[PRCo] Re: Latrobe

[robert netzlof]

--- Derrick J Brashear <shadow at dementia.org> wrote:
> Thanks to Ed there's some stuff at
> http://trolley.dementia.org/wcry

> derry.tif and latrobe.tif are Ed's annotated USGS map (scanned in 2
> pieces; anyone want to paste it together?)
> 
> mainst-latrobe.tif is a car in Latrobe;

And there's the rub. I'm quite sure the car is on Main Street, just
east of Ligonier Street. Just about everything in the picture isn't
there any more, except for the building with the onion shpaed dome
visible to the left of the car. That building (Mozart Hall) is on
Main St., between Ligonier and Alexandria, and still exists.

So, the track passing left to right is the West Penn on Ligonier St,
the car is just into the block between Ligonier and Alexandria. But,
the Latrobe map doesn't have that part of Main Street colored red.

When I was a wee lad, there were rails visible in the brick pavement
at the corner of Alexandria and Bluff Streets. I was told that "the
street car to Derry came down Alexander St (nobody in Latrobe ever
said Alexandria) and turned here to go out of town". There were also
some ties embedded in the tar "pavement" of Bluff Street.

I saw a photo several years ago taken long ago from some point near
Alexandria St looking west. As I recall there was a trolley wire
hanging over Main St. in that photo. (I think it was at the Latrobe
Historical Society that I saw the photo.)

Now, with no evidence other than what I was told decades ago, my
understanding had been that a trip into Latrobe from Derry would have
brought one into town on Bluff Street, turn left onto Alexandria,
right onto Depot, left onto Jefferson, left onto Main, left onto
Alexandria and now we're headed back to Bluff Street and are heading
out of town. I was told these things by folks who had been alive when
the Westmoreland County was still operating, so I assume they knew
(and that I'm remembering correctly.)

That doesn't match well with that rather murky white-on-black map,
but then, it doesn't seem to match well with the street layout of Latrobe.

=====
Bob Netzlof a/k/a Sweet Old Bob


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