Twentieth century history of Altoona and Blair County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens, Part 40

Author: Sell, Jesse C 1872-
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Publishing
Number of Pages: 1036

USA > Pennsylvania > Blair County > Altoona > Twentieth century history of Altoona and Blair County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens > Part 40

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Originally laid out in a narrow valley, it has filled this and climbed the hills on either side and grown in all directions, so that a large part of it is built on hills of moderate eleva- tion. The city lines as now established em- brace a territory about three miles long and two miles wide. Less than sixty years old, it has grown with such surprising rapidity

that it is now the eighth city in the state, in population, and second to none in material prosperity.

The lowest ground in the city is 1, 120 feet above the level of the ocean and the hills rise 100 to 150 feet higher, making the site and surroundings picturesque in the ex- treme and furnishing innumerable points of observation, from which nearly the entire city maye be taken in at one view; yet, in few places are the ascents so abrupt as to interfere with the laying out and grading of streets and avenues, The main line of the Pennsylvania railroad passes through the heart of the city from northeast to south- west, and the avenues are laid out parallel with the tracks. Crossing these at right angles are thoroughfares of equal width, de- nominated streets; and both streets and avenues are given numerical names, begin- ning at a base line and numbering in regular order from that. First avenue is near the southeastern boundary of the city, and First street near the northeastern limit. To this general rule there are some exceptions, but on the whole the city may be said to be reg- ularly laid out.

The city of Altoona is in large measure a creation of the Pennsylvania railroad com- pany, and it has remained essentialy a rail- road town. It is a striking and successful example of corporate interest and care as applied to municipal affairs. The yard,

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shop sites and residence lots were laid out in 1849. The erection of the shops was be- gun in 1850. They were composed of a two- thirds round house, containing eight tracks, to be used for storage of locomotives. One portion of this roundhouse was partitioned off for a paint shop, and another for the making of freight car repairs. There were also a machine shop, a car shop, and a loco- motive repair shop in a long one-story build- ing, with a wing at its west end devoted to foundry purposes. These were all the shops at Altoona when the road was opened through to Pittsburg, Feb. 15, 1854.

Altoona is unique in having its site away from any considerable stream of water, but to the northeast a short distance is the Lit- tle Juniata and to the southwest Mill run, both of which furnish a considerable quan- tity of pure mountain spring water, while still further to the west and south are Kit- tanning and Sugar run streams, the former being the source of supply for the city water system.

The character of the buildings is very creditable, considering the youth of the city. There are 10,000 dwellings within the city limits, inhabited by 60,000 industrious, fru- gal, well-informed, cheerful and happy peo- ple, while 2,000 more houses and 10,000 more people are just without the corporate limits. All taken together make one thriv- ing city of 70,000 inhabitants ; and the time is not far distant when its boundary lines will be extended to include them all.

Aside from the business blocks, which are nearly all brick, about three-fourths of the buildings are frame, a few are stone, and the remainder brick or brick-cased; nearly all are neat and comfortable; many are more than this; while not a few are palatial in architectural design and finish, the home of wealth and refinement. Eleventh ave- nue, on the northwest side of the railroad, from Eleventh street to Seventeenth street, is the great commercial and mercantile cen- ter, where real estate and rents are highest. Here are the banks, newspapers, the great

dry goods stores and hotels, with the pas- senger station and postoffice but one square distant. The wholesale establishments are principally on Eleventh street between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, and Green and Eleventh avenues between Seventh and Eleventh streets. The manufacturing dis- trict, aside from the railroad shops, is on Ninth and Margaret avenues, west of Seven- teenth street; and this is also the location of the retail coal trade and that of dealers in builders' supplies, lime, sand, brick, pipe, etc. Other business centers of considerable importance are Twelfth street and Eighth avenue. Eighth avenue and Ninth street and Fourth street and Sixth avenue. The most desirable residence locations are on Broad, Beale and West Chestnut avenues, between Nineteenth and Twenty-seventh streets, and various places on Lexington, Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth ave- nues.

The street car lines, city passenger and Logan valley, motive power, electricity since 1891, traverse every section of the city, and extend to Hollidaysburg, the county seat, six miles, to Tyrone, ten miles, and to Eldorado, three miles. Separate lines connecting with Johnstown, forty-five miles west over the Allegheny mountain, and with Bedford, forty miles south, are pro- jected and are likely to be built within the next year.

