Author : Richard Gartley
Release : 2018-06-13
Genre :
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 867/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis Ellwood City, Rock Point Park, and Nearby Communities of Lawrence and Beaver Counties, Pennsylvania by : Richard Gartley

Download or read book Ellwood City, Rock Point Park, and Nearby Communities of Lawrence and Beaver Counties, Pennsylvania written by Richard Gartley. This book was released on 2018-06-13. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ellwood City, located near the confluence of the Beaver River and Connoquenessing Creek in southern Lawrence County, western Pennsylvania, was founded by prominent industrialist Henry W. Hartman in 1889. Hartman purchased the land for the town, had a luxury hotel built, and arranged for an impressive number of industries to locate in the city. The city was named for his friend Isaac Ellwood, the inventor of the barbed wire fence. The seamless steel tube industry and the associated companies, later part of U.S. Steel Corporation, eventually became the most important industry in Ellwood City. Hartman was also responsible for the improvement of picturesque Rock Point Park, a well-known summer resort located across Connoquenessing Creek from Ellwood City. In 1905 Henry Hartman's Pennsylvania Company leased the park to the Rock Point Amusement Company, which installed pavilions, rides, ball fields, boat rentals, and other attractions. The improved park was heavily promoted by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which ran excursions to and from the park. After Ellwood City outlawed alcoholic beverages in 1911, park attendance declined and by the end of that year the park closed and many of the buildings were dismantled. A fire in 1915 destroyed the remaining structures. This book contains a compilation of new material or what has not been widely published or easily available elsewhere dating from about 1880 to the end of World War II pertaining to Ellwood City, Rock Point Park, and neighboring communities of Burnstown, Chewton, Ellport, Hazel Dell, Newport, Wampum, and Wurtemburg. Included are interesting newspaper reports, photographs, and as complete a presentation of picture postcards of the area as available to the author. The book is over 300 pages, and over 460 early real photo and printed postcard views are reproduced, many in color, along with a number of old maps of the area. Also included are photos of numerous historical items of interest from Ellwood City and Rock Point Park.