USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 68
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Just above the old property of the United States bank is the double block now occupied by the P. Minnig Company and the Ashby Printing Company. This block was erected in 1840-41, and its principal facade remains but little changed after the lapse of more than 60 years. It was in its day an important business block.
Harlan's block occupies the corner. It is a triple building and pre- sents a handsome modern appearance, for it has been rebuilt to a great extent. It is, however, one of the oldest blocks in Erie and was the center of affairs in Erie for a long time. It was erected in 1838-39. Some say that Mr. Fleming, a prominent dry goods merchant of his time, built it. From another source it is stated that a Mr. Bonnell built it. Mr. Bonnell and his brother were dry goods merchants and for a time had the leading dry goods store in Erie. They decided to move away, however, and established themselves in Milwaukee. When it was sold this block became the property of Chas. B. Wright. While he occupied the building he was a member of the mercantile firm of Williams &
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Wright, and for many years, up to quite a recent date, the building was known as Wright's block. In that block, for many years the city council met. It was there that interest largely centered during the troublesome times of the railroad war, for the councilmanic doings had immense weight in determining the course to be taken by the citizens. It was a hive of business. Not the least important historical fact connected with Wright's block is that it was the birth place of the Daily Dispatch in 1864. It was upon the third floor of that building that B. F. H. Lynn had his office and launched the first successful daily paper in Erie. Later. in the sixties, Wright's block contained the general offices of the Phila- delphia & Erie Railroad, where they remained until the headquarters were removed to Williamsport.
On the southeast corner the Empire block stood as it stands today from the time it was built in 1848-49. It was a mercantile building, and the firm that now does business there continues into the third generation. uninterrupted, the business that began at that early day. Perhaps there are not more than two other mercantile houses in Erie that have so long endured. Isaac Baker & Son perpetuate the business begun over a half century ago by B. Baker. The building is not without interest in the history of the town. It was provided with a roomy hall available for public meetings, and it was in request. It was in Empire hall that Capt. Graliam drilled the Home Guards in war time when there was danger of Rebel attack from the lake, and that was but one use to which the place was patriotically devoted in time of need.
Brown's hotel once occupied the vacant place at the corner, having been built in 1851-52. It was removed to give place to a finer modern hospice, but death intervened and a public spirited purpose was never realized.
On the opposite side of the street the buildings erected were chiefly for business purposes. The Rindernecht block on the corner was built in 1858. and the Beckman block in 1859. The latter was built by John Moore. and in its time it was one of the finest buildings in town. It used to be known as the Marble Front and accommodated what became the leading dry goods store in Erie. Mr. Moore was interested in the dry goods business : later William Bell became connected with it, and still later the firm was Bell & Warner. Finally the Warner Brothers suc- ceeded, and moved up town, first to the Olds block and then to the Scott block.
Adjoining the Beckman block is the Elliott block. built in 1847 by Dr. O. L. Elliott. This building contained the leading society hall of the city for a time. Presque Isle lodge of Odd Fellows being the lessees, and for a time the Masons' lodge met in the same place. On the second floor for many years Louis B. Chevalier, the artist, had his studio. The Newberger block. next south. was built in 1847, and the Rosenzweig block, extending to the corner and around on Park row, was built in the
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same year. In the early days the Rosenzweig block was one of the principal office buildings of the city. It was there that the first telegraph office was located, and there began the general insurance agency business of J. F. Downing which has now attained to such vast proportions.
The buildings on North Park row have scarcely changed in half a century. It is a splendid business row, even at this late day. The first of the permanent buildings was the Beatty block, erected in 1841. Here Mr. Beatty conducted his business as a tinner and hardware dealer, and for 16 years his was the only pretentious structure on the thoroughfare. East of him there were low frame buildings ; west of him a lumber yard. In 1857 there came a boom. That year Rosenzweig at the corner, Mur- phy next door, and Capt. Austin half way to Peach street, put up fine buildings and in 1859 Dr. Carter and Gray & Farrar filled in the gaps. The Carter building contained the handsomest store in town-it is hand- some even according to modern ideas. In the Gray & Farrar building, with its imposing front, there was built a convenient little theatre, Farrar hall, a notable advance for Erie. It was the predecessor of Park Opera House, built in 1873. The Levi block and the Mission building on the corner of Peach were built in 1861-62, the latter for a number of years containing the offices of the Erie & Pittsburg railroad.
