Getting Around: a Brief History of Monroeville, Pennsylvania

Getting Around: A Brief History of Monroeville, Pennsylvania

Louis Chandler, Ph.D.

Monroeville Historical Society, Monroeville, Pa.

April 2012

______Contact: http://www.monroevillehistorical.org

Contents

Part 1: The Beginnings

Part 2: Paths and Trails

Part 3: Waterways, Creeks and Streams

Part 4: By Road and Stagecoach

Part 5: The Railroads

Part 6: The Age of the Automobila

Part 7: Public Transit

Part 8: And by Air

Part 9: Today’s Monroeville

Bibliography

Appendix: Monroeville’s Time Line

Introduction

This brief history focuses on travel and transportation. It tells the story of the paths and trails, streams and creeks, roads, and rails, as they led to the dominance of the automobile in today’s Monroeville. This work draws on a number of sources, including regional histories like those of Solon and Elizabeth Buck, as well as the local histories of Monroeville by Marilyn Chandler, Sarah Thompson, and Virginia Etta Myers, all of which helped to provide context. Thanks are due to the staffs of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Room, as well as the Monroeville Public Library, and especially Mark Hudson and Marlene Dean; and to Victoria Vargo of the Braddock’s Field Historical Society, and Gary Rogers of the Allegheny Foothills Historical Society; and to Judith Harvey of the Frank B. Fairbanks Archives at the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. Historical maps of the area were especially useful in tracing the course of various streams and creeks, and in the following the evolution of the road system. A special note of thanks goes to Lynn Chandler, and to Monroeville’s Director of Community Development, Shelly Kaltenbaugh, and Jamie Storey from the Planning Office, who helped the author make sense of Monroeville’s rich and varied topography. All photos are from the Archives of the Monroeville Historical Society, unless otherwise noted; illustrations are by Rebecca Olson. Finally, the author is especially indebted to the members of the Monroeville Historical Society (most especially: Dan Nowak, Lois Lyman, and Paul Damon) who launched an extensive oral history project in 1986 to help preserve our past. The resulting interviews, give us impressions of what life was like for people facing the everyday problem of “getting around.”

Louis Chandler Monroeville Historical Society Monroeville, 2007

Getting Around: A History of Monroeville, Pennsylvania

Part 1: The Beginnings

Civilization follows the waters. It has always been so. The Tigres and Euphrates, the Nile, and the Ganges, and the Yangtze, have all served as cradles of civilization. And so it was to be with the advance of European civilization in the newly-discovered lands that were to become America. The march westward of colonial America may be tracked by the exploration of rivers, their headwaters, their valleys and their tributaries and courses that flowed from one to another, providing a convenient means of travel through the rugged terrain of thick woods and seemingly impenetrable forests. Even formidable obstacles like mountains might be overcome, were river passages through them to be discovered. And it was just such a string of mountains, the Alleghenies, which represented a significant barrier to westward expansion in colonial America. By the 1700s, a conflict was shaping up between France and England over control of the destiny of the new world, and it was the land west of the mountains that was becoming the center of that conflict. The strategic value of the rivers was well- recognized: whoever controlled the rivers would control settlement in the west. In time, it became clear that the key to westward expansion was to be the land at the confluence of three rivers; the place where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers met to form the Ohio – the place later to be called Pittsburgh. Two routes to Pittsburgh were to emerge. To the north, the French were to descend on the upper Ohio from Canada, moving along the Allegheny River as it headed south toward its meeting with the Monongahela, there to establish Fort Duquesne. Meanwhile from the southeast, the English were to march westward from Virginia to eventually meet the advancing French by entering the three rivers confluence through up the Monongahela valley. These military expeditions left in their wakes a string of fortified encampments, trading posts, and the beginnings of settlements. One of the earliest posts was that of Mrs. Martha Myers, established at the mouth of the Turtle Creek about the time the British first took possession of the territory. George Washington, traveling on horseback and boat through the frontier in 1770 mentions dining at the Widow Myers, -- one of the first references to this pioneering settlement to the east of Fort Pitt. The Martha Myers and her family may have been the first landowners in what was to become Patton Township. In 1880, Eli Meyers, one of her descendents, was to be appointed postmaster in Monroeville, a post he held for many years.

Part 2: Paths and Trails

By the latter part of the 1700s, Pittsburgh had become a bustling pioneer village with several business houses scattered among the log cabins, showing, even then, the beginnings of homegrown industries. By 1788 it had been designated as the seat of the new county of Allegheny. Settlements sprang up near Pittsburgh to become small villages in themselves, such as Wilkinsburg to the east, already a few scattered log houses and a tavern by the 1780s. But except for the river valleys, the region around, and to the east of Pittsburgh remained sparsely populated, still heavily wooded, with virgin forests largely intact. Among the first families to settle in that region, in what was to become Monroeville, were the Johnstons. They were part of a wave of Scots-Irish immigrants, many of whom, like John Johnston were encouraged by the Pennsylvania authorities to move west over the mountains and settle the frontier. Two brothers, William and Robert had both served in the Revolutionary War. The family’s original log cabin was subsequently burned in an Indian raid. In 1769 Robert Johnston applied for a land grant, and some years later, was awarded his land grant from a grateful government for his wartime service. With the approval of Captain Johnston’s grant in 1789, his family farm was established and it would become a Monroeville fixture -- one that survived and flourished being handed down through several generations well into the 20th century. Like the Johnstons, most of the early settlers were farmers, and they were largely self-sufficient. They had to be. They carved their farms out of the hilly, thickly wooded land, and grew what they needed to survive. There was little surplus crop, as transporting food crops for sale would have been a problem, given the limited transportation of the time. For such settlers like the Johnstons, travel was by foot or on horseback. As there were so few roads, frontiersmen were more likely to follow Indian paths laid down by the Amerind natives. Such trails were not marked, but often well worn by foot traffic; narrow, skirting ridges and avoiding gullies where possible, and crossing streams at the most convenient points. Old Haymaker and Logans Ferry Roads in Monroeville are said to have followed the course of such Indian paths. Both were part of a longer road following the Indian trail that came up from Turtle Creek and crossed through what is now Plum Borough before meeting the Allegheny River at New Kensington. A local ferry, operated by Alexander Logan, took passengers across the river to Springdale in the early 1800s. An early survey of the territory in 1755 had recognized the existing Indian paths, three of which defined the main east-west routes. The northern (sometimes called the Frankstown path after the town where it originated, near modern Holidaysburg) followed the northern branch of the Juniata River across the mountains to the Kiskiminetas River and then up to the Allegheny River north of Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania canal would later follow a similar path). The central route went from Raystown (modern Bedford) through Shippensburg as it headed west towards Pittsburgh; Forbes trail would later follow a similar route. The southern route went from Frederick, Virginia through Cumberland to meet the Monongahela River at Redstone (modern Brownsville). 6

In 1910, George Donehoo set out to follow the old Indian trails wending his ways west through Western Pennsylvania, and his observations give us a hint of what it was like to follow frontier paths that were nothing more than:

“…trails through the tree-covered valleys and over the rugged mountains. Far sweeping valleys, rugged mountains, grand forests, and beautiful meadows are passed by in a constantly changing panorama.”

Donehoo goes on to describe his trek across the Laurel Hills:

“The journey over this great mountain ridge, of about twelve miles, is over rocks, fallen trees, and through heavy laurel underbrush, in a region as wild and as uninhabited as it was in frontier days.”

Riders on horseback, using these Indians paths, would have found the going slow, the hilly terrain difficult to traverse. The narrowness of the paths and steepness of the defiles, and the need to forge creeks and streams made for a journey “….often interrupted by the narrowness and obstructions of our horse paths, as they were called, for we had no roads…and these difficulties were often increased by falling trees and tying grape vines across the way…” . The military campaigns of the French and Indian War were to further delineate the routes for later trade, commerce, and settlement, with the victorious English campaign defining the major east-west routes to Pittsburgh. The first full-scale British expedition, led by General Edward Braddock, set off from Cumberland Maryland in 1755. If armies, their horses and wagons, and their artillery were to be moved across country, roads would have to be cut through the wilderness, and Braddock proceeded to build a route that would be passable for an army. “Braddock’s road” was to come up from Virginia to Mount Pleasant, then head northwest towards McKeesport before following the Monongahela valley past Turtle Creek, crossing the river at the modern Borough that bears his name, before moving on towards Fort Duquesne. That summer, Braddock’s forces were defeated by a mixed force of French and Indians (near the modern town which bears his name). Although the first expedition failed, the British remained determined to dislodge the French from the Ohio Valley. When a second British expedition was launched a few years later, the road cut by Braddock seemed a logical choice. Nevertheless, General John Forbes, the new British commander, chose a more northerly, and more direct route to facilitate supplies coming through Pennsylvania. The expedition would start at Fort Bedford (Raystown), proceed over the Laurel Highlands, through Ligonier. From Ligonier, Forbes took a route south of Latrobe, then turned north though the present-day town of Murrysville to pass along what is now Old Frankstown Road, down Wilkinsburg hill, and finally, along present-day Penn Avenue in making his way to launch his attack on Ft. Duquesne. “Forbes Road” was to lay the trail for what would eventually become part of the Lincoln Highway. For long stretches these ‘roads’ were no more than paths cleared of trees and brush. The few better constructed roads were in the eastern part of the state, were it was possible to use wagons for shipments west. However, once the available roads became too narrow for the wagons, the goods were transferred to pack animals for transshipment along the paths that wound through the hills. Pack-horse shipment was so expensive that 7 the only goods transported by that means were those which could yield fairly high prices. Goods and supplies from Philadelphia might pass through the hills to Pittsburgh on such pack-horse trains, traveling in trains of 12 or more animals, as they wended their way west. The overland trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh took some 20 days.

Part 3: Waterways, Creeks and Streams

With overland travel so fraught with difficulties, and with the plentiful streams, creeks and rivers of western Pennsylvania, the inland waterways presented an appealing alternative. At this time there were determined efforts to develop a system of canals spreading from east to west, and for a time Pittsburgh benefited from the extension of that canal system. But while the canal system enjoyed a brief popularity, in the end it was to prove uneconomical, and the coming of the railroads (in the 1850s) signaled the end of much of the inland canal system. But although the canal system never lived up to the dreams of its investors, the bustling traffic on the rivers was to continue its steady growth. In 1787 The Congress of the Confederation passed the Northwest Ordinance throwing open to settlement the vast Ohio territory and encouraging a growing number of settlers to move west. Some of these immigrants crossed on the rugged trek directly over the mountains into Pittsburgh on their way west, while others traveled to Brownsville from where they could get river passage to Pittsburgh and beyond, wending their way through the western waterways. To meet this new demand for river travel, inland ports and boatyards sprang up and flourished at Elizabeth, Brownsville, and McKeesport. As early as 1777, a group of boat builders from Philadelphia constructed 100 large Batteaux (the French-style canoe) near Elizabeth for transporting troops, laying the seeds for a shipbuilding business that would be a major factor in the Monongahela valley for more than a hundred years. Flatboats and the ubiquitous keelboats, heavily laden with cargo, plied their way along the valley to Pittsburgh and points west in a river trade that was to flourish until late in the 19th century. The early 1800s saw the first of Mr. Fulton’s steamboats to appear on the western waters on the Monongahela. After the construction of locks and dams in 1840s, regular steamboat service was common between Brownsville and Pittsburgh. One of the river towns to benefit from the new system of locks and dams was nearby Port Perry, then located at the confluence of the Monongahela and Turtle Creek (near Braddock). A small coal-mining town, the creation of the locks made it a navigation point, opening it up to the packet trade for local shipping of freight and passengers. And so, although the community had no direct access to the rivers, residents of Patton Township could travel south to Turtle Creek and the Monongahela ports, like Port Perry, where it would have been possible for a traveler to board one of the many steam packet boats plying its way on the daily run from Brownsville to Pittsburgh. Located equally about 6 miles from the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, Monroeville is essentially a landlocked community of some 20 square miles. The land is part of an elevated plain that forms a transition between the flatter agricultural plains of the Midwest and the Appalachian Mountains to the east. Its topography is characterized by ridges and valleys, the result of drainage runs carved by the many streams which run through wood-covered valleys with steep slopes. 9

The waterways form part of the Turtle Creek Water Shed and hold tributaries that carry the run-of from various parts of the municipality. As a result highways and roadways are, in the understated words of the 1984 Comprehensive Plan “…complicated by the rugged topography.” Like river roadways, paths would inevitably grow up following these rural streams, and such footpaths would, in turn, yield to riding trails, and eventually, to roads. Several major roads have an east-west orientation: Penn-Lincoln Parkway, Route 22, Old Route 22, and a more winding alignment consisting of Northern Pike-Monroeville Blvd.- James St. These parallel one another near the center of the community. Another set of roads follow the natural drainage channels in a north-south orientation, e.g., Moss Side Boulevard, Pitcairn Road, Thompson Run Road, Abers Creek, etc. So while through traffic crossed Monroeville by land from east to west, the few local farmers in the area would more likely have journeyed south to neighboring communities -- when they felt the need to travel at all. Streams like Thomson Run, Dirty Camp Run, Sugar Camp Run, and Abers Creek, all flow south into the Turtle Creek.

