HISTORIC IRON TRUSS BRIDGE

This column first appeared in the April 2018 issue of GreeneSPEAK!

Photo by Pete Zapadka, March 2015.

One of the oldest iron truss bridges in the United States is hidden along Route 21 in West Waynesburg. Thousands pass it daily without notice.

Called White’s Ridge Road Bridge, it was constructed over Ten Mile Creek in 1877 by Massillon (OH) Bridge Company. This county-owned road and bridge served travelers between Waynesburg and Oak Forest for 100 years until development of Emerald Mine No. 1 in 1975 cut off access to the creek’s south bank. 

Another view of White's Ridge Road Bridge. Photo by Pete Zapadka.

The Waynesburg bridge has a younger sibling, Pollocks Mill Bridge, near Jefferson, built by the same company one year later. In 2014, it was severely damaged by an overweight water-hauling truck, but has since been restored to active use.

Pollocks Mill Bridge near Jefferson. Credit: Swpa Rural Exploration

The closing  of Emerald Mine presents new opportunities to save the Waynesburg bridge. One suggestion is for a bike, equestrian or all-purpose trail.  A similar Massillon bridge of 1881 has been restored for pedestrian use in Cuyahoga National Park, Breckville, OH.

Though long abandoned, the White’s Ridge Road Bridge is well known to experts across the country.  All have urged its preservation. To quote historicbridges.com: “Any work done on this bridge should be of the highest restoration quality such that the maximum amount of original material is not removed or altered, and anything that is replaced be replaced with an exact replica.”

White's Ridge Road Bridge. Photo by Pete Zapadka. See his post "We Have To Save This Bridge!!!" in the Greene County Pa Time Capsule on facebook. 

Historic bridge expert Todd Wilson, author of “Pittsburgh’s Bridges” (2015), describes the White’s Ridge Road Bridge as a one-of-a-kind design, reflecting “unusual experimentation at a time when bridge companies competed with each other in proprietary design.” Before 1900, bridges were specialty products individually designed and often patented, whereas today all are built to the same government standards.

"Waynesburg Prosperous and Beautiful" (1907) published this circa 1902 view of West Waynesburg before the tin mill was erected. The caption is"Ten Mile Valley, Looking West from Sunset Park."

Photo enlargement shows location of the bridge at the curve in the creek.

According to historicbridges.com, the Waynesburg bridge is “a rare survivor of the iron bridge era, historically and technologically significant in several areas.” Nationally, there are only two others with the same hybrid truss configuration, both by the competing  Wrought Iron Bridge Company of  Canton, OH. White’s Ridge Road Bridge is the only known example by Massillon.

Truss bridges are composed of connected, load-bearing elements formed into triangular units. They come in many variations, often named for the inventor. The Waynesburg bridge design has been described as “bizarre and unique.” While its diagonals follow the Pratt configuration, the  counterweights are Whipple. In Pratt trusses, vertical members and diagonals slope down toward the center whereas in Whipple diagonals cross the neighboring vertical rather than connect to it. 

Truss bridge configuration. Wikipedia.

 

Whipple truss configuration. Wikipedia.

The verticals and diagonals of the Waynesburg bridge are made of wrought iron while the portal is cast iron. Massillon bridges are known for the beauty of their decorative ironwork. 

White's Ridge Road Bridge. Photo by Pete Zapadka

  

 In bridge development, iron was a brief link between traditional wood or stone and modern steel. The first iron bridge in America was constructed in 1836 over Dunlap’s Creek in nearby Brownsville. However, its arch design was not often repeated because it was more difficult and expensive to build than the soon-to-be-developed truss system. By the 1870s, iron truss bridges were erected on a large scale across the country, though few remain today.

Dunlap's Creek Bridge, ca. 1894, before sidewalks were added to its flanks. Still in use today. Credit: "The Old Pike" (1894), courtesy of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

  

THE MILLIKEN-SCHWARZ HOUSE

This column first appeared in the March 2018 issue of GreeneSPEAK!

