2015
Blacksmith Shop
I was able to gain access to the Blacksmith Shop in Johnstown, PA. Much of the original machines and tools are still there and left untouched. The historical society have done some repairs to the structure, but is pretty much as is. The earliest surviving building of the Cambria Iron Works, the Blacksmith Shop was erected circa 1864. Located within the ten-acre Cambria Iron Works Complex, the Blacksmith Shop is the most historically significant of the structures. Originally owned by the Cambria Iron Company, the Blacksmith Shop produced a wide range of metal products throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. With the decline of the steel industry and the closing of Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1992, the Blacksmith Shop has since been vacant.
The Blacksmith Shop is a large brick structure that was constructed in at least five stages. The original building is octagonal shaped with an octagonal cupola, containing heavy timbered roof trusses with iron tension rods, common-bond red brick walls and pilasters. In the 1870s, a rectangular wing was added to the west elevation and in 1885 another wing was added on the east elevation. It retains a full complement of original turn-of-the-century forging and smithing tools and a variety of steam-powered hammers, including a ten-ton steam hammer owned by the Smithsonian Institute and leased to the Redevelopment Authority .
Car Shows
I got some good shots of cars at a Great Falls car show as well as one that is held every weekend in Alexandria VA. As you can ascertain, I did a lot of manipulation in Photoshop to remove distracting objects and present some cars with creative backgrounds.
Carrie Furnaces
Towering 92 feet over the Monongahela River, constructed of 2.5″ thick steel plate and lined with refractory brick, Carrie Furnaces #6 and #7 are extremely rare examples of pre-World War II iron-making technology. Since the collapse of the region’s big steel industry in the 1970s and 1980s, these are the only non-operative blast furnaces in the region that remain. Today, visitors can experience this landmark site through a variety of tours, workshops, exhibitions, and events. I got the chance to go with my DCUE Meetup group.
Chambersburg High School
Chambersburg High School, which became Central Junior High, was actually several buildings in one: Part of a 19th-century building, burned during the Civil War, still stands inside the original 1909 Chambersburg High School; a larger high school was built in front of that in 1930; and finally, an addition connected the two structures and partly covered the original.
Generations of students grew up there over decades of expansions, renovations and changing times.
Developer Vern McKissick has been dreaming and working for more than a decade to restore it to its former glory. After years of delays and challenges, the home stretch is in sight.
I got a chance to go shoot the location with my DCUE Meetup Group.
This photo received an award on an artist community website.
East Broad Top Railroad
The East Broad Top Railroad (EBT) is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge historic and heritage railroad headquartered in Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania.
Operating from 1871 to 1956, it is one of the nation's oldest and best-preserved narrow-gauge railroads, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. The railroad is now preserved for use as a tourist attraction until operations ceased in 2011. After a nine-year closure, in February 2020 it was announced that the railroad had been purchased by a non-profit foundation and regular train service resumed in the summer of 2021.
The EBT is unusual in that it is a complete, original railroad rather than a collection of pieces from various locations, as most tourist railroads are.
Eastern State Penitentiary
The Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP) is a former American prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located at 2027 Fairmount Avenue between Corinthian Avenue and North 22nd Street in the Fairmount section of the city, and was operational from 1829 until 1971. The penitentiary refined the revolutionary system of separate incarceration first pioneered at the Walnut Street Jail which emphasized principles of reform rather than punishment.
Notorious criminals such as Al Capone and bank robber Willie Sutton were held inside its innovative wagon wheel design. James Bruno (Big Joe) and several male relatives were incarcerated here between 1936 and 1948 for the alleged murders in the Kelayres massacre of 1934, before they were paroled. At its completion, the building was the largest and most expensive public structure ever erected in the United States, and quickly became a model for more than 300 prisons worldwide.
The prison is currently a U.S. National Historic Landmark, which is open to the public as a museum for tours seven days a week, twelve months a year, 10 am to 5 pm.
I got an opportunity to shoot the prison early in the morning before it was opened to the public through my photography Meetup group.
J.W. Cooper High School
Quoted from Preservation PA's 2001 newsletter: "Originally scheduled to open in 1918, the 3-story stone school building located at the intersection of North White and East Lloyd Streets in the center of the Borough of Shenandoah, was commandeered and used as a temporary hospital and morgue during the flu epidemic of 1918, when the local hospital was unable to accommodate the large number of victims. In May 1919 the building was dedicated as the "new Shenandoah High School". It was later renamed the J.W. Cooper High School in memory of the school's first principal. The school remained in use until 1986 when it was replaced with a new facility."
