Category Archive: News Wire Services
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Woodland Hills plan would close just East Junior High School
Thursday, March 8, 2007After the Woodland Hills School Board decided against closing three of the district’s nine schools, a new plan is on the table that would shutter just one of them by the beginning of the 2008-09 school year.
District spokeswoman Maria McCool said the school board plans to vote March 14 on a plan that would close East Junior High School in Turtle Creek.The proposal to close only East Junior High arose after a comprehensive school consolidation plan designed by superintendent Roslynne Wilson was rejected by a 6-3 vote at the January school board meeting.
“Although this was part of Dr. Wilson’s original plan, and she supports the idea, these new motions have been offered by board directors as a way to cut the estimated budget deficit,” McCool said.That original plan would have closed Shaffer Primary School in Churchill, Rankin Intermediate School in Rankin and East Junior High School by the start of the 2009-10 school year. The closings would have begun with Shaffer Primary at the end of the current school year.
The comprehensive plan met with opposition from parents who were concerned that the closings were being rushed. The board has been discussing the plan at each meeting since, McCool said.McCool said the board agreed to consider closing East Junior High after the 2007-08 annual budget was presented last month. Its approximately 288 seventh- and eighth-graders would attend Swissvale’s West Junior High School.
The 7:30 meeting Wednesday will be at the district administration building, 2430 Greensburg Pike, Churchill. District residents who would like to speak at the meeting should register with the board secretary, Joyce Sullivan, by 3 p.m. Monday by calling 412-731-1300, ext. 0133.
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Dormont rejects developing park site
By Rick Wills
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, March 7, 2007Some Dormont residents and borough officials said Tuesday they’re happy that plans were scrapped for commercial development on land occupied by the community’s park and pool.
“I am pleased to have this behind us,” said John Maggio, president of Friends of Dormont Pool, a group formed last year to raise money to repair the 87-year-old landmark.“The people overwhelmingly did not want development in their park,” Maggio said. “This was about putting a strip mall in a park that has the whole history of our community in it.”
Late Monday, borough council voted unexpectedly and unanimously to end consideration of two proposals in which developers would have paid for community recreational facilities in exchange for commercial development rights.
One developer offered to renovate Dormont Pool in exchange for putting townhouses and retail space in the park. Another offered to build a smaller pool and a community center in exchange for retail development in the park.
Mayor Thomas Lloyd urged council to put the matter to rest Monday.
“I did not want this hanging over us,” Lloyd said yesterday. “There has been too much animosity over this issue, so hopefully, this will no longer be the focus of every council meeting.”
Since January, when residents learned that Lloyd, borough manager George Zboyovsky and council President Linda Kitchen had been meeting with developers interested in the park land, opponents of such projects have packed council meetings.
Last month, Craig Cozza of Cozza Enterprises Inc., of Squirrel Hill, presented his plan, which included retail development on the Dormont Pool site. Jim Aiello of JRA Development Inc., of Lawrenceville, proposed restoring the pool and using land elsewhere in the park for residential and retail purposes.
Neither responded to messages left yesterday.
The vote comes after a year of public agitation over the future of the aging 1.85-acre pool, which needs extensive repair work. Friends of Dormont Pool has raised about $30,000 to pay for the work, estimated to cost $1 million.
Ending discussion about development doesn’t end discussion about how to fix the pool, said Councilwoman Ann Conlin, who opposed commercial development in the park.
Later this month, council members will meet with representatives of Wade Associates Inc., a Harrisburg pool consulting firm the borough hired to study restoration options, she said.
Rick Wills can be reached at rwills@tribweb.com or (724) 779-7123.
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‘We want the park to stay a park’
By Brian C. Rittmeyer
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, March 5, 2007Dormont residents rallied in winter conditions Sunday in hopes of saving a summertime favorite.
Efforts once aimed at saving the borough’s landmark pool are now set on saving the whole of Dormont Park from the threat of development.“We want to raise awareness and let council know we don’t want them to develop our park,” said Dormont resident Sarann Fisher. “We want the park to stay a park. We don’t want them to develop the park into retail or more residential.”
The roughly 75 protesters who made their way from the pool parking lot to Banksville Road found support from passing motorists, who honked their horns in response to their signs and chants of “Honk your horn, save our park.” They’re expected to take their fight to the Dormont Council meeting at 7:30 tonight at the borough building.
Two developers have made park proposals. One would renovate the 87-year-old pool in exchange for permission to build townhouses and retail buildings in the park. The other would build a smaller pool and a community center in exchange for retail development in the park.
