20 Years Ago This Week: On Aug. 28, 1987 --- 20 years ago this week --- the last crew of employees punched out of USX's National Works, closing the door of what had once been the largest pipe-making mill in the world and which gave McKeesport its nickname, "The Tube City."
A few months later, the electric-resistance weld pipe mill, built in the early 1960s in McKeesport's First Ward, reopened under the management of a separate company, Camp-Hill Corp.
But the old "piercing" and rolling seamless pipe mills that had employed thousands would be dismantled and most of the buildings torn down.
To mark this occasion, I went into the dusty, musty archives and pulled out five interviews I conducted in 1997 for the Daily News on the 10th anniversary of National Plant's closing. These "National Works Memories" are now posted in the "Steel Heritage" section of Tube City Online.
And if you haven't already, be sure to explore the section of Pitt's "Labor Legacy" website devoted to National-Duquesne Works information.
. . .
Right Church, Wrong Pew: State Rep. Bill Kortz is mad as hell about the disgraceful condition of the W.D. Mansfield Memorial Bridge, according to Raymond Pefferman and David Whipkey in last night's News. (No story online, unfortunately.)
At a hearing Wednesday before the state Transportation Commission, the freshman Democrat legislator from Dravosburg called the rusty superstructure of the bridge spanning the Monongahela "disgusting" and said the crumbling sidewalks and concrete deck are posing a safety hazard to pedestrians and motorists.
The bridge is the main western entrance to McKeesport for motorists driving to the city from Pittsburgh, West Mifflin and Allegheny County Airport.
Unfortunately, the bridge isn't maintained by PennDOT. It's a county bridge. And Allegheny County wants to rehabilitate the Rankin Bridge first. (Someone make sure to tell PittGirl.)
They've been working their way up the Mon, repairing the Glenwood Bridge in 2000 and 2001, and the Homestead Grays (nee High-Level Bridge) last year and this year.
Nobody asked the Almanac, but just running the darned street sweeper across the Mansfield Bridge and especially the approach ramps would do wonders for the entire area. The loose dirt, gravel and debris on the McKeesport end of the span hasn't been cleaned in ... well, forever, I sometimes think.
. . .
To Do This Weekend: Are you ready for some football? Woodland Hills inaugurates the newly renovated Wolvarena in Turtle Creek tonight when it takes on Mt. Lebanon at 7 p.m. I can safely predict the joint will be rocking.
Elsewhere around the district ... your McKeesport Tigers are traveling to North Hills High School. Game time is 7:30 p.m. Serra Catholic opens its season tonight at home against North Catholic; kickoff is 7:30 p.m.
Other local home games include (all kickoffs 7:30 p.m.):
P.S.: The Woverines?: Speaking of Woodland Hills, fans are hopping mad over the rally card that was distributed this week by the Pennysaver, a sister publication of the McKeesport Daily News and the Tribune-Review.
Meet one of the world's grade-A shmucks. Namely, me.
Last night, Officer Jim and I went to see the final home game of the season of the Slippery Rock Sliders, a Frontier League baseball team that's in its first (and possibly last) year in the Butler County borough.
Since it was the last game of the year, both the team and the sponsors were trying to unload leftover swag, mainly by throwing it to the crowd at Jack Crutchfield Park on the Slippery Rock University campus. Around the second inning, some promotions people from WBUT (1050) and WLER-FM (97.7) radio started throwing T-shirts into the stands.
Naturally, as a radio guy, I wanted me a T-shirt. But they didn't toss them anywhere near our section.
Two innings later, they walked through the stands again tossing WISR (680) T-shirts. And when they tossed some into Section D, right behind home plate, where we were sitting, I stuck my hand up ... and son-of-a-gun if one didn't fall into my grubby palm.
I was feeling like a big man until I heard someone say, "Sorry, sport, but that guy grabbed it right in front of you." When we had taken our seats before the game, no one was sitting behind us. Now I turned around to see a slightly stunned 10-year-old in his Little League uniform and holding a regulation Rawlings catcher's mitt.
Gulp.
"Geez, I'm sorry," I said. "Here's the T-shirt. I didn't know you were back there." He shook his head, "no."