1. Monroeville’s major streams with their accompanying roadways (Illustration by Rebecca Olsen)

2. Abers Creek a north-south waterway in eastern Monroeville

The Turtle Creek, in turn, flows through East McKeesport to the Monongahela River. Even those north-south roads that no longer have active streams running along them, (like James Street, Monroeville-Turtle Creek Road, and Monroeville-Wilmerding Road) are nevertheless marked with deep ravines -- remnants of old streams long diverted as the area was developed. Wending their way along the waterways, early settlers in the area would follow such routes to the neighboring settlements and trading posts to the south such as Turtle Creek, and on to the Monongahela valley, with its booming river traffic. Besides providing travel routes to follow, the area’s creeks would also become locations for local mills that would spring up along their banks. Typical would have been the sawmill along the creek in what was known as Sawmill Valley that ran beside Monroeville Road on the left hand side going south towards Turtle Creek. Still another example is the Davis Sawmill on Thompson Run Road that continued to operate as a sawmill well into the 20th century, before the plant was converted by new owners into a cement mixing facility -- which it still is today (2005).

3. Eles Brothers Cement Company. From the earliest days the area’s creeks were prime locations for local mills. Typical would have been the sawmill along the creek in what was known as Sawmill Valley that ran beside Monroeville Road on the left hand side going south towards Turtle Creek. Another example is the Davis Sawmill on Thompson Run Road that continued to operate as a sawmill well into the 20th century, before the plant was converted by new owners into a cement mixing facility, which it still is today (2005).

Likewise, along Abers Creek, Bill Malise’s mill was situated adjacent to the hillside, near the present day Anthony House. This impressive stone house was designed by the renowned architect Henry Hornbostel. Hornsbostel was responsible for many architectural treasures in the Pittsburgh area, including the original campus of the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University). He designed this Monroeville house along Abers Creek in 1939, and had it constructed using many of the original tan and brown stones from the nearby mill.

4. The Anthony House “Valley Tower” is nestled in the hill along Abers Creek. This impressive stone house was designed by the noted architect Henry Hornbostel.

The area streams also held a few surprises. One local resident remembers:

“There used to be lots of fish, about six to eight inches long; but mostly minnows, just hundreds and practically thousands of them. But they straightened out the streams and built upstream, the velocity of the water would disrupt, and then with all the parking area, the water would run off with the gasoline and fuel oil. Then they put salt on the roads, and slowly but surely, they killed practically all aquatic life.”

And then there is this final footnote to the story of the streams regarding a local creek in the Prohibition era:

“….they made moonshine on the McGinley property up behind where the Westinghouse Nuclear is (today). They would try to get a location where there was a ravine and running water for their still…and the last place they made it was down on McGinley Road. There’s a ravine there, and there’s a water supply.”

Part 4: By Road and Stagecoach

The pattern of settlement in the region has been nicely summarized as follows by Solon and Elizabeth Buck in their excellent book -- The Planting of Civilization in Western Pennsylvania:

“Southwestern Pennsylvania’s settlers came in mainly by the two roads made famous by the Braddock and Forbes expeditions…The men usually went ahead, selected and cleared the land, planted a crop and raised a cabin. The bottom land along the rivers, fertile and conveniently situated for transportation, was taken up first, then the land up the creeks, and lastly the higher ground away from the streams.”

Following this pattern, the opening of the 1800s found Monroeville to be nothing more than a small village nestled amongst the farms and forests. Craftsmen in the area at this time included wheelwrights, weavers, cowbell makers, stone masons and blacksmiths. One of the first blacksmith shops was located on Northern Pike not too far from the present intersection with Route 22. By 1810 the village could boast of two blacksmiths, two stores, and an inn, even as settlements on either side (west and east) were growing rapidly. To the west, Pittsburgh was already becoming a commercial and trade center. By 1803 a visitor described the town as having upward of 400 houses “…several of them large and handsomely made of brick,” and of those, 49 were occupied as stores and shops. There were taverns and inns, churches, printing presses and two “glass houses” for the manufacture of plate glass and bottles. Faced with the difficulties of overland travel, people turned to the thriving transportation system that had already developed on the waterways of Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh’s strategic position astride the three rivers also meant that, at a time when much of trade was shipped by water, Pittsburgh was destined to become a commercial power, and a magnet for new settlers. To the east of present-day Monroeville, settlements were springing up in the Ligonier valley. Settlements at Ligonier, Hannahstown and Greensburg soon became small villages, and east-west travel grew as the few dirt roads were widened and developed. Although the roads were gradually improved, travel over them remained a difficult and hazardous experience. In 1784 the state legislature authorized funds for roads from Philadelphia to the western part of the state, and by the 1790s the “Pennsylvania Road” had been extended from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania Road “…took the course of the Old Forbes trail across the mountains to Ligonier and then a few miles south of that road through Greensburg to Pittsburgh, approximately the course of the modern Lincoln Highway.” Another road was constructed from Johnstown to Blairsville and then to Pittsburgh. Known as the Huntingdon Road, it later became the William Penn Highway. The extension of that road through Monroeville was known as the Northern Turnpike, and the Wm. Penn Hwy/ Northern Pike laid the route for modern US Route 22. Along with the major east-west roads, a network of local roads began to take shape. Although the new process for hard surfacing roads by macadamization was being 14 used in the early 1800s in the east, most roads in the west remained dirt roads. In general such roads “… were not ‘constructed,’ they were merely ‘opened’ – that is, the trees were cut down and the stumps were grubbed out. Sometime a little digging was done on side hills and in passes, swampy places were filled…and crude wooden bridges constructed over the smaller streams.” Over the years, Monroeville has seen its share of bridges, tunnels, trestles and overpasses -- all built in an effort to ease travel along its hilly terrain. The MacGregor Road stone bridge, located off Beatty Road near Route 22, is a well-preserved example of the sort of 19th century one-lane structure once built to accommodate horse-and-buggy and foot traffic. This example is a gracefully curved 14-foot segmented arch structure of cut stone that once carried MacGregor road by passing over a stream in the course of connecting Beatty Road to Center road. Today, it has been designated as a local historic landmark.

5. The MacGregor Road stone bridge, located off Beatty Road near Route 22, is a well-preserved example of the sort of 19th century one-lane structure once built to accommodate horse-and-buggy and foot traffic.

Traveling on foot or on horseback continued to be a common practice, even into the 1900s, but by the 1800s the era of the packhorse was approaching its end. Pennsylvania’s improved roads could accommodate Conestoga wagons that would replace packhorse trains in hauling freight over the mountains. By this time the roads had been more clearly laid out, if improved only slightly over the years. An account of the trip west in a Conestoga wagon in 1818 was reported by Thomas Mellon, who would one day become a well-known Pittsburgh banker and financier, and whose family would, for a time, own a farm in what was to become Monroeville. 15

“We had come to Baltimore in preference to New York or Philadelphia, because it was at that time regarded as of easier access from the sea; and as having the advantage of better roads and transportation across the mountains to the western country. Pittsburgh dealt chiefly with Baltimore then. My father chartered a Conestoga wagon and team; such was the name given to the heavy four horse wagon with long bed and white canvas cover, used in those days for transportation of goods and emigrants between seaports and the West. The teamster was to carry our baggage and ourselves for a stipulated price from Baltimore to Greensburg, in Westmoreland County. It was a long tedious trip, mostly over mud roads badly cut up – especially in the mountains, as wagons and teams were very numerous before the introduction of turnpikes and canals. Still, the October weather was fine; the orchards were numerous, with the ripe tempting fruit strewing the grass under the trees; and a generous welcome to help ourselves was easily obtained from the owners.”

Heralding the roads to come was the Northern Turnpike. In his excellent article on that historic road, Bruce Kish has called the Northern Turnpike: “the granddaddy of the modern superhighways spreading through the Municipality.” Originally conceived of by Pennsylvania authorities as the most practical and most economic way of uniting the state, the Northern Pike (or the Philadelphia Turnpike, as it was called at its eastern terminus) would be the nation’s first long distance paved road. Moreover, it would be a toll road so as to offset some of the costs of construction and maintenance. In the 1790s a group of Philadelphia businessmen formed a company to operate the Northern Pike as a toll road. By 1807 the road was completed, running in a northeasterly direction from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. One of the investors, Abraham Taylor, settled 13 miles east of Pittsburgh where, in 1800, he built an inn on the side of the new road near the tollgate. A few years later Joel Monroe, an early landowner (after whom Monroeville was to be named), began selling off lots along the road to develop the core of the emerging village.

6. Joel Monroe, pioneering landowner and the village’s first postmaster.

Taylor’s inn attracted travelers going to and from Pittsburgh, but its business picked up considerably once regular stagecoach service was introduced along the Northern Pike in 1804. The trip cost 20 dollars and took six or seven days; a six-seat coach with a team of four horses was mostly used, and every 50 miles or so the passengers changed coaches. Horses were changed every 10 or 12 miles, and Monroeville, because of its location on the Northern pike some 12 miles east from Pittsburgh, was ideally situated for a Stage House where the coach could get fresh horses, and the passengers, refreshments. It is said that stage drivers leaving the inn and heading east in the early morning found they were often driving directly into a blazing sun, hence the name -- Rising Sun Inn. And so, the Rising Sun Inn became the first coach stop out of Pittsburgh on the new Northern Turnpike in what was to become Patton Township (and eventually Monroeville). Bruce Kish describes the arrival of the daily stage:

“The arrival of the coach in Joel Monroe’s sleepy hamlet was the highlight of each day. The steady clop-clop of hooves was heard in the distance. Farmers momentarily stopped working and looked up as children ran down to the roadside to watch the spectacle. As the coach drew nearer, the spectators saw the sun glint on a bugle the driver raised to his lips. A blaring melody formally heralding the carriage’s arrival, followed by a number of short blasts at the end… 17

As the passengers dined in Taylor’s dining room, the grooms brought a fresh team of horses from the stable behind the inn. Mail bags were exchanged, and any tolls were paid at the booth, a log cabin next to Monroe’s house. Within a half an hour, the coach started off again, the hoof beats gradually becoming fainter in the west…”

Still another stage coach stop was located to the southeast near the Pitcairn Road. This was the Lang house, built originally by Revolutionary War veteran George Lange; and it still stands today (2008), although extensively modernized, on Wallace Drive. In the early 1800s the house served for a time as a coach stop and livery stable for stage coaches headed east from Pittsburgh. (The original name of Wallace Drive was called “Old Stagecoach Road”). The top floor served as two bedrooms for overnight guests. The stage line would have connected with the previous stop at the Rising Sun Inn on the Northern Pike; legend has it that arrangements were made with the Inn so that the arrival of guests traveling between the two stops would be greeted by a post horn to announce the safe arrival of the stage.