Opponents want the 25-acre park to stay as it is, and they want efforts to repair the pool to continue.
“We don’t need a strip mall down here,” said John Maggio, president of Friends of the Dormont Pool. “We’re hoping they’ll get the message.”
Karen Gottschall, 40, carried a sign saying “No Walgreens,” which is rumored to be an anchor of a proposed development.
“We need more green space, not less,” she said. “The park is the jewel of Dormont.”
“It’s not about the pool anymore. It’s about the park. They want to pave over our park,” she said. “The developers don’t want to save our park. They want to make money. That’s what they want to do, and they want our land to do it. Our council, unfortunately, might let them.”
The pool remains a focus, however. Pete Popowicz, 57, boasted of the 15 pool passes he had on his car and compared the pool to the likes of Kennywood in stature.
“Even though it’s winter now, we talk about how much the pool means to us in the summer,” 12-year-old Samantha Fisher said as snow swirled about her. “It means so much to me. I’d risk coming down here in the middle of a blizzard just to save this place.”
Donna Rosleck, 68, said the park is a landmark, where her family picnics and her two grandsons come to swim and play.
“I don’t want to see the property sold and the swimming pool go,” she said. “If they take all the property, the kids don’t have any place to go in Dormont.”
This is not the first time Dormont residents have rallied to preserve the park. Fifty years ago, residents fought off a plan to build apartments on the land, said Jim Rutledge, 79, a lifelong borough resident.
Rutledge said he’s confident the latest development proposal can be defeated, too.
Brian C. Rittmeyer can be reached at brittmeyer@tribweb.com or (724) 779-7108.
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Downtown church moves forward after fire
By Candy Williams
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 4, 2007The colorful stained-glass windows bordering the sanctuary are obscured by intricate pillars of scaffolding, on which members of a restoration crew hover overhead. The pews are concealed by black plastic sheets, a day after the protective coverings were temporarily removed to allow parishioners to gather for another Sunday worship service.
On a cold Monday morning in February, the historic Smithfield United Church of Christ on Smithfield Street in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh is still recovering from a Jan. 1 fire. The fire destroyed the social hall and its centerpiece, a stained-glass window depicting Jesus and the children, and caused extensive smoke and water damage to the rest of the building. The Pittsburgh Fire Bureau ruled the fire an accident, and it was said to have been sparked by an electrical malfunction, according to church officials.There were no injuries in the fire, and for that the congregation is thankful. But it obviously was not the way they wanted to kick off the church’s 225th anniversary year celebration. But the Rev. J. Douglas Patterson, senior minister of the city parish, sees the recovery efforts as a temporary inconvenience.
“This is not the church,” he says.
Indeed, the ministry of the church’s people goes beyond the boundaries of its soot-covered walls. It will be at least a month before the cleanup and rebuilding project will near completion, Patterson says, yet the daily business of the church goes on. In addition to regular services at 11 a.m. Sunday and at 12:10 p.m. Wednesdays, the church welcomes students from Northside Urban Pathways Charter School, who take physical-education classes in its gymnasium during the day, and as many as 90 homeless men and women who sleep there at night as part of the Emergency Cold Weather Shelter program operated by Allegheny County’s Community Human Services Corp.
With windchills dipping below zero several times in February, the shelter has been a popular respite, the minister says, offering the poor and destitute hot meals, warm showers and protection from the elements.
Along with four other downtown Pittsburgh churches — First Lutheran Church, First Presbyterian Church, St. Mary of Mercy Roman Catholic Church and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral — Smithfield also participates in a Walk-in Ministry that provides groceries and other assistance to those in need in the downtown community. Every fifth week on a rotating basis, each church opens its food pantry and supplies the needy with packaged and frozen food, along with household cleaning products and health and beauty supplies bought from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
Rena Thomas, business administrator at Smithfield United Church of Christ, oversees the program at Smithfield and makes sure the pantry and freezer in a room off her office are well-stocked. She says she serves 55 families on a regular basis each month in addition to new people who hear of the service from others. Most of the men and women who take advantage of the Walk-in Ministry live within a mile of the church.
In one of her reports to the church council, Thomas noted that in 2006, 641 individuals were served through the food-distribution program. Some 61 percent of them were 60 years old or older; 38 percent were ages 35-59; 68 percent were women, and 90 percent lived alone.
Thomas has worked for the Smithfield church since 1999 doing bookkeeping and office duties. She says that when the previous person in charge of the food pantry left, “Doug (Rev. Patterson) asked me if I’d take over. For most of (the people she serves), a lot would go without food if it wasn’t for us. I saw one woman who had a can of soup she was eating from for two or three days.”
