USA > Pennsylvania > Blair County > A history of Blair county, Pennsylvania. From its earliest settlement, and more particularly from its organization, in 1846 to June 1896 > Part 6
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
SUBURBS AND SURROUNDINGS.
Millville, which, as the term is used, comprises Allegheny and part of Westmont and is all that suburb lying southwest of the city line at Twenty-seventh Street and northwest of Ninth Avenue and the Hollidaysburg Branch Railroad. The greater part of this suburb, as well as part of the city now within the Fifth Ward, was plotted and laid out by Dr. S. C. Baker and called Allegheny about the year 1870; but a smaller plot adjoint- ing Allegheny on the west was called Millville, and as Millville, the town on the two plots, has been known for twenty years. However, the railroad station on the branch at this point, about one and one-fourth miles from the Altoona Station, is called Allegheny Furnace. Millville is quite level and is building up rapidly, being a very pleasant residence place. It is not incor- porated.
Westmont, just west of Millville, is growing up very rapidly and seems destined to become the most popular suburb of Altoo- na. This results largely from the enterprise and liberality of its projector, E. H. Flick, Esq., who sells the lots for a very low price and on easy. terms, and who has not only set shade trees along the streets and avenues, but has built a large number of fine houses there. The City Passenger Railway extends from the heart of the city, along Broad Avenue, through Millville and to within a few squares of Westmont, while the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad skirts it on the northwest, and a station will doubtless be located there at an early day. It will be about two miles west of the Altoona Depot.
Northeast of Eigliteenth Avenue and east of Eleventh Street is a populous district, outside the city line, known as Fairview. It is situated on ground considerably elevated above the central parts of Altoona, is a pleasant place to live and is the home of a great many employes of the Pennsylvania Railroad Car Shops.
Oakton lies on high ground west of Eleventh Street and nortli- west of Twenty-fourth Avenue. ... Millertown is just north- west of the Fifth Ward beyond Eighteenth Avenue and west of Washington Avenue and Eighteenth Street. It has about 500 inhabitants and is soon to be incorporated with some of the sur- rounding territory as a Borough by the name "Logan." .. New- burg is northwest of Millertown, along the Dry Gap Road, which is a continuation of Washington Avenue over the mountains to Ashville, Cambria County.
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
Collinsville is the oldest town in Logan Township and was the location of the Postoffice from 1817 until Altoona was founded. It lies southeast of the Sixth Ward of Altoona, in Pleasant Val- ley, and is reached by an extension of Sixteenth Street from First avenue, the distance being but one-half mile. Only about 200 people live here and it presents a decayed and ancient appearance, but in the immediate vicinity are several fine farms with good farm buildings and large thrifty orchards, and Pleasant Valley is not a misnomer.
Juniata is an incorporated Borough and lies about one-half mile Northeast of the city line at North-Second Street and Chest- nut Avenue, on the north side of the railroad. It is the location of the Juniata Locomotive Shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. But the borough lines do not take in the works, as the Company prefers being on the outside. There had been a small village occupying part of the present site of Juniata for ten or more years prior to the erection of the Locomotive Shops, known as Belleview, but not incorporated. On the erection of these shops, however, in 1889 buildings sprung up like magic around them, and little Belleview had such a boom that she out- grew herself and her name. "Juniata" was adopted as the most appropriate name and a borough charter was obtained August 7th, 1893. The Logan Valley electric cars run here from Altoona every few minutes and every half hour a car goes to Bellwood, five miles northeastward. Juniata has in addition to the Loco- motive Shops a large iceing station of Armour & Co., several stores, a fine brick school building and three churches, also a postoffice, which, as there is another Juniata in the State, is called Kipple. The southern terminus of the Altoona, Clearfield and Northern Railroad is at Juniata, the passenger station being on the line of the Electric Railway and near the entrance to the Shops.
East End, Greenwood and Pottsgrove are all east of the Eighth Ward of Altoona and on the south-eastern side of the railroad. They have a combined population of nearly 1,000 and will eventually all grow together and be taken into the city, as the Twentieth Ward perhaps. One George Pottsgrove built a dam on the little mountain stream here many years ago and oper- ated a small saw and grist mill until his water right was purchased by the Altoona Gas and Water Company and the water piped to the new town of Altoona in 1859.