Throughout the next 30 years, passenger and freight traffic increased on the road and it became a financial success, although there was a time when it was threatened by competition in the 1830s when a combination of canals and railroads advertised the trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh could be made in three and a half days. James Maguire, a local resident, was said to have been a captain on one of the canal boats. The canal system had a brief heyday, and in the end they were to prove uneconomical. Even as they were being abandoned, the railroads were going on to flourish and become a major force, competing for traffic with roads like the Northern Pike. November 1852, the Pennsylvania Railroad opened an all-rail route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and some maintain this marked the death knell for the Northern Pike as a toll road, as well as for the Rising Sun Inn that was to become a farm house. In time, the old Rising Sun Inn was to become the private residence for the Warner family, and still later it was converted to a physician’s office, a function it still serves today in its historic location along Northern Pike. Although extensively remodeled, it remains one of the oldest structures in Monroeville.

7. This structure, at 3835 Northern Pike, one of the oldest in Monroeville (c.1800), was originally built as the Rising Sun Inn. It was later to become a farmhouse, and today (in 2005) it has been converted into a physician’s office.

Part 5: The Railroads

Newly constructed and improved roads, along with a more extensive system of canals, were to be the prime movers in opening up the west. But by the middle of the 1800s, railroads came onto the scene, and they quickly provided a popular alternative for freight and passenger travel. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) began in the eastern part of the state in 1849 and immediately expanded westward towards Pittsburgh. The following ad appeared in the Philadelphia Gazette, April 27, 1850.

The Pennsylvania Railroad announces the Pioneer and Express Line from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Leaving Depot no. 27, Market Street, daily at 8 am and 4 pm – 280 miles by Railroad in 2 ½ days.

When the ad was run the canals and stage coaches were still used for that portion of the trip not covered by rail. The whole trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was 350 miles, with 230 of that by Railroad, the rest by canals or stage coaches. By the close of 1851, The PRR was able to provide through service between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, all of which was by rail except for a gap of 27 miles between Beatty’s (between Greensburg and Latrobe) and Turtle Creek, where stagecoaches were still used. This gap was finally closed on Dec. 10, 1852, when an all-rail route was established. Initially, the trip took 13 to 17 hours, and three trains per day made the run. At about his time, The PRR extended its local service from Pittsburgh to East Liberty and then continued to Wilkinsburg and on to other communities to the east of the city.

8. The Pennsylvania Railroad extended its tracks to East Liberty in 1851 as portions of the major east-west run were put into place crossing the State and connecting Pittsburgh with Philadelphia. ( Photo courtesy of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania)

The first local train ran from Pittsburgh to Brinton, just west of East Pittsburgh in December of 1851, and the same month an excursion train made the run to Turtle Creek. Regular passenger service followed, and a year later the first train from Pittsburgh to Wilkinsburg was making a daily run with a roundtrip fare of 34 cents. By the mid-1800s, the PRR’s main line (east west) ran from Pittsburgh thru Swissvale and Wilkinsburg to Brinton and Turtle Creek, described in a railroad 1875 publication in 1875 as: “The first station upon entering Allegheny County. Coal mines are in operation here, employing some 600 men. The settlement contains three churches, a public hall, two hotels and a population of about 2000.” Continuing westward local trains might stop at Wall station, Stewarts Station (In Patton Township) then onto Larimer, Latrobe and Greensburg before heading towards the eastern terminus at Philadelphia. At Stewarts Station the tracks branched to the northwest to service Blackburn and Saunders Station, before heading towards Murrysville, Newton, and Manordale. The Table below shows the PRR’s route during the later part of the 19th and the early 20th centuries.

9. Selected Stations of the Turtle Creek Valley Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 19th Century

Mainline (west to east) North-East Spur

(Pittsburgh)

Wilkinsburg Swissvale Braddock Brinton Located in Wall, Pa. Turtle Creek Located under the Greensburg Pike Bridge with access by stairs from the bridge above Wall Pitcairn Located in Pitcairn Pa. Originally Walurba Station in Patton Twp.; renamed Pitcairn Station in 1897. Moss Side Located on the southern border of Monroeville, near the Mosside Bridge along Rt. 48. Stewarts Stewarts Located south of Monroeville along the eastern Located south of Monroeville along the eastern edge edge of Trafford, Pa. of Trafford, Pa. Larimar Blackburn Irwin Saunder’s Located on the Turtle Creek Branch of the PRR along Monroeville’s eastern border Murrysville Originally the Turtle Creek Valley RR’s station (later the PRR’s) it was located at the south end of Carson Street. Dewalt Newlons Manordale Greensburg

(Philadelphia)

While the PRR initially laid track to meet the demands of the growing industries, stations were soon added to accommodate workers and passengers traveling to and from the mill towns. Tracks would be laid to serve the steel mills of the Mon Valley, and closer to home, the Westinghouse Air Brake (WABCO) plant in Wilmerding, and the Westinghouse Electric Company plant in East Pittsburgh would become major customers. While freight traffic increased, passenger trains did too, making local stops along the PRR’s main line at stations in: Wilkinsburg, Edgewood, Swissvale, Braddock, East Pittsburgh, Turtle Creek, Wilmerding, Pitcairn, Wall, and Trafford on their way east.

10. Residents of Patton Township could get the train at Pitcairn. The Pennsylvania Railroad’s station at Pitcairn was originally named “Wallurba,” after the name of the village, but in 1897 the railroad changed the name of the station at the request of the Pitcairn Borough Council, even though the depot was actually located outside the Borough’s limits. All train schedules had to be changed to reflect the new name.

Along with the stationhouses built by the railroad there were a number of repair facilities, maintenance, and switching yards, the most prominent in the area being the sprawling yard at Pitcairn. In 1874, the PRR, needing room to expand its Pittsburgh operations, bought 215 acres of farmland in Patton Township along the Turtle Creek Valley. In 1888 they began construction on what was to become the Pitcairn yard. Finished in 1892, the extensive facilities were to include classification and receiving yards, transfer and assembly tracks two roundhouses, various repair shops, machine shops, and its own lumber yard and power plant. Cabinet shops, upholstery shops and paint shops were also set up to repair and refurbish passenger cars. For many years all east and west bound freight of the Pittsburgh Division of the PRR was channeled through the Pitcairn Yard as the Yard burgeoned into one of the largest and most strategic classification yards on the PRR system. At the same time, the 23

Pennsylvania Railroad itself would grow into a dominating presence in the area, doing the heavy hauling for the industries of Pittsburgh and becoming a source of on-going employment for local residents.

11. In 1874 Robert Pitcairn, a superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, ordered the purchase of 215 acres of land, about 15 miles from Pittsburgh, a tract of land that would serve as the new and expanded Pittsburgh rail yards. Thus began the decades-long love affair between Patton Township and the Pennsylvania Railroad culminating in the massive Pitcairn Railroad Yards.

The Pitcairn Yard flourished for almost a hundred years, but in the 1950s a decision by the PRR to greatly expand the Conway Yard north of Pittsburgh spelt a long slow decline for the Pitcairn facilities, till only a few daily trains ran through it by the 1980s. By the late 1990s the railroad (then Conrail) operated only a one through track at the Pitcairn yard. The yard was to experience a re-birth in November 1996, when the yard was given a new lease of life, being re-opened as an inter-modal facility, currently operated by the Norfolk and Southern Railroad. But in the 1850s, residents of Monroeville were soon able to travel by rail, and in time, even had their own station on Saunders Station Road. Each morning workers would walk down through the valley to Saunders Station there to get the train for work at the Westinghouse plant in East Pittsburgh. Others might walk to Murrysville, where the Turtle Creek Valley Railroad Corporation (later the Turtle Creek branch of the PRR) had a line running north from Trafford’s Stewart Station to Murrysville. From there one could take the train to Pitcairn, East Pittsburgh, or into downtown Pittsburgh. Patton Township residents could also board daily trains in Pitcairn, Turtle Creek, or the Mosside Station near the Mosside Bridge.

12. In the second half of the 1800’s residents of Patton Township might travel east to board the train at the Railroad Station in nearby Murrysville.

One resident remembered Saunders Station. It was left unattended, but, as: “…it had a potbellied stove, and if you were the first to get there in the morning, you built the fire to keep warm.” People from the surrounding farms came there to get the train for Trafford, Pitcairn, Turtle Creek, Braddock and East Pittsburgh. These trains became the first “commuter transportation” for the residents of Monroeville. Saunders Station was phased out in the late 1930s as more families began buying automobiles for travel to neighboring communities. Stull another local resident who grew up in the area recalled the effects of the steam locomotives chugging through the town. “Nothing grew on the hillsides along the tracks in Pitcairn or Wilmerding when the steam trains ran because the steam created acrid rain.” But the PRR was not the only railroad to play a role in the transportation history of Monroeville. While the PRR spread its network along the Mon Valley and to the East, The Union Railroad took a north-south route that was to cross through Monroeville along the western edge of the community on its way to Carnegie Steel and the other mills in the Mon Valley. The idea of running a railroad from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh was originally conceived by Andrew Carnegie so that he could ship coal directly to his coke production facilities on the Monongahela, thus avoiding the freight hauling fees of his rival, the PRR. The Union Railroad is part of that original Lake Erie to Pittsburgh Mills rail system that had its beginnings in 1896. The railroad resulted from the union of five 25 smaller railroads including the Pittsburgh, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE), which extended down from North Bessemer to East Pittsburgh. Today, as then, it provides railroad transportation and railroad switching service, primarily to the steel industry. The northernmost point is still located at North Bessemer, from where the railroad spreads southward through Monroeville, Turtle Creek, East Pittsburgh, Monongahela Junction, Clairton Junction and Clairton. In addition to steel mills, the railroad serves the coal industry through the Duquesne Wharf, a coke production facility at Clairton.

13. Union Railroad train at the North Bessemer shops of the P&LE. The Union Railroad grew from the original Lake Erie to Pittsburgh Mills rail system that had its beginnings in 1896. The railroad resulted from the union of five smaller railroads including the Pittsburgh, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE), which extended down from North Bessemer to East Pittsburgh.

14. The Union Railroad’s Hall Locomotive Shops in Monroeville as seen from Route 22. As coal mining was developed in Patton Township coal shipments began to be hauled from the Patton Township mines to the various transfer points and stations along the Union Railroad, like Edels Creek, Gascola, Linhart, and Hall Stations. Hall Station would later become the Hall Locomotive shops.

Table 15. below shows some of the stations established by the Union Railroad in the later 18th and early 20th centuries.

