Bridgeville High School History, part three July 27, 2017

Copyright © 2017          John F. Oyler

July 27, 2017

Bridgeville High School History, part three

The Bridgeville Area Historical Society “Second Tuesday” workshop for July was a continuation of the review of the history of Bridgeville High School. The Class of 1926 was the first one to spend its entire senior year in the new building on Gregg Avenue and, we thought, the first class to publish a Yearbook. Consequently we spent the entire evening discussing that class and the consequences of moving to the new, modern facility.

It is difficult to imagine the culture shock this class experienced. For eleven years they were shoe-horned into Washington School and several temporary buildings erected on the playground.

Suddenly they were transported to an environment that included all the conveniences of a twentieth century high school – a large auditorium, a stage that also could be used as a gymnasium or a dance floor, a large library, a home economics room, a wood shop, a metal shop, a mechanical drafting room, locker rooms, etc.

The facilitator initiated a discussion of the layout of the new building by challenging the audience to stretch their memories by recalling the location of the various rooms. My brother provided a sketch of the basement of the building, where the locker rooms, wood shop, and boiler room were located. He recalled sneaking into the school to play basketball by taking advantage of a coal chute door leading into the boiler room.

Mention of the boiler room initiated another question – the location of the large smoke stack which dispersed the soot high above the community. We have no answer at present as to the location of this stack relative to the first and second floors of the school.

The building was originally planned to have twelve rooms, with capability of adding eight more. The first four were added in time for the Class of 1926 to take advantage of them; the final four were added in 1939. We assume the two additions were at the end of each of the wings.

At this point we believe the three first floor rooms in the northern wing were ninth grade home rooms. The first floor of the portion along Gregg Avenue housed the principal’s office, the superintendent’s office and two seventh grade home rooms. The southern wing had two eighth grade home rooms and the home economics room.

The three second floor rooms in the northern wing were the location of the senior class home rooms. The Library was in the southern wing along with two junior class home rooms. The front of the second floor had the remaining junior home room and the three sophomore class home rooms.

Incidentally it is our opinion that one of the temporary buildings still exists. We believe it was acquired by the Women’s Club and moved to Dewey Avenue to become their home.

The availability of the facilities in the new building generated an explosion in the number of activities available to the students, many of which were illustrated in the Yearbook. Sports were emphasized. The football team won four, including an exciting upset of Carnegie, lost two, and tied one game. The team included Lou “Doc” Skender, who later had a fine career at Duquesne University, serving for many years as their Athletic Director.

Despite playing in the new gymnasium, “one of the finest in the country”, the basketball team had less success. Those of us who were in high school two decades later lamented the fact that this same gym was so small and antiquated compared to those in the newer schools.

Soccer was a different story. BHS was in the midst of a three year period in which the soccer team was awarded the championship of Allegheny County each year. The Yearbook reports the team was so good that it was difficult for them to schedule games with other schools.

Perhaps the most impressive sports story was the fact that the high school fielded a girls’ basketball team, something that was unheard of twenty years later. One wonders what happened in the interim.

Non-athletic activities also proliferated. The Glee Club boasted fifty voices. There was a thirteen piece orchestra, but no marching band. The photograph of “the Quartette” included five vocalists; perhaps BHS was better in music than in counting.

Other activities included the Spanish Club (El Corredor), the French Club (Le Circle Francais), and the Lincoln Literary Club. The Debating Team, made up of three young ladies, lost its debate, on federal subsidizing the merchant marine, to Crafton. The “Go-to-College” Club consisted of thirty young ladies focusing on preparation for continuing their education, a stark contrast to our perception of the role of females in those days.

The Senior Play in 1926 was a contemporary classic, “Golden Days”, a masterpiece of misunderstandings and unrequited love portrayed against the backdrop of “the Great War”. An interesting juxtaposition in the photograph of the play is a frowning Bernadine Sims sitting on a sofa next to Harold Green, who is enjoying Naomi Davis’ arm around his shoulder. Miss Sims got even in real life by marrying Mr. Green and “living happily ever after”.

The Faculty was supervised by Superintendent was Mr. W. C. Bedillon and Principal Olive Hickman. The other fourteen teachers included two who were familiar to the older members of the workshop – Mrs. Carman and Mrs. Cronin – because of their longevity.

