The Abandoned Horner Memorial Nurses Home, Brownsville, PA

This post is near and dear to my heart as,you may or not know, I am a nurse. There is a proud tradition in nursing of our history and the struggles of nurses. The role of nursing in the early days was not a glamorous one. Duties of a nurse in the early 1900s may have included stoking coal stoves, cooking, cleaning as well as the actual patient care. A far cry from our computer assisted nursing of today.

I graduated from the Washington Hospital School of Nursing, which itself is over 100 years old. Walking through the halls and looking at the class photos was a true trip through time. I recall a graduating class of one! Perhaps we need to revisit my old school, as it is a treasure trove of history in itself.

Today's post is a look at another nearby hospital based nurses dorm/nursing school. I'm ashamed to say I was only recently aware of its existence. Once again, Brownsville, Pa has provided us with an amazing old building who, as far as I know.has an uncertain future. Let me back up a bit....

Saturday started with a trip to the Fredricktown, Pa Ferryboat Festival.  The ferry wasn't running , (see video in previous post here ) so we decided to go to our old stand-by, Brownsville.  After a quick stop at another location which you will see soon, we headed up the hill to the old hospital, which I have never seen. We laughed as we pulled up to see a crew of several fellow explorers, tripods in hand, debating entrance to the old nurses home. We jokingly told them to "get off our turf" and quickly parked the rental and introduced ourselves. While Evan was talking to the guys I whispered to the young lady in the group who was eager to check the place out."C'mon...lets go!" We darted across the street and into the unlocked door. Being broad daylight and an unplanned trip, my photos aren't Danielle quality. I grabbed some quick shots and Evan and I decided to let the other kids take this one. It is a beautiful ole place with a lot of history. Rather than copy and paste, I'm gonna send you to:
 http://www.abandonedonline.net/hospitals/brownsville-general-hospital/. This is a great site with a ton of info on the buildings. Another thing I like about this site is their references are properly cited...which I learned to do...in nursing school. Enjoy the shots!

 

 

 

And a few of the old Brownsville General Hospital across the street.

And we thought we were done talking about missing ferry boats. Fredericktown Ferry Boat Festival 2012

Another Mystery Plaza!

While Evan is sequestered away in Connecticut, I've been going to my Grandfather's old 35mm slides to find cool shots to share until he gets back and we can get to some good explorin' with Danielle and her trusty camera. I've been finding some cool shots which I'll be posting up. To make it fun, we're gonna make this a reader participation game. Nothing gets the juices flowing around here than a good game of "Where is/was this?" So... here we go..

Faithful readers may remember awhile back I posted a photo of an old shopping center I thought was the old Uniontown Shopping Center, formerly the local cruising spot. We went on,through the help of yinz guys, to discover it is actually a shopping plaza in Connellsville.

At that time I pondered why my Grandfather took seemingly random shots of local stores. Well, I found out. My Dad said my Grandfather would shoot the last few frames of his roll of film outside the store before taking it in to be developed, as not to waste shots. It turns out some of these pictures captured a cool look into the past and were actually cooler than whatever tree or flower he was shooting that day (sorry,Grandad). I'm sure he didn't figure we'd be checking them out some sixty years later.

So here we have another shopping plaza in what I believe is the very early sixties. I initially thought this, too, was the Uniontown Shopping Center because of the S.S. Kresge store visible. I'm not sure, though as this plaza doesn't seem L shaped like Uniontown. I'm not sure, though.

My Grandad traveled all over God's green Earth, so this shot could be from anywhere. The Kroger makes me think it is local, though. Is it Uniontown? Can you make out any other stores? Where is this?? If we get an answer,we'll try to get a 'now' shot...kind of like the one we owe you from Connellsville!

 Bonus shot. Same plaza.

Lets Go Bucs! Forbes Field June 1961..

"Pittsburgh, PA...a drinking town with a sports problem".  I saw that on a t-shirt once.  I also remember a sign that said "Pittsburgh:City of Champions...and the Pirates".  Yea...it's been a dry spell.I  t is easy to jump on the bandwagon of a team that is winning but lets face it, win or lose, we love our Pirates.  Although winning seasons have evaded them over the recent years, things are looking up for the Buccos.