15. Some of the P&LE/Union Railroad’s Stations

North-South Route

North Bessemer Universal Edel’s Creek Gascola Located in the north-west sector of Monroeville near Thompson Run; serviced the coal mines of Carnegie Steel Co. Leak Run Linhardt Located in the south-west sector of Monroeville and built primarily to service the nearby mines as well as Westinghouse’s copper mill and brass works in Linhardt. Hall Located in the central western sector of Monroeville, near Thompson Run, this station served the mines and later became a maintenance yard and roundhouse for the Pittsburgh, Bessemer and Lake Erie (later, the Union Railroad). Oak Hill Newton Westinghouse Electric Connection Turtle Creek Served the Triboro Supply Company East Pittsburgh Bessemer Served the Edgar Thompson Works in Braddock. Clairton Mifflin Munhall Homestead Duquesne

While coal was discovered in western Pennsylvania in colonial times, because of limited markets and poor transportation, it took a while to develop as a commercial enterprise. Two things spurred a rapid development in coal mining in the region: (1) the improvements in transportation brought about by the coming of the railroads in the 1850s, and, at about the same time; (2) the rapidly expanding iron and steel industry that created a vast new market for coal. In the next 50 years, hundreds of mines sprang up to exploit the richness of the vast Pittsburgh seam. To feed the steel industry’s voracious appetite for coal, spur lines were built in Monroeville so as to service the coal mines in the area. In the late 19th century, the region, including Monroeville (or Patton Township, as it was then), enjoyed something of a boom in coal mining, and many of the local residents who didn’t work on the farms were to find employment in the mines or on the railroads. In our area, deep mining of coal began in the 1890s, with the coal boom occurring around the time of the First World War as trenches were dug in the cow pastures to get at the thick rich coal of the Pittsburgh seam. In 1870 Andrew Carnegie purchased tracts of 28 coal lands in Patton and Plum Townships and began forming the New York and Cleveland Gas and Coal Company, which was to become one of the largest mining operations in Western Pennsylvania. In 1914 The New York and Cleveland Coal Company began mining the area. By the 1920s, in addition to the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company, a number of others were actively engaged in mining operations in Patton Township, e.g., Blanchard Coal, Reynolds Coal, Beatty Gas and Coal, Monroeville Coal Company, John Mathews Coal, and Thomas Harper Coal Co. Local mines like Renton, Gascola and Cunningham’s of the Pittsburgh seam, and later mines of the Freeport seam, continued to be active during the 1920s and 30s. While Denmark, McCullough, and the Pittsburgh- Westmoreland Coal Company were to become prominent coal mine operators in the region, particularly exploiting the coal fields to the east of Patton Township. A mule hauled a small mine car on iron rails loaded with coal from the working face to the mine’s entrance which might be built into a hillside. Mule haulage was eventually replaced by mechanical haulage with electric motors. Once the mined coal was taken to the surface it would be hauled to a coal tipple. A coal tipple was the place where the pit wagons were “tipped” or dumped, eventually to be loaded into railroad cars beneath the tipple.

15. A Coal Tipple. Once the mined coal had been brought to the surface it had to be hauled to a coal tipple. A coal tipple was a place for temporary storage where wagons of coal from the pits were “tipped” or dumped, eventually to be loaded into railroad cars on sidings running beneath the tipple. The coal tipple seen in this photo at the McCullough Mines.

There was a minor housing boom at places like Hall’s Station, as an influx of workers settled in the area to work in the mines. Mining continued in the area, even as the underground mines became uneconomical, because new methods of strip mining were then being developed and employed. By the 1920s strip mining had begun in the area, and much of today’s commercial corridor was once strip-mined. McMasters Grove, located near the center of town along present route 22, had been, since the turn of the century, a site for community picnics, concerts and festivals.

16. A Community Picnic at McMasters Grove. The land, located along Route 22, was once part of the McMaster’s farm, and eventually (in 2005) would become the site of Lowes’s Improvement Center, at its location along Route 22 at McMaster’s Road.

17. Chadderton Family outing. Pictured in 1909 are Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Chadderton, seated in a Spring Wagon with their 4-year-old son, later Pitcairn Borough Councilman Kenneth Chadderton. The scene is McMaster’s Grove, one of Paton Township’s most popular spots for family outings, and today (2010) the site of the Miracle Mile Shopping Center.

This area was strip mined in the 1920s, and when it was re-claimed, Patton Township officials laid plans for a new high school to be built on the site. But increased traffic forced them to look for another site for the school, and the land was sold to developers. Eventually, the property was to be used as a drive-in theater (in 2005, the site of Lowe’s Home Improvement Center), while the adjacent land became the site of the Miracle Mile Shopping Center. Similarly, the future home of the Monroeville Mall was also located on land that is said to have once served as a mule barn for The New York and Cleveland Coal Mine and later became part of a strip mine -- Harper’s Mine.

18. Before mechanization, men, and later mules, were used to haul a small mine car on iron rails loaded with coal from the working face to the mine’s entrance, or adit, which was often built into a hillside. Mule haulage was eventually replaced by mechanical haulage over steel tracks using electric motors.

A network of narrow gauge rail lines crisscrossed Patton Township, servicing the coal mines; local work trains were a common sight laying, maintaining, and removing tracks.

19. Here a proud papa stand before his narrow-gauge work locomotive or “Dinky” of the kind used to service the coal mines in the Patton Township. (Photo courtesy of the Coal and Coke Heritage Center)

20. In the coal mining era Monroeville was crisscrossed with tracks. The name of “Trestle Road” reflects that heritage. This photo shows a work train removing tracks near William Penn Highway.

Coal shipments were hauled from the Patton Township mines to the various transfer points and stations along the Union Railroad, like Edels Creek, Gascola, Linhart, and Hall Stations. (The latter would become the Hall’s Locomotive shops, active for many years as a major repair facility). In the early days, the Railroad provided passenger service and it made connections with the PRR, and so a schoolteacher who taught at Hall Station School could commute from Wilkinsburg through Turtle Creek on the PRR, there to transfer to the Union Railroad for the last leg of the trip up to Hall Station and the 32 nearby school. And so, besides its main job of servicing the mills, the railroad ran such local passenger trains, and even at one time, special excursion trains made the run to Kennywood Park. Today, the Union Railroad continues to operate the Hall Locomotive Shops facility to maintain its fleet of 30 some locomotives at its location just under the Route 22 bridge in west Monroeville.

21. The Roundhouse at the Union Railroad’s Hall Shops. Today, the Union Railroad continues to operate the Hall Locomotive Shops and switching yard in maintaining its fleet of 30 some locomotives at its location just under the Route 22 bridge in west Monroeville.

Other railroads served as branch lines to the mines, like the Turtle Creek Valley Railroad. This local railroad was incorporated in 1866 to construct a line from Stewart’s Station (near Trafford) to the main line of the PRR. The Stewart Station to Murrysville section was completed in 1891. The Lyons Run Branch proceeded east from Saunders Station. In 1903 the PRR purchased the TCV RR. At its peak the TCV RR ran 5 passenger trains a day; passenger service was discontinued in 1936. The PRR’s local passenger service (then the Penn-Central) was phased out in the late 1950s-early 60s. The Turtle Creek Valley tracks continue to be used for freight hauling, but the few daily passenger trains no longer make local stops. The railroads were a major factor in the life of Patton Township for close to a hundred years, but by the 1920s the local trains, like the horse and buggy, were losing their appeal to the traveling public.

22. Union RR Steam Locomotive (Baldwin 0102). The Union Railroad laid tracks along a north-south route crossing through Monroeville along the western edge of the community on its way to Carnegie Steel and the other mills in the Mon Valley. The idea of running a railroad from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh was originally conceived by Andrew Carnegie so that he could ship coal directly to his coke production facilities on the Monongahela, thus avoiding the freight hauling fees of his rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Part 6: The Age of the Automobile

Some say it was the roads that made Monroeville what it is today. In fact, the Municipal Planning Commission went so far as to declare Monroeville to be “ a phenomena of the automobile.” It was during the 20th century that Monroeville grew from a farm village, with horses and wagons traveling over dirt roads, to a flourishing suburban community laced with major highways carrying thousands of cars, buses, and trucks every day.

23. A Family Outing on Tilbrook Road (ca. 1900). In the early 1900s, Monroeville was still a sparsely- populated, largely rural community of woods and fields, farmhouses and barns with fenced pastureland. The horse and buggy was still the mainstay of family travel. Occasionally, the horse might be hooked up to a buckboard for a shopping trip south to Pitcairn or Turtle Creek.

While the few existing roads were improved throughout the 1800s, right up into the 20th century they remained largely dirt roads which might still see the occasional horse and buggy. In the first part of the 1900s, life in the little farming community was pretty much as it had been for the past hundred years. One resident recalled that: “…after the mines had played out, Monroeville became almost a ghost town.” In the 1930s and 40s Monroeville was still a sparsely-populated, largely rural community of woods and fields, farmhouses and barns with fenced pastureland.

24. The Duff Family Farm in the 1940s. Duff farm, (originally the Monroe Farm) was located near the core of what would become Monroeville. By the 1920s, gas stations, greenhouses and roadhouses had sprouted up along the road on the Duff farm. In 1940, Annie Duff sold a strip of land along William Penn Hwy. for the sum of $1.00 per acre. In 1963, the Duff farm house and the remaining land was sold to Sampson Developers.

Cattlemen drove their cattle in herds from Westmoreland County and Patton Township over the Northern Pike to the stockyards in East Liberty. And even well into the 1940s, many local families still ran farms, complete with barns, cows and horses; horse shows in Monroeville, Irwin, and Greensburg, were major events. In those days, it was possible for a little girl growing up on a farm to ride her horse along Route 22, as one resident remembers:

“…there really wasn’t much along Route 22, not very much at all. And I could ride my horse any place I wanted to. You could just about travel anywhere on a horse. Down where the Mall is today, you could ride all back in through those woods. I used to ride from here to Murrysville down Route 22. It was only a two-lane road back then.”

Another long-time resident described how her family traveled when she was a girl.

“My father always had a good riding horse and a buggy. Mother drove the horse and buggy, too. Sometimes if we had to go shopping or take the horse to the blacksmith shop, we would all go with her. And later on we had a T-model Ford; 36

sometimes I think it would have been safer to walk because you never truly knew if you were going to get there or not. And you never got there without a flat tire.”

Still another horse-rider recalls how

“In the late 40s we rode our horses down Duff Road when it was only a foot path, tied them on the fence at LaBarbe, and got the famous Bar-B-Q. Then we rode all the dirt roads from Logan’s Ferry to Haymaker. When we rode where the mall is now we had to pass through a squatter’s settlement.”

Although the horse and buggy gradually gave way to the automobile as the main means of family transportation, horses and horseback riding continued to be a common sight in Monroeville right into the 1960s.

Even with the advent of the automobile, a local flourishing business continued in horse farms and stables. Horses might be bred, raised, stabled, or rented for riding at family farms like those of the Maxwell’s and Shelechter’s on Haymaker Road; Gimple’s at Saunders Station; the J Bar D on Old Frankstown Road, and the Solomon/Miller Farm on McGinley Road.

26. For a good part of the 20th century horse farms flourished in the area. Right up into the early 1970s horseback riders could be seen along many of the dirt roads and trails that crossed the area The photo shows Jean (Winkler) Colbaugh and “Lovely Lady” (ca. 1944)

27. Harry Solomon at his Riding Stables on the Solomon/Miller Farm. In 1932 Max Miller bought the old McGinley farm, for his wife Elizabeth (“Betty”) Solomon Miller. Betty called on her family to help work the farm: boarding horses and selling chickens, eggs and milk. For a time Harry Solomon, Betty’s brother kept horses and trained trotters on a track on the hill behind the house. The farm continued in operation right through most of the 1960s.

Right up into the early 1970s horseback riders could be seen on Northern Pike and Saunders Station roads, and along many of the dirt roads and trails that crossed the area and extended east towards Plum Borough, and Murrysville -- where horse shows were held for many years at the Idle Creek stables. One long-time horseowner remembers that: “…right up into the 1970s we rode everywhere, even training young horses on Abers Creek Road, and all through Turnpike Gardens.” But inevitably, the horse was to give way to the automobile as Monroeville continued its evolution from a farming community to a suburban one, with increased housing and commercial development. And except for the occasional Fourth of July parade where equestrians show their pride, the horse has pretty much disappeared from the local scene.

28. The Johnston farm founded in the late 1700 and the oldest continuous family-run farm in Monroeville, was most recently owned by Floyd Johnston and his sons. On July 4, 1976, as part of the American Bicentennial celebration, Ed and Cathy Johnston, with a team of the farm’s prized Clydesdales, were given the task of hauling the community time capsule to its resting place near the Old Stone Church. Floyd, his wife and grandson, led a team of Oxen, recalling the family’s pioneering ancestors.