On the other side from State street, the Reed House, often visited by fire and therefore as often changed in appearance as it was rebuilt, has been the principal feature since 1839-40. The Reed-Gallagher-Gunni- son buildings that filled the space between the Reed House and Brown's Hotel were built in 1861-62.
On the south side of the park the only old-timer that remains is the Allen & Rosenzweig building, built in 1835. Its neighbor adjoining, that had been the Erie bank, and had served as a store and a hotel and finally as a newspaper office, was torn down to provide space for the Federal building.
Now a brief glance at State street southward from the park, and that only to include what is old in the architecture. At the northwest corner of Seventh street are the buildings of Dr. Peter Hall and Jolin Gensheimer. These were erected in 1854. Dr. Hall's had a lodge-room in the upper story which was used by the Sons of Malta in the elucida- tion of their mysteries, and later it was as well known as the meeting place of the Know-Nothings. Mr. Gensheimer's building also had a public hall on the top floor, but its most distinguished service was in accommo- dating branches of the Women's Relief Association in war time, when the ladies gathered to make clothing and comforts for the soldiers in the field.
The Hughes building in the square above Seventh was built in 1837- 38; the Engelhart and Rees building in 1855; the Perry block, opposite, in 183: and the Moore building, now boasting a modern front of light colored brick, in 1856. Above Eighth the Suerken building was erected in 1855. and the Schaaf and Knoll block and the Schlaudecker building on
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the corner of Ninth, now owned by Mr. Liebel, in 1860. The Perry block in the olden time was occupied in the north half by Mr. Tuttle, a merchant, while the south store accommodated the dry goods business of Pressly Arbuckle. The block itself for a long time was a hotel.
CHAPTER IV .- BECOMES A CITY.
TAKES INTEREST IN THE WORLD WITHOUT .- IMPROVEMENTS WITHIN .- LIGHTING, PAVING, SEWERS, WATER .- HOW THE CITY GREW.
The transition of Erie from a borough into a chartered city oc- curred in 1851, and it was effected without even the slightest sug- gestion of friction. The last burgess of Erie was the first mayor of the new city, and it required only that Thomas G. Colt subscribe to the oath of office in order to acquire the greater dignity of mayor of a city. The organization of the city government occurred on May 16, 1851, when Mr. Colt was inaugurated, and Messrs. C. McSparren, WVm. M. Gallagher, F. Schneider, John Zimmerly, A. W. Brewster, and S. M. Carpenter were sworn in as members of the city council. The charter had been drawn by Elijah Babbitt, Esq., and had received the approval of the commonwealth officials; the reading of the char- ter and its acceptance was a feature of that first meeting. Ten days later, at a meeting called for the purpose-May 26, 1851-the mayor announced the death of Alexander W. Brewster, one of the first coun- cilmen, and suitable action was taken.
The first meeting of the city council occurred on May 17, 1851, the day after the inauguration, at 9 o'clock, and the first business transacted was to formulate an invitation to the President of the United States to visit Erie on his northern tour. In the early days it was customary as a manifestation of the good old-fashioned hospital- ity that prevailed, to formally invite people of distinction to pay a visit to the city. Not long afterward the same compliment was ex- tended to Louis Kossuth, the famous Polish patriot.
During the early years of the city's history the local government was active in forwarding enterprises that seemed to promise advan- tages to Erie. This was in evidence when, to encourage the building of plank roads between Waterford, Wattsburg and Edinboro and the city of Erie, the council, for the city, subscribed for stock in these enterprises. The subscriptions were paid for in city bonds, this ex- change of securities being satisfactory to all parties-until the ques- tion of the payment of interest came to the fore, when there occurred a trifle of friction. It was a commendable idea to provide that all roads should lead to Erie, but the investment in plank road stock did
Vol. I-40
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THOS. G. COLT, FIRST MAYOR OF ERIE.
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not turn out to be as profitable as was expected, for these roads never made any money, and there was no result that justified the faith put in them.