There are now over twenty-five miles of finely paved streets in the city, including the three kinds most popular, asphaltum, concrete block and vitrified brick, extending over a large part of the best business and residence portions of the town, and this will be augmented during the ensuing year. Al- toona is well sewered; having a sewer sys- tem capable of meeting the requirements of a city of 100,000 inhabitants.

Altoona is supplied with water from sev- eral mountains which empty into the gath- ering and starting reservoirs at Kittanning point, a picturesque spot six miles west of the city, within the circle of the famous

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horse-shoe bend of the Pennsylvania rail- road and under the very shadow of the Alle- ghenies' crest. The drainage area is wood- · covered mountain sides, owned largely by the city, and the water consequently free from impurities. It is brought to Altoona by gravity. While from its elevation, it might be inferred that the climate would be severe, the facts are otherwise; the moun- tains break the force of the north and west winds and the winters are not more rigor- ous than on lower levels in the same lati- tude elsewhere, and the usually prevailing weather of spring and fall is marvelously de- lightful.

The greater portion of the male labor of the city is employed in the shops or as trainmen by the Pennsylvania railroad company, the to- tal number thus employed in shops, offices and the road approximating 15,000. It is esti- mated that there are about 800 female wage carners in Altoona. Aside from the interests of the railroad company there are a limited number of industries which are yearly becom- ing more diversified, and employing a greater number of people. But Altoona has been, and for many years will continue to be a manufac- turing center mainly for the benefit of the Pennsylvania railroad company.

INDUSTRIES.

Aside from the Pennsylvania railroad com- pany's interests the only considerable manu- facturing plant is that of a large silk mill em- ploying about 800 persons, mostly females. However, there are some varied industries, largely covered by the following list: Bak- eries, brick manufacturies, book-binderies, breweries, cigar manufacturies, cleaning and dye works, gas works, electrical works, laun- drys, lumber manufacturies and mattress and women's garment factories.

CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION.

All nationalities are represented in this great body of working men. Of the foreign ele- ments the Italians lead in numbers, the Italian population of the city numbering about 5,000.

There are large numbers of Germans and Irish; however, both of the latter named ele- ments assimilate so rapidly that they soon lose their identity as foreigners. The so-called "foreigners" of the city are usually intelligent, largely due to the nature of their employment. Great numbers of them are skilled artisans in iron, steel, and wood working. This is es- pecially true of the Germans. Iron, steel and wood working have become a second nature to them, and they have educated themselves in their respective lines until no better, no more skilled mechanics are to be found in the world than those in the Pennsylvania railroad com- pany's shops in Altoona and vicinity. Many who have been educated in the great industrial schools found abroad are here employed. No mechanical intricacies are too deep for their intellligent and trained minds and hands. Mental worth and skill here find a market at excellent and advancing wages provided by an appreciative employer. These influences have all combined to mold a special characteristic out of the foreign and American population in the form of an unusually intelligent working class.

Fully fifty per cent of the working classes of the city own homes. The employers of la- bor encourage the purchasing of homes and urge the workingman to locate permanently in the city. There are thirty-three building and loan associations, having a total of $4,500,000 due shareholders account, installment stock and interest, operating in Altoona, thus rep- resenting millions of dollars of the savings of the people of the city. The practice of buying real estate has become a permanent factor among those earning a wage, and its merits are proven by the large number of satisfied home earners, citizens whose property in the city interests them in all its permanent insti- tutions, and causes them to reflect upon the real purposes of law and government. Their homes are mostly frame structures, built singly and in pairs, arranged so that light and air are abundant, and small garden plots are not infrequent. Home life is both healthful and happy under these conditions. Those

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renting pay from $10 to $20 per month rental. The working classes pay an average rental of $13 per month. The sanitary conditions sur- rounding these dwellings are good. There are no congested tenement districts and no "tenderloin."

AN EVENTFUL EPOCH.

The decade between 1850 and 1860 was a most eventful one in the history of the United States. It witnessed the opening era of suc- cessful and general railroad building and the culmination of the causes which led up to the great Civil war. At the commencement of this ten-year period Altoona had her birth, at its close she was a flourishing borough of 3,500 inhabitants, standing where before was only forest, sterile fields and one poor farm- house. The 224 acres of farm and woodland, on which the original Altoona was built, and which is now principally included between Eleventh and Sixteenth streets and Fourth and Fourteenth 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 completion 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 price for it.