Prior to 1910, family automobiles were few and far between. An automobile passing by on the dirt roads might cause quite a stir, as one resident remembers:

“…I think it was about 1908. One of the automobiles in existence then around here made a trip from Pittsburgh to Altoona, and it took a day. All the people for two miles came over around the road up above Pierces corner (at today’s intersection of Pitcairn Road and Monroeville Blvd.) to sit on the fence, and watch them going by.”

29. An elegant Cole Automobile is shown being displayed at Chadderton’s Car Dealership and Auto Repair Shop in Pitcairn, a stop on its national tour in the early 1900s.

Before cars or school buses, children walked to school in neighboring communities, just as they might routinely make the walk to Turtle Creek or Pitcairn to shop for groceries, as one resident recalls:

“We did very little shopping. Most everything came from the farm itself; we had to, we didn’t have a car. And it was too cumbersome to take a horse and wagon and go for groceries, so we usually walked from here to Pitcairn which was about 4 miles each way. And we carried back whatever we needed, like salt or sugar or something. But about twice a year, we hooked the horse up to the buckboard, and we went to Pitcairn. And we’d get like 200 pounds of flour, and 50 pounds of sugar, and a whole case of Octagon soap.” And during the Depression years…

“I can’t imagine where my mother got the quarter, but she got me to walk to Pitcairn. That was about 3 or 4 miles each way, and she gave me a quarter, and I bought a pound of hamburger, a pound of butter, and a pound of hot dogs, and brought back three cents.”

The fathers of those children took the train from Saunders Station to Pitcairn on their way to work at WABCO, the Westinghouse plant in Wilmerding, or the railroad yards in Pitcairn. Since most shopping and recreational activities were in Pitcairn and Turtle Creek, life in Monroeville was oriented towards the Turtle Creek Valley. Later, families that didn’t have cars would take a bus to their shopping in Turtle Creek or Pitcairn, a practice that was to continue for many years.

30. Local traffic on Wall Avenue/Pitcairn Road, a major north-south road at the turn of the century.

There was not much commercial activity in the farming village except for a few stores such as Hohmann’s Market at Young’s Corner, and Salamon Brother’s Market on William Penn Highway at Center Road. In the 1940s and early 50s, the center of village life was the Farmers’ Auction Barn, situated at the corner of Routes 22 and 48, where livestock could be bought and sold three nights a week.

31. In 1946, Joe Taylor of East McKeesport began a weekly auction in a barn he bought on Route 22. His idea was to invite farmers to bring in livestock, machinery, antiques and anything else they didn’t want. The auction was an immediate success with as many as 5,000 buyers crowding the floor on a busy Saturday night. Taylor’s Auction Barn became one of Monroeville’s first commercial attractions, drawing buyers from all over the region, as well as from several surrounding states.

One of Monroeville’s first commercial attractions, the Auction Barn drew buyers from all over the region, as well as from several surrounding states. It was common to see trucks with license plates from three states. The Auction Barn and was so successful that, by 1950, owner and entrepreneur Joseph Taylor found he had parlayed his initial investment of $800 into a million dollar business in less than five years. For those without a family farm on which to rely for food, hucksters would peddle groceries by horse and wagon. And in 1908, Johnston’s farm went into the diary business, delivering milk by horse and wagon to Pitcairn. The family farm in Monroeville was to stay in the dairy business until 1980. The Old Stone Church, today a Monroeville landmark, was built on the site where the original Crossroads Presbyterian congregation worshiped in the 1800s. Then, as now, parking was a problem. Churchgoers could park their horse and buggy diagonally across the street where a carriage shed was built to accommodate a dozen or so horses and buggies. The building was long and low and enclosed on three sides with a low slant roof and stalls along the long enclosed side. Thus shelter and hay was available for the horses without the inconvenience of having to unhitch them for the duration of the service. One by one local residents began buying automobiles. Often it was the ubiquitous Ford Model-T that became the very first family car. One resident remembers their family paid 345 dollars for a Model-T in 1917. Still, the early automobiles were not all that reliable, and the wise family hung on their horse and buggy. One local resident remembers the time her uncle first drove a car; offering to take his wife to church. They started off fine, but then people noticed they kept driving around in circles. It turned out that the novice driver, while he knew how to start the car, and how to steer it, had never learned how to stop it! In December, 1913 the very first gas station in the world was opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the Gulf Oil Corporation.

31. Ladies Riding in an early automobile in front of what was to become a Monroeville Landmark – the Old Stone Church (c. 1910).

32. The Holt Sisters (Myrtle, Alice and Edna) with their 1915 Studebaker. As the automobile came of age, more and more of the farm families found themselves the proud owners of a family car.

As automobile ownership became more common, the need for better roads became a pressing concern. Over time, some roads had been widened to accommodate the horse and buggy, but they hadn’t actually been improved very much. Northern Pike was a two-lane road, basically a residential street that was improved in 1908 to better accommodate automobile traffic. Other roads remained no more than rural lanes. In an interview, one long-time resident reflected on one of those roads:

“McGinley Road was a dirt road, and it was very muddy when it rained, but it was beautiful. It was beautiful because the trees all hung over, and it was practically a tunnel all the way down with shade. It was beautiful and relaxing to walk down here. And…here along the road, they planted a row of locust tress, and the locust tress grew rather tall. And when they bloomed, it was just the most wonderful aroma, and the flowers were just beautiful, and they branched all over the road, too.”

Prior to 1951, Patton Township had minimal government: a constable to guard the peace, a Board of School Directors, and Board of Road Supervisors. The latter was empowered to levy taxes for road maintenance, and to hire workers like George M. Artman, a local farmer, who duly submitted his bill for $81.70 for “…doing three-team work, dragging the Fitzsimmons and part of the Frankstown Road.” Then, as now, local government found itself trying to balance the needs of the traveling public with commercial interests, as when a Mr. R. S. Bush constructed a coal tipple on Township Road at the site of the Cunningham Mine in Saw Mill Valley. Believing the structure hindered traffic on the road, the board ordered Mr. Bush to remove his “coal bin”. But Mr. Bush had a counterproposal: he offered to grade a new road around his tipple connecting the two segments of the paved road. That offer was rejected; again he was ordered to remove the “..obstacle to the public road,” this time, threatened with a lawsuit if he didn’t. On the other hand, the board approved plans of the Union Railroad who asked that one of the township roads be vacated. In exchange, the railroad offered to build a bridge, fill in “Hangman’s Hollow,” and improve the road leading from the Frankstown Road to the Beatty Road. The board gave this proposal its blessing. Thus some of the first efforts at road planning in the community were born. Beginning in the 1920s, the pace of road-building quickened. One of the first hard-surfaced (macadamized) roads was Monroeville Road running from Monroeville to Turtle Creek. Neighboring contractors, like Cunningham’s in Braddock, brought in some 20 teams of horses and wagons to haul stone from local stone quarries for road building. The William Penn Highway was built in the 1920s, following the route of the Northern Pike. Opening in 1924, it was the first paved road to Pittsburgh. Before that, it took nearly a day to get to downtown Pittsburgh by horse and buggy to Turtle Creek, and then by streetcar to Pittsburgh. and though it was the precursor of things to come, it was far from perfect. A long-time resident talked about the impact of that road:

“It was countryside in 1924. We were all farmers. Everyone was a farmer. But the highway was paved. The automobile began coming in. I built a garage and started in the garage and service station business in Monroeville village.”

33. James Street in the 1920s. Beginning in the 1920s, the pace of road-building quickened. The road from Monroeville to Turtle Creek was hard-surfaced (macadamized). The old William Penn Highway, built in the 1920s, and following the route of the Northern Pike, was the first paved road to Pittsburgh. But local roads like James Street remained a dirt road well into the 1930s.

34. Strochein’s Gas Station in the 1930s. Another well-known area gas station was Strocehein’s Cross Roads Atlantic Gas Station, located for many years across the road from the Old Stone Church. Eventually the Strochien family would led their name to the southern portion of Center Road, near then location of their gas station

35. The Gravity Fill Gas Station on old William Penn Highway in the 1930s. As automobiles became more common, gas stations were sure to follow. One of the earliest in Monroeville was the Gravity Fill Gas Station. It was situated below the Union Railroad’s siding on a nearby hill, so that gasoline could flow directly from the tank cars into the station’s holding tanks below – thus the name “Gravity Fill.”

Better roads encouraged the traveling pubic, and for a time, Monroeville became a destination: a place for the weary city dweller to escape to on a pleasant day drive to the country. Recognizing the allure of the pristine scenery and fresh air, a group of entrepreneurs built Burke Glen Amusement Park along old William Penn Highway in 1926. Unlike other amusement parks in the area that were built with ready access to trolley lines, Burke Glen was built with the family car firmly in mind. It was to be billed as the first park to be built for the traveling public, and it included something for the whole family: amusement rides including an impressive roller coaster, a park-like setting, and a swimming pool -- all with plenty of free parking. But while the family car was a big factor in Burke Glen’s success, it also was to lead to the parks’ demise, for during World War II gas rationing severely restricted recreational driving by the public. In addition, the construction of the new Route 22 in the 1940s took land from Burke Glen, reducing the size of the amusement park. As a result, the park was forced to scale back operations and never fully recovered, although the swimming pool remained in use right into the 1970s.

36. Burke Glen Amusement Park (ca 1930). By the 1920s better roads encouraged the traveling public, and for the first time, Monroeville became a tourist destination: a place for the weary city dweller to escape to on a pleasant day drive to the country. Recognizing the allure of the pristine scenery and fresh air, a group of entrepreneurs built Burke Glen Amusement Park along old William Penn Highway in 1926.

Road-building got an additional impetus in the 1930s during the depression years, when men working in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) were used to do work on Saunders Station and Haymaker roads. Roads were often surfaced with a mixture of stones and tar, called “Pinchot” roads (after the then Governor of the State, who advocated using relief workers to “take the farmers out of the mud.”). Haymaker was one of the first “Pinchot” roads in the area. It was also the WPA workers who straightened and improved roads like Tilbrook and Strochein. Mosside Boulevard (Route 48), one of the new improved roads, was opened in the 1930s. In the late 1950s and early 60s, the dirt roads were all extensively graded, but as they graded away the base along with crown, the dirt roads that remained often became uselessly muddy in heavy rains. One resident remembers

“...the police car sent to pick up Chief (George) Johnston at his home, found the roads impassible, and the chief had to walk to the nearest paved road to get to work on those rainy days.”

37. The Ball family’s Studebaker stuck in the mud on Haymaker Road in the 1950s. Beginning in the 1920s, the pace of road-building quickened. During the 1930s the government’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) straightened and improved roads like Tilbrook and Strochein. In the late 1950s and early 60s, the dirt roads were all extensively graded, but as they graded away the base along with crown, the dirt roads that remained often became uselessly muddy in heavy rains.

In the 1940s the New William Penn Highway was built as a two-lane road. Originally designed as a by-pass to Old Route 22, modern Route 22 was constructed during the 1940s. The construction was in fits and starts, plagued by delays because materials like steel were urgently needed for the war effort. Completed in 1942, and widened to four lanes in 1959, it set the stage for today’s business strip that defines the core of modern Monroeville. Just as Burke Glen brought recognition to Monroeville as an entertainment destination, a number of other establishments followed, capitalizing on the greater access offered by more modern roads -- and especially the William Penn Highway. Roadhouses sprang up to cater to the traveling public, a role Rising Sun Inn had fulfilled in the earliest days. Some of the first night spots were the clubs that grew up to flourish in the 1920s during Prohibition. Clubs like the Hi-Hat Club, The Pok-a-Dot Club, the Locust Post, The Windmill, and Red Crystal’s created a lively entertainment scene at the time. Some of these establishments offered dinner, dancing, and entertainment, but all of them offered their patrons liquid refreshments. Allen Behler’s LaBarbe began as an open-sided barbeque stand in the 1920s, and today it is still a Monroeville fixture on its original site on Old William Penn Highway. In time, the LaBarbe was to grow from a humble roadside stand into a full-scale 48 restaurant where patrons could enjoy the music of the big bands like Lawrence Welk’s while dancing under the stars on the outdoor dance floor. In the mid-1950s, another Monroeville establishment rose to prominence very much in the tradition of the country roadhouse. John Bertera’s Holiday House, established on William Penn Highway, was to become a local landmark. The Holiday House was a supper club that featured fine dining, and a rich array of star-studded entertainment, including headliners like: Benny Goodman, Andy Williams, Tony Martin, Cyd Charisse, Milton Berle, Al Martino, Connie Francis, Tony Bennett, Carmen Cavallaro, Ben Vereen and Phyllis Diller. For many years it was one of the rare suburban venues for live entertainment, since almost all the other local nightclubs were located in downtown Pittsburgh. By the 1980s the era of the supper club was coming to an end as touring performers demanded larger venues like concert halls. The Holiday House was to close its doors in the late 80s; in 1988-89 the building was demolished to make way for the Holiday Plaza strip mall.