Photographer Mike Schwarz flies a drone from the balcony of his parent's house to take this photo.

Lisa and Jeff Schwarz have meticulously preserved a grand house on North West Street near the Commons. It was built in 1905 by attorney Milton R. Travis, one of many residences erected during Waynesburg’s “Gilded Age,” an economic boom fueled by oil-and-gas revenues that made many professionals and businessmen wealthy.

Today the house is better known for its location next to Bowlby Library and its more recent owners, Hiram and Goldie Milliken and the Schwarz family. The Millikens owned the house from 1926 until 1980; the Schwarz family from 1990 to present.

A 2-story portico of Neoclassical design dominates the front façade of the yellow brick house. It hovers over a full first floor porch and second floor balcony. Supported by Corinthian columns, the portico is topped by a classically-ornamented pediment with a central window wheel.  

The Greene County Courthouse, ca. 1860.  Photo archived at Waynesburg Borough.

It’s similar to the front of the Greene County Courthouse, built 50 years earlier in the Greek Revival style. Both architectural styles were inspired by classical antiquity. Lying between them in the timeline of architectural development is the Victorian era when elaborate ornamentation and fussy design were the fashion.

This elaborately ornamented late-Victorian house stood at the corner of Sherman Avenue and Sixth Street. "Waynesburg Prosperous and Beautiful," 1906.

However, by 1900, the pendulum had swung back to classicism and a focus on simplicity, natural materials and traditional craftsmanship. Architects and builders chose design elements from a wide variety of styles, often mix-and-matching them. Some styles, like Classicism, repeated historical concepts while others like Arts and Crafts were brand new. The Milliken-Schwarz House is a fascinating blend of the two. 

The Milliken-Schwarz House in spring.  Photo courtesy of Lisa Schwarz.

Neoclassical details include the lattice porch railings, urn-topped balcony posts and arched dormer windows. The 2-story portico is significant as Waynesburg’s only residential example.

Proponents of the Arts and Crafts movement valued beauty, simplicity and function, feeling that mass production created inferior products and dehumanized workers. In Chicago, it led to development of the Prairie School of architecture by Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and others. Later, Wright culminated his philosophy of “organic architecture” at Fallingwater in Fayette County, not far from Waynesburg. 

The Robie House, Chicago, IL, 1909, an early Prairie style house by Frank Lloyd Wright. Photo source: Library of Congress.

Arts and Crafts trademarks in the Milliken-Schwarz exterior include the boxy, 4-square shape, the 5-foot wide overhanging eaves and the hip roof of heavily rusticated tiles.  

The Milliken-Schwarz House, described as "Residence of M. R. Travis" in the book "Waynesburg Prosperous and Beautiful," 1906.

Inside, floors are quarter-sawn oak. Doors, mantels, window frames and coffered ceilings are elm, birch and golden oak. Stained and leaded glass windows are important period details. 

Since 1990, Jeff and Lisa Schwarz have authentically preserved the house, appreciating the fine quality of the original building materials. When parts were missing, they thoughtfully sought out period-appropriate replacements, traveling near and far. 

For instance, the dining room chandelier, scones and andirons came from the recently demolished Iams House (former Senior Center) on North Richhill Street, just around the corner from their home.

The recently demolished Iams House on North Richhill Street. "Waynesburg Prosperous and Beautiful," ca. 1906.

This story would not be complete without mention of the huge rhododendron in the front yard. It was one of a pair planted long ago by Goldie Milliken. While one did not survive, the other flourished. Eventually, she had to re-route the front sidewalk around it. Five years ago, it almost died, but Lisa had it cut back and once again it’s thriving.

The builder, M. R. Travis, did not stay in his first house for long.  Within two years, he had moved a block up the hill on North West Street to a pure Arts and Crafts design.  Both houses are pictured in the second edition of "Waynesburg Prosperous and Beautiful," ca. 1908.  Both are identified as his residence. 