Fellow parishioners have nothing but praise for Thomas’ abilities to seek out grants and donations for the program and to customize meals for her families.
“She is so extremely good at being able to talk to these people and see what their needs are,” says John Canning, a North Side resident and 30-year member of the congregation.
Nan Foltz, of Mt. Lebanon, who serves as president of the congregation, agrees. “Rena does such extraordinary work. Her reports at council meetings are incredible. I’m extremely respectful of the caliber of her leadership,” Foltz says.
Patterson says that since taking on the additional duties of administering the food ministry five years ago, Thomas has been instrumental in bringing in almost $20,000 in outside donations for the program.
The Walk-in Ministry is part of being a good neighbor, the pastor says, and that is a reputation that Smithfield United Church of Christ has worked hard to achieve. Patterson likes to refer to their outreach efforts as “extravagant hospitality.” It’s a commitment to community that members expect from being associated with “a downtown church,” he says.
“A downtown congregation is a different breed of people. They have to pass by a lot of churches that are more convenient to get here. Their expectations of a downtown church are higher. They expect more in the way the worship service is conducted, in the music and sermons, which is wonderful. People should have high expectations of their church,” Patterson says.
Unlike most houses of worship, Smithfield’s membership does not consist of a group of neighbors who live close enough to walk or drive a short distance from their homes to church. Because of the distance some members travel, the church has its business meetings and choir rehearsals before or after the Sunday church service to spare members the inconvenience of making another trip to town on a weekday evening. Patterson says he also uses e-mail and the church Web site, www.smithfieldchurch.org, to communicate with members.
“The Internet has been a wonderful tool for us,” Patterson says. “We’re surrounded by corporate Pittsburgh. Most people that I see on Sunday morning, I don’t see again during the week.”
Although his church doesn’t own a parking lot, parking usually isn’t an issue on weekends, Patterson says. The city Parking Authority has an arrangement with the Downtown Ministerium, of which Smithfield United Church is a member, to allow churchgoers Sunday parking in its garages for a $1 fee. Members must have their parking tickets stamped at church.
Patterson feels that diversity is one of his congregation’s biggest assets. The church was founded on the belief that everyone is welcome, as emphasized by their credo: “Ours is an inclusive congregation, committed to oneness in Christ across all boundaries of race, social class, culture, gender, sexual identity and disability.”
“It’s a non-issue; it’s just who we are,” he says.
Smithfield United Church of Christ, the oldest organized church Downtown, has been part of Pittsburgh since before it became a city. When the congregation was founded in 1782, Pittsburgh was a small village of about 250 people, mostly German immigrants.
In “Landmark Architecture of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania,” a book written by James D. Van Trump and Arthur P. Ziegler Jr. and published by Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (1967), the authors note that in 1787, the heirs of William Penn granted to the German Lutheran and Reformed congregations a plot of land along Smithfield Street between Sixth Avenue and Strawberry Way, but a building was not erected there until 1791.
The German Evangelical Protestant Church was formed by the two groups in 1812, and three consecutive churches were built in 1815, 1833 and 1875-77, each one bigger than the one before it. The church united with the Congregational fellowship in 1925 and is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.
The current church building was designed in 1925 by noted New York architect Henry Hornbostel, who designed many other Pittsburgh landmark buildings, including Rodef Shalom Temple in Oakland, Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial in Oakland and the City-County Building, Downtown.
Albert Tannler, historical collections director for Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, says the Smithfield church is one of the few churches designed by Hornbostel. The Gothic Revival-style building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a contributing structure in the Downtown District National Register of Historic Places.
Tannler says the church’s design is unique in that its 80-foot-high spire was made from steel and cast aluminum, representing the first use of aluminum in building architecture.
“The architect wanted it to be all aluminum, but the Building Code people wouldn’t allow it to happen,” Tannler says. “People weren’t sure in the 1920s about how strong aluminum was. The city required that the frame be built of steel and the panels made of aluminum.”
Another artistic feature of the church is the sanctuary’s elaborate stained-glass windows, created by Von Gretchen Studios. Several themes are represented in their design, including the chronological story of the life and teachings of Jesus, people and places with special meaning to the church heritage and scenes related to Pittsburgh’s history. Two additional stained-glass windows near a staircase leading to the sanctuary depict Moses and Paul, and the Lord’s Prayer written in German and in English. At the rear of the sanctuary, in the narthex, are the Faith, Love and Hope windows inspired by Scripture verses.