It was different, however, in the enterprise that next engaged the principal attention of the city government, which was the Sunbury & Erie Railroad. This, from the very start was enthusiastically backed up by the people of Erie, manifested not only by the action of the city council, but by the proceedings taken in public meetings. There was a formal invitation to the directors of the railroad company and others concerned, and, when there had been an exposition of the plans and purposes of the new railroad corporation, a public meeting was held, in which the mayor and councils took, part and it was voted to sub- scribe in the name of the city for $300,000 of Sunbury & Erie stock. From what appears in the correspondence recorded, this was the most important boost the railroad enterprise had received. Philadelphia, which was the ultimate seaboard terminus of the proposed road, had been tardy. Great things had been expected of the great city, but Phil- adelphia had not come forward, and it was important to Erie that the city on the Delaware should be a part of the enterprise. That subscrip- tion of $300,000 proved the key to unlock the doors of the city in the east. Soon afterwards it was announced that a committee from the councils of Philadelphia, along with other citizens, would visit Erie to learn about the prospects of the new railroad that was to traverse the extreme length of the state, and which was the largest railroad un- dertaking of the time. The result of it all was that Philadelphia be- came a subscriber, and in the course of a short time the enterprise had received subscriptions aggregating a million and a half from the two termini ; Erie city taking $300,000 of the stock; Erie county $200,000, and Philadelphia $1,000,000. Besides the subscription to the stock, the Erie councils voted to the Sunbury & Erie Railroad all the water lots between German and Parade streets at the nominal price of five dol- lars per lot, and later voted to exonerate the property from taxation.
Now all of this was an afterclap of the Railroad War trouble, for that difficulty came upon the city in 1853. The particulars of that contention will be found in earlier chapters of this history, and though there were always different opinions on the subject and still are, the statement, made a little above, that councils and people exerted them- selves for the advancement of Erie will not need modification because of what occurred when the attempt to make railroad gauges uniform was stubbornly resisted by the people.
When the borough was incorporated its boundaries were confined within the limits of the first section of the town of Erie, that is to say, included Parade, Twelfth and Chestnut streets ; but in 1848 the bound- aries were extended to Ash, Buffalo (Eighteenth) and Liberty, and this was the area of Erie when it became a city, which remained un-
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changed until 1870. Very soon after the city government was organ- ized the first action toward opening or establishing new highways was taken when Buffalo street was opened westward from Peach street. There were, however, already more streets than could be well taken care of, and the evolution of an orderly town out of what was but crude material when the city government took hold, was slow indeed. There were sections isolated and toward many of these the roadways became almost dissolving views in many of the streets. There was Cloughsburg, for example. Rufus Clough, a blacksmith, had estab- lished himself at Sixth and Parade streets. He owned most of the land and besides his smithy had a grocery store. There was a traveled highway on Sixth street across the ravine, with a bridge spanning Mill Creek, but from Cloughsburg north, Parade street petered out into nothing, and Seventh street was open only a few yards east from Holland and just as few yards west from Parade. A large colony of Germans had settled in that section which was in olden times called Beyond the Rhine, that is, east of Mill creek. The German territory was from Eighth to about Twelfth, and not farther east than Parade street. There was a bridge on Eighth street and one at Eleventh, but for many years none of the other streets crossed the stream except by fords and then only if the banks upon either side were not too high and abrupt. The canal operated to isolate a big section of the present Fourth ward in the same manner that Mill creek did the east side, only that it was impossible to cross the canal without bridges, unless a pedestrian was steady enough of head and sure enough of foot to em- ploy the running-boards of the locks-and was permitted to do so. That part of the city west of the canal came to be called Jerusalem, given this name originally by William Himrod who owned land there, and platted it into building lots. There were three bridges over the canal-at Fourth, Sixth and Eighth streets. Fourth street led to Jerusalem, and Eighth street was the road to Jericho. All of the other streets ended in commons or rubbish heaps as they approached the canal. All the streets were simply "dirt roads," and until the second or third year of the city government were without sidewalks. Ordi- nances for sidewalks of brick did not effect many changes on the side streets until after the period of the Railroad War.