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
Llyswen is the latest suburb to be added to Altoona and lies farthest from the city, being on the Logan Valley Electric Rail- way, about one mile south of the city line at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-seventh Street. This is intended to be the aristocratic suburb, and lots are sold with some restrictions as to buildings and use. A number of fine cottages have already been erected there and a fine station and waiting room by the Logan Valley people, whose cars pass in either direction every fifteen minutes.
All these suburbs are in Logan Township, and with the pos- sible exception of Llyswen should be taken into the city.
Eastward from Altoona two and one-half miles, on the Penn- sylvania Railroad is Blair Furnace Station, a small village con- taining no stores nor business places. It is the nearest station to Juniata and but half a mile distant. The next station east- ward is Elizabeth Furnace. There is no village at this station, but nearby is the old "Sabbath Rest" Furnace and a postoffice with that hallowed name, given to it in the early days because the owner of the furnace banked the fires on Saturday night and allowed his men to rest on Sunday, contrary to the custom of most other iron manufacturers at that time.
Westward from Altoona on the Pennsylvania Railroad is Kittanning Point, six miles distant. No town here nor stores, but there are coal mines and villages a few miles up the gulehi and this is their nearest railroad station. The famous Horse Shoe Bend is here and the reservoirs which contain Altoona's water supply. The road begins to ascend the highest mountain here and the grade is steep most of the way for seven miles to Bennington just on the county line and only a small place. An iron furnace used to stand here, but it has been recently torn down. Leaving Bennington the road passes under the apex of the mountain by a tunnel one mile long and the town of Gallitzin is reached, fourteen miles from Altoona, in Cambria County and within the Mississippi Valley. Gallitzin has 1,000 to 1, 200 inhabitants and is an important mining town. Three miles farth- er west is Cresson, only a small place of 500 to 600 inhabitants, but growing. It is the location of the Cresson Springs Hotel, an immense hostelry owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad and popu- lar as a summer resort. Two railroads branch off from here to the northward, to Coalport and Ebensburg. . The next few stopping places are small mining towns, and the first place of importance is Johnstown, famous the world over for its awful flood horror, May 31st, 1889. Also famous as the location of
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
the Cambria Iron Company, one of the largest iron and steel manufacturers in the United States. Johnstown is thirty-nine miles west of Altoona. . The other places of importance be- tween Altoona and Pittsburg are Blairsville Intersection, where the West Penn and the Indiana Branches of the Pennsylvania Railroad diverge from the main line, Latrobe, Greensburg, Jean- nette, Irwin and Braddock.
Southward from Altoona the Hollidaysburg and Morrison's Cove and Williamsburg Branches of the Pennsylvania Railroad extends to Eldorado, three miles from Altoona, 200 to 300 in- habitants. Duncansville, six miles, 1,000 inhabitants. ... Hollidaysburg seven miles, the County seat and containing, with its sister borough Gaysport, 4,000 people. ... Roaring Spring seventeen miles, where there are extensive paper mills and flouring mills. Martinsburg twenty-two miles. in the southern part
of the County and in a rich agricultural district. Henrietta a small place, formerly of some note as the location of some of the Cambria Iron Company's mines and quarries. From here it is but three miles across the mountain to the Huntingdon and Broad Top Railroad in Bedford County. Eastward from Hollidaysburg the Williamsburg Branch extends some fifteen miles along the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata past Franks- town, the oldest town in the County, but now half deserted and tallen to decay, with but 100 to 200 inhabitants. Williams- burg, a place of 1,000 inhabitants, noted as the birth place of a number of prominent citizens now of Altoona. It was formerly on the main line of travel between Philadelphia and Pittsburg. The old Pennsylvania Canal passed that way, and before the locomotive's whistle had been heard in a dozen Pennsylvania towns, steam packets sailed past this then thriving burg at the rapid rate of four to five miles per hour.
Northward from Altoona the Altoona, Clearfield and Northern Railroad, starting from Juniata, climbs up the mountain twelve hundred feet in a distance of six miles to Wopsononock, where there is a good hotel and other features which make it a popular summer resort. Excursion trains loaded with pleasure seekers leave the Juniata Station hourly on Sundays, during the summer, for this resort. A considerable amount of lumber and coal is brought down the mountain in the winter over this road. It ex- tends several miles beyond Wopsononock, but does not reach any town of importance, although the intention is to continue it to Phillipsburg.
