Long abandoned this little building played a big role in protecting Neville Island from Nazi sabotauers in WWII

A customer of mine on Nevile Island  bought the old Liberty Pittsburgh Tag company building on Grand Ave. after a long strike by workers saw the company end up in bankruptcy , which has been many things over the years it started out as a Printing Company then became Triangle News Company warehouse then a furniture clearance warehouse and finally Pittsburgh Tag. All this time a small brick building at the top of the property sat empty and unused rotting away.
Thousands of people have passed this little brick building unaware its significance during WWII
as it served as the Headquarters for the US Navy Shore patrol an armed force  which patrolled the island  24/7 during WWII as it was high up on the list of industrial facility's which  Nazi Germany had on its list of places to hit as the LST Landing Ship Tanks and other boats where built on the island. In fact if you where caught on the island without a  special pass you could well end up shot on site  for being a spy.


Lockers for personnel

door to small armory where riffles where kept
A LST paid for by Citizens of Allegheny County being commissioned at N I Boat Yard

Bench in the jail cell which held drunks and those who came on island with out a pass 

Unfortunately nothing was left on the inside of the building  but the old jail cell minus its barred door   and an empty armory vault  My customer in an effort to save it  had a new roof and windows installed and hopes to one day feature it as a small museum on the islands history during WWII  and open as a museum some day  but for now it sits empty  and secured and on private property  and inaccessible  till it can be restored some day .

A little known battle between Railroad Workers and Pipe Layers in Ohara Twp. which changed how Oil would be transported across the country

As a young man I had a fantastic Biology teacher  in Carrick High School named Barbra Novasol and over time became very good friends with her as we both had an interest in Rocks and Minerals and I often spent time at her gentleman's farm in Ohara twp  also known as Montrose Hill  and Powers run  helping to maintain it in the summer time, and she often spoke of a battle at the bottom of Powers Run Road and Freeport Road  Old Pa 28   between the railroad and Oil Pipe Layers which appears to have been very violent  and is discussed in the excerpt below
In a book published by Dan Nowak

An Incomplete Historical Survey
of
Montrose Hill, O’Hara Township,
Allegheny County, PA
and the
Surrounding Area
including
Powers Run Area, RIDC Area, River Road Area, Blawnox
Area and lands downstream as far as Aspinwall.
Dan Nowak
February,2010

Finally, there was the incident that took place at the foot of what is now Powers Run
Road that helped shape the way oil was delivered to the refineries from the oil field in
Pennsylvania. As George S. Davidson wrote and delivered as a speech entitled “Pittsburgh and

the Petroleum Industry” to the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce and is documented in the
publication “Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Spirit, Addresses at the Chamber of Commerce of
Pittsburgh, 1927-1928”, page 97, as follows:
“As already related, pipelines were first used in the oil region to replace teaming. They
were of two and two and a half inches diameter, and but a few miles in length. After the railroads
had built their lines into the main valleys of the oil fields, more ambitious pipe lines were built for
the purpose of delivering the crude oil direct from the wells to the cars. The success of these
local ventures eventually suggested the idea of building pipe lines of larger diameter and much
greater length that would compete with the railroads and carry the oil directly from field to
refineries. As methods of terminal operation, the railroads welcomed the pipe lines, and in many
cases owned them. But as competitors they opposed them, which for a long time they managed
to do successfully, because this new service was not recognized as a public utility and did not
possess the right of condemnation of land. The approach of a pipeline to the crossing of a
railroad meant a legal battle. A pipeline of much interest to this community was the Columbia
Conduit Pipe Line, under the control of Dr. Hostetter of this city, planned to bring oil from the
Butler county fields to Pittsburgh. The line was built in late 1874. The General Pipe Line Act of
Pennsylvania, conferring the right of condemnation was not enacted until 1883, some nine years
too late for use by this enterprise. When the line reached a point upon the West Penn Division of
the Pennsylvania railroad above Montrose, Allegheny county, and an attempt was made to lay its
line under the railroad in the bed of Powers run, its workers were met with a large force of
railroad employes, armed with all sorts of weapons both offensive and defensive, and the ‘Powers
Run Riot’ passed into history as one of the outstanding incidents of the oil industry. The pipe line
company appealed to the courts in vain for relief, but six months later the interested companies
settled their dispute, the line was put in operation, and the delivery of 3,000 barrels a day to the
Pittsburgh refineries was accomplished by means of it.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Davidson did not mention the extent of battle casualties from this
encounter. It would appear that the railroaders had the better of the situation and, most likely, the
pipeline men backed off after a short engagement. Any locals that were involved were most
likely working for the railroad, while the pipeline men were probably all outsiders.