At a time when some churches are dealing with declining membership and dissatisfaction with traditional worship services, Smithfield United Church of Christ — which has not abandoned its conventional service in favor of trendy contemporary formats — continues to grow.
Church membership is about 230 members, with average attendance at the 11 a.m. Sunday service totaling 110. Members come from as far as Cranberry and Saxonburg in Butler County, Murrysville in Westmoreland County and Washington in Washington County.
Canning attributes the church’s staying power to “the worship experience and the strong commitment this church has to serving the city. This church operates 24/7,” he says.
Foltz says that even new members feel comfortable taking leadership positions alongside men and women who have been with the congregation for years. She is especially proud of women who have stepped up to serve when needed.
“Women of our congregation historically have been so strong and have been such role models for their participation and caring,” she says. “We have a nice blend of people who understand hospitality, or to use the phrase Doug uses ‘extravagant hospitality.’ ”
That kindness has been returned by others in the community, especially during the tenuous days after the fire in January, Foltz says. Owners of the nearby Smithfield Cafe opened their doors to the congregation so that a Mardi Gras celebration could go on as planned, and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branch on Smithfield Street arranged for Patterson to use their Internet service.
Members continue to gather at the Smithfield Cafe for a fellowship meal on the first Sunday of each month after a service that celebrates the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Church members prepare and serve the meals and clean up afterward. A free-will offering is taken, and all worshippers are welcome.
During a Sunday morning worship service two weeks after the Jan. 1 fire, the congregation paid tribute to the stranger who discovered and reported the blaze, a Jesuit priest named James Conroy, who noticed the smoke while walking past the structure.
Church member Mariruth Stoecker-Keebler shared her gratitude toward Conroy with fellow parishioners in The Spire, the church newsletter:
“I am a fourth-generation Smithfielder,” she writes. “My great-grandparents, immigrating from Germany on both the Finder and Stocker sides, worshipped here at Smithfield. This is where my parents met as teenagers in ‘Pilgrim Fellowship.’ They married here. Our family has served on many committees/church councils and taught many Sunday school classes — proud to be part of this church’s history. The City of Pittsburgh could have lost an important part of its history New Year’s Day, but thanks to someone who saw and cared, the building and its congregation are still very much alive.”
Patterson assures his congregation and the Downtown community that cleanup efforts will continue — and so will the mission of the church. Plans are under way for several special events to coincide with Smithfield’s 225th anniversary. On April 15, John Thomas, the general minister and president of the church’s governing body, the United Church of Christ, is scheduled to deliver the sermon. The Rev. Pete Weaver, who served as pastor from 1977-88, has been invited to return to the pulpit for a worship service on Oct. 28. Co-chairs of the 225th Anniversary Committee are Glenn Callihan and Conway Keibler.
Canning, who serves as the congregation’s unofficial historian, says that if church leaders learned anything from the fire, it’s to be more protective of records that document church history.
“We have archives dating back to the late 18th century,” he says. “None were damaged, but the fire made us more conscious of being a little more careful to better protect them.”
The message inscribed on one of the stained-glass windows, “For we are saved by Hope” (Romans 8.24), seems to speak to the church’s rebuilding efforts.
Foltz says she has thought a lot about the fire recently and its effect on church members. Even before the incident, the church council was preparing a facilities-needs study and a strategic plan to guide its future ministry.
“In the Bible story of Moses and the burning bush, some interpreters talk about the bush burning, but it was not consumed. It was God’s message to Moses that ‘You can have a fire, but not have it consume you,’ ” Foltz says. “We did have a fire and our social hall did burn, but it has not and will not consume us. I believe it is clarifying us, helping us to understand where we go from here.”
About the church
* Bethlehem Haven, a Pittsburgh women’s shelter that celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2006, was started at the Smithfield church in December 1981, where it remained for 18 years before moving to new facilities Uptown in April 2000.
* Henry John Heinz, founder of the H.J. Heinz Co. and great-grandfather of the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz, was baptized in Smithfield church in 1844, the year he was born.
* The church bells were refurbished in 2000 and ring every day at noon.
* The sanctuary’s baptismal font was carved from a piece of pure Italian marble.
* Although women were not granted the right to full voting membership in the congregation until 1921, members of the church’s Ladies Aid Society led the way for the creation of an orphanage in 1888 and a home for the aged in 1891. In the 1920s, they spearheaded a crusade to provide funding for widows. The group today is known as the Women’s Fellowship.
