Ambridge's Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Sears, Roebuck and Co.
653 - 655 Merchant St.
Daily Citizen
August 25, 1954

Ambridge's Sears, Roebuck and Co., opened in 1931, was the first Sears in Beaver County. The store was originally located in "modest rooms adjoining 817 Merchant St." In 1934 the store acquired additional space nearby. (Daily Times, April 9, 1937)

Then in 1937, Sears leased an even larger location in the Fraternal Order of Eagles Temple at 653 - 655 Merchant and moved there. (The Eagles purchased their current location at 401 Maplewood Ave. in 1948.)

Here's that beautiful Eagles building, built in 1923, shown in the 1924 Economy Centennial program book.

Eagles Temple
653 - 655 Merchant St.
Economy of Old and Ambridge of Today
June 1924

The Ambridge Furniture Co., and later Reichart's Furniture, had occupied the Eagle's building before Sears moved into it. Unfortunately, I don't have any description or photos of what the facade looked like when those businesses were in the building, but according to a news article, the black shiny trim shown in the first photo above was added when Sears moved in. Other changes made with the Sears move were larger display windows and new entrances. (Daily Times, April 9, 1937)

Sears leased three floors in that building; the Eagles retained space on the upper floor. The basement and first floor were used by Sears for sales and display; the second floor was for business offices and storage. This Sears primarily sold "hardgoods." On the first store shoppers could find hardware, electrical equipment, washers, sweepers, radios, and sporting goods. The basement was the floor for plumbing and heating supplies, stoves, paint, and farm equipment, still an in-demand line of products for area farmers. The only clothing the store routinely carried was work clothes. But just about anything else a shopper might want could be ordered from the wide range of items in Sears' legendary catalog and later picked up at the store.

When Sears moved into 653 -655 Merchant, it also opened an auto service building behind the store in the rear of 650 Maplewood Ave.

Sears, Roebuck and Co. ad
Daily Times
April 9, 1937

Over the years, the Ambridge Sears store pretty much stuck to selling the same types of merchandise. But it did add newly popular items from time to time:

Sears ad for TVs
Beaver Valley Times
July 5, 1951

And I guess there was always a demand for "memorial markers." But they weren't anything I expected the Ambridge Sears catalog department to be advertising.

Sears ad for tombstones
Beaver Valley Times
March 24, 1951

Sears also offered home remodeling services like roofing and siding.

Sears roofing service ad
Beaver Valley Times
October 1, 1951

Here are two of the ads Sears ran during Ambridge's Golden Jubilee celebration in 1955. I know some people will say, "Wow, look at those prices!" But don't forget how much lower wages were in 1955 too:

Sears "Old Fashioned Bargain Days" Sale ad
Beaver Valley Times
June 29, 1955

Sears "Old Fashioned Bargain Days" Sale ad
Beaver Valley Times
June 29, 1955

And during the Christmas Season, the Ambridge Sears always had a Toy Town where you could tell Santa, in person, which of the toys you wanted:

Sears Toy Town ad
Beaver Valley Times
December 6, 1957

I'm including this 1957 Sears sale ad because I think it's the most unsettling business ad I've come across so far during my Ambridge history research.

Sears "Operation 'H-Bomb' Sale!"
Beaver Valley Times
May 28, 1959

I know some people now believe that Sears moved to Northern Lights when the shopping center opened in 1956 - 57, but that's not true. Sears remained in Ambridge until mid-October 1963, one week before it opened the new store the company had built on the far northwest side of Northern Lights where Giant Eagle is now. That new store was a larger department store that carried a more extensive line of merchandise than the Ambridge store had, including: clothing for women, men, and children, shoes, white goods (linens, towels, drapes), housewares, furniture, jewelry, cosmetics, perfume, and candy. Plus there was a snack bar.

The Ambridge Sears "Removal Sale" was held not only in its store, but also at a "storeroom" at 639 Merchant St., "next to Isaly's."

Sears "Removal Sale" ad
Beaver County Times
October 18, 1963

The year Sears after moved out, Bargain Furniture Mart, which already had a small store at 651 Merchant, expanded into 653-635. It was Bargain Furniture that remodeled the facade of the building by covering the lower front with a white "chipped ceramic" and the upper floors with the trendy-in-1964-green corrugated steel that still covers the building. Bargain Furniture also added the big 37 1/2 foot sign, the largest in Ambridge, that originally spelled out "Bargain" on lighted four-foot blocks.

I'm sorry about the quality of the photo below, but it's the only photo I currently have of the exterior of Bargain Furniture Mart's 653 - 655 Merchant St. store. You can see its smaller store to the left with the "Sale" sign on the window. That store became Bargain Furniture's Early American furniture showroom.

