[PRCo] [Fwd: Pittsburgh-Some Place Special]

[Fred Schneider]

Thanks Harold.  I've printed this to file inside my copy of Stefan
Lorant's book.  Your memories are pretty much mine ... some overlap.

The Pennsy train shed.  Somewhere in this house are a group of 35mm
negatives that dad took of it being cut up by workers with acetylene
torches.  We moved out of the city in August 1949 ... so that had to be
before that.  I also remember looking down from an office building onto
the ruins of the Wabash station aftr the fire ... my tonsils came out
the very next day.  

Things I can remember ... going to Wilkinsburg for dinner in a
restaurant.  Yes, absolutely.  It was a solid working class borough that
could pay its power bill in those days.  Monroeville was where you went
to get milk from the farmer when you ran out on Sunday (there was no
Miracle Mile).  The model railroad shop was on Penn Avenue in East
Liberty, about a block and a half from our church (Melon's Stairway to
Heaven).  I remember mom or dad telling me that East Liberty had seven
movie theaters.  Isaly's were everywhere ... the one in the Boulevard
[of the Allies] Plant was dad's favorite place for a sandwich.  (There
is a book in print now about that Youngstown Ohio corporation ...
written by Brian Butko.  But Eat 'n Park was there before you came to
the city in 1950 ... the first one dates to the late 1940s and I think
is still open ... on the north side of old route 22 out in Monroeville. 
I ate in it as early as 1950.  I think we ate there on a trip back to
visit mom's parents after we had moved. (Dad always though the name was
backwards, so you know where I get it...)   

Smoke Control was mostly your era but I always thought that they sulfur
dioxide in the air was a symbol of Pittsburgh.  When I would come back
in the 1950s and 1960s, I would breathe deeply as I drove across the
Westinghouse Bridge and I knew then that "I was home."

The breweries?  Wouldn't some nice clean new advertising cards for Iron
City Beer or the ubiqutous "Have a Duke" look nice on 3756 at Arden?  My
memories are not of the breweries but of the hundreds of bars in the
working class neighborhoods.  Well remembered by me were all the neon
signs on the front of bars all the way in Butler Street.  I never went
to Homestead or Braddock but it had to be the same.  (I first saw signs
made with flourescent lights behind translucent plastic in Germany in
1959-1961 ... we still had has filled tubing signs such as neon (red
color).  The flourescent under plastic signs came to the US after they
were used in Europe.  (Another thing that happened about the same time
was edge lining on highways ... I never saw any white lines down the
side of roads in 1959 when I left the country, and they were all over
when I came home in 1961 ... in this case Europe got them after we
did.)   

I also remember the Island Queen explosion at the Monongahela wharf ...
saw a deck chair on Smithfield Street where it fell out of the air.  And
I saw the GM Train of Tomorrow at the B&O station, and the (original)
Freedom Train at Union Station.

About 1951 Mom and an old friend of her's from Oakmont (when we were
back at Easter) toured one of the old mansions in Point Breeze that was
being torn down ... a wonderful taste of how the other half lived.  To
those who have never seen it, I highly recommend visiting the only
remaining mansion, Henry Clay Frick's estate in that neighborhood.  I
suspect that, around 1900, there was probably more money made in
Pittsburg than any other city in the United States.  There were
something like 30 homes of millionaires within a mile of the Frick
estate.  Think of names like Westinghouse, Frick, Mellon, Heinz. 
Manchester was also once filled with the wealthy.  

Dad often asked me what I remembered from World War II, and the answer
was very little.  No, I don't remember gas rationing (but I've seen
pictures of the '39 Chevy with the B sticker in the window and the bald
tires - and I mean bald ... down to the boots put over the tube to keep
it from popping out through the holes.  I do recall combat maps on the
front page of the Pittsburgh Press with arrows showing the movements of
people ... would have to be after the invasion of Normandy in 1944 ...
probably the Battle of the Bulge ... I would have been 4 years old.  I
think when we are under five we remember mostly the dramatic events. 
But I do remember the red meat ration tokens.  I have a meat ration card
in my name (each kid had their own). I remember a night when Mom let out
a piercing scream ... she had hoarded sugar for months and finally had
enough for a pie ... she put it on the window sill to cool and the birds
decided they too needed sugar.  I remember the smoke from a G5s (class
inserted not remembered) drifting back over the orange/brown waters of
Turtle Creek ... with gas rationing the only way Mom and I could ride in
an automobile was to take "Mister Deere's bus" into Wilkinsburg, and
then the Pennsy to Irwin to meet Dad when he finished work at noon on
Saturday ... then ride home in the Chevy. But strangest of all was a
ride out to Grandma's on Perrysville Ave after we saw Snow White in one
of those massive downtown theaters ... the gear noise on that yellow car
(probably a low-speed at that time) was physically painful.  I remember
it hurting my ears and Mom trying to figure out how to stop my crying. 
So why the hell did I turn into a railfan if trolleys are so deadly? 
(One last thought ... we were involved, but we don't know what it was
like to loose 1/3rd of our housing (London did), or Dresden, or Berlin,
or to fill our grave yards with 12, 13, 14 year old boys at the end of
the war.  That all happened in someone else's back yard.)

