[PRCo] Re: Home

[Fred Schneider]

Have no clue about Westmoreland or Fayette.   Because their economy  
was already on the skids anyway in the 1940s, I doubt that anything  
was done.   But ... admitting that I don't know is better than making  
up a lie.

What I do know is that the strong suit in Fayette County was coal  
mining and coke ovens.   Same applied to parts of far southern  
Westmoreland County around Calumet and Standard (north of Mount  
Pleasant).   The mines actually started playing out about the same  
time the last West Penn trolley lines were opened ... we're talking  
around 1910.    Something else happened too.   The Clairton coke  
reduction plant was built offering far greater efficiency than  
beehive ovens could ever produce.   The result was that the only  
mines that were really worth anything in Fayette County were those  
with portals or conveyors to the Monongahela River, so that coal  
could be barged to Clairton.   In time most of the Pittsburgh seam in  
Fayette County was worked out.   There is data showing abundant coal  
left in Fayette County, but it is another thick seam much deeper.   
The shallower Pittsburgh seam is still available in West Virginia and  
possibly in Green County ... so why pump water to get to deep coal?    
So all the jobs in Fayette County vanished ... the mines and the coke  
ovens.  I think the last producing ovens were gone in the early  
1960s.   Most were gone in the 40s and 50s.   Some were disappearing  
before that.   Ed Lybarger can give you all the details.

The other reason for southern Fayette County was east-west  
commerce.   It was on the National Road (earlier called Braddock's  
Road).   As long as there has been something west of Washington and  
Cumberland, the road went through there.    Interstate 70 shifted the  
traffic off US 40 onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike and it avoids the  
old alignment all the way from Hancock, Maryland to Washington, Pa.  
these days ... but the old route is a nice way to avoid giving the  
turnpike commission a $10 toll.    South Connellsville had Anchor -  
Hocking Glass Co. (Anchor Glass) and  B&O and Western Maryland engine  
terminals.

Westmoreland County ....  South Greensburg had the huge Walworth  
Valve Company plant right next to the West Penn car house but I  
suspect it was relatively clean in terms of the number of jobs it  
provided in the community.    There was a rather large steel mill in  
Latrobe (name escapes me).  [Actually, there is no such thing as a  
small steel mill.]    Jeannette had a significant glass factory.    
Mount Pleasant had both a glass plant and more recently a pottery plant.

Kittanning had a glass plant.  I'm not really sure about the  
Leechburg - Apollo area.   Dennis Cramer lives up there.   We should  
get him to address whether or not industry was dirty.

Brain housing group just went into screen saver mode.   Sorry.


On Oct 27, 2005, at 3:14 PM, <mtoytrain at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Fred
>
> Once again your information is fantastic, I knew that was the  
> "outcry" of the Mon Valley Residents why wasn't their some type of  
> control, so it was Washington county that didn't have any?   how about
> Westmoreland and Monessen?    What strikes me now, is the fact that  
> all the hillsides of Donora when the Zinc Works were in operation  
> were bleak and bare no vegetation, but now the hills are all
> green and really looks good.    I understand fish are swimming in  
> the Monongahela now as when I
> used to go skinnydippin there weren't any back in the late 40s and  
> 50s.
>
> Jerry
>
>>
>> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>> Date: 2005/10/27 Thu PM 03:09:16 EDT
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Home
>>
>> Yes.    But Donora is in Washington County. It did not apply there.
>>
>> There were attempts to clean up the atmosphere in Pittsburgh very
>> early but it was not always politically palatable.   In fact the city
>> office of the Bureau of Smoke Regulation was closed in 1939.   In
>> 1941, however the city passed a smoke control ordinance but several
>> months later, in response to our entry into World War II, enforcement
>> of this city law had to be postponed until 1946.   It applied
>> initially only to factories but was extended, with some political
>> difficulty, to private homes in October 1947 (because it required
>> people to either convert to smokeless fuels (gas or oil) or use coal
>> in conjunction with mechanical stokers.   In spite of protests from
>> the Pennsylvania Railroad, which made a lot of money haul coal and
>> who burned coal in prodigious quantities, a county-wide smoke control
>> law passed the state senate on April 30, 1947.    The Pennsylvania
>> Railroad had enough diesels to convert their Pittsburgh operations by
>> 1952, although Pitcairn Yard briefly saw steam again in the summer of
>> 1955.   The B&O had steam based in Pittsburgh right up to 1956.
>>
>> What do I remember?   I was born in 1940 so not a whole lot.   We
>> lived in those pristine suburbs where the sun shined.   The white
>> paint on the house, according to photograph evidence, did turn gray
>> in the space of a year, but as a kid I didn't know that.   But I do
>> remember seeing a lot of buildings being sand blasted in the late
>> 1940s (including the Pennsy station).   They suddenly changed from
>> "Ostrava Gray" to all sorts of bright granite and limestone shades.
>>
>> Federal regulations came much later, again with the Republicans
>> kicking and screaming.      ???
>>
>> On Oct 27, 2005, at 2:39 PM, Boris Cefer wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Wasn't there a "smoke control" in Pittsburgh in the late 40s?
>>>
>>> B
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: <mtoytrain at bellsouth.net>
>>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 10:23 PM
>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Home
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>   Boris
>>>>   The "Smog" of Donora i was a 9 year old boy, I remember even to
>>>> this
>>>>
>>>>
>>> day, we were at a Donora High school  verses Monongahela High School
>>> football game and you could not see across the football field
>>> because of the
>>> Smog, yes a neighbor died from it, you could hardly breather.  My  
>>> Dad
>>>
>>>
>>>> was employed by the Donora Zinc Works which caused the problem
>>>> along with
>>>>
>>>>
>>> the inversion of the
>>>
>>>
>>>> air over the valley.  It was a bad time and that is what
>>>> eventually closed
>>>>
>>>>
>>> that steel city down and the rest of the Steel Industry in the  
>>> Greater
>>> Pittsburgh area.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Jerry
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>