* Jim Donovan, drummer for the band Rusted Root, facilitates a drum circle at the church for interested participants. Drums are provided, and beginners are welcome. The cost is $10. The church owns several djembes, which are small African hand drums. For more information, call 412-281-1811.
* The massive cleanup effort after the Jan. 1 fire will include refurbishing the church organ console and organ pipes — all 3,743 of them. The organ was custom designed by William Mellor in 1967.
Source: Smithfield United Church of Christ
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Support sought for ‘pure’ Dormont park
By Rick Wills
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, March 2, 2007Opponents of opening Dormont Park and its landmark 1920s-era pool to private developers will stage a rally Sunday amid fears that borough officials’ consideration of development is undermining efforts to raise money for pool restoration.
“It’s very hard to raise funds when people think the pool might be bulldozed next year,” John Maggio, president of Friends of the Dormont Pool, said Thursday. “Council is being disingenuous and sending mixed messages.”One developer would renovate the borough’s landmark 87-year-old pool in exchange for the ability to do townhouse and retail development in the park. The other would build a smaller pool and a community center in exchange for retail development in the park.
The rally will be at 2 p.m. in the pool’s parking lot at Banksville Road and Dormont Avenue.
So far, the group has raised about $30,000 for refurbishing the pool, Maggio said.
Since last year, the borough has received $287,000 from the state and Allegheny County, money Maggio says could be in jeopardy if the park is opened to development.
Raising suspicions
The council’s next voting meeting is at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the borough building, 1444 Hillsdale Ave. Borough Manager George Zboyovsky said there are no plans to vote immediately on development proposals.
Still, others are wary of the council’s intentions.
“They have been deceptive every step of the way, so we are very suspicious about what council plans,” said Gary Young, chairman of the Dormont Republican Party. He said he plans to file a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office about borough officials’ dealings with developers Cozza Enterprises Inc., of Squirrel Hill, and JRA Development Inc., of Lawrenceville.
“The council did not follow any kind of process here,” said Young, who faults borough officials for meeting privately with developers and failing to take competitive bids for the project.
The two developers, who made public presentations last month, previously made several presentations to Dormont Mayor Thomas Lloyd, council President Linda Kitchen and Zboyovsky. Other council members said they did not know about the private meetings.
Defending the actions
Thomas Ayoob, the borough’s solicitor, said that the meetings were not improper and no bids have been taken.
“There have been no secret meetings, and no bids have been made or solicited,” he said. “And the general public knows about the two proposals.”
Young, Councilwoman Ann Conlin and others question Ayoob’s representation of Cozza in another development project.
“This just looks awful, whether it’s legal or not. The solicitor should have the best interest of borough, council and citizens at heart, which he does not,” Conlin said.
Ayoob said there would be no conflict unless Cozza’s proposal is picked.
“I have offered no legal advice to borough or Mr. Cozza on this matter,” Ayoob said. “It’s an attempt to raise issues where there are none.”
Rick Wills can be reached at rwills@tribweb.com or (724) 779-7123.
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Project will restore Pitt’s iconic Cathedral
By Andrew Conte
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 28, 2007When she was a second-grader 80 years ago, Alice Sapienza Donnelly wondered each week what to do with the dime her Italian immigrant father gave her.
She could buy 10 penny candies, or drop the coin into a classroom collection jar to “buy” one stone in the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning, then being built in Oakland.“Every week, I would finger that dime,” she said Tuesday. “Invariably, the stone won out. I always dropped the dime into that jar.”
Her stone and all the others in the 42-story building’s iconic facade are due to be cleaned, university officials said yesterday.
Trustees voted this morning and approved a $4.8 million project to remove decades of grime from the Indiana limestone exterior, fix mortar joints, and replace rusty fasteners. The vote coincides with the 220th anniversary of Pitt’s founding.
The university tried to kick off a similar campaign four years ago, but ran into opposition from faculty members and historians who argued for keeping the building in its current state — black stains and all.
Construction on the cathedral started in 1926, and it collected soot and grime by the time it was dedicated in 1937. Much of the dirt came from Pittsburgh’s steel mills and coke plants, so it tells a story about the city’s industrial past, said those opposed to the cleansing.
E. Maxine Bruhns, director of the cathedral’s Nationality Rooms, fought the cleaning in 2003. But yesterday, Bruhns said she would not try to derail the project this time. University officials told her the grime could be causing lasting damage, she said.
“If it’s doing damage, let it go,” she said.