This is not the place to advertise, but for those of you who care about
old Pittsburgh, and, strangely may not be aware, look into the videos
produced in the Pittsburgh History Series by Rick Sebak for WQED public
television (QED Communications).  I'm sure there is an internet web
site.  Rick's talent lies in using the people he interviews to
transition seamlessly from one subject on a tape to another.  I've seen
at least four other public television stations try to copy his "Things
that are Not There Anymore" tape and each failed because they weren't
Rick.  The tapes are by subjects: churches (Holy Pittsburgh),
entertainment (Kennywood), rivers (The Al the Mon and the O), bridges,
neighborhoods (Oakland, the Strip District, North Side, South Side,
Downtown, Wylie Avenue Days), notable homes ... and some out of the area
tapes such as Pennsylvania Diners and Other Roadside Restaurants.  The
PTM store usually stocks the newest tapes; older ones are generally
available from the television station.  For those who want oral history,
there is nothing like them out there.  But hurry ... it appears that VCR
tapes are rapidly going the way of eight-track tapes.        

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [PRCo] Pittsburgh-Some Place Special
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 01:06:33 -0500
From: Harold Geissenheimer <transitmgr2 at earthlink.net>
Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Organization: PLEASE NOTE INTERIM E-MAIL ADDRESS TO REPLY TO!
To: "pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org"
<pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>,art ellis <arthurls at nauticom.net>




Greetings

The group has had a lot of recent conversation about the
Pittsburgh downtown of the past.  I agree with these comments.
Mark missed not only the days of full PCC operation but also the
period after World War II when the Renaisance was underway.
They were good days for Pittsburgh and Alleghency County.

I moved to Pittsburgh in Feb 1950 and went to Chicago's CTA in
March 1976.  The Pittsburgh I moved to had about twice as many
citizens as now.  Here are some comparisons with today.

-     Downtown, there were five department stores.  Also stores
       in East Liberty and North Side.
-     Downtown, there were five major movies (Plus a Burlesque
      house on Forbes Ave) (Mark..what is this?)
-     Gateway Center was just started.  Mellon Sq was only a
      dream.  Parking garages just starting.
-     There was no Civic Arena.  Hockey was played in the Gardens
       on Craig Street.  The Civic Light Opera was outdoors at Pitt
       Stadium.
-     The Pirates and Steelers were in Oakland at Forbes Field.
-     There were two major amusement parks, Kennywood and
       West view.  There was a smaller park out in White Oak.
       School Picnics by trolley and bus covered the county.
-      The County Agricultural Fair at South Park was a major
       Labor Day event.  PRC handled large crowds very well.
-      There were major business and shopping districts thru out
        the County.  East Liberty-Penn & Highland, North Side-
        Federal & East Ohio, Oakland-Forbes Ave, South Side-
        Carson St, Squirrel Hill and Shadywide to name a few.
-      Smaller districts in Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Hazlewood,
        East Ohio Street among others.  Also on Homewood Ave,
        Centre Ave and 5th Ave before the riots.
-      Outside the city, McKeesport and Homestead were
        major centers.  Each community (like Dormont, Bellevue,
        Avalon, McKees Rocks, etc) had such districts
-      Penn & Highland and Federal & East Ohio Street were major
        crossings of PRC trolley lines.  (the streets went thru before
        redevelopment).  Later URA became a bad word.
-       PRR trains used a major train shed where the present Amtrak
        platforms are.  PRR had a station in East Liberty which was even

        used by Greyhound.  B&O had a train shed off of Smithfield
        Street.  P&LE/B&O shared the station across the Mon River.
-       PRR trains to St Louis used the Panhandle Bridge and the
        track thru the West End, Carnegie, McDonald to Steubenville
        and the west.  B&O trains to the north went thru the hollow
        behind the Carnegie Museum to their bridge about 32d street.
-       The Greyhound Terminal was at Liberty & Grant where the
        Federal Reserve  is now.  Trailways was first across Liberty Ave