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
Northwest from Altoona, starting from Sixteenth Street and Eleventh Avenue, long before the city was laid out, a country road extended up what is now called Washington Avenue, and beyond to the foot of the mountain two miles and then obliquely to the mountain top four miles, to the "Buckhorn," which is the name applied to an old tavern at the summit of the mountain. This was the old Dry Gap Road and is still so called. From the Buckhorn it begins to descend the mountain and four miles farther Ashville in Cambria County is reached. The Blair County line is at the summit of the Allegheny mountains, a few hundred yards east of the Buckhorn.
History of Altoona.
An exposition of the present status of a city leads naturally to inquiry regarding its history and growth. This inquiry we shall meet and endeavor to satisfy in the following historical sketch:
The decade between 1850 and 1860 was a most eventful one in the history of the United States. It witnessed the opening era of successful and general railroad building and the culminination of the causes which led up to the great civil war. At the com- mencement of this ten year period Altoona had hier birth, at its close she was a flourishing Borough of 3,500 inhabitants, stand- ing where before was only forest, sterile fields and one poor farmi house. The 224 acres of farm and wood land, on which the orig- inal Altoona was built and which is now principally included between Eleventh and Sixteenth Streets and Fourth and Four- teenth Avenues, constituted the farm of David Robeson and was not worth more than $2,500 for farming purposes at that time, but the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, then pushing to com- pletion their all-rail route from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and looking for a site for their shops wanted it and therefore Mr. Robeson, by a fortunate early discovery of the fact, was able to obtain his own price for it.
Archibald Wright, of Philadelphia, acting presumably for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, though just what relation he sustained to it is not clear, purchased the Robeson farm of 223 acres and 123 perches for $11,000. The deed was dated April 24tl1, 1849, and is recorded at Hollidaysburg in Deed Book, Vol. '. B," page 441. The boundaries of the farm were about on the present lines of Eleventh street from Fourth to Fourteenth avenues
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
on the northeast and Sixteenth street between same avenues 011 the southwest, Fourth avenue from Eleventh to Sixteenth streets on the southeast and Fourteenth avenue between the same streets on the northwest. On this tract of land original Altoona was laid out during the latter part of the year 1849, and the plot, as laid out, was acknowledged by Archibald Wright, in Philadelphia, February 6th, 1850, but was not recorded until February 10th, 1854, at the time the young town was organized into a Borough. This original plot is on record now in Hollidaysburg in Deed Book, Vol. "E," page 167, It is on parchment and the original is pasted into the book. At the same time another plot, almost an exact counterpart, was recorded as the "official " plot of the Borough. On these early plots the streets and avenues have names instead of numbers.
Altoona in this plot is described as lying in "Tuckahoe Val- ley," that being the name applied to this upper end of Logan Valley, which extends to Tyrone. Adjoining the Altoona plot at that time was the John McCartney farm on the northwest, the McCormick and Andrew Green farms on the northeast, the Wil- liam Bell farm on the southeast and the William Louden farm on the southwest. The Louden and Green farms were soon after plotted and offered for sale in building lots, and later all the Mc- Cartney and most of the Bell farms have gone the same way. At the time of the founding of Altoona the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was a young corporation, their charter having only been granted in 1846, and they had not yet completed their road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, although it was surveyed and in process of construction, It was completed to Altoona from the east, single track, on the same line as now in 1850 and extended from here to Y Switches near Duncansville and one mile from Hollidaysburg, and from there trains ran over the Allegheny mountains on the old Portage Railroad, a state institution con- pleted in 1833. The Altoona Passenger Station stood near the corner of Ninth avenue and Twelfth street until 1854, when the Pittsburg Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad was completed past Kittanning Point on its present line and a new depot was built at the present location. The first depot on the corner of Thirteenth street and Tenth avenue was a two-story brick build- ing and was replaced by the present structure in 1887. The Logan House was built in 1854-5 by the Railroad Company, but did not extend back to Eleventh avenue as now although it was an immense affair and, at that time, greatly out of proportion to the little village in which it stood.
