Pechin Denbo Marina, Denbo, Pa

Found this on the pier in middle, date unknown

     It was a warm Friday morning, and I somehow managed to get an unexpected day off from work,  so I thought I'd take the long way home in celebration.    I got off the new road, then made my rounds through downtown Brownsville, as word on the street is they were in the process of ripping down even more buildings on the main drag, Market Street.  

View from the rear

     A few of the buildings look to be in the process of being gutted, and there is some revitalization on another building close by.   We'll be back to follow up on this subject, but I got bored with it today,  and had been meaning to stop by the little town of Denbo for a while.

     Now,  a few years back, I did a blog on the construction of the new Route 43 turnpike bridge,

 the bridge that was the final nail in the coffin of the Fredericktown Ferry, or more commonly known as Fred.

     Denbo is a small town along the Monongahela river, and once was home of the Vesta 6 mine,  which supplied coal to the mighty furnaces of the Jones and Laughlin to the north in Pittsburgh.  Vesta 6 shut down in 1946, and since then, it is just another patch town along the river.

    Sometime in the 1980's (unsure of these dates, not a whole lot of info out there, feel free to correct), Sullivan D'Amico of local Pechin's fame opened a marina from a former lumberyard on the main street through Denbo.  I'm no expert, but it looks like he used the existing Vesta structures for barge load out, as a part of the marina layout.   From what people have been commenting on our Facebook page, this Pechin's too, was also famous for its low food prices. 

     I'm not sure when it closed, but the signs on the marina show a 412 area code, and we haven't used that here since 1998, so maybe before then.   As I walked out on the big pier in the center of the below picture, I found these four postcards just laying in the middle of the catwalk, so I took that as a sign to do this post.


     I found an old article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about a fire truck auction at the old marina in 2006.  For those of you familiar w/ the Pechin name, you know what a hoarder  collector the man was.....

The same area today

 What follows are a bunch of pictures of the overgrown and abandoned marina today.  It's currently for sale, so who knows, maybe the 3 dollar steak dinner will return (thanx Jeff Mann for the reference).

The catwalk where I found the postcards

Alicia load out, across river

old boat ramp

Feel free to offer any memories, corrections to the blog....

     

Some great photos of the Crucible Ferry Nekoda!

Sent to us by Facebook follower Shaundra Bissett, these amazing old photos of the Crucible ferry " Nekoda" give a rare glimpse of the ferry in action. Many people have fond memories of the ferry and their family members who relied on it every day! Shaundra writes:

  "I came across your blog and videos the other day.  The crucible ferry was always an interest to me.  I am 47 and as a young girl my dad would take my brother and I down to the ferry and we would play.  This was around 1982 when it was lateral washed on shore.  I can remember it was tethered by huge thick cables.  Anyway I can remember my grandmother telling me my grandfather worked on the ferry, I don't know what year but I was able to find the two pictures I have.  They both have pictures of them with cars on them.  One has a picture of my grandfather standing on the ferry.  The young boy sitting on the waters edge is my uncle so I am guessing these pictures are around the 1950's.  I was so excited to see your blogs about the ferry.  I remember going down to the river after each of the major events to check on it.  Until it was gone."

And here is the current location from the above pictures.

Thank you, Shaundra! If anyone else has any more great old photos, please let us know! We'd love to feature them!

Check out THIS LINK for some additional pictures of the ferry in action, and sitting underwater.   We have tons of ferry related posts here, so don't forget to use the search box and type in ferry.