Bargain Furniture's new building with new facade and sign
653 - 655 Merchant St.
Beaver County Times
October 15, 1964

I hope to write about the businesses that occupied 653 -655 Merchant, both before and after Sears was there, in a future blog article. Watch for it.

Ambridge memorabilia: Slovenski Narodni Dom token

Slovenski Narodni Dom token
credit: Al Travis

Al Travis said he found several tokens like this among his late father's possessions. They're from Ambridge's Slovenski Narodni Dom (S.N.D.), also sometimes called the "Slovenian Auditorium," "The Slovenian Club," or "the triangle building."

If you lived in Ambridge from the late 1940s through the early '70s, you probably remember the triangular S.N.D. building at the intersection of Merchant St. and Beaver St.

Slovenian Auditorium
120 Merchant St.
ad
Daily Citizen Trade Area Directory
1956

Al said, "I think they were used when someone had bought you a drink, but you already had one. Not certain though." Does anyone know for sure of the tokens' purpose?

The opening of the Ambridge Borough Pool

Pool side of bathhouse
Ambridge Borough Pool
Borough Park
Daily Citizen
May 29, 1942

Such a joyous and long-anticipated event. The newly constructed Ambridge Borough Pool was opening!

Opening day was Memorial Day, Saturday, May 30, 1942.*  The formal dedication of the pool would be later, on July 12, 1942.

The caption under the above photo says:

The new Ambridge Community pool, under construction for several years will be opened to the public tomorrow. Built at a large cost it is the most complete in this section of the state. Facilities are in keeping with the wide expanse of water. In other words the accommodations are ample. Another view of the pool can be seen on page 10.

Here's the other view:

New Ambridge Borough Pool
looking south from diving pool end
Ambridge Borough Park
Daily Citizen
May 29, 1942

The opening was announced in a full page ad in the May 29 Daily Citizen at a time when newspaper pages were huge! The ad featured the graphic at the top of this page, the pool photo immediately above, and the following:

The Daily Citizen of Monday, June 1, 1942, reported that the first person to enter the water had been John D. Davis, a borough painter, who had taken a swim ten minutes after midnight on "Friday" (but it's not clear whether this meant Friday or Saturday morning). He was followed by over 1,300 other people that first weekend--after the pool actually opened--the majority of them children.

The children of Ambridge, as well as some adults, had been waiting for so long for a public pool in Ambridge.

In the early 1920s, the Ambridge Playground Association had sponsored a pool on the 800 block of Duss Ave., near where the Junior High School was soon to be built. But that pool had been short-lived.

Frustrated waiting for another public pool to be built, in the summer of 1938, the children of the First St. neighborhood built the iconic Dead-End Pool in polluted Big Sewickley Creek. That pool was also short-lived, quickly closed and drained by health authorities. But that action led to a protest march by the children, leading to a bond issue for the purpose of building a new public pool being approved by voters in the November 1938 election.

Construction of the new public pool began in early 1939 by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.), the federal program that provided jobs for the unemployed on public works projects across the U.S.  Built on property now known as Walter Panek Park, construction wasn't completed until 1942. (You can see photos of the very early days of the pool's construction by clicking on the link at the beginning of this paragraph.) The photo below shows how far construction had gotten by 1941.

Construction
Ambridge Borough Pool
circa May 1941
credit: Edmund Silla
photo courtesy of Jay Silla
 used with permission

Then finally...finally!...the new pool was finished and opened for swimming, despite the entry of the U.S. into WWII the previous December. Such an exciting day!

The July dedication ceremony featured the presentation of the pool to the Ambridge Borough by a W. P. A. representative, a Navy seaman speaking on the benefits of water sports, and a swim meet.

The Ambridge pool was the source of summer fun and fond memories for swimmers, and non-swimmers, from Ambridge and nearby communities, for several generations. But increasing maintenance costs needed by the aging building, combined with lack of funds to repair and upgrade the pool, eventually led to the pool's not opening in the summer of 1991. That year turned out to be beginning of the neglected pool's long, slow, ugly death, despite several proposals to reopen it.

The pool was demolished in 2009.

You can see more photos and read more memories of the pool by clicking on "Swimming pool" in the "labels" menu on the left.
_____

* Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30 for decades until it was moved to the last Monday in May in 1971.

The U.S.S. Ambridge

"Mrs. L.D. Reilly, Sponsor U.S.S. 'Ambridge'"
christening ceremony
Federal Shipbuilding Co.
Kearney N.J.
May 24, 1919
courtesy Beaver County Industrial Museum

The stately ship above is the U.S.S. Ambridge at her launch on May 24, 1919. And, yes, she was named for Ambridge PA, where much of the ship was made by the plant that gave Ambridge its name, the American Bridge Co., once the largest structural steel fabricating plant in the world.

During WWI, demand for ships was greater than available shipyards. Ships could not be built as fast as they were needed, even before the U.S. entered the war in 1917.