It was after the city had been chartered before the numbered streets west of State or the public square began to be built up, but when they did it was with a superior class of buildings, generally of brick. Sixth street was the principal street to be affected in this manner. The Bliss house at the corner of Sassafras, the Hearn house, next to the Court House ; the Spencer and Hoskinson houses opposite. the Clemens and Gray and Wilson King houses between Sassafras and Myrtle on the south side and the Hill and Galbraith houses opposite were among the earliest, and most of these have long since acquired
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other names, and many of them are still in use, thoroughly modern- ized within though outwardly much as they were a half century or more ago. When Dr. Hall built on West Ninth street it was in the midst of corn fields and he was joked by his friends for building so far away in the country. Up to the close of the Rebellion there was noth- ing west of Chestnut and south of Sixth, and Parade street was the boundary of civilization and population on the east, except the hamlet of Kingtown north of Sixth street and half a mile distant from the city.
The subject of lighting the streets first came before the council in 1852, when the Erie Gas Company, then recently organized, pre- sented a proposition to that end. It was a proposal so new and a project so entirely untried that the city government seemed to be at a loss how to proceed, so the suggestion of the company was per- mitted to slumber, while the city remained in darkness. Of course there were other things directly to engross the attention of the man- agers of city affairs, especially during that and the two years follow- ing. So the proposal remained without attention until September, 1856, when it was taken up and disposed of. The agreement then was that the city was to pay at the rate of two dollars per thousand for the gas used, each lamp to consume not less than 11,000 feet per year ; the gas company to set up posts and lamps when ordered at a cost of $27 each ; to keep them in repair at a cost of twenty-five cents per month for each lamp; the contract to continue until January 1, 1860, and thereafter until ninety days after notice served by either party to the contrary. The agreement was entered into on a plan which provided that the lamps were to be lighted only when there was no moonlight, so that for a week or more of each month nature lighted the streets, and the artificial illuminant was dispensed with.
The council, in making provisions for lighting the streets took care not to impose the burden of the additional expense on the citizens regardless. There was only a portion of the city supplied with street lamps, and streets were provided with illumination only upon petition of the property owners. Accordingly a gas tax was levied upon those citizens who enjoyed the luxury of lighted streets, and this system obtained until after the introduction of electricity, the gas tax ordi- nance being repealed in 1898.
Street paving came as tardily as street lighting had done. It was in 1856, the same year that the lighting was adopted, that the subject of paving was taken up. At a meeting on December 15 of that year a resolution was adopted calling for an estimate of the expense of paving State street with cobble stone, macadam, plank or blocks. The esti- mate was not immediately forthcoming. Indeed there is no mention of the subject until at a meeting held on May 30, 1859, a committee appointed at a previous meeting reported on the modes of paving adopted by other cities and the costs of the different methods. "Where-
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upon," as the record sets forth, "a resolution was adopted that upon a majority of the property owners petitioning, councils will provide for paving street intersections and at the public square, and appro- priate the taxes levied upon State street until the property owners are refunded the expense of paving.
The ordinance for paving State street from Fourth to Eighth street with stone was passed July 28, 1859, and received the approving signature of Mayor Sherburne Smith. This was the beginning of street paving in Erie. On August 29 of that year the Select Council passed an ordinance levying a tax on the real estate on State street from Fourth to Eighth street for the paving, which was not concurred in by the Common Council until September 12, and approved September 16. On June 9, 1862, an ordinance was adopted to pave State street from Eighth to Turnpike, Turnpike from State to Peach, and Peach from Turnpike to Buffalo street. In June, 1863, an ordinance was adopted to pave North Park Row from Peach to French, and in June, 1864, provision was made to pave State street from Fourth to Front. Then for a time the city rested from its labors in the paving line.