"Shenandoah was a coal mining community, which during the 1920s and 1930s has a population of 30,000 residents within its one square mile boundary, giving the borough the highest population per square mile of any municipality in the U.S. at that time. Tens of thousands of Shenandoans were educated within the walls of the Cooper High School and the school holds a significant place in the history and culture of the community."
Rosewood Asylum
The Rosewood Center/Asylum (née the Maryland Asylum and Training School for the Feeble Minded, est. 1888) is an abandoned mental hospital on the outskirts of Baltimore. The state closed its doors only in 2009 after a mountain of angry complaints involving understaffing, patient abuse, and neglect. Much of the rotting old bedlam now lies in ruins or is caked in thick soot, the aftermath of a recent suspected arson. But even in this dilapidated state, its imposing presence stirs up a sense of the foreboding.
Like many overwhelmed psychiatric facilities built around the turn of the last century, Rosewood had been dogged by shameful accusations for a long time. The most scandalous—the one that sets Rosewood apart from other asylums—was made by Leo Kanner on May 13, 1937. Before a hushed gathering at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Pittsburgh, Kanner shared the shocking tale of “the Rosewood girls.” It’s not a story most people know about today, but it’s an important reminder of just how destructive an upper class with an unchecked sense of entitlement can be, and how vital it remains to safeguard the interests of those who can’t do so for themselves. It also forces us to revisit an uncomfortable moment in our nation’s history when the practice of eugenics—human breeding for socially desirable attributes, such as intelligence—was viewed by even the most progressive human rights advocates as humane and ethical.
My S.O. found this property and surprised me with a trip there one Saturday morning. We were not supposed to be there, but I got into some buildings in an area that was presently unguarded. When we got to the larger buildings, I ran into a guard but sweet talked him into letting me get photos of the exteriors of the buildings.
Trolley Graveyard
The largest private collection of trolley cars in the U.S. at Vintage Electric Streetcar Company in Windber, PA was recently sold to a scrapper, but I got a chance to visit with my DCUE Meetup group back in 2015. But the torches are reportedly being held in abeyance through the end of the year to provide one last chance for museums or others to obtain parts or cars from the collection . The site has become famous on the internet as “the trolley graveyard.”
Starting with the 1992 purchase of 14 PCC cars retired from Boston’s MBTA, Ed Metka took on the task of single-handedly rescuing as many as he could of America’s rapidly vanishing PCC streetcars. Those Boston cars cost just $500 to $1000 each, plus the cost of trucking them to the old Pennsy railcar shop in Windber. In subsequent years, the collection grew to include nearly 60 pieces in conditions ranging from nearly roadworthy to unsalvageable.
Frank Hicks reported to the Preserved North American Electric Railway Cars list in May that eight cars are stored inside the shop — a pair of 1910-vintage car bodies from Grand Rapids; two Philadelphia PCC cars built in 1948; three air-electric PCC cars from Boston built in 1945; and Johnstown Traction 362, a 1926 St. Louis Car Company trolley, the only complete car on site that isn’t a PCC.
Scattered around the 20-acre property outside the shop are PCC cars from Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Boston, and Kansas City, Mo. Graffiti covers many of the cars and vandalism has taken as great a toll, along with exposure to the elements. Hicks said he believes most will be scrapped.
Selma Plantation
The Selma is a historic property and former plantation in Loudoun County, Virginia, near Leesburg. Selma is best known as the residence of Armistead Thomson Mason (4 August 1787–6 February 1819), a U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1816 through 1817.
The lands of Selma were once a part of the Northern Neck Proprietary owned by Lord Fairfax, and Selma was a part of the 10,000-acre (4,000 ha) tract bought around 1741 by Stevens Thomson Mason.
Selma was built at the base of Catoctin Mountain overlooking a sweeping vista of lawn and pastureland between 1800 and 1810 by Armistead Thomson Mason. Mason came to be known as the "Chief of Selma." Due to a political quarrel between Mason and his cousin Colonel John Mason McCarty, he and McCarty dueled at the Bladensburg dueling grounds in Bladensburg on 6 February 1819. Mason and McCarty chose Bladensburg as the location of their duel due to Virginia's recently enacted anti-dueling law.Mason died at the first shot, while McCarty was spared by an accident but dangerously wounded. While Mason's widow continued to reside at Selma with their young son, Stevens Thomson Mason, Jr., McCarty and his family settled nearby at Strawberry Plain.
