Pennsylvania repaves the brick on smethport

Pennsylvania Repaves the Brick on Smethport’s Main St. In March of 1947 the Pennsylvania Highway Department announced that it would improve Smethport’s Main Street and outlined its plan with borough council. The plan was complicated by the fact that side streets leading to Main Street would require regrading to meet the level of the new Main Street surface. The borough’s share of the cost was estimated at only $13, 500.

In discussing the plan two weeks later at a special session of council, members recommended altering the “Main Street Paving Specifications” presented by the state.

The council thought that the width of the street should be a few feet more narrow than recommended by the state in its initial plan.

That month a new, enlarged garage building for Bob Cleveland’s Hudson automobile dealership was started in East Smethport.

Early in May the new road between Wilcox and Halsey was begun. The three mile stretch from Halsey to Lantz Corners was not included in the contract. The route allowed a paved highway between Mt. Jewett and Wilcox via today’s Campelltown Road. The new route was being extensively relocated and widened and included the relocation of the channel of the Clarion River.

The road from Wilcox climbed up to the plateau at Halsey, into Freeman and then into

Mt. Jewett via Campbelltown. Lantz Corners was known as Lafayette on this 1940 map.

In mid-June the paper reported that, “A good delegation of Smethport boosters of the Roosevelt Highway Association are planning to attend the spring meeting Friday, June 13. at the Penn Wells Hotel in Wellsboro, Pa. “A big boom in tourist travel is predicted for this year and every community along the route hope to get their share of the trade from these travelers,” predicted Smethport’s newspaper.

At the meeting a week later members voted to continue marketing the Roosevelt Highway as a “scenic route,” rather than an “express route.” The same strategy continues to this present.

The state requested data from the McKean County Historical Society for the erection of historical markers in the county, as was planned in the entire state. These markers, which still exist today, proved to be very popular with motorists travelling Pennsylvania highways and in the various towns along the way who are proud of their history.

Tragedy hit Smethport late in July when Theodore Hyde, 27 years old, was killed while operating a road grader during construction of the new highway between East Smethport and Crosby.

Later that summer employees of the Smethport borough Street department paved an 8 foot wide section of King Street behind the Court House.

By September, plans were being made to hold a celebration for the opening of the new Port Allegany bridge. On Sept. 11bands from the two communities were stationed at their respective ends of the bridge to play selections for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the center of the bridge. Two school age children, one from each community dignitaries included the president of the Roosevelt Highway Association, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Highways, congressional representatives and local highway officials. A huge crowd turned out for the ceremony.

The following month saw the county earmarked for a 1.5 million dollar plan to maintain, construct and reconstruct several section of highway. Leading the plan was the modernization of 7.5 miles of Route 46 between Smethport and Emporium. Some of that highway was already being reconstructed between East Smethport and Crosby.

That month Orlo Ness purchased the Morrison Filling Station near McCoy Stadium on Marvin Street. In addition to modernizing the filling station, plans called for the addition of a shelf store and lunch counter service.

Pierre Allison and E. H. Botsford opened Allison and Botsford Motors on Water Street in Smethport at the south end of Franklin Street in January of 1948. The team did car repairs and new car sales, including the sale of Kaiser-Frazer automobiles from their newly constructed concrete block building. This business would change hands many times over the years and sell many different makes of automobiles before becoming a Lakeside Tire and Auto today. The business is popularly remembered as Fay’s Oldsmobile-Buick dealership and garage.

January also saw the signing of the contract to reconstruct Smethport’s Main Street, a section of the Roosevelt Highway, by the Kean-Wise Company of Sewickley, PA. The City of Bradford also saw the signing of construction contract to rebuild a section of Main Street in that city.

The Smethport reconstruction would widen two sections of Main Street from 26 to 34 feet. One section to be widened was from Allegany Street at the eastern end of the borough to Mechanic Street where the eastern end of the business district began. The second section to be widened was from the front of the Court House westward to where Marvin Street turns south off from main Street. The entire business district would not be widened, but would be paved with concrete as was the two sections on either side of the business district.

The work was started early in May on the Marvin Street end paving only one lane at a time so that one-way traffic could continue. During construction, Water Street doubled as the main thoroughfare in the community, and in some ways, still does to the present. New electric and gas lines were laid by the electric company while the road was being reconstructed.

“All in all Smethport promises to be a very busy place during the next few months,” predicted the Democrat.

By May 20th, the paper was reporting that, although unfavorable weather was causing delays in construction. The contractors “are making good progress in tearing the brick pavement. At press time the power shovel is taking up the bricks past the Franklin intersection. At the upper end of the street men are engaged in putting in drainage tile and otherwise getting ready for rolling the road bed.