The university will pay for the cleaning from its reserves, and replace the money with donations to an ongoing $2 billion capital campaign, said spokeswoman Maddy Ross. Officials are planning to celebrate the cathedral’s unique history as it gets restored.
“This will be an easy one,” Ross said. “There’s so much romance and attachment to this building.”
The scrubbing is scheduled to last from March to September, starting from the ground up.
That goes against the rules of gravity, but work must accommodate the life cycle of the peregrine falcons, Erie and Dorothy, who live on the upper floors. The birds typically have fledglings in the spring, and they should outgrow the nest by the end of June.
Portions of the building will soak for 24 to 48 hours, then be washed with pressurized water. Workers will clean the stone with powdered glass.
Sapienza Donnelly, 87, of Forest Hills, went on to attend the university, earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 1974 and a master’s degree in communications nine years later. She taught public speaking and parliamentary rhetoric at the university for 28 years.
She said her 10-cent-a-week contributions for the cathedral’s construction was a good investment.
When the building was finished, she went to see it with her father and asked him which stone her class purchased. It was the one all the way at the top, he said.
“I looked up and almost fell backward on the lawn,” she said. “I was so thrilled.”
Andrew Conte can be reached at aconte@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7835.
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Saxonburg embraces old world charm
By Joan Greene
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 25, 2007Saxonburg’s storied history draws thousands of visitors to the quaint borough nestled among the farmland and hills of southeast Butler County. An array of quaint shops and historic buildings line Main Street in the tiny borough of 1,629 residents.
Saxonburg was founded in 1832 by German engineer John Roebling and his brother, Charles, who bought 1,600 acres of land for $1.50 each. The brothers then sent word back to Germany for others to come help them establish the village.
In 1842, Saxonburg staked its claim to fame when John Roebling invented the wire-rope cable in a workshop. His invention allowed for the construction of suspension bridges. After building Pittsburgh’s Smithfield Bridge in 1846, Roebling achieved worldwide fame with his design of the Brooklyn Bridge. Opening in 1884, the bridge was noted as an engineering feat of its time.
Today, Roebling Park is the center of many of Saxonburg’s special events.
The park’s gazebo and pavilion add to Saxonburg’s old-fashioned charm. During the summer, the park is rented almost every weekend for weddings and other special events, Mayor Brian Antoszyk said. In the park, history buffs can see Roebling’s original workshop and visit the Saxonburg Museum, featuring historic artifacts and other memorabilia, including the recently released German stamps commemorating Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge.
When visitors walk along Main Street, stopping in at Kelly’s Family Restaurant to have a bite to eat, it’s almost like stepping onto the set of “Mayberry R.F.D.,” a 1960s sitcom about a sheriff in rural North Carolina. Dishes, pots and pans can be heard rattling in the kitchen as locals sit down for a home-cooked meal. Off at a corner table sits Erik Bergstrom, the borough’s police officer in charge, chatting with Saxonburg’s controller Mary Papik.
With the notorious exception of the murder of Saxonburg’s police chief, Greg Adams, during a traffic stop in 1981, crime in Saxonburg mostly is limited to a handful of jaywalkers scurrying across the street during the borough’s car cruises, craft shows, carnivals and parades.
“Saxonburg is very homey. Yeah, it’s something like ‘Mayberry R.F.D.,’ ” said Bergstrom, who heads a police force of five, including police dog Lucas.
“The people make Saxonburg special,” Papik said. “They make an effort to learn your name and make you feel welcome.”
In 1846, when Saxonburg was incorporated into a borough, 61 families lived there, a school had been established, and the cornerstone had been laid for the German Evangelical Church. The building now is part of the Saxonburg Memorial Presbyterian Church and is the historic centerpiece of the borough at the head of Main Street.
Travelers would pass through Saxonburg to get to Freeport, Butler and other boroughs and townships in Butler County. Because Saxonburg merely was a stop on the way to a destination, many of the borough streets, such as Pittsburgh and Butler, were named after the cities and towns they lead to.
Saxonburg thrived during oil development in the 1880s and ’90s in neighboring Penn and Jefferson townships, and homes were built for the oil workers.
During the 1880s, Saxonburg had several hotels, including the borough’s landmark Saxonburg Hotel. At the turn of the 20th century, the area’s most famous hotel, Mineral Springs, was built just north of Saxonburg. A hotel casino and the healing effects of the mineral water drew travelers from miles around. The building that housed the hotel was destroyed by fire in 1972.
In the 1930s, broadcasting came to Saxonburg when Westinghouse’s KDKA erected a flat top antenna — a series of wooden poles — in the borough.