38. The Holiday House on Route 22 (c1980).

During this time there were still many who worked in the mills of the Turtle Creek valley, but now they might get there by car, continuing a tradition of working commuter as Monroeville became something of a “bedroom” community.

39. Route 22 between Northern Pike and Center Road - 1950s

By the 1950s, a Monroeville family might take the car to the Sears store in East Liberty, or to Braddock for shopping, although a commercial core was already developing along Route 22 along with grocery stores, a pharmacy, a frozen custard stand, a gas station, a restaurant. A little further down the road, a drive-in theater (The Pittsburgh Outdoor Theater) was established where the present-day (2005) Lowe’s Home Improvement Center is now located. Later two more Drive-ins were built in Monroeville; the Monroeville Drive-in on Northern Pike, and the Miracle Mile Drive-in at the eastern edge of Monroeville near the Murrysville border.

40. Route 22 Facing East at Center and Strochein Roads

Soon a series of asphalt roads and concrete highways, were crisscrossing Monroeville. And in what was surely a fateful decision, Monroeville was designated as the Pittsburgh interchange for the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1950.

41. Opening in 1954, the Miracle Mile offered shopping that accommodated the driving public with easy access, parking for 4,000 cars, and a long row of 45 stores flanked by supermarkets.

Plans for a limited-access, super-highway spanning Pennsylvania were drawn up in the 1930s during the depression years. The first concrete was poured in 1940 on what would be the first superhighway in the nation. Construction was somewhat delayed by World War II, but after the war plans were well underway to extend the new road to Philadelphia at the eastern end, and to the northwest to Ohio by way of Pittsburgh, at the western end. Once the Pittsburgh interchange was completed at Monroeville in 1950, the possibility of bringing customers from the surrounding communities into Monroeville for shopping became a logical next step. The economic potential of US Route 22 was seen by a group of farsighted businessmen from Columbus, Ohio headed by Don M. Casto, a pioneer in developing shopping malls. This group of investors bought some property from the school board along Business Route 22 and proceeded to build a major shopping center -- The Miracle Mile. The new shopping center was the biggest of its kind between New York and Chicago when it opened on November 1, 1954. The Miracle Mile offered shopping that accommodated the driving public with easy access, parking for 4,000 cars, and a long row of 45 stores flanked by supermarkets. Following the lead of Miracle Mile, other shopping strips sprang up along Route 22, as did gas stations, car dealerships, fast food stands, and banks. In 1964 Monroeville would even get its very own radio station - WPSL. It was a classic case of improved roads and greater access leading to commercial development that, in turn, fueled the need for more housing and better roads. The eastern extension of the Penn-Lincoln Parkway was envisioned as a bypass to ease the traffic on Route 22 while providing a limited access road for traffic exiting the Turnpike and heading west. It was completed in the Fall of 1962, giving Monroeville commuters a modern highway and a direct route to downtown Pittsburgh The results are seen in population expansion during the 1950s and 60s -- a dramatic surge that stabilized in the 1980s. 51

42. The Population of Monroeville, Pa.( Illustration courtesy of Rebecca Olson)

Many believe that life in Monroeville changed forever with the coming of the Miracle Mile, as a rural village was launched on its way to becoming a suburban community.

43.The Miracle Mile Shopping Center in the 1960s

Part 7: Public Transit

In our region, public transit by horse-drawn coaches began in Pittsburgh in the 1830s, and gradually extended outward. By 1851, a horse-drawn omnibus service was operating a twice-a-day route between Pittsburgh and Turtle Creek. The omnibus was a departure from the stagecoach in that it had an extended coach with open side panels, seats running lengthwise, and an entrance at the rear. The new cars quickly became a hit with passengers, and a common sight on city streets. Within a few years, a street-railways system was introduced wherein the passenger coaches were pulled along tracks by teams of horses. In 1859, Pittsburgh joined Cincinnati and Chicago as some of the first cities to adopt street railway service. As time went on horse drawn cars were to give way to electrified trolley service. In 1900 The Southern Traction Company (later to become The Pittsburgh Railways Company) inaugurated a line connecting Wilkinsburg to East Pittsburgh via Edgewood, Swissvale and North Braddock. And in 1901, the Pittsburgh and Wilmerding Street Railway Company was running trolley service along Broadway in Pitcairn, with a fare to Pittsburgh of 15 cents. Pittsburgh Railways took over the Pitcairn Trolley line in 1902, and it became part of a complex of trolley lines servicing the towns in the Turtle Creek valley. One Pitcairn resident remembers the fascination the streetcar held for the neighborhood youngsters, and fondly recalls a ritual that probably took place just about anywhere there were tracks and little boys. A kid would be selected from the neighborhood gang to place a penny on the tracks before an approaching trolley -- while the gang gleefully stood by, eagerly waiting to retrieve the flattened results once the supremely indifferent trolley had gone rattling along on its way. In the days when the average suburban household might have only one family car, public transportation was relied upon much more heavily. The regions’ dominant transit company, the Pittsburgh Railways Company, had extended its trolley service to: Wilkinsburg, Ardmore, Penn Hills, Braddock, and further east through Wilmerding, Turtle Creek, East Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Trafford. Shoppers could take a local bus south to Turtle Creek or Pitcairn, and then transfer to the Pittsburgh Railways Trolley for the trip on to Pittsburgh.

44. Early trolley approaching Wall Avenue along Broadway on the double track line. Pictured here is a small single-track car typical of those in serviced in the early 1900s.

45. Pittsburgh Railways Trolley Car No. 4352 here seen on the Brinton Avenue spur was typical of the streetcars used in Pitcairn and along corridor of the Turtle Creek valley in the early part of the 20th century. This car was built in large numbers by the St. Louis Car company in 1917. The photo shows the car still in use in the 1940s. (Photo Courtesy of the National Railways Historical Society)

46. Pittsburgh Railways Co. “PCC” Steetcar in Pitcairn (1961)

By the 1920s a few streetcar companies began experimenting with buses on some of their routes, and soon independent operators were beginning to form bus lines. One of those, The Trafford Motor Coach Company began operating from Turtle Creek to East Pittsburgh, and later between Trafford and East Pittsburgh. In 1948 it began service to Pittsburgh for 55 cents.

Specialized bus lines also sprang up to serve the need for early commuter lines for workers in the Turtle Creek Valley. The familiar orange bus of the local Colbert Bus Line, was a common sight as it carried workers daily from Monroeville to the WABCO plant in Wilmerding. New bus lines were cropping up all through the 1920s. Austin was another one of the East Pittsburgh lines that existed primarily to serve the needs of Westinghouse workers and their families. It began operation in 1919 as rush-hour only service between East Pittsburgh and Linhart with an extension to Universal where it served a cement plant. Leonardo Burrelli, began Burrelli Transit Services in 1927 with two jitneys operating between the East Pittsburgh plants and North Braddock. And Pasquale Bacco started a jitney type service between Linhart and the Westinghouse plant in Wilmerding in the early 1920s using an open sided truck. In 1946 he formed a partnership with his son and they began regular service between Wilmerding and Restland Memorial Park, between Wilmerding and Monroeville, serving Mellon Plan, Patton Street, As the eastern suburbs began to blossom, the route was extended to the Miracle Mile Shopping Center on Route 22. McCoy brothers (eventually the William Penn Motor Coach Company) began service between Renton and Turtle Creek in 1921. Routes were added to serve Renton, 55

Unity, North Bessemer. Oakmont and Verona; Pitcairn-Monroeville and East Pittsburgh- North Versailles. Additional service was provided in the growing Monroeville area in 1955, eventually including the Monroeville Mall. McCoy’s was also the first to provide express bus service between Garden City and downtown Pittsburgh when that housing plan first opened in 1953. Gust Siahos started bus operations on a route between Wilmerding and Wall in 1924A second route was added in 1929 from East Pittsburgh to Turtle Creek and Monroeville. The Wilmerding - Wall route was operated by Siahos personally and was known as the Wall Bus Line or the Wilmerding & Wall Bus Line. Between the late 1920s and the 1960s, some of the bus lines that rushed to provide service to the region east of Pittsburgh included: Austin Motor Coach Lines, Burrelli Transit Services, Colbert Bus Line, Lincoln Coach Lines, McCoy Brothers, Miller Bus Line, Deere Brothers, Westinghouse Valley Trailways Co., and William Penn Motor Coach Co. Typical routes for Monroeville’s bus riders in the 1940s might have been the Burrelli’s Transit Services run -- from Braddock, Electric Avenue and East Pittsburgh, to Frankstown Road, Beulah Road, and on to the Old William Penn Highway; or the McCoy Brother’s Buses which made a loop through Monroeville that included Beatty and Center Roads and the Old William Penn Highway, and Boyd’s Hill. In 1964, along with the Pittsburgh Railways Company, some 30 independent bus lines were taken over, to be consolidated by the newly-formed Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT). PAT re-designated the Austin Coach Lines McKeesport-East Pittsburgh route as 60M; while the East Pittsburgh-Turtle Creek-Monroeville Route became 60N East Pittsburgh-Monroeville, expanding direct service to Pittsburgh. OPAT also established five Park-n-Ride service for Monroeville’s commuters. And in the 1960s, while it was PAT that now offered regular commuter service, inter-city travel was being served by Continental Trailways, and the Greyhound Bus Lines. Today, Fullington-Trailways continues to offer bus service for intercity travel within the region, while Greyhound offers the traveling public more than 20 buses a day to points across the USA from their terminal at the Monroeville Mall.

47. Manager J.H. Matthews clears the way at the Greyhound Terminal at Conley’s Motel on Route 22 (c. 1990)

A number of regional taxicab companies currently serve Monroeville. But at one time, Monroeville had its own “home-grown” taxicab company. The Diamond Cab Company was founded in the mid-1940s, by James Speelman, a local businessman, whose 1946 Plymouth cabs became a familiar site in the area. For over 40 years, Diamond Cab provided service to the residents of Monroeville, Turtle Creek, East Pittsburgh, and Trafford, including charter work for various companies in the Turtle Creek valley (The Pennsy, Westinghouse, WABCO) who needed transportation for workers. The company was sold, and went out of business in the mid-1980s.

Part 8: And by Air

After the First World War, the country found itself with plenty of war surplus airplanes and a sizable corps of ex-military pilots eager to continue with their passion for flying. Soon all across America, in cities and small towns, barnstorming flyers were staging air shows and demonstrations of stunt flying, all of which helped promote pubic awareness and fostered the growth of aviation. The government did its part in promoting the aviation with the regulation of airports and the first attempts to deliver the mail by air in the 1920s. Soon farmer’s fields and grass strips were being set aside to serve as airports as communities large and small scrambled to join the aviation age. The end of the Second World War saw yet another surge of interest in general aviation, as visionaries dreamed of the day when every family would have its own private airplane. Such dreams proved to be overly-ambitious, but the interest in general aviation continued to grow, and by the 1950s there were three active airports in Monroeville.