Seems Ohara and Blawknox also known at times as  Fairview , Montrose and Hoboken  where big players in the oil business back then and Sunoco still maintains a oil distributions facility along the road from their pipeline .


A long Gone Haloween Haunted House attraction in Cranberry where a real Axe Murder took place ?

About where the Sheetz now sits on freedom Road sat an old farm house which was turned into a Halloween Haunted house attraction.
But the house hid a real secret many years earlier an entire family was killed in an axe murder.
back around 1980 while attending a Gem & Mineral show in new castle in October   a friend  Danny Michaels decided to stop and check out all the haunted houses on the way back to Pittsburgh we stopped at several which no longer exist.


Several articles mention a house which was part of the old Warrendale Youth development center a Juvenile jail but we did not drive back over the turnpike bridge as I remember and it was torn down for Thornberg industrial park so this must be the 2nd location for it.


 While waiting to go in the staff member I was talking to told me about a family being murdered in the home by some one with an Axe  and how girls would get there hair pulled some times when working the home and setting up for the evening and some had seen a full body apparition.
Thou I have tried to verify the story I have not found anything yet. But yes there have been many murders by axe in early years of Western Pa. so the story could well be true.
The few people who I know who live in cranberry know nothing about the house or the murder as the community has greatly expanded over the years and even those at community center did not even know it existed or about it being a haunted Halloween attraction.My next try will be thru the historical society and then County records if I can find the time some day.


Did a saint Protect the Parishners of St Michaels Church in Southside from the Cholrea Epidemic in 1853?

St Michael's Parrish long time the home of the Passion Play sits along the slopes of Pittsburgh's  South Side it was a sprawling complex of buildings which was closed by the consolidation  of churches in the 1980 due to the closing of steel mills which saw many parishioners move out of town.
But besides its historical role in conducting the Passion play  known as Veronica's Veil Which I was fortunate to see one time .




Which appears to have  closed in 2006 over financial issues 



But this is not what the church is only known for it is also known world wide for the special day
 a saint is Honored St Roch  
an excerpt below  from South Side Slopes . Org website explains the special miracle   which happened for the church 
 



St. Michael Church and the Cholera Plague of 1849 – The influence of the church is strong in the Slopes. St. Michael Church was started in a house in 1848 where the church front now stands.  The main church was designed by Charles Bartberger and built between 1855 and 1860 on land donated by German immigrants.  The surrounding land reminded them of the Rhine River valley.  The building’s style is Rhineland Romanesque Rival similar to rural Bavarian churches.  It has a gothic spire. In 1849, a deadly cholera plague hit Pittsburgh. The parish could not find enough burial places for deceased members. Parishioners prayed to St. Roch and vowed to keep a day holy if the plague would cease. It did. Another plague hit the South Side in 1853 but no members of St. Michael died. Cholera Day is still observed each August in Prince of Peace Parish on the South Side. The church was closed through a consolidation within the parish, and St. Michael is being redeveloped as the Angels’ Arms condominiums.





To this day a special celebratory mass is held with in the Prince of Peace Parrish which is the merger of south side churches  to St. Roch
I believe in Miracles I am a walking example having survived Stage IV colorectal cancer .I really do believe there is a higher power a creator .

St Matthews one of the consolidated churches into Price of Peace has also been turned into fancy upscale condominiums .