Was Liberace saved by an Angel, When he was hospitalised here in Pittsburgh in 1963?

Its a rather strange story but on November 23, 1963 the Fabulously Flamboyant Entertainer Liberace was all set for one of his Piano Recital Shows at the now long gone Holiday house in Monroeville when he became severely sick and near death  and was transported to St Francis Hospital in Lawrenceville  section of Pittsburgh.









Seems the dangers of using Carbon Tetra - Chloride  where not made clear to Liberace when he decided he needed his outfit for the evening cleaned and with the snowstorm and time restraints and getting  to a cleaner was not possible. So he was brought the deadly chemical  by the hotel staff which at one time was used in Dry Cleaning and decided to use it in his hotel room.
Now a banned substance at one time it was easy to obtain at any hardware and even some super markets.


Unfortunately he breathed in and absorbed the chemical and poisoned himself
which resulted in him being taken to the now gone St Francis Hospital  which was replaced by UPMC Children Hospital




He was in kidney failure and was given a 20% chance of surviving the night.
But as Liberace layed in his deathbed a Nun dressed all in white came into his room and told him to pray to St. Anthony who would save him and this is exactly what he did .
and fully recovered over a few days.

After Liberace recovered he asked about the Nun but none of the Nuns who visited or worked in the hospital dressed in all white  and to this day despite many efforts no one knows who it was. 
But having read about similar accounts of people in distress and being greeted and helped by people dressed all in white many are convinced it was an Angel who saved Liberace that evening. 





The Montour Railroad closed back in the 1980s and was turned into bicycle trail . But apparently some of the workers did not get the message.

They say the land  and objects around us retains a memory .. Any truth to it? Well some times this seems to be the case when it comes to old Railroads . Like the long gone Plum Railroad below where I live where people claim to have seen it still operate.

This also seems to be the case with the Montour Railroad a Mighty but small railroad which hauled coal from the mines of the south hills to the main rail lines of the P&LE   which was absorbed by CSX Rail .




 Starting in the 1800s the line extended 27 miles and linked up with several mines along its path thru the south hills and also included passenger service at one time .

There was an extensive shop area right along the Parkway West  I-376 right at the Montour exit which is now an office park . Over the years almost the entire length of the railroad has been turned into a bicycle path where much history is to be seen as you pass thru the many small mining towns .
However it appears some of the railroad workers are still busy at it hooking up coal cars for there trips to market. I have heard from couple people who use the trail about seeing what looks like a railroad workers lantern lighted  along the trail and one gentleman even wrote about it in a Facebook Post
on the Montour Railroad Historical Society Page which I have included below . 

Authored by Gene P. Scheaffer


Even though the last train on the Montour R.R. operated some 35 years ago, most mornings at aroud 6:30 A.M., still under the night time darkness, while passing through Thompsonville on my way to work, just across the creek from Valleybrook Road, a single trainman's lantern glows in ghostly reminder of those coal runs working Thompsonville siding of long ago. This morning the dim light was spotted up at the Turkey Farm crossing as daylight neared. Most ...but not every morning for the past several months, even in the winters snow & cold, I reflect back when Roy...or Dan...Desko or French...were setting off empty B&LE hoppers at Thompsonville upon returning from Mifflin Junction...or...maybe it was Jones or Ceyrolles, coming west from Montour #10, leaving that #10 coal at Thompsonville so as to work Montour #4, taking light engines out to Boyce to pull in another 100 off the P-Company, then filling out at #4 to a 3 or 4 unit train for Champion. Months ago, when I first noticed that flicker of light through the bare trees there at Thompsonville I thought maybe a reflection of some type off the creek below, but morning after morning, at different locations along Thompsonville siding, there it was. Moving east or moving west I could not discern. Looking back into the early 1970's when winter time meant added operational problms for the railroad, Thompsonville was used to store empty hoppers as well as coal from Montour 4 when Champion backed up with stop off coal, when the sidings of the Montour R.R. were used to store stop off coal account no room at Champion or Boggs. As I eased through Thompsonville these mornings when that ghostly trainmans lantern appeared, I found myself straining for a glimpse of three or four cab lights from a consist of SW-9's ready for that hand signal to make that next move at Thompsonville.
If your passing through Thompsonville at 6:15 A.M. or 6:30 A.M., look closely, you'll see the ghost.

I have also seen strange lights reflecting along this trail as well is it a natural phenomena or is it the ghost of railroad workers past.  I invite you to travel to and check out this area and make your own conclusions.  Also Check out the Montour Railroad Historical Society  Facebook page and see some more history and fascinating photos of this once vital railroad.



An interesting Archway Shelter along Island Ave in Mckeesrocks which has unique story to it.

Every Time I ride down Island ave near the Mckeesrocks Bridge I pass this interesting archway and shelter between 2 very old apartment buildings I knew there had to be some story to it and I was correct .