Though living a few miles apart, however, the Mason and McCarty families never renewed their acquaintance. McCarty was an avid hunter and one day while following the flight of game, he mounted a fence that formed the boundary between the Mason and McCarty properties, and attempted loading his rifle from that position.McCarty allowed his attention to be diverted by the movements of the birds or the hunting dogs which resulted in his gun slipping.It exploded and sent the ramrod through his head. Armistead Thomson Mason's son, Stevens Thomson Mason, Jr., found McCarty and carried him to nearby Raspberry Plain, Mason's birthplace and the home of his father Stevens Thomson Mason.
Selma was inherited by Mason's only son, Stevens Thomson Mason, Jr. At age 21, Mason was a rich and attractive young man and was often seen driving a handsome pair of horses tandem through Leesburg. A too generous expenditure of his fortune brought reverses which forced Mason to sell Selma. Upon selling Selma, Mason joined the United States Army and while serving as a captain in the Mexican–American War was mortally wounded.
All but the original part of Selma was destroyed by fire in the early 1890s. In 1896 the property was purchased by Elijah B. White, the son of Elijah V. White. White commissioned Richmond architecture firm Noland and Baskervill to design a Colonial Revival mansion, which was built between 1900 and 1902 and included part of the earlier house as a kitchen wing. No expense was spared in achieving a level of luxury, including modern conveniences such as "speaking tubes", a form of intercom system. By the 1920s, the Whites were known to hold many high society events and parties at the plantation with Governors, Senators and Congressman in attendance, and was regularly featured in the society pages of newspapers and magazines.
The plantation remained in the White family for several generations, before being sold to the Epperson family in 1976, who turned the estate into a wedding and function venue. Following a succession of owners, Selma was sold to a foreign investor in 1999 and fell into neglect. A parcel of the original 212-acre Selma Plantation was sold to a local developer in 2002, leaving Selma with a 50-acre conservancy lot. In 2009, the nonprofit group Preservation Virginia placed the mansion on its "Most Endangered Historic Sites List."
After years of neglect and vandalism, Selma was purchased in March 2016 by Sharon D. Virts and Scott F. Miller, and is currently undergoing a massive restoration project as a private home.
W.A. Young & Sons
Machine Shop
W.A. Young & Sons is a step back in time! Nestled in the historic district of Rice’s Landing, Greene County, the Machine Shop is an astonishing industrial treasure.
Built in 1900, the shop produced parts for steamboats, coal mines, railroads, and supported local small businesses. When it closed in 1965, the building was locked and all of its tools and equipment were left in place—perfectly preserving its line shaft driven, 25-machine network for future generations.
Visitors tour the blacksmith shop, pattern shop, hardware store, and foundry—and marvel as the machines are switched on during a live demonstration of this turn-of-the-last century technology. I got an opportunity to photograph the location with my DCUE Meetup group.
This photograph was part of a juried exhibition in Lancaster, PA in 2018.
Waterside Woolen Mill
Waterside Woolen Mill is one of the oldest operating mills in the United States. It is incredible to think that this place still runs using its original equipment.
This historic Pennsylvanian landmark is located 21 miles northwest of Breezewood on the banks of the Yellow Creek in Morrison Cove, Bedford.
In the early 1800s, John Snyder acquired land here and by the 1860s, a wool factory had been built in this location.
There was previously a waterwheel onsite which provided the mill with electricity. Unfortunately, the wheel was destroyed but you can still see the place where it should have been and see water from the river rushing along the channel. With a little bit of imagination, you can picture what it must have been like with the wheel still in place and working at full capacity.
Inside Waterside Woolen Mill, you can see equipment that was created several decades ago and has not been replaced since.
Such equipment is designed to process raw wool into woven products. Looms date from the 1870s while other equipment was manufactured in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Waterside Woolen Mill was closed in the 1960s. It remained shut for several decades until five years ago when it was opened as a tourist attraction and antique store.
In addition, factory operations were resumed on a small scale to produce traditional Pennsylvanian woolen blankets, using only natural, high-quality wool. Antique pieces of machinery still in operation include a picker, a “Moulton Card,” and wrap winding equipment.
All the items made at this oldest of mills can be purchased in the mill’s store. Products for sale include blankets, vests, and teddy bears. However, the factory does not work in the winter season due to the fact that it has no heating.
In the attic of the mill are still stored thousands of old coils, antique production labels, and many other things leftover from the production process many years ago. With many still in good condition, they provide marvelous photo opportunities for anyone interested in antique items.
This unique place is open to anyone who wants to see inside and is curious to know what life was like in the past.
