Copyright © 2020 John F. Oyler
June 25, 2020
Bridgeville in 1960
This week we are going to roll back the calendar six decades by taking advantage of the Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s archive of old copies of the Bridgeville News, beginning with the June 30, 1960 issue.
The News was an eight-page weekly paper available at newsstands for seven cents each week, or mailed to your home by subscription for three dollars a year. Ralph E. Hennon and Custer G. Papas are listed as owners and publishers.
In many respects 1960 was a watershed year for Bridgeville in its transition from regional commercial center to suburban bedroom community. The Great Southern Shopping Center had opened four years earlier in Kirwan Heights, boasting “One hundred stores, 3,000 parking spots, and ten acres of parks and playgrounds”, providing nearly impossible competition to Bridgeville’s “Main Street” – Washington Avenue.
It was also the last year for Bridgeville High School; in September the school kids piled on buses headed for Chartiers Valley High School, on Thoms Run Road in Collier Township. This eliminated a major cultural asset that effectively had brought all portions of the community together for sporting events, band concerts, and class plays.
Being June, the News was full of weddings, including several of folks we knew well. Our next-door neighbor, George Goldbach, married Edith Klancher at St. Agatha’s in a ceremony performed by George’s cousin Father Justin Der. It was Father Der’s first sacrament, a week after his ordination as a priest.
Another neighbor, Ralph Weise, Jr., married Carol Green the same weekend, at the Methodist Church. In a wedding in Hutchison, Kansas, still another neighbor, Buddy (Charles) Sims, married a young lady named Patricia Marshall. A large contingent of Buddy’s extended family drove to Kansas for the ceremony.
Of special interest to me is a column in the paper entitled “The Late 1890s – Leaves from an old Bridgeville Scrap Book”. One item reported “A. Fryer is helping to boom the town by building a large furniture store in the west end.” We know this eventually spawned the funeral business; I wonder where this store was located?
“Around Town”, the column reporting current local news included a number of items that warrant repeating. “Sam Lee, local laundryman, who was burned out by the March 1 fire, has reopened his place of business in the basement of the Quarture Building on Station Street beneath Blair Pharmacy”. His was only one of many businesses devastated by the fire that gutted the building block on the west side of Washington Avenue between Station Street and the bridge over the B & M branch.
“Rev. and Mrs. Robert E. Bailey, and four sons of Dubuque, Iowa, spent last week with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Bailey, of Elm Street”. Reverend Bailey was “Slugger” Bailey when we were kids; I had the pleasure of a having lunch with him and Mary Weise a few years ago when he came back for their high school reunion.
“Mr. and Mrs. Maryland Copeland of 654 Bower Hill Road celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the home of their son, Curtis Copeland of Bluff Street, on Saturday evening”. Imagine how surprised they would be to know that Curtis’ widow, Betty, would be Bridgeville’s first female mayor, sixty years later!
The sports news in this issue consisted of a fairly comprehensive review of stock car racing at Heidelberg, Clinton, and South Park; and the weekly summary of games in the local Little League. Teams sponsored by the Kiwanis and by Reliable were tied for first place with four and one records, with Rotary and Legion teams trailing them.
The advertisement for the Rankin Theater was emblematic of the decline in Bridgeville business. By then the theater was reduced to three days a week; “The Bramble Bush”, starring Richard Burton and Barbara Rush was this week’s feature. I presume the “old show”, the Strand, had been shuttered by 1960.
Another ad reported that Herman Colussy’s Garage was “now open”. Before the popularity of refrigerators, Herman Colussy and his ice truck were common sights all over Bridgeville, delivering to every household.
There were automobile ads for Colussy Motor Company, still on Baldwin Street; E. A. Motor Company, on Station Street; Bridgeville Sales (Chrysler), on Washington Avenue; and Burgunder Motors, at the “Y”, in South Fayette. Each company highlighted used cars as well as new ones. A 1959 Plymouth Savoy V8 could be yours for $1695.
Other bargains included three pounds of ground beef for $1.15 at Ben’s Meats, 608 Washington Avenue; a three-bedroom ranch home for $19,000, from the Silhol Agency; men’s short sleeved sport shirts for $1.88, at Saperstein’s; or new broadloom carpeting at $5.88 per square yard, from Rusmur Floors. To put these prices in perspective, the U. S Bureau of Labor Statistics equates one dollar in 1960 to $8.66 today.
Andy and Sophie Yurkas invited customers to the new, air conditioned Royal Restaurant at 447 Washington Avenue, 6:00 am till midnight, with “all the tasty specialties served right…at modest prices”.
Fed Donelli ran an ad announcing that he was an agent for the State Farm Insurance Company, specializing in automobile insurance. He and his wife, (the former) Pat Winnechuke, were fellow members of our proud BHS Class of 1949.
Classified ads are always fun to read; where else can you get twenty words in a newspaper for sixty cents? For sale: Remodeled older seven room house for $10,900; Modern Kenmore gas stove, $85 (reduced from $245); and 1941 Chevrolet two door sedan (best offer). Wanted: Spoiled bailed hay; Dishwasher – inquire Weise’s, 528 Washington avenue; and “Ladies full or part time, evening work, car necessary”.
Those were indeed nostalgic times. Our country was enjoying the relative peace of the Eisenhower years. It would be another three years till Bob Dylan would write “The times, they are a-changing”, the anthem of the turbulent 1960s. Change was ahead for all us; the community of Bridgeville was not an exception.
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