"Aw, c'mon," I said, "are you sure?"
He nodded.
I slunk down into my seat. Officer Jim thought this was hysterical, especially since my own two years as the worst Little League player in the history of the Liberty Borough Athletic Association proved that, as he said, "you couldn't catch a cold in a driving rain storm."
He kept nudging me throughout the game: "Want to go down the concession stand? Maybe you can take some candy from some babies ... Hey, look at those little kids chasing foul balls. Go get one. You're bigger than them."
Luckily, in about the seventh inning a batter from the Sliders hit a pop-up foul right over the backstop that caromed off of the roof of the grandstand and fell int our section. Thank God the kid caught the ball, which he liked a lot better, I think, than a T-shirt from an AM radio station.
The final score, by the way, was the Chillicothe 9, Slippery Rock 6, and the game wasn't that close; the Sliders spotted Chillicothe three runs in the first inning and were down 9 to 3 before scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth. The Chillicothe batters were using the starting pitcher as batting practice; according to the statistician in our section who was measuring the pitches with a radar gun, the poor guy's fastballs were coming across the plate at a leisurely 78 mph.
. . .
To Move or Not To Move: The Sliders were an expansion team put into Slippery Rock primarily because SRU had a nice, new baseball field, but the season has been a long slog of losses (they're 28 and 62 counting last night).
And it's apparent the town really doesn't have the population base to support even a semi-pro club. Either attendance last night was poor, or else a lot of people came disguised as empty seats.
The Sliders don't have a local owner, and played most of their games on the road this season, and speculation has been the team will be sold to someone and moved out of Slippery Rock.
But someone from the club said there's actually a "90 percent chance" the team will stay in Slippery Rock next season. He might have been whistling through the graveyard. I guess it all depends whether Slippery Rock can afford a bidding war to keep the Sliders from moving to Evans City or Chicora. (Actually, Pullman Field in nearby Butler has been mentioned as a possible site.)
I'll say this: We had a very good time, even when I wasn't roughing up fourth-graders. If the Sliders return to Slippery Rock next season, you might want to plan a visit to the ballyard. It's only about a 90 minute drive; you could spend that long trying to get out of the parking lot at PNC Park.
. . .
Low Crime Area: We exited the stadium to discover the driver's side window of my car was open. Officer Jim looked inside. "No broken glass," he said. Sure enough, I had left the window down. "How many beers did you have before the game?" he asked.
My CD player was on the front seat and two new CDs were unmolested; my toolbox was still in the trunk. Nothing had been touched.
"They must have honest people up here," I said.
"Either that," Jim said, "or you don't have anything worth stealing."
Posted by jt3y at August 30, 2007 07:32 AM
Briefly Noted: Pop City profiles Book Country Clearing House, the remaindered-book wholesaler located on Walnut Street in Christy Park at the old Potter-McCune Co. warehouse. (The Almanac last wrote about Book Country back in September 2004.)
According to John Altdorfer's feature, Book Country now has almost 100 employees and has grown by "nearly 100 percent" every year since being purchased by Richard and Sandy Roberts.
(Tube City hard-hat tip: Several alert readers.)
You can read more about Roberts in this trade industry article. (Book Country's own website appears to be down.)
The continuing population decline of Western Pennsylvania and the nationwide shortage of Roman Catholic priests claimed three more victims in the Mon-Yough area this week.
On Sunday, the Diocese of Pittsburgh announced that nine church buildings would permanently close, including St. Peter's on Market Street and Sacred Heart on Shaw Avenue in the city, and St. Paulinus in Clairton.
Although Sunday Masses were no longer being celebrated at the buildings, they were still in use for weekday Masses and on special occasions.
St. Peter's and Sacred Heart, along with St. Mary's German on Olive Street, became part of St. Martin de Porres Parish in 1993, while St. Paulinus had merged with St. Joseph Church to become St. Clare of Assisi Parish in 1994. St. Mary's German has since been demolished; new houses have been erected on part of the old parish grounds.
. . .
Among the Oldest Catholic Churches: Of the three churches, St. Peter's is by far the most historic. The Diocese of Pittsburgh's website claims that St. Peter's was founded in 1846.