“The employees of the Borough Electric Company have been busy this week removing the street light standards on Main Street. Residents are surely going to appreciate it ‘when the lights come on again.’

“Residents of the town were inconvenienced on Tuesday when the main water line on Main street was severed by the construction work,” which caused an interruption in the borough’s water service for several hours.

Other highway work in the county was also slated for the widening and curve elevating of the Route 59 between Ormsby and Degolia on U. S. 219 south of Bradford.

The road is now numbered PA Route 646 from Ormsby to Aiken, and from there to Degolia, PA Route 770 once Route 59 was relocated to its present alignment along the old East-West Road across the Big Level.

An additional state project called for the reconstruction of badly disintegrated highway west of Kane on Route 6 where the “Dangerous” road conditions have caused several accidents. The project included the straightening of several curves.

Route 68 (now Route 66) going south out of Kane also was in need of repair and sections south of Marienville were already being reconstructed. Some very dangerous curves still exist on this highway today just before exiting McKean County into Elk County near James City.

Durant City is now known as Russell City just south of James City.

Route 68 was known as the General Kane Highway.

Photos: Courtesy Kane Depot Preservation Society

Reports in the Johnsonburg Press complained about the new road being built out of Wilcox north to Halsey. In writing about the construction progress on the road, the article says, “The work improves a very nice piece of state highway but it leads almost to ‘nowhere’ since it connects at Halsey with a narrow-winding road which was ‘improved’ years ago.” The press hoped that the remaining five miles from Halsey to Lantz Corners would be put up for bid soon so that the “through-route shortcut” would be complete.

Thomas Buchter took over the operation of the Mobil Station formerly operated

by Mr. Fleeger who works at Quirk’s Garage in August.

The state announced a 2.6 million dollar road reconditioning program about the same time as work was progressing on Smethport’s Main Street. The program called for the resurfacing of many of the local roads whose maintenance was stopped due to the war. The plan also called for the reconstruction of bridges, recurbing, drainage construction, and grading. This was welcome news to area motorists.

Bids were opened to reconstruct 5.6 miles of the Roosevelt Highway with a 27 foot wide road between Kane and Ludlow. The construction was to be of reinforced concrete and would be two feet wider than the present road.

Wet weather was restricting construction on Main Street. “Traffic is now traveling on the greater portion of the 11-foot ribbon of cement laid on Main street,” wrote the Smethport newspaper. It was hoped that the opposing concrete strip would be poured soon now that the weather had improved.

The electric company was building the concrete bases so that the fifty-nine street light standards could be erected. “Main street has been brightened up since the electric company installed fixtures with 300 watt bulbs at each intersection on Main street. They are also reimbursing some of their consumers who are allowing their porch lights to remain on during the evening.”

The paper went on to note, “The Smethport Exchange Club is building booths at each end of Main street to be manned by members of the local Boy Scout troop, who consented to this arrangement at a meeting held Tuesday evening.

“The scouts will give instructions to motorists as to the best possible route to proceed through town, and the route to take upon leaving town. “This is a civic gesture worthy of commendation for both the Exchangites and Boy Scouts,” boasted the Democrat.

The final phase of construction began early in August when the contractors began “Swinging into the home stretch” as they began pouring “the final strip of pavement on Main street.”

“Starting on East Main street, a five foot strip will be laid to Hill street and through the business section to the Masonic Temple the road widens and a nine foot strip laid. From that point tp Marvin street intersection the unpaved portion is again five feet.

“Road crews have been busy installing curbing along the south side of the street and this has been completed to the Hull’s Hotel. Parts of the intersection have been poured on the south side of Main street in the business section.”

By August 12, the newspaper reported that work on Main street was rained out last week but that the contractors “started laying the last ribbon of concrete on main street Monday morning. Starting at the east end of Main street the first day’s pouring of the five foot strip ended near the Mobil gas station, and Tuesday night the big mixer was in front of St. Elizabeth’s church on a nine foot section. Wednesday afternoon at 4 o’clock the men were at work in front of the Court House.”

The newspaper projected that the poring would be complete by Friday at the latest and went on to note that, “Curbing has been placed along the south side of Main street and intersection at several streets have been poured.”

By Sept. 9th only the intersections on the north side of the street needed to be poured and that lights on Main street would all be on again in another week.

The Smethport Chamber of Commerce announced a “Street Opening Program” and “Ribbon Cutting Ceremonies” to be held at 1:30 P.M. in front of the Court House on Sept. 11th.

Hundreds of people witnessed the ceremonies which were “a huge success” according to the Democrat.

The Smethport Band opened the ceremony with the “Star Spangled Banner.”