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
The two lines of the railroad west from the city, the one con- pleted and the other being graded, diverging as they did then is accountable for the peculiar wedge shape of the site of the Com- pany's first shops, and the fact that the avenues on the northwest and southeast sides of the railroad are not parallel but diverge at an angle of about thirty degrees from Eleventh street westward.
No lots were sold in the new town until 1831, and the first deed made, as the records at Hollidaysburg show, was February IIth, 1851, for two lots on the corner of Twelfth avenue and Thirteenth street to the First Presbyterian Church, price $100 for the two. If any earlier deeds were made they were not recorded.
The first residence in Altoona was of course the old Robeson farm house which was of logs and stood within the square bounded by Tenth and Eleventh avenues and Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets. The first building erected after Altoona was laid out was a rough board one to be used as an office for tlie railroad contractor and a boarding house for the men; it also stood in the square last mentioned, near the old farm house.
Beginning in 1851 lots sold rapidly and buildings went up on every side; the new town grew so fast that early in 1854 when but little over three years old it was incorporated as a borough with a population of about 2,000 people. Churches and schools were built, hotels, stores and a bank were opened, a newspaper was started in 1855, and everything prospered from the very start. A plot laid out by Andrew Green, northeast of Eleventh street and called Greensburg, was taken into the Boroughi in 1855.
In 1859 a Gas and Water Company was formed by private parties and they constructed a storage reservoir on the hill at the corner of Twelfth street and Fifteenth Avenue and piped water to it from Pottsgrove; laid mains in the principal streets to carry water to the consumers. They also erected gas works on Eleventh avenue below Ninth street. Water and gas were supplied by this company first on December 15th of that year. Simultaneously with the water works came the organization of fire companies and a fire engine was purchased, the first being a hand engine.
The census of 1860 showed the borough's population to be 3,591. Then came the great Rebellion and Altoona was a place of considerable importance, furnishing cars and engines to transport soldiers and munitions of war, as well as her full quota of men to defend the Union. All through that four
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
years' period Altoona grew and throve. After the war closed the citizens erected a handsome monument in Fairview ceme- tery to commemorate her fallen heroes.
The city charter was procured in February, 1868, the bounds being extended so as to take in the territory northeast to First street, southeast to First avenue, southwest to Twen- ty-seventh street and northwest to Eighteenth avenue, with a population exceeding 8,000. In 1870 the census takers found 10,610 people here. In 1870 a daily paper, the Sun, made its appearance. In 1868 a market house was built at the corner of Eleventh avenue and Eleventh street, later converted into an opera house. By this time there were three newspapers here, two banks, thirteen churches, a number of good hotels, a large machine shop and car works, additional to the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company's plant, and soon after (1872) a rolling mill was erected. The Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany was also obliged to enlarge their works at this time (1869-70), and, the original grounds reserved being complete- ly occupied with shops, tracks, switches, etc., a larger tract of land was purchased along Chestnut avenue below Seventh street and the car shops were erected at First to Fourth streets. In 1872 the city purchased from the Gas and Water Company their water pipes and water franchise and proceded to build a reservoir at Kittanning Point and lay a 12-inch pipe from there to the storage reservoir constructed on First avenue between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets. About the same time Eleventh and Eighth avenues were macadamized, some sewers constructed, and the city issued its first bonds, $200,000 in 1871 and $150,000 in 1873, to meet the large ex- penditures thus incurred.
The years 1870, 1871 and 1872 were fruitful of many new enterprises in Altoona; new businesses were established, new churches built, several building and loan associations organ- ized, two new banks opened, the rolling mill built, etc., but the panic of 1873, together with the failure of the largest banking firm of the city, in that year, put a damper on many business ventures and retarded the city's growth somewhat, as did also the great strike and railroad riots of 1877. Yet in 1880 the official government census showed that the place had nearly doubled in the preceding decade, 19,710 people being found resident here. In 1878 a park and Fair ground was enclosed at Broad and Twenty-seventh streets and the
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
Blair County Agricultural Society held a fair there which was a great success. But the next year failing to get the State Fair to exhibit here none whatever was held and in 1880, the weather being unfavorable, the fair was a failure and the Fair ground was never used for such purposes again. It has since been sold out in lots and thickly built upon and the Agricultural Society now hold their fairs at Hollidays- burg. This is the only enterprise that ever failed in Altoona permanently.
