio River formerly owned by the Harmony Society. So Kristufek started building homes in the area that would become Ambridge.

Kristufek not only ended up building many of the homes and business buildings between Ambridge's First and Fourth Sts., but he also built Divine Redeemer's church and convent, and his own general store. Although the store is now gone, many of the homes and other buildings are still standing and in use.

During his life, Kristufek opened, and later sold, his own bank; built the first water works in Ambridge; became a borough councilman; opened a real estate and insurance company; and started the Economy Lumber and Building Company.

I'm going to focus only on Kristufek's stores in this post.

The first store, a wooden frame building, shown below, was built in 1903 at the intersection of First and Merchant Sts.

Chas. Kristufek General Store
300 First St.
circa 1903
courtesy Karl Urda

The man at the far left in the photo is Charles Kristufek. To his right are his wife, the former Mary Skapik; their daughters, Carrie and Bertha; Mary Skapik; Steve Skapik; George Roman; and an unidentified store clerk.

The first floor, facing First St., was a general store, selling among other items groceries, meat, hardware, and stoves. Kristufek had a small office in the store where he provided Slovak translation services, would send money back to Europe for people, plus he helped arrange for railroad and steamship tickets. The second floor was used for Slovak Catholic Church services before Divine Redeemer bought property for a church.

The large addition to the rear of the building was a three-story rooming house, with its first level on Bank St., to the south of First St. The rooming house had 20 - 25 rooms, and offered bed and meals for the new American Bridge workers. Well, it provided a bed for 12 hours. The rooming house was a "hot bed" place, with one bed being shared by two men in alternating 12-hour shifts. The sheets were changed "at least every 10 days."

That building was destroyed by a fire, replaced by a three-story brick building in 1908.

Charles Kristufek's second store
300 First St.
circa 1908
courtesy Karl Urda

The above photo shows Charles Kristufek on the right, and on the left his daughters Carrie, Mathilda, and Bertha.

As you can see from the window advertising, the new store carried dry goods, notions, hats, caps, and shoes. And by that time, more of Kristufek's business was focused on foreign exchange services and selling steamship tickets. Kristufek no longer provided hot bed rooming.

The second store was razed in the late 1950s.

Sometime circa 1910, Kristufek opened a bank in the 100 block of Merchant St., pictured below. If I can find more information, I'll write about the bank in a later post.

Charles Kristufek's bank
100 block Merchant St.
circa 1910
courtesy Karl Urda

Charles Kristufek died of a stroke in 1943. His daughter, Bertha, and son-in-law, John Urda, took over Charles Kristufek's insurance and real estate business at 405 Merchant St. as "The Kristufek Agency." Their son, Karl, was still offering commercial property appraisals from that location when I was fortunate enough to meet and spend some time with him in August 2016.  Karl Urda died on March 9, 2017.
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Charles Kristufek's brother, Stephen, also operated a store in Ambridge, a large department store at the triangular intersection of Beaver and Merchant Sts. I wrote what I then knew about Stephen's store in the August 14, 2015, blog post, "Ambridge's triangle buildings--there was more than one." I now have more photos and more information about Stephen's store, and I'm planning on writing more about it, I hope soon.

200 block Merchant St., 1915: the mystery of Divine Redeemer's first school--plus a funeral

Vintage photos of Ambridge always excite me, especially if the scene is something I haven't seen before. But it's rare that my first view of a photo stuns me like the photo I'm posting about today did.

On March 31, 2016, this 1915 photo, showing a group of people and what appeared to be a horse-drawn hearse in front of Divine Redeemer Church's property on the west side of the 200 block of Merchant St., was posted on the Good Samaritan Parish Archives' Facebook page.  I had seen the photo before, in the 1956 Divine Redeemer Golden Anniversary book. It is not the photo that's the focus of this blog post, although it's the reason I was so awed by the photo that this post is about.

To better see the details of this photo, or the others in this post, a click or tap should enlarge them.