Methodist minister, Rev. Burton, delivered the invocation which was followed by remarks from “various county and state officials” and welcoming statements by the Smethport Chamber of Commerce.

“The principle speaker of the day was C. W. Lillibridge, who traced the early road building activities in the county and reviewed more recent projects.

“Glen Raifsnyder, president of the Smethport Borough Council, expressed a sobering though in his short talk, saying: ‘I have a very, very short speech—a request to make to all of you. Please drive carefully on this highway, won’t you?’

Other officials from the State Highway Department, Clearfield and McKean County Districts and the Roosevelt Highway Association shared some comments with the crowd about the cost of the highway improvement.

“State Assemblyman Albert W. Johnson of Smethport, County Commissioner J. Albert Cleveland, who played an important role in securing the local highway by working with state officials over a period of years,” also addressed the huge crowd in attendance.

“The high point of the day came when Karen Johnson, eight year old daughter of Assemblyman and Mrs. Albert Johnson, stepped down and cut the red, white and blue ribbon stretched across Main street. Thus the thoroughfare was officially opened to traffic for the first time.

“The exhibit grounds located at the old Shawmut station attracted large numbers of people who viewed the latest in all types of automobiles, farm equipment, tractors, bicycles, tires, freezing units and milking machines.

“During the interval between the afternoon performance and the parade in the evening the merchants had a large influx of customers, who took advantage of the specials offered for the day.

The big street parade took place in the evening starting at 7:300. The parade formed in front of the court house and proceeded eastward on Main street. Heading the line of march were E. J. Monsch and A. Harrington, the latter secretary of the Chamber.

Then came the Smethport Band and a lengthy array of the latest in automobiles and farm equipment in somewhat the following lineup: six Farmall tractors from the smallest to the largest; two cars from McCutcheon Motors; four jeeps including a fire truck; three Packards and a Studebaker car of C.C. Brigham Services; two trucks, three O’Mara milk trucks. Brittain truck with snow plow and tractor on rear of truck, an Oliver Cletrac, five Bradford Milk Co. trucks, Blicco Ice Cream truck, three Butter-Krust Bread trucks, the Smethport Senior Band unit and the Smethport Junior Band, three John-Deere tractors; five Allis-Chalmers farm equipments, Mobilgas trucks, four Chevrolet trucks; J. R. Huffman & Sons truck, and 1923 Ford roadster, seven 1949 Fords of F. J. Quirk Ford Garage, four Oldsmobiles, 1 Kaiser automobiles, seven Chryslers, four Plymouths, four Crosleys. The Smethport Fire Dept. Drum and Bugle Corp, two little babies in bicycle

trailers, Gary Elliott riding on his pony, the Digel pony and cart, four mounts from the outlaw corral, Peruzzi’s Tap Room float, Whizzer Bike float and many Whizzer bikes, and a Mardi Gras float from which free gifts were thrown out to the children. Other bystanders received gift coupons by boys on bicycles.

“The Bicco Troubadors took over immediately following the parade which was witnessed by an estimated 4,000 persons. Nearly one hundred free gifts, donated by Smethport merchants and business men, were awarded at the speakers stand for various reasons.” The “lucky” winners were listed in the paper, along with the free gifts that they won. The list was extensive.

The event ended with several musical selections being performed in barber shop style by the Bicco Troubadors before the crowd moved to the rear of the court house for additional entertainment.

The ceremony was highlighted by Assemblyman Albert Johnson whose daughter, Karen, cut the ribbon opening the street for traffic to once again flow over The Roosevelt Highway as Route 6 was then called. Smethport’s own C.W. Lillibridge, retired Supervisor of McKean County Schools, provided the key-note address, which appeared in the Sept. 16, 1948 McKean County Democrat.

According to Lillibridge, “In August of 1807 Francis King, agent and surveyor for the Keating Land Company whose headquarters were then in Ceres, Pa., came to the forks of Potato Creek for the purpose of plotting and surveying the town lots and streets of the newly designated county seat of McKean. After building a rude camp, he and his helpers proceeded with this task which took thirty-five days. Thus, the meets and bounds and the general direction of Main Street and the road project which today is being dedicated were established 141 years ago.”

Surveys were then made the following April of 1808 to plan the location of a state road through the town.

Lillibridge pointed out that, “In 1808 the Legislature of Pennsylvania authorized the East and West road which extended from the Delaware River through the county seat towns of the Northern Tier Counties to the city of Erie. From the days of its early construction to the present this highway has been one of the chief trunk lines of the county as well as northern Pennsylvania. With the exception of the Port AlleganySmethport and the Marshburg-Kinzua sections of this highway, it follows closely the lines of the original survey. Entering McKean County at Burtville, it ran parallel to the Allegheny River to the Canoe place where the river was crossed.”

