Another red-letter event this month was the Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s walking tour of Bridgeville’s business district. Organized and led by Leesa Shady, with the assistance of Donna Dalke, it was a memorable event that begs to be repeated many times in the future.
Ms. Shady had obviously done her homework for this project, even to providing the participants with a booklet filled with historical photographs of the buildings and sites that we visited. Despite the real-time atmosphere of the walk, I found myself being visited by ghosts from the past.
When I think about “downtown” Bridgeville, I remember it as it was in the 1940s when I was an adolescent. Hearing other, younger folks discuss their memories was interesting to me – they were describing a completely different environment.
The tour began at the History Center with an excellent discussion of the Chartiers Valley Railroad, the construction of its railroad station in 1871, the repurposing of the station as the Bridgeville Public Library a century later, and finally its current state as headquarters for the Bridgeville Area Historical Society.
Here I encountered the first ghost, Charlie Bower. Mr. Bower was stationmaster in for the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1940s at a time when there were seven passenger trains each way through Bridgeville every day. The Railroad was an important institution in our community in those days, and the stationmaster was its representative. At the time my father was working for the Railroad in the Engineering Department on the sixth floor of the Union Terminal in Pittsburgh. Mr. Bower felt he had a special bond with him and regularly pumped him for gossip about their joint employer.
There were ten of us in today’s tour, including my daughter Elizabeth. We started up Station Street, pausing to admire the two sculptures Public Art Bridgeville has on display in Triangle Park. Seward Johnson’s “Best Seller” is so realistic that one must touch it to confirm that it is bronze, not flesh. We also like Jan Loney’s “Follow the Swallow”. It is perfect in that location; one wishes it could be a permanent resident.
Then up the hill past (in the 1940s) the Strand Theater, Stone’s 5 & 10, J. H. Rankin’s Haberdashery, Supreme Cleaners, and Skip Batch’s Barber Shop. In addition to Skip and the Rankins, the ghost of Madeline Sasfai (our favorite clerk at Stone’s) was quite evident.
We then turned north on Washington Avenue, admiring the restored appearance of the (1940s) National Bank Building. Originally constructed in the early 1900s, it is quite attractive today. For me it contains the ghost of dentist Dr. Raymond Lutz. His office was on the second floor of the building; my memories of it are reminiscent of a Stephen King movie. We then passed the building that once housed Foster’s Grocery Store and Willard Cooper’s Meat Market.
I’m not sure the next two commercial buildings we passed were in existence in the early 1940s, but certainly the house next to them was there when we attended Washington Grade School (1937 to 1944). Ms. Shady gave an excellent history on the school, originally built in 1905 and eventually destroyed by fire in 1958. Hundreds of ghosts there – teachers and fellow students.
We then admired Bridgeville’s oldest building, currently occupied by “Antiques on Washington”. Our guide dated it at 1830 and called it the “Murray House”, following Jamie van Trump’s description in “Landmark Architecture in Allegheny County”. In marvelous condition, it is a real asset to Bridgeville.
Ms. Shady then showed the famous photograph of Billy Winstein’s Store, “located at the intersection of Murray Avenue and Washington Avenue”, and embarrassed us by asking which corner it was on; we really don’t know. It was gone by the early 1900s. Joseph Lutz’s house was on the southwestern corner by then; by the 1940s we think Bud Behling was selling cars on the northwestern corner.
By the 1940s the Wilmer Engel family were living in the Lutz house (Mrs. Engel was Mr. Lutz’ daughter). Next to them was Dr. Pigossi’s residence and office. It would be hard to miss his ghost! Then came the Lavalle Funeral Home, which was located in what had been Webb Murray’s mansion.
Between Webb Murray’s mansion and Albert Murray’s even more impressive one were three commercial buildings. Most prominent was Bennett’s Drug Store. Originally located in the Bridgeville Trust Company building, D. M. Bennett constructed his building in the early 1900s and moved his pharmacy there. In the 1940s Bigleman Bakery occupied one of the buildings adjacent to it. We think the other was the location of Josephine’s Beauty Salon.
Ms. Shady gave a fine discussion on the history of the Albert Murray mansion, initially built by Jonathan Middleswarth in 1828 as a wedding gift to a bride who ultimately jilted him. It was demolished in 1956 to provide space for a parking lot. We paused there to admire “Remembering Youth”, a striking outdoor sculpture that is part of the Public Art Bridgeville project.
The Trust Company building was constructed in 1902; PNC Bank acquired it in 1986 and maintained an office there for a few years before selling it. The ghost of Bill McDivitt is very evident there.
We then crossed Station Street and encountered two more ghosts – Police Chief “Kid” Myers and his sidekick, Artie Chivers, sitting in the police car parked in the first spot on the corner with Washington Avenue, prepared to dart off in any direction and fight crime wherever it popped up. In the 1940s there was no question about police presence; we always knew where to find them.
This appears to be an appropriate place for me to truncate this column and leave my readers hanging for a week. We are committed to recording as much accurate information as possible regarding downtown Bridgeville in the 1940s and will welcome all comments and corrections.