Official Name Unofficial Name Location Dates East Pittsburgh Johnston’s Airport Southwest corner about a 1926 to Landing Field mile from Wilmerding. early 1970s Off Johnson Road in Mellon Plan. In 2005, the site of the Monroeville Landfill.

Pitt-Wilkins Airport Bohinski Field Center of Monroeville. Off Early 1940s to Tilbrook Road. In 2006, 1948 the site of the Community Park.

Pittsburgh- Wilkinsburg- In the Northwest corner 1948 to present Monroeville Airport Pittsburgh Air Park just off Logan’s Ferry (2005) Road Brown Memorial Field

48. Monroeville’s Airports

Established in 1926, Johnston’s Airport was the oldest of the three local fields. In the 1930s it became the transfer point for airmail for the Wilmderding Post office, and in the 1940s many of the fledgling pilots who learned to fly there were to go on to serve their country in World War II. Air shows were popular attractions at Johnston’s field, and they were to continue right into the late 1950s. On spectator remembers one occasion when there was nearly a panic when the crowd, waiting for a parachutist to bail out from a plane overhead, suddenly saw a 58 tumbling body fall out of the sky and tumble to earth. A few seconds later the “real” parachutist jumped and the dummy which had been thrown out first, was recovered. There is no record of that stunt being performed a second time! Johnston’s original airport was closed, but a “second” Johnston’s airport was built next door. This second airport was for a period of time, the home to the Fort Pitt Blimp, which flew overhead with flashing running lights advertising a local Pittsburgh beer. The Blimp was destroyed in the great snow storm of 1950. Bohinski Field was founded in the early 1940s by Emil Bohinski on his father’s property off of Tilbrook Road (the current site of Monroeville’s Community Park). It too contributed to the training of pilots for the war effort. It was also used as a mail transfer point for the Pitcairn Post Office. And for a time it was to use the aerial pick-up system devised by Dr. Lytle S. Adams of Irwin, Pa. Dr. Adams realized that the problem with airmail delivery to small towns like Irwin (and Monroeville) was the long delay occasioned by take-offs and landings. He invented a system like that used by trains that picked up mail on the run, wherein the mail bag suspended from two 40-foot poles so that a low-flying plane could snag the mail bag with a hanging hook. This system was so successful it was widely used in the tri-state area, and became a common practice at hundreds of small town airports. The first woman to fly out of the airport was a Wilkinsburg shop owner, Teresa James, whose first flight was on September 20, 1933. She went on to a distinguished flying career in the Woman’s Auxiliary Flying Squadron and later in the US Air Force, from which she retired as a Major. The third airport was for many years owned and operated by Harold W. Brown and his wife Helen Bohinski Brown. Harold Brown was a flight instructor at Bohinski Field where he provided flight training for the US Army Cadets, and it was there that he met Emil Bohinski’s sister, Helen, later to become his wife. In 1948 Bohinski Field was closed, and the Browns opened a new airfield in the northern part of Monroeville -- The Pittsburgh-Monroeville Airport. This airport with its 2,287-foot runway would provide hanger space and fueling for local and transient pilots. The airport flourished in the 1950s and 60s. In 1958, there were 112 aircraft hangered there. But over time, airport use declined so that by 1969 there were 70 some aircraft housed in its two long rows of hangers.

55. In 1948 Harold and Helen Brown opened the Pittsburgh-Monroeville Airport not far from Garden City.

56. Pittsburgh-Monroeville Airport (c.1969) remains the last surviving Monroeville Aiprort and maintains an active runway for light planes (as of 2011).



The airport today is managed by Raymond J.Weible, a veteran pilot, who came to the airport in 1953. It was Ray Weible who (unofficially) named the airport as “Harold 60

W. Brown Memorial Field.” In 2005, only 16 airplanes still call the Monroeville Airport their home, and although its operations have been reduced in scale from past years, the airport continues to see some 2,000 takeoffs and landings per year.

55. First Airmail Flight at Johnston Field in 1938 (l to r: 2, Johnston, 5, H. Vogel, instructor, 6, P. Ball, Gulf Aviation, 7, Theresa James). Established in 1926, Johnston’s Airport was the oldest of the three local fields. In the 1930s it became the transfer point for airmail for the Pitcairn Post office, and regular air mail service was initiated

56. The East Pittsburgh Landing Field (Johnston Field) in the 1940s. Patton Township’s airports served as flight schools during the 1940s and many fledgling pilots went on to serve in World War II.

57. Since the early days of aviation Monroeville’s airports hosted “barnstormers” and air shows became a popular attraction. After WWII, air shows were resumed at Johnston’s Field where they would continue to be held right into the 1960s

As they have in the past, and still do today, airports hold a special attraction for youngsters. A one-time Garden City resident recalls his boyhood fascination with the Monroeville Airport:

“As a child, the boys and I would sneak up to the Monroeville Airport and peek into the old wooden hangers to check out the planes. Saturday mornings one could hear the planes warming up, and off we would run to the airport. On busy days at the airport, [one or two planes, three if we were lucky] we would lay down at the end of the runway and watch the planes take off and land. The owner of the airport would let his dogs out and we would run away, only to show up next week.”

58. The Pittsburgh-Monroeville Airport in 2005

Part 9: Today’s Monroeville

The eastern extension of the Penn-Lincoln Parkway was completed in 1963, providing a direct modern highway into downtown Pittsburgh. Residential and business construction in Monroeville soared. As Monroeville grew, companies and corporations were increasingly drawn to the attractive suburb. US Steel consolidated its research labs here in1953, followed by a host of others. Westinghouse built its nuclear research facilities here in 1965 and 1971; Koppers Company opened a research center in 1961; Bituminous Coal in 1962, and later, PPG Industries-- all of which offered employment opportunities for residents of Monroeville as an alternative to commuting to Pittsburgh. The area grew in importance as a shipping hub with the construction of the Conrail Inter-modal terminal that used a portion of the old Pitcairn Railway Yards for the trans-shipment of cargo in containers hauled by trucks to trains. At the same time, Monroeville’s reputation as a commercial and shopping center was given additional stature with the opening of the Monroeville Mall in 1969. The new Mall would have a capacity for over 100 tenants, and parking for 6,500 cars. It was a project of Don-Mark Reality (Principals: Harry Soffer, Eugene Lebowitz, Don Soffer, Edward J. Lewis, and Mark Mason). The company later would become the Oxford Development Company. Two and half miles of Monroeville Road/Northern Pike (from Young’s Corner to Pierce’s Corner) was widened to 4-lanes to accommodate traffic to the new mall, and an overpass constructed spanning Route 22 to provide easier access. Major tenants such as Joseph Horne, Co., J.C. Penny, and C.G. Murphy Co., and others, would be accommodated in a self-enclosed, air-conditioned shopping area with paved courtyards, plantings, shrubs, pools and impressive fountains. A special feature was the regulation- sized skating rink; a professional ice skater was hired as the first manager of the rink.

59. The Ice Skating Rink at Monroeville Mall (Photo courtesy of Gene Bolch)

***

And as to the future…one possibility on the horizon may be Maglev. The Pittsburgh region is a contender to receive federal funding to construct the nation's first high-speed magnetic levitation rail system. The Pennsylvania High-Speed Maglev project envisions a 54-mile Maglev line linking Pittsburgh International Airport, Downtown Pittsburgh, Monroeville, and Greensburg, Pennsylvania, with multi-modal stations at these locations. The entire trip, from the Airport to Greensburg, would take an estimated 35 minutes at speeds that could reach 240 mph.

60. A Maglev Train like this one riding along its guidance rail has been proposed to ease transportation problems in the east west corridor through Pittsburgh (Photo Courtesy Maglev, Inc.)

Perhaps in the more distant future our travel will be automated with routine driving being done by computerized robots. A team at Carnegie-Mellon University is currently working on such unmanned vehicles for the US Army at a test range at Gascola, the site of the former mine and train station, along Monroeville’s western border. Their work holds a glimpse of the future for the next chapter of travel and transportation.

61. A proposed Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle being tested in Monroeville. (Photo courtesy NREC)

One thing is certain. Transportation will, as it has in the past, continue to play a major role in shaping the lives of the people of Monroeville.

Footnotes

Part 1:The Beginnings

“…the mouth of the Monongahela at Turtle Creek.” (Buck & Buck, 1939) “…one of the first references…” (History Of Allegheny County, 1889) “…Martha Meyers and her family…” (History Of Allegheny County, Ibid.)

Part 2: Paths and Trails

“…the seat of the new county of Allegheny.” (Baldwin, 1937) “…and a tavern by the 1780s.” (Gilchrist, 1940) “…who arrived in Monroeville in the 1750s.” (Johnston, 1987) “…to have followed the course of Indian paths .” (Wallace, 1993) “…across the Allegheny River to Springdale.” (Hedley, 1918) “…the existing Indian paths. (Sweetnam, 1951) “…crossing streams at the most convenient points.” (Buck & Buck, Op. cit.) “…in a constantly changing panorama.” (Donahoo, 1910) “…uninhabited as it was in frontier days.” (Donahoo, Ibid.) “…failing trees and tying grape vines across the way.” (Doddridge in Harpster, 1938) “…passable for an army. (Buck & Buck, Op. cit.) “…for transshipment through the hills.” (Gilchrist, Op. cit.) “…yield fairly high prices. (Gilchrist, Ibid.) “…the overland trip took some 20 days.” (Buck & Buck, Op. cit.)

Part 3: Waterways, Creeks and Streams

“…for more than a hundred years.” (Pittsburgh Dispatch, 1911) “…regular steamboat service was common…” (Bissell, 1940) “…Port Perry…” (Belser, 2004) “…on a daily run…(Bissell, Op. cit; Heath, 1917) “…is part of an elevated plain…(Monroeville Planning Commission, 1984) “…on the left side going south towards Turtle Creek.” (Thompson, 1986) “…Bill Malise’s mill was situated….” (Aiken, 1986) “…impressive stone house…” (Erickson, 1998) “…killed practically all aquatic life.” (Vercelli, 1986) “…there’s a water supply.” (Vercelli, Ibid.)

Part 4: By Road and Stagecoach

“…stone masons and blacksmiths.” (Bicentennial Historical Yearbook, 1976) “…two stores and an inn.” (Myers, 1976) “…a 1803 visitor….” (Harris in Harpster, Op. cit.) “…the modern Lincoln Highway.” (Buck & Buck, Op. cit.) “…wooden bridges over the smaller streams.” (Buck & Buck, Op. cit.) “…the core of the emerging village.” (Damon, 1987) “…reported by Thomas Mellon…” (Mellon, 1994) “…what was to become Monroeville.” (Chandler, 1988) “…driving into the blazing sun.” (Coates, 1984) “ Bruce Kish describes…” (Kish, 1993) 67

“…a post horn to announce…” (Gratton 2007) “…made in three and a half days.” (Coates, Op. cit.) “…a captain on one of the canal boats.” (Bicentennial Historical Yearbook, Op. cit.) “…marked the death knell.” (Coates, Op. cit.)