About this time there was devised a new mode of pavement that obtained a remarkable degree of favor-without experience to war- rant it, however. It had been tried in the neighborhood of the Michi- gan pineries, and the representation was that Detroit had tested it and, satisfied with results, had laid miles of it. It was called the Nich- olson pavement, and was made of brick-shaped blocks of wood, laid with the grain vertical, with a narrow strip of wood an inch thick between the courses, the whole treated with a coat of tar, and clean gravel filled between the courses above the separating strip and that also treated with tar. The blocks were laid upon planks resting upon sand ballast, and blocks and strips were nailed together and to the boards upon which they were placed, in the process of laying. Fever for the Nicholson pavement reached Erie. In 1867 an ordinance for paving Peach street from Fifteenth to Second was adopted, and an- other for paving French street from Eighth street to the north side of Front street, and the Nicholson mode was adopted. It was laid. But trouble ensued. There were citizens who refused to pay the taxes assessed, and a case came into court, in which the late Lewis WV. Olds was the defendant, and Mr. Olds obtained a verdict. But that was not all. The pavement proved to be practically worthless-perhaps because improperly constructed-and in the course of a few years it was pulled up and a stone pavement laid instead at the expense of the city.
Paved streets thenceforward multiplied. At first only Medina stone was considered, and along in the decade of the seventies there were a number of large contracts. The largest was the paving of Sixth street from French to Parade and Parade from Sixth to Eighteenth
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street. At about the same time Ninth and Eleventh were paved from French to Parade and Sixth from Peach to Walnut. In 1881, how- ever, asphalt effected an entrance. A sample piece was laid on Sixth street near Peach, and this, showing good wear, made a favorable im- pression. At once it attained to popularity and continued until the present. In 1893, because paving with brick cost less, contracts were made for pavements on four of the city streets, and at the present time pavements continue to be laid of both brick and asphalt, but asphalt has the preference, and when worn-out stone pavements come to be replaced the choice is uniformly for asphalt. There are 110 miles of streets in the city of Erie of which about 401/2 miles are paved at the present writing, and, expressed in tabular fashion the exhibit of pav- ing in Erie would be about as follows :
Sheet asphalt
461,321.7 yards 23.04 miles
Block asphalt
12,985.3 yards .65 miles
Brick pavement
.327,042.5 yards 13.32 miles
Stone pavement
82,961.6 yards 3.53 miles
Total
884,311.1 yards
40.50 miles
Partly due to the influence of the railroads, partly to the growth of industries, partly to the effect upon growth in population by the exist- ence of leading thoroughfares communicating with the smaller towns in the county, and not a little to the natural advantages of the section, the region directly south of and adjoining the city became so thickly settled that in 1866 it was decided to organize it into a borough, and, the movement led by such influential citizens as Heman Janes, Wm. Henry, Rev. J. H. Pressly, Adam Acheson, Edwd. Camphausen, Michael Liebel and others a charter was obtained for the borough of South Erie. Its boundaries were: North by Buffalo street (the south- ern boundary of Erie) ; east by Parade; south by the Ridge road, and west by Cherry street. It had a brief but strenuous existence. Peach street, the main highway, was paved ; a market house was built front- ing on Peach and State streets near Simpson street, as it was then called ; schools were erected ; streets opened, and other improvements undertaken, the money required being obtained by the issue of bonds. In 1870, however, it was decided to effect annexation with the city and this was accomplished, the city taking in its neighbor along with all the encumbrances, consisting chiefly of a pretty considerable debt. However, much more than the borough of South Erie was then added to the city. The boundaries were extended on the south to about what would be Thirtieth street; on the east to the Lighthouse road extend- ed southward, and to Cranberry street, the present limits of the city, except that in 1908 a panhandle on the west from Eighth to Eleventh,
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
east of Cranberry street was added. One effect of the annexation of South Erie was the alteration of street designations. Buffalo street became Eighteenth; Greene, Nineteenth; Monroe, Twentieth; Simp- son, Twenty-first; Brown, Twenty-second; Washington, Twenty- third; Franklin, Twenty-fourth; Eagle, Twenty-fifth and South, or the Ridge road, Twenty-sixth. There was a part of Erie, annexed to the borough in 1848, that, furnished with provisional street names, had these altered in order to agree with the system adopted for the town when it was laid out by Mr. Ellicott. In the section between Twelfth and Buffalo street these changes in names were made: Canal street to Thirteenth ; Washington, to Fourteenth ; Penn to Fifteenth ; Court, to Sixteenth, and Ichabod to Seventeenth.
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