Ceramics shaped Saxonburg’s economic development in the 1930s and ’40s. Saxonburg Ceramics opened in 1936, manufacturing ceramic components used in electrical appliances, automobiles, light bulbs and televisions. In 1949, two former employees of Saxonburg Ceramics founded Du-Co Ceramics, which still is in business, according to “Historic Saxonburg and Its Neighbors” by Ralph Goldinger. According to Antoszyk, Saxonburg Ceramics will close in May.
Today, the historic village has become a destination. Featuring 32 buildings that are more than 100 years old, Saxonburg offers visitors a chance to step back in time and learn about the borough’s German heritage. Recently, a portion of Saxonburg’s Main Street — from Rebecca to Butler streets — was named to the National Register of Historic Places.
During the Big Car Cruise that takes place every July, as many as 900 antique and classic vehicles are displayed on Main Street, drawing more than 3,000 spectators.
The Festival of the Arts, which takes place every September in Roebling Park, features crafts, food and entertainment. Each year, Antoszyk looks forward to serving his family’s hot Italian sausage to hundreds of visitors.
Kathy Allen, whose family owns several properties on Main Street, describes Saxonburg as “a place separate from today’s vision of malls and congestion. It has a wonderful visual charm.”
Allen, who is writing a book about Saxonburg and southeast Butler County titled “Last of the Fencerows,” operates a bed and breakfast, Armstrong Farms, on her 200-year-old family farm in Clinton Township, two miles south of Saxonburg.
“A lot of our guests go into Saxonburg to shop and have dinner,” Allen said. “When they come back, they remark how refreshing and preserved everything is; it’s like a fantasy world. They’ve never been to a place like this.”
Michael Ortmann, owner of the Antique Coffee Shop on Main Street, believes he has found a “unique niche” by combining a coffee shop with an antique store. “Business people want Saxonburg to embody its history,” he said.
Featuring antiques and a gold couch where guests can sit and relax while enjoying a cup of coffee, pastries or ice cream, the Antique Coffee Shop, housed in an 1835 building, reflects the ambiance of a 19th-century parlor filled with guests on a Sunday afternoon.
One of Lucille Blakeley’s fondest memories of growing up in Saxonburg is attending the annual Firemen’s Carnival in June and marching in the Memorial Day parade. “The parade and carnival were a big thing for us children; we’d march down the street carrying bouquets,” said Blakeley, 88, whose father, Aaron Bachman, was fire chief for 27 years and whose nephew, Gary Cooper, is the current fire chief.
Although Saxonburg is small (two square miles), the downtown area has grown and “changed with the times” in the 82 years that Blakeley has lived in the borough. She recalled that she and her five sisters attended a little, red, two-story schoolhouse where the borough building now stands, and she graduated with a class of 25 in 1937 from Winfield High School, now a church three miles outside of the borough. Today, Saxonburg is part of the South Butler County School District. The district includes Knoch High School.
As a young woman, Blakeley worked at Chester Paul and Nellie Maurhoff, grocery and dry-good stores on Main Street. Maurhoff’s has become a fitness salon, and Chester Paul is an antiques shop.
When Blakeley was growing up, social life evolved around the Old Town Hall, where she attended dances and basketball games, and the Memorial Church. Although the town hall no longer is there, the historic church, built in 1837, is the centerpiece of the borough. A new Presbyterian church is across the corner, where the original Roebling Homestead serves as the church office.
Blakeley has seen several businesses change hands, but the Hotel Saxonburg, retaining its 19th-century decor, has been a landmark since opening during the mid-1800s. “I still go there for dinner,” Blakeley said of the hotel, which is known for its fine dining.
Local historian Bob Kaltenhauser, 76, has lived in Saxonburg for 50 years and was chairman of the John Roebling Historical Saxonburg Society, an organization formed to preserve the architectural heritage and old world charm of Saxonburg while revitalizing Main Street businesses.
“Ten buildings on Main Street date back to the 1830s and have clay and straw — called wattle and daub — inside the walls. (Saxonburg) really hasn’t changed that much; that’s the reason it still retains its charm,” he said.
Antoszyk said revitalizing Main Street, while retaining its history, will encourage “unique-type shops” to move into the borough.
The borough is in the process of securing grants, and conceptual drawings are being done to enhance the infrastructure with additional parking, sidewalks, trees and lamp posts.
“We hope to have the project completed in two years,” Antoszyk said. “The future of Saxonburg rests on the borough remaining a destination, not just a place to pass through.”