In 1915, naval architect Chas. P. M. Jack, had a rather brilliant idea. While the Ohio River at Ambridge was too shallow for a shipyard that could construct large ocean-going ships, the American Bridge Co.'s plant there had churned out hundreds of barges over the years. Could the plant construct at least the hull for an ocean-going ship, which could be then be sent to a shipyard where the work would be completed?

Previous similar attempts elsewhere had been failures, but none of the companies that had tried and failed had American Bridge's expertise in fabricating not only barges, but also large structural steel projects. So American Bridge was given the contract to build one hull. Not the entire hull, but 60 percent of one. That hull was shipped to a shipyard in Chester PA, where builders found American Bridge's hull fit the other parts of the ship perfectly.

So the Ambridge plant was given a contract for 12 more hulls to be constructed in 1915 and '16--eight oil tankers and five freighters, all finished by the Chester Shipbuilding Co. Later, American Bridge added new equipment, was awarded more contracts, increased its production, and was able to fabricate enough hulls for as many as four 9,000-ton ships a month. (Daily Times, May 17, 1919)

Eventually, American Bridge and other fabricating plants could produce enough ship parts that the U.S. Shipping Board's Emergency Fleet Corp. built new shipyards to keep pace with the capacity of the plants to supply them. One of the new shipyards was U.S. Steel's Federal Shipbuilding Co. in Kearney N.J.

The U.S. had entered the war by the time American Bridge built Hull #15, Order No. 218259, which was shipped to Kearney, where she was completed and christened "Ambridge," on May 24, 1919, six months after the war had ended. The name was chosen to honor the work done by Ambridge's American Bridge Co. An article on the ship's christening said that the plant had built much more than the hull. "The ship was practically all fabricated in Ambridge, but was shipped to Kearney where a few parts were added and the parts assembled." (Daily Times, May 26, 1919)

The Ambridge was christened by Mrs. L.D. Reilly, wife of the manager of Ambridge's American Bridge plant. She's the woman in the photo below holding the Ambridge pennant, front row, second from left. Her husband also attended, as well as R. G. Manning, the plant's chief engineer, and A. J. Carpenter, shop superintendent, none of whom are identified in the photo. Perhaps Mr. Reilly is the man holding an Ambridge pennant on the far right, front row.

"Launching Party, U.S.S. "Belfort" and "Ambridge"
May 24, 1919
Federal Shipbuilding Company
Kearney N.J.
courtesy Laughlin Memorial Library Archives

The Ambridge was not a military ship, but rather a commercial freighter. The Daily Times article about the christening gave the ship's dimensions as 400 feet long, 55 feet wide, and 35 feet deep, with a speed of 14 knots, and capable of carrying approximately 9,000 tons.

The U.S.S. Ambridge wasn't as imposing when she was at sea as she looked at her launch

"The U.S.S. Ambridge"
The Federal Shipbuilder
Aug. 1919 - Jan. 1922

American Bridge's work was admired enough that the issue of The Federal Shipbuilder with the above photo also included a poem, "General Philip Kearny Asks" by Fred T. Llewellyn, that included these lines:

From Gary come the boiler shells,
Farrell the sheet-bar tonnage makes,
And Ambridge with her quota swells
The multiple array of strakes,

During her career, the Ambridge carried cargo as varied as Dutch flower bulbs and $2,000,000 in gold bullion destined for a U.S. bank, sailing primarily to and from European ports, but also South Africa and Central America.

I don't know how common smuggling via commercial freighters was during the period when the Ambridge was sailing, but she was caught with contraband at least twice.

In February 1927, customs authorities found 4,200 bottles of champagne, valued at $50,000, hidden in a coal bunker on the Ambridge, as well as 13 cases of narcotics. (New York Times, Feb. 17, 1927).

Then in June 1930, customs officials found smuggled champagne again, this time 3,168 bottles valued at $31,680. (New York Times, June 3, 1930)

The Ambridge was scrapped in 1935.

When Ambridge had "everything you need"

Harvest Days Sale ad
Daily Times
October 3, 1956

Before there was a Northern Lights Shoppers City in Baden, years before the Beaver Valley Mall was built, Ambridge businesses were busy, and not just thriving, they were booming. Sidewalks were crowded with shoppers, and the lack of enough parking spaces was a frequent complaint.

But Northern Lights, the biggest shopping center then built in Pennsylvania, was under construction. Its first stores were about to open on November 1, 1956. So it was no surprise that the Ambridge business community was concerned, very concerned, about the impact Northern Lights would have. And they were right to be concerned. The opening of Northern Lights was the beginning of the downturn of the Ambridge business district.

Then the mall started luring businesses from Northern Lights.

And now, online shopping is killing off businesses in the mall.

Businesses couldn't have predicted in 1956 that "shop at home" would mean something very different in 2018 than "shop in your hometown."