Archibald Wrights, of Philadelphia, acting presumably for the Pennsylvania railroad company, though just what relation he sus- tained to it is not clear, purchased the Robeson farm of 223 acres and 123 perches for $II,- 000. The deed was dated April 24, 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 on the northeast and Sixteenth street between same avenues on the southwest, Fourth ave- nue 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 1849, and the plot, as laid

out, was acknowledged by Archibald Wright, in Philadelphia, Feb. 6. 1850, but was not re- corded until Feb. 10, 1854, at the time the young town was organized into a borough. This original plot is on record now in Holli- daysburg 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, al- most 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 is this plot is described as lying in "Tuckahoe Valley," that name being applied to this upper end of Logan Valley, which ex- tends to Tyrone. Adjoining the Altoona plot at that time was the John McCartney farm on the northwest, the McCormick and An- drew Green farms on the northeast, the Will- iam Bell farm on the southeast and the Will- iam Loudon farm on the southwest. The Loudon and Green farms were soon after plot- ted and offered for sale in building lots, and later all the McCartney 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 the Y switches near Duncansville and one mile from Holli- daysburg, and from there trains ran over the Allegheny mountains on the Old Portage, a state institution completed in 1833. The Al- toona 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 Kit- tanning 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

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1854-5 by the railroad company but did not extend back to Eleventh avenue as now al- though it was an immense affair and, at that time, greatly out of proportion to the little village in which it stood.

The two lines of the railroad west from the city, the one completed and the other being graded, diverging as they did then is ac- countable for the peculiar wedge shape of the site of the company's first shops, and the fact that the avenues on the northwest and south- east 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 1851, and the first deed made, as the records at Hollidaysburg show, was Feb. II, 1851, for two lots on the corner of Twelfth avenue and Thirteenth street to the First Presby- terian church, price $100 for the two. If any earlier 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 the 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, ho- tels, stores and a bank were opened, a news- paper 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 borough 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 15 of that year. Simultaneously with the water works came the organization of fire companies and a fire engine was pur- chased, 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 con- siderable importance, furnishing cars and en- gines to transport soldiers and munitions of war, as well as her full quota of men to de- fend the Union. All through that four years' period Altoona grew and throve. After the war closed the citizens erected a handsome monument in Fairview cemetery to commem- orate her fallen heroes.

The city charter was procured in Febru- ary, 1868, the bounds being extended so as to take in the territory northeast of First street, southeast to First avenue, southwest to Twenty-seventh street and northwest to Eighteenth avenue, with a population ex- ceeding 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 cor- ner 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 num- ber of good hotels, a large machine shop and car works, additional to the Pennsyl- vania railroad company's works, and soon after, in 1872, a rolling mill was erected. The Pennsylvania railroad company was also obliged to enlarge their works at this time, and, the original grounds reserved be- ing completely occupied with shops, tracks, 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 pur- chased from the gas and water company their reservoir, water pipes and water fran- chise and proceeded to build a reservoir at

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Kittanning point and lay a twelve-inch pipe from there to the storage reservoir con- structed on First avenue between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets. About the same . time Eleventh and Eighth avenues were ma- cadamized, some sewers constructed, and the city issued its first bonds, $200,000, in 1871, and $150,000 in 1873, to meet the larger expenditure thus incurred.

The years 1870, 1871 and 1872 were fruit- ful on many new enterprises in Altoona ; new businesses were established, new churches built, several building and loan associations organized, two banks opened, the rolling mill built, etc .; but the panic of 1873, together with the failure of the largest banking firm in the city in that year, put a damper on many business enterprises 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 peo- ple being found resident there. In 1878 a park and fair ground was enclosed at Broad and Twenty-seventh streets and the Blair county agricultural society held a fair there which was a great success. . It was held there but once afterwards and proved a fail- ure on account of the unfavorable weather.

In 1882 the first street railway was com- pleted and opened for traffic, July 4th. In 1880 a telephone exchange was located here, in 1886 an electric light company and July 4, 1891, electricity was made the pro- pelling power for street cars, so at this date Altoona was fully abreast of the times in the use of electricity for all purposes.