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Retiree’s volunteer efforts put her on right track at History & Landmarks
By Sandra Fischione Donovan
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 25, 2007Judith Harvey lives in a historic house in Fineview, so she is a history buff by association. When she retired and was looking for a channel for her unbounded energy, it seemed natural for her to volunteer in 2001 for the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The association proved fortuitous for both. The former librarian, who retired from the Baldwin-Whitehall School District after 35 years of teaching and doing library work in public schools, was in the foundation offices when she saw boxes full of railroad memorabilia collected by the late Frank B. Fairbanks, of South Park.Undaunted by the prospect, the peppy, petite and fair-haired Harvey volunteered to catalog it all. Foundation officials agreed.
Some of the tasks, such as putting thousands of railroad tickets in separate plastic sleeves, would take her years. But Harvey patiently did that and even computerized the collection.
“She’s a remarkable woman,” says Albert Tannler, the foundation’s historical collections director.
“Because of her meticulous volunteer work, we were able to open it to the public,” says Louise Sturgess, PH&LF executive director.“Her ability to organize a massive amount of information and present it to the public in a pleasing way is amazing,” Sturgess says.
The Frank B. Fairbanks Rail Transportation Archive opened last month at the History & Landmarks offices in Station Square. And Harvey has a new title: railroad librarian. She works at the archive one day a week.
Though she wasn’t a railroad buff to begin with, having gone through every tiny detail of Fairbanks’ collection has enabled Harvey to glean much about railroads and the people that love them.
“A rail buff can tell you how many repeat miles he’s traveled, but the real number is how many new miles you’ve traveled,” Harvey says. “If a rail line is reconfigured — oh, the joy of adding a tenth of a mile.”
As Fairbanks traveled, the chief executive officer of Stowe-based Horix Manufacturing Corp. not only noted his rail miles, he collected timetables and rail orders for engineers, handfuls of swizzle sticks railroads gave out to patrons to stir martinis and playing cards available in club cars, among many other items.
His collection lay in boxes in his South Park home until he met Jack Miller, History & Landmarks director of planned giving. Fairbanks subsequently donated part of his collection to the foundation, along with a $10,000 endowment to maintain it.
“We wouldn’t have taken it if it didn’t come with an endowment,” Tannler says.
After Fairbanks died in 2005 at age 74, his widow donated the rest of his extensive collection to History & Landmarks.
“The strengths and weaknesses of a private collection are evident in this,” says Harvey. “When you’re dealing with a private collection, you’re taking what they collected” for their own immediate goals.
Harvey says rail buffs will be thrilled with the collection, which includes official railroad timetables ranging from the 1800s until 1976; train orders engineers used for each trip; reference books on railroads; slides Fairbanks took and all those tickets.
A sign in the archive notes that Fairbanks was “clearly recognized as the third-ranking American with the most route miles traveled,” and was most likely the third-ranking such person in the world. He traveled 156,993.81 new miles and 7,841.47 duplicate miles.
The maps Fairbanks collected are Harvey’s favorite items. She has placed them in Mylar covers so researchers can readily handle them. “I’m not a hands-off librarian,” she says.
“Nothing was dirty or torn. He was very respectful of what he had,” Harvey says.
Tribune-Review Publisher Richard M. Scaife was impressed enough with the collection on a recent visit to ask Harvey whether she wanted several metal railroad signs he owned for the archive.
“You never ask a librarian if she wants anything,” Harvey says with a smile, pointing to the signs, which are now in the collection. Each red metal sign marked a different rail line for engineers.
The archive is in a sunny room with tall windows facing the Monongahela River. New and antique furniture is arranged for reading, research and perusal of railroad objects.
Hours for the collection are 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Wednesdays by appointment, so that Harvey is sure to be on hand to guide visitors through the collection. Members may use the archive for free; nonmembers pay a fee of $10 for three consecutive visits.
“It has a lot of information that will be very important,” Tannler says. “People who know railroads feel that we have an asset.”
Sturgess says the transportation collection has further established the foundation’s archives, including its James D. Van Trump Library of regional architectural history, as a “top-notch collection” of historical resources.
“I am very happy at Landmarks, and hope to be able to serve those interested in railroad materials for a long time to come,” Harvey says. “I count it a privilege to do this for pay. I count the days till I come in the next time.”
People who wish to use the Frank B. Fairbanks Jr. Railroad Collection may call the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation on Wednesdays to make an appointment with Judith Harvey at 412-471-5808, ext. 542, or e-mail fairbanksarchives@phlf.org.