 My earliest memories of Pirates baseball were laying in my bed with the window open on a warm summer night.  I could clearly hear the radio broadcast from John Chernisky's nearby porch as he listened to the games.  He never missed one.  John was a good man who was good to the kids and gave me a pumpkin every Halloween from his garden.   I grew up with and played little league with his grandson, George "June Bug" Chernisky, as well as countless wiffle ball games with the Rices Landing crew.

 My first Pirate game was a trip to Three Rivers Stadium in the early 90s when the Pirates/Mets rivalry was hot and heavy.   We taunted Met's outfielder Darryl Strawberry from the cheap seats !Andy Demaske even got on the scoreboard and evening news waving his shirt above his head.  The TV announcer (Fedko?) said "Big game-Big win!" as the camera panned in on a shirtless "Chooch" Demaske rooting on the Buccos.   I'd pay a million dollars for a Youtube clip of that!

 So this post is dedicated to June Bug,  Chooch and all the Rices Landing crew!  I wish I had planned this but I admit, it was pure luck!  After going trough more of my Grandfather's old slides, I came upon these!  I have never seen these but  in light of the Pittsburgh Pirates recent winning season (they're in second place as I type this) what better time to post up some classic Buccos shots!?

 These are shots taken by my Grandad from Forbes Field in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh dated June 1961.  It looks like it may have been some sort of ceremony,judging from the trophy.
 Forbes Field was demolished when I was just a baby so I was never there.  Most remember it as the sight of  Bill Mazeroski's home run which won the 1960 World Series.  As per the Wiki the field opened in 1909 and  the final game was against the Cubs on June 28, 1970.

 The scoreboard lists the next game against St. Louis the following day so I assume that is who they are playing.  According to baseball-almanac.com the Pirates played the Cardinals on June 16,17 and a double header on the 18th.  The Pirates won 3 of 4 games.   More info here.We need you baseball fanatics to set us straight! Chooch, get to studying these pix and....'Lets Go Bucs!"

The Final word on Nekoda!

I just got off the phone with Engle's Holiday Harbor, near Millsboro,  PA.  I now know the whole story of what happened to the Crucible Ferry a.k.a. Nekoda.  This is a rough timeline so forgive me if it's not 100% accurate.
 After ceasing operation, the ferry sat on the concrete ramp leading into the Monongahela.  It ended up in the river at one point, either by flood waters or a theft attempt (!) but was removed by the Corps of  Engineers and placed on the bank near the ramp.  It sat there until the flood of '85 where it was washed slightly north and stuck on a shallow sandbar, just below the surface.
 The ferry was then towed to Engle's, as Steve Morris said in his comment.  There it was pumped out as it was filled with mud.  The ferry was then cut in two pieces and is being used as salvage/dive barges.  Among the many stories we heard, this was one of them.  The gentleman I spoke to at Engle's assured me that this is the full story and the ferry, although still technically in existence, is unrecognizable now.

 So, the only thing I can tell you is get to Fredricktown and ride the ferry while it's still there.  With the new bridge, I doubt it will be long.  Thanks to everyone who supplied stories and pictures of the ferry.  Ed Begovich may still have some photos in his collection which I will post if he finds them.  If anyone does know the current owner of whats left of the ferry, let us know...

Isabella, PA - Mine Tipple

The Isabella Coal Mine started approximately in the year in 1907 as part of the Isabella Connellsville Coal & Coke Company, and then was taken over by the Hecla Coal & Coke Company in 1916, switching hands again to the Hillman Coke Company, and again to Weirton Steel/Coal Company, and then lastly to the National Steel Company.

Isabella Coke Works

At one time, the coal mine also had a coke works located there, but there are pretty much no remnants of these left. Isabella functioned into the mid 1980s when it was shut down. The buildings related to the mine were demolished and all that remains is one brick building and the tipple, extending out over the Monongahela River.

Isabella, PA now

And Then

The business end of the load out

Popular spot for river jumpers

Railroad ties and track used to cover this

Coal loading chute

River 40 feet below

The conveyer where the coal traveled from the tipple to the load out

Wheels for the conveyer

Barge tie up

Wooden underbelly

The machine shop is the only other building left standing

Rather unremarkable interior of machine shop

From last winter.  A CSX local freight train passes under the Isabella load out.

Looking North to the Crucible mine site.  Waste piles on right.

Rope swing on right