Divine Redeemer Church Property - 1915
Divine Redeemer Golden Anniversary 1906 - 1956 book

Maria Notarianni, who heads the committee that maintains the Ambridge Roman Catholic churches' archives at Good Samaritan Church, described the photo above on Facebook:

On April 2, 1907, Reverend Joseph A. Pospech was named Pastor of the Slovak Parish under the title of the Divine Redeemer Church in Ambridge. Land was purchased on the 200 block of Merchant St. that included a building that was suitable for a temporary church until the new one was built in 1918. The building can be seen in this 1915 photo where services were held in the basement. (The occasion may have been a funeral as there seems to be a horse-drawn hearse in front of the building.) 

The house in the photo was purchased in 1916 by Fr. Herkel to be used as the rectory.

In 1918 the new church was built to the right of the temporary church building and in 1927, a convent was built where the temporary church building was located. 

But that photo is less than the half if it. Literally, as I found out when I had the privilege of spending an hour in August 2016, with the late Karl Urda, grandson of prominent Ambridge builder and businessman Charles Kristufek, who died in 1943. During my visit, Mr. Urda shared with me several vintage Kristufek family photos, including the panoramic photo below that took my breath away when I saw it.

The photo in the Divine Redeemer Golden Anniversary book was only part of the right half of the panoramic photo!

Funeral, 200 block Merchant St., west side
1915
courtesy Karl Urda

Here's the left side of the panorama that wasn't in the Divine Redeemer Golden Anniversary book:

Left side of panorama
Divine Redeemer funeral
200 block of Merchant St., west side
1915
courtesy Karl Urda

The left side of the panorama shows horse-drawn carriages as far as the eye can see, I think confirming Maria's theory that the scene showed a funeral.

The building near the center of the left-side of the panorama is the First Ward School, built between 1908 and 1910. The school was closed in 1964 and razed soon afterwards.

The panorama also shows the building to the left of the freestanding bell tower, which would have been to the immediate left of where the Divine Redeemer convent later was built.

The story Mr. Urda had to tell about that building was also surprising. He told me that building was the first Divine Redeemer School, built by Charles Kristufek, who at the time was a member of Divine Redeemer, then given to the parish. Mr. Urda said that his grandfather was much criticized for building a school before a church was erected, but Charles Kristufek put a high priority on education, and thought that a school building was more important than where church services were held.

If that information is accurate, that means that the Divine Redeemer School in the old Davis Hotel, 300 Merchant St., which the church bought in 1920, was not Divine Redeemer's first school, as the modern recounting of Divine Redeemer's history says it was.

So far, I've been unable to find more information about the building, except that the 1911 and 1917 Sanborn Insurance maps of Ambridge identify the building as a dwelling, not a school.

In 1960 - 61, Divine Redeemer built a new school to replace the one in the Davis Hotel building. My memory of what was between the First Ward School and the Divine Redeemer convent before the new school was built, on property to the convent's left--or where the building that Mr. Urda said was the first school once stood--is very hazy. I seem to remember an old, derelict building there. We'd have to walk via a narrow walkway between that scary looking building and the convent to get to the old church hall behind the convent. That church hall was razed when the 1961 school was being built.

The building that was to the left of the convent before construction started on the new school apparently did not belong to Divine Redeemer, as one might expect if the building had been Divine Redeemer's first school. The Divine Redeemer School Solemn Blessing and Dedication Program, November 18, 1961, says that when plans for the new school were being finalized in 1960, "the Paul Kernich property, fronting on Merchant Street beside the Convent, was purchased," and the building on the property was razed by parish volunteers.

The razed building on the Kernich property would have stood between the Merchant St. entrance to the new school and Merchant St.

Merchant St. entrance to the former Divine Redeemer School
March 22, 2014
credit: Nancy Knisley

So, the history of the building that Mr. Urda identified as Divine Redeemer's first school, currently remains murky. Is the family story about that building being built as a school for Divine Redeemer true or merely a family legend? Did Divine Redeemer once own that building and later sell it? Did the Kruistufek family once own that property, but allowed the church to use it as a school, then later sold it? At this point, I can't say.

But perhaps, some day, I will be able to find more information about the building. And, maybe even find out whose funeral that might have been in 1915. If so, I'll update this post.
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Karl Urda died on March 9, 2017. I'm so grateful that he made time to talk to me and allow me to scan his vintage family photos.

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