[PRCo] Re: Circa 1908 view of Pittsburgh

[robert netzlof]

--- On Sat, 7/28/12, Edward H. Lybarger <trams2 at comcast.net> wrote:

> That didn't come through very
> well.  But I just Googled "Pittsburg Trolley
> Pole Co." and picked the logical one.
 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1126&dat=19081115&id=uKBhAAAAIBAJ&sjid
> =fGcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4083,4252390 

Yes, I too asked the Omniscient Google (after the previous messages had been sent) and found that, and the item quoted below.

Pittsburgh Gazette Times Monday Nov. 16, 1908 (via Google)

South Side Trust Company of Pittsburgh, receiver of the Pittsburgh Trolley Pole Company, will offer at public sale, on the premises NOS. 111, 113, 115, and 117 Water Street, Pittsburgh PA The entire plant of the Pittsburgh Trolley Pole Co.

[list of machine tools and other assets skipped]

On Friday, November 20th, 1908 at 2:20 o'clock P. M.

[terms of sale skipped]

Sale subject to the approval of the United States court.
*** end quoted material
 
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementix.org
> On Behalf Of Dwight Long

> Did this company make current collectors for application on
> the top of tramcars, or support poles for the OHL?

from: The Street Railway Journal for February 1895 (via Google)

A new trolley pole

The accompanying illustration shows a new trolley pole now offered for sale by the Pittsburgh Trolley Pole Company, of 71 Water Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. A number of special features are claimed for it by the manufacturers, among them being that it is made of the very best steel pipe, drawn to the proper size at one heat, thereby making a beautifully tapered, smooth pole of uniform thickness, which is very light and at the same time posses great strength...
*** end quoted material

The illustration is of a pole on the roof of a street car.

Apparently the PTPCo enjoyed some initial prosperity, to have moved to presumably larger quarters within the 13 year span from 1895 to 1909. The photo must have been taken in the spring or summer of 1908, thus just a few months (or weeks) before the PTPCo disappeared into liquidation.

I'm having no luck at all relating the street numbers given to anything I can find on the Hopkins plats. The 1900 edition of Volume 1 shows a Pittsburgh Ornamental Iron Company on Water Street in the block between Liberty Ave. and West St., but as noted above, I don't know if that's 71 Water St.

So many questions, so few answers.

Bob Netzlof a/k/a Sweet Old Bob