The Class of 1926 continued the trend of larger classes each year by graduating thirty eight seniors. The Yearbook is full of optimism. After all it was the era of the Roaring Twenties when business was booming and the future was unlimited. Another culture shock was ahead for these unsuspecting young people – the stock market crash three years in the future, followed by the Great Depression and World War II.

Members of the workshop brought in highly relevant artifacts to supplement the discussion. Much to our surprise Mell Dozzo produced a copy of a Yearbook published by the Class of 1925. When we began this series of workshops I thought there were two yearbooks published in the 1920s, but was convinced I was wrong when I learned the Historical Society had only the ones from 1926. It appears Mell’s copy is the only one currently available; we hope someone will locate several more.

Karen Godwin brought in a Historical Society calendar with a photograph of the thirty second reunion of the Class of 1926, in 1958. This generated an easy transition into a newspaper article from 1998 which described a mini-reunion of four remaining members of the class – Cecil Riles, Paul Wirant, Anne Schneider, and Rose Bentrem.

Next month the “Second Tuesday” will be quite early; the next workshop will be at 7:00 pm on August 8, 2017, in the History Center. Our discussion of Bridgeville High School history will finish out the Roaring Twenties and move into the 1930s.

Bridgeville in the News in 1926 July 20, 2017

Copyright © 2017          John F. Oyler

July 20, 2017

Bridgeville in the News, 1926

While researching “Newspapers.com” for articles related to Bridgeville High School in 1926 for our recent “Second Tuesday” workshop on that subject, I came across several dozen clippings of non-school related topics that were relevant to the community. Most of them were from the Canonsburg “Daily Notes”, plus a few from the Pittsburgh Post.

On January 6, 1926, the death of Lysander Foster at the age of eighty six was reported. Described as “one of the most highly respected citizens of this section”, Mr. Lysander was survived by his son Edward, a local business man. The deceased had served as Superintendent of the Bethany Sunday School for over forty years. Funeral services were held at his home on Elm Street.

On January 29, an “old-fashioned” dance was held at “the hall formerly occupied by the American Legion”. We have no knowledge of this hall; in the past we have assumed that affairs at the Legion were at the current building on Shady Avenue. Old time fiddlers, including J. Frank Murray, Dick Weaver, and Craig Cummins, provided the music. The event was sponsored by the Donaldson Auto and Service Company, U. L. Donaldson, manager.

The March 16 edition of “Daily Notes” featured a two column spread on Bridgeville news, with a long description of a party celebrating the eighth birthday of Dorothy Carol Frederick of Chess Street. Twenty names of young ladies made up the guest list; Unfortunately Louise Papenek could not attend, because she was quarantined for scarlet fever.

A clipping dated May 27 reports the unexpected death of local resident John H. McCloy, a prominent builder of derricks for oil and gas wells. Aged forty five, Mr. McCloy was marching in a parade at the state conclave of the Knights Templar in York, Pa., when he suddenly collapsed. His wife was on the reviewing stand for the parade when this unfortunate event occurred.

A fancy luncheon was held at the George Washington Hotel in Washington, Pa. in honor of Miss Janet Ray, recognizing her upcoming marriage to Mr. Herbert Copp, of Moline, Illinois. Miss Ray was a popular teacher in the Bridgeville school system. Guests received balloons which bore the names of Miss Ray and her fiancé when inflated.

The borough passed an ordinance revising the elevation of Washington Avenue from St. Clair Street to the south abutment of the new bridge that will be built over Chartiers Creek. The Pennsylvania Water Commission has mandated that the new bridge be slightly higher than the present one.

August 10 was the date of the first annual Bridgeville outing at Kennywood Park, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, C. P. Mayer, president. Over two thousand people were expected to participate, travelling on special trains leaving at 8;50 am and arriving at 10:00.

Labor Day plans for the borough included “the most beautiful display of fireworks Bridgeville has ever seen”. Also planned was a street dance featuring a Charleston contest and “a freak dance” for which costumes were required.

John Zadro returned home in September after spending three months in Italy where he visited relatives, as well as many points of interest.

