[PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos of old and abandonedbuildings in Western Pa.

[Dwight Long]

Bob

My last (somewhat faint) memory of the Brass Rail is consuming mass quantities of beer in one of their outlets after I had ridden the last ever Rt. 21 Fineview car,

Dwight

From: Bob Rathke 
Sent: Monday, 08 April, 2013 12:23
To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
Subject: Re: [PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos of old and abandonedbuildings in Western Pa.


Fred, 



While you're remembering Fifth and Liberty Avenues, don't forget Frank & Seder, Spear and May Stern department/furniture stores. Also 5&10's G.C. Murphy and  Grants; the Brass Rail and Bards (similar to Isaly's, but Bard stores were in the neighborhoods, not downtown ). 



My grandmother worked at Rosenbaums before she was married.  The Rosenbaum building was a solid structure , and it took months to dem olish it before they could start building the parking garage that's on the site now.  My grandfather worked at Boggs & Buhl and was an office boy  for R.H. Boggs, but his family encouraged him to leave the store and learn a trade.  The R.H. Boggs home on the Mexican War Streets is now a B&B. 



My paternal great grandfather was fire engineer at the City of Allegheny fire station No. 2 on Concord St. from 1868 to the early 1900's (see attached photo).  I also have a photo of him working in Johnstown after the 1889 flood (I assume that Allegheny sent fireman to Johnstown to help out).  And I have copies of his Civil War records and pension. 



About the Brass Rail: the restaurants  had a large (probably 5 'X10 ') copy of a  painting behi nd the bar.  The painting depicted a 1930-style bus, but the bus  was five stories tall and looked like a cruise ship on wheels. The title of the painting was, "A bus salesman's dream in 1960".  I wonder if that painting survived the restaurants. 



Bob 


----- Original Message -----


From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net> 
To: "Western PA Trolley discussion" <pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org> 
Sent: Monday, April 8, 2013 10:43:23 AM 
Subject: Re: [PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos of old and abandoned        buildings in Western Pa. 

You know you are old, Bob, when someone asks "What's a McCrorys?"  Think of all those old store names that are no longer there.  I will confine myself to western Pennsylvania … Woolworths, Gimbels, Kaufmans, Joseph Horne, Rosenbaums, Boggs and Buhl, Isalys. 

Yup….   And you now have to be in your 40s to understand what communism was like in eastern Europe.   In a way, I guess I am rather glad that I vacationed in East Germany before the wall came down and saw it.   I guess, as ugly as history can be, I guess it was also good for me that I experienced the segregated southern states … black and white drinking fountains, toilets, restaurants, etc.   

Now, how the hell do I explain to my granddaughter and her husband, who is of African descent, what it would have been like living in this country 60 or more years ago?   


On Apr 4, 2013, at 1:19 PM, Bob Rathke wrote: 

> 
> 
> 
> Here's a Facebook page containing photos of old and abondoned structures in Western Pa.  It contains a few rail photos. I've posted some of my 1956-82 photos in the section for, "Recent posts by others". 
> 
> 
> 
> See: 
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> https://www.facebook.com/pages/Abandoned-Old-Interesting-Places-Western-PA/237114536307967?sk=photos#!/pages/Abandoned-Old-Interesting-Places-Western-PA/237114536307967 
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