In 1882 the first street railway was completed and opened for traffic (July 4th). In 1880 a telephone exchange was located here, in 1886 an electric light company and July 4th, 1891, elec- tricity was made the propelling power for the street cars, so at this date Altoona was fully abreast of the times in the use of elec- tricity for all purposes.
In 1888 the need of a complete and comprehensive sewer sys- tem was fully realized and the work of providing for it begun. Since that time the four natural drainage areas of the city have been supplied with large main sewers, and now it is believed 110 better sewered city can be found in the state, although the work of laying smaller branches and feeders has not yet been completed.
In 1888-9 a large silk mill was erected on Ninth avenne at Twenty-fifth street along the Hollidaysburg Branch Railroad, and during the same years several large business blocks were built in the heart of the city, the Masonic Temple, Phoenix Block, etc.
In 1889, it having become apparent that the macadamized streets were not suitable for a city of Altoona's size and import- ance, Eleventh avenue was finely paved with asphalt blocks be- tween Eleventh and Seventeenth streets, and during the same and following years many other avenues were paved, asphalt and vitrified brick being used on some of them, so at this time the city streets are well paved in the best business sections and the work of paving additional streets and avenues is going steadily on.
In 1889-90 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was again obliged to enlarge their plant and they purchased a large tract of land at Juniata, below the car shops, on which they crected ex- tensive locomotive works. About the same time a new railroad was projected and completed to Wopsononock, a beautiful pleas- ure resort, six miles north of Altoona, and later extended to the coal fields of Cambria county; Clearfield and the north being its ultimate destination.
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
In 1893 a new Electric Passenger Railway Company was or- , ganized, "The Altoona and Logan Valley," and constructed electric roads to Hollidaysburg six miles southeast and to Bell- wood seven miles northeast, thus furnishing convenient and cheap transportation to the county seat and other nearby towns. At the same time the same company constructed a beautiful park, lake and picnic grounds at Lakemont, midway between Altoona and Hollidaysburg, furnishing a place of recreation and amuse- ment of incalculable benefit to the residents of the city and pro- viding an additional source of profit to the road. May Ist, 1895. a paid Fire Department superseded the volunteers in the work of protecting the city from the ravages of fire.
Population.
The population of Altoona has previously been referred to and given in round numbers as 44,000, which is believed to be as nearly correct as it can be told without a new count, as the number is increasing daily. This of course includes the suburbs. A careful census taken by the directory canvassers in May, 1895, made the population of the different wards and suburbs as follows :
First Ward. 3,806
Second Ward. 4,978
Third Ward 3,346
Fourth Ward 3,557
Fifth Ward 5,400
5,638
Sixth Ward.
Seventh Ward 2,685
Eighth Ward. 6,186
Total within city limits. 35,602
SUBURBS.
Fairview and adjacent to First Ward 928
Adjacent to Second Ward. 183
Oakton and adjacent to Third Ward. 467
Collinsville and adjacent to Fourth Ward.
193
Newburg, Millertown vicinity. 923
Millville, Allegheny and Westmont. 1,117
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
Rolling Mill, Sixth Ward Suburbs and Allegheny Furnace 507
Seventh Ward Suburbs to Juniata 30
Juniata from Wopsononock Depot to Blair Furnace ... 1,418 Eighth Ward Suburbs, Pottsgrove, East End, and Greenwood 867
Total Suburban which ought to be taken into the city. 6,633
Grand total, the real Altoona. 42,235
Since the foregoing census over 200 new houses have been erected and occupied within the territory embraced. The steady growth of Altoona within city limits is shown from the Government Census as follows :
Population in 1860 (the first after it was founded) 3,591
Population in 1870. 10,610
Population in 1880. 19,710
Population in 1890. 30,260
The total population of Blair county, 1890, was 70,866, and now it cannot be less than 80,000. Population of the State of Pennsylvania, 5,258,014. Only nineteen counties in the State have a population equalling or exceeding that of Blair.
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