On September 11 Mrs. Minnie Stenzel and Mrs. T. Walter Jones entertained guests at a bridge party honoring Mrs. Herbert Copp, the former Miss Nancy Ray. Held at Mrs. Stenzel’s home on Mayview Road, the twelve tables were decorated with fall garden flowers.

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Weise have returned from an eastern wedding trip that included New York and Atlantic City. Mrs. Weise is the former Miss Ruth Gregg, of California, Pa.; Mr. Weise, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Weise, of Mayview Road.

Also in September Mr. and Mrs. G. Piersoll Murray, their children, Jane and George Piersoll III and Mrs. Murray’s mother, Mrs. S. R. Kiddoo returned to their home on Washington Avenue from their summer home in Michigan, “The Snows”.

The organizational meeting of the Hungry Club resulted in plans to meet twice a month in the Dining Room of the Methodist Church on alternate Thursdays. Each meeting will feature entertainment following the meal.

An elimination game in the Lightweight community sandlot football league was scheduled in Bridgeville in mid-November between the undefeated Bridgeville Firemen and the Northside C. M. C. The locals were looking forward to the return of their “big back Texter”, who had been sidelined for four weeks with a broken hand.

It is a treat to read about those simpler times and to picture what life was like then. It is hard to imagine a world in which a birthday party for an eight year old girl warranted a full paragraph in a newspaper.

It's About Time July 13, 2017

Copyright © 2017          John F. Oyler

July 13, 2017

It’s About Time

The Bridgeville Area Historical society’s final program meeting for the 2016/2017 season was an enlightening presentation by Ken Kobus with the perfectly appropriate title “It’s About Time!” His talk focused on the significant role this area played in the development of our current standard time system.

The speaker began by explaining the complications of inventing a time system. We have chosen to base our system on twenty four hour days, with one day being the time interval between successive passages of the sun over our longitude. It would appear easy to measure time this way; all one needs is a sundial.

Unfortunately, due to the ellipticity of the earth’s orbit about the sun and the inclination of its axis to the plane of that orbit, a sundial is only correct twice a year, on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Consequently we have defined an hour as one twenty fourth of a day measured on those special days and labelled this as mean solar time.

A second complication is the distinction between sidereal time and mean solar time. The most precise way for us to determine the actual time is to observe the passage of polar-centric stars over our longitude. This occurs consistently every twenty three hours and fifty six minutes and four seconds. The roughly four minutes difference between sidereal and mean solar time accounts for one day’s passage of the earth around its annual orbit.

Fortunately this difference is conveniently tabulated for each day of the year, making it possible for an astronomer to observe the passage of a star, determine sidereal time, and then convert it to mean solar time.

A century and a half ago Samuel Pierpont Langley financed the operation of the Allegheny Observatory doing precisely that and then selling the correct time to municipalities and railroads all over North American. The Observatory was a significant asset of the Western University of Pennsylvania (now known as the University of Pittsburgh).

This capability made it possible for each locale to know its precise local time by correcting “Allegheny Standard Time” by the difference in longitude between its meridian and that of the Observatory (one degree of longitude represents four minutes of time). Not really a problem for a traveler heading east in a horse and buggy, but a railroad passenger going from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia would have to reset his pocket watch at Greensburg, Johnstown, Altoona, etc. to be on local time.

This was satisfactory for the casual traveler, but extremely impractical for the railroads themselves, as they required a consistent time scheme to synchronize the movement of trains throughout their system. The Pennsylvania Railroad resolved this problem by establishing its own time zones. Union Station in Pittsburgh was the boundary between two zones – Philadelphia Time (forty minutes ahead of Pittsburgh) and Columbus Time (twenty minutes behind Pittsburgh). The Station itself was on Philadelphia Time, as were all the lines going East. All of the lines going West, including the Panhandle Division and consequently the Chartiers Branch, were on Columbus Time.

This was an excellent solution for the railroad but an awkward one for Pittsburgh and its two not-yet-absorbed neighbors, Allegheny City and Birmingham. Folks on the east side of a street had their clocks set an hour later than their neighbors on the west side of the same street. In 1883 the North American railroads established a system of five standard time zones, with boundaries avoiding heavily populated areas wherever possible.