Part 5: The Railroads

“…an ad that appeared…” (Miller, 2006) “…By the close of 1851…” (Fairbanks Archive, undated) “…three trains per day made the run.” (Jacobs, 1988) “…an excursion train made the run to Turtle Creek (Thompson, 1974) “… a roundtrip fare of 34 cents.” (Gilchrist, Op. cit.) “…the PRR’s main line…” (Alexander, 1971) “…Turtle Creek described in…” (Sipes, 1875) “…The PRR, needing room…” (Pitcairn Boro, 1969) “… a decision by the PRR…”(Roberts, 1997) “…near the Moss Side Bridge. (Cridlebaugh, 2000) “…you built the fire to keep warm.” (Aiken, Op. cit.) “ …Nothing grew…” (Droske, 2008) “…Pittsburgh vein…” (Vercelli, Op. cit.) “…the coal boom…” (Foley, 1980) “…a minor housing boom…” (Warner, undated) “…strip mining had begun in the area.” (Scalise, 1985) “…the site of a strip mine.” (Winkler, 1986) “…once served as a mule barn…”( Bicentennial Historical Yearbook, Op. cit.) “…was once Harper’s Mine.” (Times-Express, 4/28/04) “…Edel’s Creek, Gascola, Linhart, and Hall Stations (Aiken, Op. cit; Johnston, 1987) “…and the nearby school.” (Johnston, Op. cit.) “…served as branch lines..” (Mochnick, 1982)

Part 6: The Age of the Automobile

“…a phenomena of the automobile.” (Monroeville Planning Commission, 1984) “…after the mines…”(Warner, Op. cit.) “…cattleman drive…”(Warner, Ibid.) “…with fenced pastureland. (Winkler, Op.cit.) “…a two-lane road back then.” (Colbaugh, 1986) “…got there without a flat tire.” (Thompson, 1986) “…a squatters settlement.” (Droske, 2008) “… and through Turnpike Gardens.” (Tucker, 2005) “…and watch them going by.” (Aiken, Op. cit.) “.…in neighboring communities.” (Winkler, Op. cit.) “…brought back three cents.” (Vercelli, Op. cit.) “…that was to continue for many years.” (Colbaugh, Op. cit.;Thomson, Op. cit.) “…could be bought and traded. (Thompson, Op. cit.; Dailey News, 4/17/50) “…for the duration of the service (Johnston, Op. cit.) “…the very first family car.” (Aiken, Op. cit.; Thompson, Op. cit.) “…a Model-T in 1917.” (Aiken, Op. cit.) “…how to stop it!” (Boyok, 2008) “…basically a residential street.” (Scalise, Op. cit.) “…all over that road, too.” (Vercelli, Op. cit.) “…a constable to…(Monroeville Bicentennial Yearbook, Op. cit.) “…and part of Frankstown Road.” (Board of Road Supervisors, 1922) “…and a lawsuit if he didn’t.” (Board of Road Supervisors, 1920) 68

“…gave the proposal its blessing.” (Board of Road Supervisors, Ibid.) “…from Monroeville to Turtle Creek (Johnston, Op. cit.; Thompson, Op. cit.) “…quarries for road building.” (Aiken, Op. cit.) “…was countryside in 1924.” (W. H. “Hook” Warner in Foley, 1980) “…Unlike other amusement parks…” (A Historical Review of Monroeville, Pa., 2001) “…Saunders Station and Haymaker roads (Vercelli, Op. cit) “…roads in the area.” (Mirro, 1986; Vercelli, Op. cit.) “…Tilbrook and Strochein.” (Johnston, Op. cit.) “…on those rainy days.” (Droske, 2008). “…for a new high school…” (Damp, 1998) “…the first night spots…” (Chandler, Op. cit.) “…another Monroeville establishment…” (DiGuglielmo, 2005) “…including headliners like…” (Cloud, 2005) “…Lowes Home Improvement Center is now located.” (Scalise, Op. cit.) “…a group of farsighted businessmen…” (Foley, 1980) “…between New York and Chicago.” (Times Express, 4/14/04) “…the Penn-Lincoln Parkway…” (Monroeville Planning Commission 1962) “…becoming a suburban community.” (Colbaugh, Op. cit.)

Part 7: Public Transit

“…to adopt street railway service.” (Miller, 1960) “…a fare to Pittsburgh of 15 cents (Russell, 1969) “ One Pitcairn resident…” (Fails, 2005) “…Trafford Motor Coach began operating…” (Russell, Ibid.) “…the trip to Pittsburgh.” (Colbaugh, Ibid.; Scalise, Op. cit.) “…the region east of Pittsburgh.” (Watson, 2005) “…New bus lines were cropping up…” (Antique Motor Coach Association of Pennsylvania, 2008) “…McCoy’s was also the first…” (Pittsburgh Press, April. 24, 1953) “…the company was sold…” (Speelman, 2005)

Part 8: And by Air

“…three airports in Monroeville.” (Wempa, 2003) “…Air shows were popular …” (Monroeville Businessmen’s Association, Letter, 1957) “…dummy which had been thrown out…” (Droske, 2008) “…snow storm of 1950.” (Droske, 2008) “…devised by Dr. Lytle S. Adams (Swetnam, Op. Cit.) “…Theresa James…” (Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Oct. 22, 1997) “…only 16 airplanes…” (Weible, 2005) “…some 2,000 takeoffs and landings…” (Wempa, Op. cit.) “…Garden City Resident…” (Merryman, 2005)

Part 9: Today’s Monroeville

“….a 54 mile Meglev Line” (Maglev, Inc., 2005) “…unmanned vehicles for the US Army…” (National Robotics Engineering Consortium, 2005) 69

Bibliography

Aiken, T.P. Oral History (Interviewers: P Damon; D. Nowak), Archives of the Monroeville Historical Society, April, 1986.

Alexander, E. P., The Main Line: The Pennsylvania Railroad in the 19th Century. Bramhall House, New York, 1971.

Antique Motor Coach Association of Pennsylvania. Website: http://www.amcap.org

Baldwin, L.D. Pittsburgh: The Story of a City, 1750-1865. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1937.

Belser, A. The Town Prosperity Killed: Few Traces Remain of Port Perry. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Jan. 21, 2004.

Bicentennial Historical Yearbook, Monroeville, Pa., 1976.

Bissel, R. The Monongahela. New York: Rhinehart & Co., 1940.

Board of Road Supervisors of Patton Township, Minutes of the Meeting, May 19, 1919.

Board of Road Supervisors of Patton Township, Minutes of the Meeting, April 9, 1920.

Board of Road Supervisors of Patton Township, Minutes of the Meeting, June 12, 1920.

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Appendix: The Monroeville Area’s Time Line of Historical Events

1758 - Marking a turning point of the French and Indian War, Fort Duquesne falls to the British and is renamed Fort Pitt, assuring British colonial dominance over the western territories.

1769 - The Pennsylvania colonial authorities encourage immigrants to settle the western frontier. The Johnston family are among the wave of Scots-Irish immigrants to make the trek westward; the family settles in the region just east of Pittsburgh.

1780 - A boundary agreement between Virginia and Pennsylvania establishes the area around Pittsburgh as part of Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland County.

1788 - The western portion of Westmoreland County is designated as Plum Township in the newly- established county of Allegheny.

1789 - Captain Robert Johnston, a veteran of the 42nd Regiment of the American Revolutionary Army, receives a land grant in Westmoreland Country that he had applied for some 20 years earlier.

1800 - Abraham Taylor, a Philadelphia businessman, who had invested in a company to operate the new Northern Turnpike toll road from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, settles in the area and builds The Rising Sun Inn at the side of the new road near the tollgate.

1829 - A farmer from Virginia named Joel Monroe purchases a 125-acre farm and moves here with his young family.

1830 - The McGinley House, a stone farmhouse and local historical landmark, is built by a stonemason named John McClintock, for the Matthew Simpson family.

1834 -- John Johnston and Joel Monroe sell a tract of land to the trustees of the first Crossroads Presbyterian Church for one dollar. This land will form the basis of the Crossroads Cemetery, which remains an active cemetery to this day, with the names of many of the pioneering families (e.g., Aber, Beatty, Clugston, Haymaker, Johnston, McCully, McGinley, Speelman and Thompson) found on its gravestones.

1849 Plum Township is divided into two separate (north and south) entities, with the southern portion being named “Patton Township,” -- after Judge Benjamin Patton. At that time Patton Township included parts of present day Turtle Creek, Wilmerding, Wall and Pitcairn, as well as Monroeville.

1850 - Joel Monroe and his neighbors petition the federal government for a Post Office for their growing village.

1851 - The post office petition is approved, and Joel Monroe becomes the first Postmaster, with the Post Office located in his home, along what is currently William Penn Highway (US Route 22).

1863 - During the Civil War, an artillery firing range was set up in southern Monroeville just east of the Mosside Bridge as a proving ground for cannons then being forged at the Fort Pitt Foundry in Pittsburgh.

1880 - The Pennsylvania Railroad moves its yards and shops from Pittsburgh to Patton Township establishing the sprawling Pitcairn Yard that will become a major source of employment for families from Monroeville for many years.

1888 - The PRR begins construction of the Pitcairn Yard on 215 acres of farmland along the Turtle Creek Valley.

1889 - George Westinghouse moves his air break manufacturing plant to Wilmerding, providing yet another source of employment for the families in Patton Township.

1890 - Portions of Patton Township and the surrounding area begin to incorporate into smaller government units. Wilmerding incorporates to become a Borough.

1891 - Oak Hill Mine Number 4 is opened, one of many coalmines that will be active in Patton Township during the next fifty years.

1892 - Turtle Creek, which traces its roots back to a trading post established in the 1750s, incorporates to form Turtle Creek Borough.

1894 - A portion of southern Patton Township incorporates into Pitcairn Borough, named after a Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

1894 – George Westinghouse opens his electric equipment manufacturing plant in East Pittsburgh.

1896 - The Old Stone Church, a Monroeville Landmark, is rebuilt on the site of the original (1834) church.

1908 - People’s Gas Company extends gas service to Monroeville, ending the era of the oil lamp in homes.

1912 - Telephone service is extended north from Turtle Creek along Monroeville Road into Monroeville.

1926 - The William Penn Highway opens, incorporating much of the old Northern Pike roadway.

1926 - Burke Glen amusement park opens along the William Penn Highway.

1943 - Route 22 (the new William Penn Highway) opens as a paved, two-lane through-road. Later widened to four lanes, it will define the central east-west commercial corridor through Monroeville.

1946 - The Pittsburgh Outdoor Theater, one of the first drive-in theaters in the area, opens at the corner of Routes 22 and 48.

1950 - The Pittsburgh Exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike is established at Monroeville.

1951 - Patton Township is officially re-designated as the Borough of Monroeville, with the first newly- elected Borough officials taking office early the following year.

1954 - The Miracle Mile opens. One of the pioneering strip malls in the country; at the time it opens the Miracle Mile is the first such shopping mall between New York and Chicago.

1955 - Garden City, one of the first of many plans for affordable suburban housing, opens in Monroeville.

1955 - The schools of Monroeville and Pitcairn form the Monroeville-Pitcairn joint Schools. In 1960 the jointure is re-designated as the Gateway Union School District; in 1965 -- the Gateway School District.

1956 - US Steel moves its laboratories to its new campus-like Monroeville location, setting the way for the many businesses that follow in developing Monroeville as a research center.

1958 - Monroeville’s first municipal building is dedicated.

1962 - Monroeville’s first Comprehensive Plan for Growth is issued by the Planning Commission.

1962 - The eastern extension of the Penn-Lincoln Parkway is completed linking Monroeville to downtown Pittsburgh by means of a modern limited-access highway. 75

1964 - The Monroeville Community Library opens.

1969 - The 150-store Monroeville Mall opens, enhancing Monroeville’s reputation as a shopping mecca.

1971 - Continuing the trend of major companies locating their research facilities in Monroeville, Westinghouse opens its Nuclear Energy Center.

1976 - In conjunction with ceremonies marking the American bicentennial, Monroeville’s 100-year Time Capsule is interred at “Flag Plaza,” on the grounds of the Old Stone Church.

1976 - Monroeville is re-constituted from a Borough (under the Pennsylvania Borough Code) to a Municipality (under a Home Rule Charter).

1978 - East Suburban Hospital opens its Monroeville Location off Haymaker Road.

1980 - Johnston’s farm, an active dairy farm and milk delivery business since 1908, goes out of business and the land is sold to become the site for the Stonecliff Apartments.

1995 - Kuehn’s Dairy, the last surviving dairy farm in Monroeville, closes down and the site is sold for the Manor Care Adult Community.

2000 - Monroeville’s second municipal building is dedicated.

2006 - Monroeville’s Community Center and Park is dedicated.