Mid-Mon Valley towns of Charleroi, Monongahela and Donora featured in a national publication.

At Perked Up Cafe, looking onto McKean Ave., Charleroi PA

A professor at the University of Pittsburgh posted a link to his Twitter feed Thursday that caught me by surprise. It’s a relatively positive story about the Mid Mon Valley by Laurent Belsie of the Christian Science Monitor. The article mainly focuses on Charleroi but also mentioned are Donora, the City of Monongahela and Washington County. A few people and businesses you might recognize are:

• Casey and Eric Clark, Perked Up Cafe, Charleroi, Pa.
• Corelle Brands (formerly World Kitchen), Charleroi, Pa.
• Mark Alterici, Dee’s Wireless., Charleroi, Rostraver and Washington, Pa.
• Michael Coury, River House Cafe, Charleroi, Pa.
• Tony Bottino, Allstate Insurance, former president of the Monongahela Area Chamber of Commerce, Monongahela, Pa.
• Edward Zelich, Superintendant, Charleroi Area School District
• Louis Panza, Ceo, Monongahela Valley Hospital, Carroll Township, Pa.
• Jamie Protin, economic development consultant

I have an issue with the title: “In Steel Country’s River Towns, a Rising Spirit of Recovery“. Wouldn’t you say that’s about 30 years out of date? “Fracking Country” might be more like it now a days.

I’m so happy for Casey and Eric at Perked Up Cafe. They have a beautiful, thriving business and they certainly deserve the recognition!

note: Regular followers will notice that I haven’t posted much on Lost Monongahela recently. Well, I want to let you in on a secret. I’m starting a new blog and I’m calling it the Monongahela Times! Don’t worry, I’ll never give up on Lost Monongahela. I just felt a need to create a second site where I can talk about current events. I’ll keep posting historical stuff here at Lost Monongahela while you can find current events and news over at Monongahela Times which will be launching later this week!

 

 

Was Hazel Kirk Named After Hazel Kirke?

Click image to enlarge.

Just a small post today but I wonder … were the Hazel Kirk mines and the village of Hazel Kirk, Pa. (in Carroll Township, about 10 minutes from Monongahela PA) named after the popular 1870’s opera Hazel Kirke? Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

March 2016 City Council Meeting Coverage

Below is a summary of the March 2016 Monongahela City Council Meeting reprinted with permission from author Chad Desantis. You can view the original on The Mon City Scoop – News Blog on Facebook.

COUNCIL MEETING RECAP
-Chad M DeSantis

On Wednesday 3/9/16, Monongahela city councilman Tom Caudill presided over a brief and to the point meeting, as Mayor Kepics was not present.

Resident Carol Frye spoke on behalf of the Monongahela Historical Society, reminding us that Monongahela’s 250th anniversary is coming up soon, and asked for council’s blessing and support to lead the city’s celebration of it’s Sestercentennial, while working with all of the community organizations. Caudill immediately made a motion to allow it, seconded by Veliky, passing unanimously.

I discussed a quick recap of the Monongahela Area Neighborhood Watch meeting, informing council that

Former American Legion Building Saved

Many people in town have been concerned about the deterioration of the former American Legion Frank Downer Post building at 248 West Main Street. The first three photos below were taken in 2015 showing a huge gash in the roof resulting in water flooding the interior of the building every time it rained. Thankfully the owner saw fit to replace the wood deck and install a new asphalt shingle roof.

The front facade is gorgeous and is still in good shape. It is the centerpiece of interesting architecture on the 200 block of West Main Street. The building is certainly worth saving. (click the the photos below to enlarge)

Check back tomorrow for part 2!

Lost Monongahela Celebrates its 8th Anniversary

I was looking back in the archives and realized that February 10th, 2016 will be Lost Monongahela’s 8th birthday! It all began with this post about the D.E. Gamble grain elevator on 7th street. Back then online information about Monongahela history was sparse. The best resource I had at the time was the Historical Magazine Of Monongahela’s Old Home Coming Week: Sept. 6-15, 1908. This magazine is still a helpful but what if you want to find out something related to “chickens in Monongahela in 1891”? Well, you had to walk down to the Monongahela Area Library and look through a years worth of Daily Republican microfilms. It’s great having this resource in town but the problem is that you can’t perform a boolean word search on microfilm. However, in 2016 you can slake your thirst for chicken related information on Newspapers.com in less than a minute:

Clipped from a 1891 issue of The Daily Republican

Just as significant is how much better the map offerings are online. This is an example of the map quality you would typically find back in 2008:

A detail of Caldwell’s Atlas of 1876 from Rootsweb.

Compare that to the same map now available from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission:

A detail of Caldwell’s Atlas of 1876 from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. (click image to enlarge)

The Caldwell Atlas is another wonderful resource but imagine how exciting it would be if you could find maps dating back to 1885 showing the following information for each building in Monongahela:

Why there have been few updates to Lost Monongahela recently

I just heard Seth Godin say this on a podcast today regarding writer’s block:

Write; write poorly; continue writing poorly; write poorly until it’s not bad anymore.

So expect to read more poorly written posts here on Lost Monongahela in the next few days!

WPXI Story About Monongahela African American Soldiers Who Served In The Civil War

Capt. William Catlin

Several folks asked how can view the story WPXI produced about the Ravioli sale sponsored by the Monongahela Main Street Program and Bethel AME church. Proceeds will pay for a historical marker to honor African American soldiers from Monongahela who fought for the United States in the civil war. What makes story unique is that this may be the first time in US history that African American soldiers went into battle under African American officers. Click here to read the story watch the video.