This system was finally made official during World War I when legislation intending to enforce “Daylight Saving Time” was passed by Congress. This legislation, of course, required the recognition of the railroad time zones. Minor modifications, mostly associated with local preferences regarding Daylight Saving Time, have produced our current system.

Today we can always get the precise time from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. A second is defined as the time it takes a cesium-133 atom to perform 9,192,631,770 oscillations. I think dividing the time it takes the earth to rotate 360 degrees on its axis by 86,400 was precise enough for me.

Mr. Kobus is an extremely knowledgeable gentleman on a variety of subjects, each linked to an appreciation of our historical heritage. We look forward to hearing from him again on f uture Society programs.

The program series will take an hiatus for the rest of the Summer. The Fall schedule will be announced in the future. The next “Second Tuesday” workshop will convene at the History Center at 7:00 pm, July 11, 2017. It will focus on the history of Bridgeville High School and the 1926 Yearbook.

Bridgeville High School History, part two July 6, 2017

Copyright © 2017          John F. Oyler

July 6, 2017

Bridgeville High School, Part Two

The Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s “Second Tuesday” workshop for June continued the review of the early years of Bridgeville High School, covering the period between 1917 and 1925.

The facilitator began the program by reviewing where we left off at the end of the first workshop. At that point the high school was housed on the third floor of Washington School. The student body consisted of about thirty students in three grades, taught by Principal T. S. McAnlis, Joseph Ferree, and Romaine Russell.

In 1917 a decision was made to offer a fourth year of high school; consequently there was no graduating class that year. A newspaper clipping from that year  reports that the BHS basketball team, in its second season, had been defeated by Morganza Training School, 37 to 15. One wonders if BHS had its own home floor in those days, and if so where it was located. Lawrence Rankin played center for the team. 

The Dramatic Club performed a play, “A Kentucky Belle” that year. Included in the cast were Marian Freed, Walter Jones, Clark Carlisle, and C. P. Mayer. Jr.

During the previous workshop the facilitator had mentioned that one of the members of the Class of 1914, Ralph Picard, had been killed in “the Flannery Explosion”. Since that meeting we were able to locate a newspaper clipping that reported that incident in great detail.

On April 2, 1918, a large oil tank exploded in the Flannery Bolt Company’s machine shop, igniting a fire that ultimately killed six persons, including eighteen year old Ralph Picard and seriously injured six others. Picard was working with his father, Michael, when the explosion occurred and was severely burned. His father extinguished the flames, carried his son outside, and returned to rescue several other persons. Unfortunately Ralph died in Mercy Hospital the next day.

The BHS Class of 1918 held Commencement exercises in “Russell’s hall” on May 24; the featured speaker was Dr. Reed Teitrick, a minor official in the State Department of Education. Russell’s hall was the auditorium in Squire Frank Russell’s building on Station Street, that was also the venue for Nickelodeon films. Included in the Class of 1918 was Walter Jones, who married Clara Weise, a member of the Class of 1916.

The high school faculty changed that summer. Professor W. M Edwards became Principal and was assisted by Joseph Ferree, Miss Nina Morrison, and Miss Ella Snodgrass. Sixteen other teachers were assigned to the eight elementary grades.

There were seven graduates in the Class of 1919, including Orpha McGarvey who went on to a long, productive career as a teacher in South Fayette. By 1919 the graduating class had grown to thirteen students, including Gladys and Lester Allen, Walter Patton, and Elnora Weise. The facilitator showed a photograph of the class, proudly displaying a BHS pennant.

By 1921 BHS had fielded a girls’ basketball team. A newspaper clipping reporting their loss to the Canonsburg Juniors, 8 to 7, was shown. The Class of 1921 had only four members. One of them, Burke Jones, was a fine soccer player who went on to play for the U. S. Olympic soccer team in 1924, the only BHS graduate to be an Olympian. Another, Helen Bowman, had a long career as teacher and Principal in the Bridgeville Elementary School.

In the Fall of 1921 BHS fielded its first football team, which won three of nine games. The Class of 1922 was social, as well as athletic. On April 21, 1922 they hosted their “Annual Hop” in the American Legion Pavilion, with Nosskoff’s first orchestra providing the music. What a shame we have no record of their playlist!

