Monday, January 3, 2011

The underpass time forgot! Rices Landing, PA





I've passed this sealed off underpass a million times in my life but never payed much attention to it until recently.My father and I climbed down the hill behind his house and onto the bike trail about a year or so ago.In the hour or so we walked,I learned alot.One thing he described stuck out.
Main street did not always follow the route it does now.At some point(in the 1960's ,I believe)two 90 degree turns were bypassed to the curent route.If you look carefully you can see the walls from the original underpass.My Dad told me,at one time,to get into/out of Rices Landing,you went through an underpass.I snapped a few pics and realized this is one of the cool things we go past all the time and never look at.I'm going to try to find some pics of the original route and post those when I get them.Stay tuned!

3 comments:

  1. I did not know this.
    Cool.
    Where is it exactly?

    Turn the date stamp feature off on your camera!

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  2. I remember this underpass. You had to blow your car horn to alert another car that you were entering the underpass. If you were coming down the hill, once you passed through the underpass, the school was right in front of you. It had 8 grades My dad went to that school from 1915 to 1923 and then he went to work in the coal mines at Crucible. I attended the school from 1940 until 1945 when we moved to New Jersey (after WW II). The Clarchick family were part of my dad's family,since his mother, Liz Strednak was the daughter of John Clarchick...original name....Kollarcsik. Liz was married to George Matyk who was my grandfather. After he died, Buba....as we knew her, married John Strednak. It has been many years since I visited the old homestead on Bayard Avenue. We lived about 5 houses away from Crucible Road where the Blue Moon Tavern was located.

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    Replies
    1. I can't believe I stumbled upon this! Your grandfather George Matyk is the brother of my great-grandmother, Mary Matyk Biskup! I'm from Cleveland, OH, still live there but as I've begun digging into the family history, I've been visiting Rices Landing and Crucible at least once a month. I'll be going back on May 1, 2015. My grandmother's cousin still lives in the house on Bayard. I would love to connect with you and be able to find out more information & discuss the family. Just yesterday I came across Lizzie & George's marriage record and found her in the 1940 census after she remarried into the Strednak family.

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