In 1888 the need of a complete and com- prehensive sewer system 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 no better sewered city can be found in the state, although the work of laying smaller branches and feeders has not yet been com- pleted.

In 1888-9 a large silk mill was erected on Ninth avenue at Twenty-fifth street. along the Hollidaysburg branch railroad, and dur- ing 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 importance, Eleventh avenue was finely paved with as- phalt blocks between Eleventh and Seven- teenth streets, and during the same period many other avenues were paved, asphalt and vitrified brick being used on some of them. The paving work has been continued in recent years, so that almost all the im- portant thoroughfares of the city are now paved.

In 1889-90 the Pennsylvania railroad com- pany was again obliged to enlarge its plant, and purchased a large tract of land at Jun- iata, below the car shops, on which it erected extensive locomotive works. About the same time a new railroad was projected and completed to Wopononock, a beautiful pleasure resort, six miles north of Altoona, and later extended to the coal fields of Cam- bria county.

In 1893 a new electric passenger railway company was organized, the Altoona and Logan Valley, and lines were constructed to Hollidaysburg and Bellwood, and later to Tyrone. At the same time the same com- pany constructed a beautiful park, lake and picnic grounds at Lakemont, midway be- tween Altoona and Hollidaysburg, furnish- ing a place of recreation and amusement of incalculable benefit to the residents of the city and providing an additional source of profit to the road. May I, 1895, a paid fire department superceded the volunteers in the work of protecting the city from the rav- ages of fire.

The development of the city has thus been briefly outlined from the beginning, and details will follow in subsequent chap- ters. From the time of its birth it has been like the bud of a flower-growing, expand-

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ing and unfolding new beauties, and its de- velopment has been continuous and phe- nomenal. It is but sixty years since its birth. Then it became a village, then a town, then a city, and now, behold! A city of sixty thousand inhabitants, bustling with indus- try, beaming with intelligence, alive to twentieth century methods, modern in its every makeup, one of the grandest of all the hives of industry on earth-this we call Altoona.

When we stop to think that all that we see about us, excepting the hills and the mountains, have sprung into existence within the last sixty years, the thought fairly staggers us. The first owners of the farms on which the city is built never dreamed of the possibilities of the future. No one will dispute that the location of the town was a mistake. But the Pennsylvania railroad company wanted a central site for its loco- motive and car works. The people of Hol- lidaysburg became wild with greed when they heard that the railroad was coming through and the prices they asked for land were most unreasonable. This compelled the company to select the site of the present plant, the largest in the world, and from the time of that selection, Altoona grew. The mistake in location has been well amended. Where once were marshy swamps, impos- ing churches and school houses, handsome residences and business blocks are seen in- stead, and the blocks of buildings are em- 1

broidered with paved streets.

The city now looks forward to more rapid growth, greater development and beneficial improvement than ever before. The idea of a greater Altoona has per- meated the atmosphere. The people are no longer satisfied in having the greatest rail- road plant in the world. They are reaching out for a greater diversity of industries, and by the time another decade rolls around it will be a city of 100,000 inhabitants.

A BIT OF ALTOONA HISTORY.

George D. Ogden, of Philadelphia, assist-

ant general freight agent of the Pennsyl- vania railroad company, in an address at the annual banquet of the Altoona Merchants' asociation and chamber of commerce, on June 16, 1910, delivered an address, in which he told of the birth of the city of Altoona and the relations which exist between the greatest railroad corporation and the city which it created. Mr. Ogden said :

That Altoona has been successful cannot be gainsaid, when we stop to consider that the Pennsylvania railroad company pur- chased on April 24, 1849, fifteen acres from Archibald Wright for the sum of $11,000, the tract of land lying at the head of the Tuckahoe valley.

Ground was broken early in the summer of 1850 and the construction of the first rail- road building was commenced. This was the beginning of the settlement which has grown to be a hustling city of about 50,000 inhabitants.

The author of "Locomotive Sketches" thus described Altoona in 1853:

"Altoona (238 miles from Philadelphia, 125 from Pittsburg, a level of 1,168 feet above tide-water) will ultimately become one of the most important places of this route.

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Twentieth century history of Altoona and Blair County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens, Part 40

Author: Sell, Jesse C 1872- Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Number of Pages: 1036

Author: Sell, Jesse C 1872-
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Publishing
Number of Pages: 1036