The class of 1922 was the biggest to date, with eighteen members. Included were C. P. Mayer, Jr., Walter McMillen, Paul Rankin, Harry Saperstein, and Karl Weise – a roll call of prominent Bridgeville citizens two decades later.

The gridders struggled the next football season, with only one win (Morris Township) and four losses. Perhaps the problem was manpower, as the Class of 1923 graduated only eight students.

The summer of 1923 produced another faculty shakeup. John C. Bedillon was selected as Supervising Principal, with Eugene W. Davis serving as High School Principal. Other High School teachers were D. P. F. Lowry (Science), Frank E. Weidenham (Foreign Languages and
Coach), Walter Sterrett (History), Lucile Martin (English), and Olive Martin (Mathematics).

The elementary school teachers this year included many who would still be active fifteen years later when the oldest of the workshop members were included in their classes – Helen Bowman, Mary Danley, Mary Jones, Margaret Cronin, and Grace Conger.

This year there were seven hundred students in the Elementary School and one hundred eighty more in the high school. The basement was being outfitted with seats to form temporary classrooms for the overflow. The general sentiment was that a new building was needed. Another initiative was the establishment of seventh and eighth grades as Junior High, to make the transition to ninth grade easier.

The football team got off to a good start, “walloping” Cecil 12 to 0. Wins over Canonsburg and Bethel Vocational gave them a three and six record. The clipping for the Cecil game singled out Chamberdon, Shane, Abraham, and Simpson as particularly effective players. The soccer team was more successful, completing their second straight undefeated season and being named the champions of Allegheny County.

The School Board was reorganized on December 15, 1923, with Dr. S. C. McGarvey as President and D. M. Bennett as Vice President. They promptly announced plans to consider acquiring property and building a High School. By January 31, 1924, the decision to finance this venture with $135,000 worth of bonds had been made.

Bridgeville High School had begun to excel in non-athletic pursuits as well. The High School Debating team participated in a national competition at the Carnegie Institute Lecture Hall. Ruth Bowman was one of eighteen Allegheny County orators competing with speeches on the topic “The Constitution of the United States”.  Georgianna Taylor won second prize in a W. C. T. U. essay contest; her subject was “The Evils of Tobacco”.

Commencement for the twenty two students in the Class of 1924 was held at the Bethany Presbyterian Church on May 2, 1924. Ruth Bowman and Amelia Morgan presented the orations. Also included in the class were Campbell David, Clarence McMillen, and Oscar Saperstein.

The Dramatic Club was active into the summer. On June 14, 1924, they presented a play based on Booth Tarkington’s novel “Seventeen” at the Bethany Presbyterian Church. The budding Thespians included Mike Abraham, Ralph Weise, John Capozzoli, Kenneth McMillen, and Oscar Saperstein.

Five young ladies from the Class of 1924 went off to college in the Fall – Amelia Morgan (Beaver College), Margaret Koch (Sweet Briar College), Anna Patterson (Indiana Normal School), Patricia Callaghan (Seton Hill College), and Ruth Bowman (Muskingum College).

Fall brought BHS’ first successful football season, with losses to MeKees Rocks and Trinity the only blotches on a seven and two record under the tutelage of Coach Agnew. A 16 to 0 win over Carnegie caused so much excitement that one hundred students staged an impromptu snake dance down Washington Avenue, “upsetting a fruit stand and causing general excitement”.

The Junior Prom was held on January 2, 1925, in the American Legion Hall. Billie Hollin’s Blue Ridge Orchestra provided was on the bandstand.

The Class of 1925 had twenty five graduates, including Mike Abraham, John Capozzoli, George Chappell, Harold Hickman, Cecelia Lutz, Margaret MacKown, and Robert Petrick. It also included Aldo “Buff” Donelli who achieved fame in later years as an outstanding soccer player and football coach. He is the only man ever to coach a Division One college team (Duquesne) and an NFL team (the Steelers) concurrently, in 1941.

The second BHS history workshop came to a close with the discussion of the Class of 1925. The next workshop will be at the History Center at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, July 11, 2017. The Class of 1926 was the first one to publish a Yearbook; consequently it provides an excellent opportunity for us to examine life in the new high school building in great detail. That will probably be the extent of the third workshop.