Their almost all gone the mysterious No name Stores and Lunch Counters that served the Mill and Factory Workers of Western Pa.

 They where the every day staple for those who worked in the mill and could often be found across the street from a Steel Mill or Factory Gate Like the store in picture below which served the Steel Workers going into the US Steel  Clairton Coke Works in Clairton Pa. along Pa 837

 

 Now closed and up for lease like this location . These stores  often run by old men  and retirees served as a place of comfort for workers where they could get a newspaper or magazine a cup of coffee, cigarettes play the lottery or get a bottle of aspirin or shoe laces  and confections .

Many had no name on them like this store and where basic holes in the wall not much bigger than 100 square feet in some cases  and the buildings very run down  some even had a slant to them .

Most now long gone and torn down . Some where small Lunch Counters and some had seating  like Gino's on Neville Island  where you could get a coffee and large piece of excellent lasagna served fast and cheap $5.00 for lunch .

 

But the old men who ran them since they where young got too old to run them and keep them up and shut them down  like in Gino's case but many more where lost in the 80s when many mills and factory's shut down  due to work going overseas and less demand for products and no more workers stopping by for their essentials.

 

There use to sit a small 100 square ft  Green Wooden  Building on left side of the entry tunnel as you went into J&L/ LTV in Alliquippa in above picture.

It was run by a man who was blind who could easily tell change when he made a sale but an occasional scum of a Steel Worker would rip him off and give him a dollar instead of a $20 dollar Bill 

So many story's and good times  of all these legendary locations.  But so little documentation.

There was the  Biggest Little Store on the North Side of Pittsburgh across from Miller Printing Equipment long gone along with Miller Printing.   also Bills Lunch along Lockhart lost when roadways where rebuilt .

Now when family member go looking pictures of these stores and restaurants there Grandparents worked at to reminisce and there is nothing to be found. 

I just wish I could have afforded a movie camera back in day when I worked as a Guard at so many of the places I guarded and stopped at for a cup of coffee  that are now long gone and nothing more than a memory.

If I find photos or articles on these places I will post them as I find them .