According to Lillibridge, “Smethport, as the county seat, was naturally the center from which road building activities radiated. The village was connected with Ceres by way of Eldred and Farmers Valley where early settlements had been made. Likewise, a road leads southward to Gallup’s Corners in Norwich Township. Another was constructed in a southwesterly direction to Instanter (Clermont) the second oldest settlement to be made in the county.”

After noting several other roads radiating out of Smethport, Lillibridge remarks, “We must consider Smethport itself as the most important of these early pioneer highway junctions and for this reason: one of the greatest hardships that faced the early settlers was the lack of communication with friends and business associates left behind in the more thickly settled areas of the state. Thus we read that mails were sent regularly from Philadelphia to Ceres by way of Williamsport, but it was only when a chance traveler

happened to be coming through that the mails were delivered from Williamsport to the far-away settlement of Ceres.”

Early settlers endured great hardships because of the poor conditions of the dirt roads that emanated from the community. Lillibridge continues, “There were the snows of winter, the dust of summer and still worse the mud of spring and fall. Farmers and townspeople alike dreaded the time of the annual break-up when streets and country roads were well-nigh impassible. The beautiful street now being officially opened and dedicated must have been at certain times of the year a veritable quagmire. The large logs removed by the contractor at considerable depth below the surface below the old brick pavement are evidences of the vain attempt of early settlers and road builders to make the streets of the village more passable in the time of rains and mud. However, a sparse population, lack of local, county and state funds made these attempts fruitless for a century or more. Those who lived before the days of improved highways literally ate dust for a part of the year and then waded through mud halfway to their horses’ knees for another part of the year.

“Forty years ago Smethport remedied this situation locally by constructing a fine brick pavement along its Main Street. Then eight years later in 1916, the citizen of the county, quite largely under the leadership of civic-minded residents of Smethport, voted a bond issue of $750,000 for road building purposes, thereby placing the county as the first in the state to earmark upon a county-wide project of this kind. Since that time the state has contributed generously for roads and at the same time taken over the maintenance of practically all of the highways in the county. How extensive and beneficial those projects have been is evident in every borough and township in the county. Just how beneficial is evidenced by these simple statements. Forty years ago there were few schoolhouses in the entire county on improved roads. Children walked to school through snow and mud. Now there is not a single school building in the county on a dirt road. Efficient transportation is available for practically all citizens of the county no matter where they may dwell.”

He continues, “The end is not yet. More and better highways are constantly being built.”

Lillibridge then adds inspiration to his address. “The old brick pavement has been torn up and removed. In its place there is now a finer, stronger highway better designed to meet the increasingly difficult traffic conditions of modern times. Along the old Main Street there have taken place the usual and uneventful, but necessary, daily avocations of typical American community. If one had the time, the inclination and the data to tabulate these events and the men and women who took part in them since this street was first paved forty years ago, the list would be astounding as well as ennobling.”

Lillibridge ended his 1948 address with these words: “In conclusion it can be said the roads of long ago were primitive, but so were the times in which the roads were built.

The days of pick and shovel corduroy and ox-team roads are past. An increasing population with greater financial resources combined with an effective cooperation of local, county and state authorities have given us a highway system of which we can be proud. What of the future?

“Highways are only a means to an end, and that end should be a finer and better cultural and industrial development of the people served by the roads. In the pioneer days our communications of necessity were self-contained. Each one, however small, must solve its own problems of civic, industrial and recreational nature. This called for close

cooperation of citizen with citizen all along the line. The very highways of which we are so proud tend to make travel so easy and enjoyable that many communities lack that cohesion and cooperation of years ago. Are we not thereby losing something vital and necessary to healthful American life? Our roads are built and taken care of by the state.

However, there are areas of activities in church, school, recreation and industry where initiative and local cooperation must come from within the small community itself. The County and the state cannot do everything for us without our losing something essential that even the best of highways cannot compensate.�

Later in September the paper reported that the 100 millionth automobile will soon roll off the assembly-line from an industry that employs one in every seven Americans.

At the time there were fifty-six companies producing 21 makes of automobile, 39 makes of trucks and 20 makes of busses. There would be many vehicles rolling over the new Main Street.

By December all those vehicles created a speed problem and the Smethport Chamber of Commerce “voted unanimously to appeal to the proper authorities to curb speeding on the recently completed new pavement on Main St. declaring such practice as a danger to the lives of pedestrians. “Since the thoroughfare was completed about two months ago, a number of drivers have been said to have used the street for a speed-way. Borough officials, it was stated, apparently have no power to stop the practice, because the state has not yet given permission