But according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Peter's predates the Diocese of Pittsburgh itself. According to the Encyclopedia, St. Peter's was one of seven Catholic churches in Allegheny County that were taken over by the new diocese at its creation in 1843. The first pastor, Father A.P. Gibbs, split his time between St. Peter's and three other parishes in Wexford, Pine Creek and Crafton.
Three years later, Catholics in McKeesport (mostly German immigrants) purchased the plot of land at the corner of Seventh and Market streets to erect the first permanent sanctuary. The first permanent pastor was Father Nicholas Haeres. No matter what you consider St. Peter's official founding date, it's clearly one of the oldest Catholic churches west of the Alleghenies, and possibly among the first 100 in the United States.
The present church, which would do many smaller dioceses proud as a cathedral, was built between 1873 and 1875. (When it was dedicated on Sept. 12, 1875, one of the local Swedish newspapers commented sarcastically that the building was dedicated with "all the pomp that catholics are capable of.") Though a little bit worn now, it remains majestic.
. . .
Mother Church: Many if not all of the Catholic parishes surrounding McKeesport that were founded before 1900 started as "mission churches" or "daughter parishes" of St. Peter's. St. Peter's also was the site of the city's first Catholic high school until its students were absorbed into the new Serra High School in 1963.
Sacred Heart, an ethnic Croatian church, was founded in 1906 and the first permanent sanctuary was on Jenny Lind Street, in a former Swedish Baptist church. When Sacred Heart School opened in 1928, the church moved its sanctuary to the third floor and sold the old building to the Greek Orthodox Church. The present Sacred Heart building was constructed in 1955.
St. Paulinus was founded in 1923 in Clairton's Wilson neighborhood (the independent Borough of Wilson until 1921), and the first Masses were celebrated in the old Wilson Municipal Building or the Walnut Street School. The church was built during the Depression by laid-off mill workers using salvaged stones, bricks and lumber.
. . .
Reusing St. Peter's?: Two years ago, the Christian Science Monitor reported on a number of possible uses for old church buildings, including housing.
Unless some Protestant or other congregation purchases Sacred Heart and St. Paulinus, I fear the future of those church buildings will be grim. They're destined to sit empty for years or even a decade until they're torn down or purchased as a "development opportunity" like St. Stephen's Magyar Church, which I wrote about in July.
Because of its history, I hope St. Peter's can escape that fate. It's within one block of the marina and Gergely Riverfront Park, a few blocks from the Palisades, and visible throughout Downtown. There's ample parking nearby, and the historic building would make an ideal performance space for the McKeesport Symphony and other groups; it would also be a wonderful place for a banquet hall, a meeting facility, or a restaurant like the Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh.
I think the need could be demonstrated. Other than the auditorium at McKeesport Senior High School, the city lacks a large indoor performance space (the Palisades is a nice dance hall, but the acoustics leave a lot to be desired) and there also aren't many dining options within easy distance of the marina.
So, do you know someone who's looking to start a business? Would they rather be in some pre-fab building with no character, or a building that's more than 125 years old?
Tell them to take a chance. Call the Diocese of Pittsburgh at (412) 456-3000.
. . .
In Other Business: The new school year for former Duquesne High School students started without a hitch at East Allegheny and West Mifflin, according to Tim Puko in the Tribune-Review.
One mom says her son seems to be happier at his new school. "Duquesne just made him miserable," she said.
Will there be problems in the future? Sure. But there will always be problems; let's allow the students and faculty to solve those without finger-pointing and micro-management.
So, despite the best efforts of shameless politicians and a few hysterical parents, everyone got along. The "kids are all right," and the teachers are too.
Thank God for common sense and simple human decency. Personally, I'll take it wherever I can find it.
I know what you're thinking, but lung cancer didn't get Jack Webb. He had a heart attack.
In lieu of real content this Monday morning, here's some more alleged humor from my alleged radio shows. It's a large file (3.3 MB) so be patient.
Feel free to light a Chesterfield while you wait.
The WRCT Crime and Incident Report (8/19/2007)
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