        at 10th Street and then moved to the new Union Bus Terminal
        at Smithfield & Water Street.  (A nice modern place, replaced
        by Blue Cross).  Harmony Short Line was at 10th & Penn.
        The Greyhound Terminal sold PRC Interurban tickets.
-       The Fort Pitt Hotel was a business man's hotel also at
        10th & Penn.  There was no Convention Center.
-       The Hilton Hotel at Gateway Center was not yet built.
        The Pittsburgher (now an office)  was on Forbes across from
         Kaufmans.  The Henry Hotel was where Mellon Sq is.
         The Roosevelt Hotel was at 6th & Penn (Now a senior
         residence).
-        A real Pittsburgh gem were the Isaly Dairy stores in many
         neighborhoods.  One of the recent photos showed one on
         East Ohio Street.  The main store was on the Blvd of the
         Allies in Oakland.  Many an evening out ended up with
         ice cream here.
-       Eat-n-park was yet to be established.  An early one was
        Dormont on West Liberty Ave.  I lived on Glenmore Ave
        just behind this restaurant.
-       There was a theatre organ in the South Hills theatre on
        West Liberty Ave in Dormont. (I believe that John Bagiensky
        helped restore this).  Dormont also had the Hollwood movie
        Potomac and Mt Lebanon had the Dennis Theatre on West
        Liberty.
-       The first drive-in was on Rt 22-30 West in Moon Run,
         Robison Twp. (Across from the Montour bus garage).
         There was another drive-in on Spring Garden.
-       There was no Fort Pitt Bridge or Tunnel.  All traffic went
         via the West End Circle.  No Ft Duquesne Bridge either.
         And no East Street or Beaver Ave roads.  No Parkways.
-       Street cars were every where:  The old West End Bridge to
        Carson Street, the Smithfield Street Bridge to the trolley
        tunnel and to Carson Street, the 10th Street and old 22d Street
        bridges to the South Side, the old Hazlewood Bridge to
        West Homestead, the Homestead High Level Bridge to
        Homestead, the old Rankin Bridge (which  included a
        traffic circle for trolleys), and bridges across the Alleghency
        at 6th, 7th, 9th, 16th and 52d Streets.  Quite a network.
-       I believe there were still five inclines...Monongahela and
        Duquesne still operate.  The Castle Shannon, Mt Oliver and
        17th street inclines are gone.  Origoinally I believe there
        were a total of 13 inclines including one to Troy Hill, now a
        street.  The Mon and the Duquesne were private companies.
        PRC operated the Castle Shannon and Mt Oliver Inclines.
        I am not sure about the 17th Street one.  Autos and wagons
        could be carried on the Castle Shannon one and I think on
        17th Street.  (Question to PTM-Arden, How many inclines
        and how many PRC operated?)
-       And the Breweries.  Duquesne on the South Side (with sign),
         Fort Pitt, Iron City and small German breweries on the NS.
-       And the newspapers.  Pgh Post Gazette (published at Grant
        and the Blvd in what became a City building), The Pgh
        Press (afternoon) in the present newspaper building and a
        Hearst owned paper (I dont remembe the name or where
        they were located).  Tarentum, Mckeesport and Homestead
        had daily papers.
-       And on the radio.  Rege Cordic started on WWSW, then
        went to KDKA.  KDKA had a unique early talk radio show
        called Party Line with Ed & Wendy King.  You could only
        hear the Kings, not the other person.
-       And on TV, only the Dumont Network station.
-       And at the Universities...CMU had not yet merged CIT
        and Mellon Institute.
-       Steel Mills every where.
-       A responsible government partnership between Mayor/Gov.
        Lawrence and Richard King Mellon.  Also a good county
        goverment under Commissiond McClelland.  Good Governors
        of both parties without todays hate...Lawrence, Scranton,
        Shaffer.
-       PRC met in the downtown YMCA on Wood Street and then
        across the street at the YWCA.
-      The PRC Second Ave barn is now a police station.  The
        Ingram barn is now a church.  And the Manchester and
        West View barns are now part of PAT.  The Harmony
        Short Line garage at 2900 Liberty Ave is now a commercial
        property and the Harmony (ex West Penn car barn) in
        Tarentum is a tire dealer.
-       There were National Guard Armories in East Liberty (Hunt),
         Oakland (Logan-now closed, a Uof Pgh building there now)
         and the Negro Penn Ave Armory in Oakland-now closed.
         Pitt built the Guard a new Armory on Crane Ave, Beechview
         in exchange,
-       The best trolley rides in my opinion were:
               -     Rt 56 to McKeesport
               -     South Hills routes to Overbrook, Drake, Library
                     and before that the interurbans to Charleroi and
                     Washington
               -     Fineview on the NS and West View
               -     Noblestown Road and the Carnegie route
                     in the West End.
               -     Rt 87 Ardmore to East Pittsburgh
          and I always liked the high speed street operation on
          West Carson and East Ohio Streets.

This a a good place to stop these historical memories.  Mark
will enjoy tracing some of these events and places.  They were
what Pittsburgh was all about.

Lets hear from each of you on your memories.  Pittsburgh
was "Some Place Special".   Nice people lived there and many
are still friends.

Harold Geissenheimer
1-973 292 2916