This archway was built as a reminder of what was once a very unique Incline

The story on this interesting piece of engineering  is written below for the


The Mckeesrocks Historical Society  found on its face book Page  thank you MHS

OK you asked for it...you got it...Norwood Incline history.
The Norwood Incline by
John Makar
Pittsburgh was at one time known as the “Incline Capital of the World.” Between 1870 and 1905, at least 17 incline planes were built in the Pittsburgh area and another 20 were in the planning stages, but were never built. The people who lived on the many hills of the city needed the hillside railroads to travel to work or to visit the downtown area, both near river level.
One of the few inclines located in the suburban Pittsburgh was the Norwood Incline of McKees Rocks. It accommodated the residents of the Norwood and West Park sections of Stowe Township who would otherwise have had to travel over the elevated sections by foot or via McCoy Road or Broadway Avenue, two longer, roundabout routes.
The incline’s lower station was located on Island Avenue in McKees Rocks, across the street from the former Norwood Pharmacy. The upper station and power house were on Park Way (now Desiderio Avenue) in the Norwood Place section of Stowe, near the old Ohio Valley General Hospital. This is now the site of Mother of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church, of the St. John of God Parish. Thus, the funicular was cut in two by the border line between the two municipalities.
Norwood Incline was an idea of Charles Wesley Robison, General Manager of the Greater Pittsburgh Improvement Company, creating an access route to the Norwood Plan of Lots, which was being developed by Robison’s company. The original idea was to establish a trolley line along the planned right of way. In fact, the Bird’s Eye View of McKees Rocks, published early in 1901 by Thaddeus M. Fowler, clearly shows a trolley climbing from Island Avenue to Norwood. Shortly afterward, the decision was made to build an incline, instead. The designer and engineer of the incline are lost to history.
Once it finally began operation on September 7, 1901, the incline was a major factor in the rapid growth of the hilltop areas of McKees Rocks and Stowe during the “boom” of1901-1906. The homes build in Norwood itself were offered on the “easy monthly payment plan,” the first time such an offer was made to buyers.
Originally, no fare was paid on the incline and it was advertised as “the only free incline in the world.” By 1903, however, the operator was forced, because of operating expenses, to charge patrons of the transportation system one cent during peak hours, which gave the landmark its nickname, the “Penny Incline.” Within a short period, the little incline was showing a comfortable profit.
An early notice in one of the cars read:
“Everyone must pay fare
One cent each way until 8PM
Two cents each way after 8PM
Monthly tickets 30 cents (includes man and wife)
Good ‘til 8PM
School children of Norwood free during day.”
Trips were made whenever there was a passenger. No one had to wait very long for a car.
The little yellow cars of the incline, nicknamed “Becky Jane” and ‘Becky Reis” ran on tracks of 42 inch gauge, very tiny when compared to the six-to-ten-foot gauges of most of Pittsburgh’s hill climbers. They were built on three rail automatic turn-out system which was also unusual, considering that all the other local inclined planes operated on a four-rail system, two rails for cars traveling in each direction. This caused strangers to the area who traveled on the incline to fear a mid-hill collision. By a deftly devised curve, however, the cars would suddenly switch out and pass each other. No one has ever counted the number of hear attacks which might have occurred on the hillside….
The cars were attached to the ends of a double cable which was wound around a steel drum operated by a powerful steam engine at the upper station. The cables enabled the cars to ascend or descend the hill without slipping and the drum prevented the cars from moving too quickly on their journey.
The man in the powerhouse who operated the cars also collected the fare and, in the early days, fired the boilers. He was, in fact, the entire operation. Harry D. Kirkland, a Norwood resident and Stowe School Director, was an early manager-operator of the incline and later, so was his son, Ed. But the best known of the operators was Bert Noble, who took over the power house in 1907 and kept the system in good working order for a number of years, until the system deteriorated so badly that no one could help it.
But progress caught up with the operation of the Norwood Incline. In 1914, a government inspector condemned the funicular’s old boiler. Within a short time, electricity was installed and the basic operations became completely automatic. The system could now experience the joys and sorrows of “living electrically.”
In its last years, the incline had its share of problems. Frequent malfunctions of the large steel drum and in the power station caused extensive repairs. In August 1919, a Highland Avenue resident was injured slightly when he tried to close, by hand, the stubborn automatic doors of one of the cars. The doors suddenly came loose and he was caught between them.
The aging landmark was also losing patronage due to the trolley lines firmly established by 1910 on Island Avenue and in West Park and the popularity of the automobile, which led to the construction of the original Stowe Tunnel between the two sections in 1908-09.
These factors, combined with the increasingly decrepit condition of the cars and right-of-way, caused the abandonment of the Norwood Incline in 1921, after nearly a quarter century of service.
After the old landmark was dismantled, its remnants removed (and some relics buried on site), a number of plans were considered for its replacement. Since the right-of-way was not on a very steep gradient, one plan called for a simple pathway down the hillside. It took a number of years for a final decision to be reached, because McKees Rocks and Stowe officials spent much of the time feuding over who would be responsible for the maintenance of the completed structure. In 1930, after years of controversy, wooden steps were finally built on the old right-of-way. They were finally replaced by concrete steps by the 1950s.
By the mid-1970s, the Norwood Steps were beginning to show their age. Cracks and holes were showing up over the whole length of the passageway. The metal railing was rusting. The land next to it was eroding with the waste water constantly running down the hill. It also resembled a large refuse dump, with garbage strewn all over. Once again, the two municipalities could not agree to a regular maintenance schedule. Each feared that they would eventually be saddled with most of the costs. By the 1980s, noting that most residents were finding other ways of getting up and down the hill, both municipalities quietly agreed to abandon the steps.
Today, there is little left to show that there was once a thriving transportation system climbing the hill of Island Avenue. The right-of-way is completely overgrown. The concrete has crumbled to dust. All that is left is the little shelter on Island Avenue next to Boni’s Floral Shop with the two engraved “N”s on each side. Few remember that this was the site of a unique transportation system.
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