The second residence that M. R. Travis built for himself.

 

 

THE DEMOCRAT MESSENGER BUILDING

 This column first appeared in the February 2018 issue of GreeneSPEAK!

The Democrat Messenger, now Observer-Reporter Building, January 2018. 

Although Waynesburg is best known for its rich collection of 19^th century buildings, its downtown has a modern building that’s an important piece of 20^th century architecture by renowned Pittsburgh architect Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr. Designed in 1939 for “The Democrat Messenger,” a local daily newspaper, today it is owned by the Observer Publishing Company. The location is Church Street beside the court house.

 

Early view from the Carnegie Mellon University Archives.

Architect Frederick Scheibler has been called “undoubtedly the most important ‘original’ architect that Pittsburgh produced, as well as a distinguished and unique pioneer of the modern architecture in Pennsylvania“ by architectural historian James van Trump. The Democrat Messenger Building was his last completed commission, capping a 43-year career that was largely in the eastern neighborhoods and suburbs of Pittsburgh. 

Elevation drawing from the Carnegie Mellon University Archives.

His work is fully documented in The Progressive Architecture of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr. (1994) by Martin Aurand, librarian and archivist at Carnegie Mellon University. Scheibler designed many single-family homes, small apartment buildings and commercial structures. Among his most highly touted are three multi-family residences: Old Heidelberg (1905) on South Braddock Avenue, Point Breeze; Highland Towers (1913) on South Highland Avenue, Shadyside, and Parkstone Dwellings (1922) on Penn Avenue, Point Breeze. 

Early view of the Old Heidelberg apartment building.  Source: "The Progressive Architecture of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr.," by Martin Aurand.

The Democrat Messenger Building is among his most severe designs, ornamented only with Moravian tiles on the front façade and doorway surround. They were hand-made at the famous Doylestown, PA tile works. Inside the entrance hall are more tiles and another fine example of 20^th Century Arts-and-Crafts work, an iron staircase rail that has been attributed to Samuel Yellin of Philadelphia. 

One of the Moravian glazed tiles adorning the front entrance surround. January 2018.

The building design is "functionalist" with its simple box of buff-colored bricks, flat roof and groups of metal casement windows. The interior plan is unusual, designed to accommodate shipping facilities in the basement, a printing plant in the rear of the first floor and offices, all branching from a central hallway.

Front entrance stairway with glazed tile inserts and important Arts-and-Crafts style handrail.  January 2018.

The mystery of how this central lot came to be available 140 years after the town was established is answered in the Downey House Fire of December 1925. One of the buildings destroyed in this tragic conflagration was the Presbyterian Church that previously stood on the lot, giving its name to “Church Street”. Afterward, the congregation moved to its current location at Richhill and College Streets. Today, there is no church on Church Street. 

One of two Moravian tile medallions ornamenting the front facade.  January 2018.

Next, Waynesburg Borough acquired the lot for a new municipal building, but bids were twice rejected as being too high.  They abandoned plans in 1929, selling the lot to Robert H. Robinson, a Monongahela businessman who owned "The Democrat Messenger" and other local papers.  During the Depression when there was little work for architects, Robinson almost single-handedly kept Scheibler employed, first in 1935 with a printing plant for the Canonsburg “Daily Notes,” then four years later with the Democrat Messenger Building. In the same year, he hired Scheibler to design a “Model Dwelling” to address a shortage of affordable modern housing in the Mon Valley. Robinson publicized the project often in his Monongahela “Daily Republican,” and when complete, opened it to the public. Later it became the home of his son, John Robinson.

Model home in Monongahela, PA, designed by Scheibler in 1939. Source: Carnegie Mellon University Archives.

 
“The Democrat Messenger” ceased publication in March 1986. Since then, the building has been the home of the Greene County Office of the “Observer-Reporter”. The office of Habitat for Humanity is another current occupant.

Thanks to Martin Aurand and Lucy Northrup Corwin for assistance in preparing this article.