Along the shores of the Monongahela River, the communities thrived during the golden years of steel industrial production. Now abandoned, it is partly vandalized with graffiti and broken floor planks.
Curiously, a news article from 2002 in the Pittsburgh-area newspaper was mentioning possible usage as a bicycle repair shop, but in never happened (http://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_south/20020717smonbiketrail0717p2.asp )
Glassport rich industrial history is described in this recent article:
06/24/2002
Glassport's history rich with industrial development
By MELISSA SPANGLER , Daily News Staff Writer
When drivers or pedestrians enter Glassport from Clairton or down the hill from Port Vue, they don't tend to think about all the history the borough contains - dating back more than 100 years.
The borough is celebrating its centennial throughout this month.
It is believed most of Glassport once was covered by the Monongahela River, and the river basin settled to where it now flows through the hilly terrain as thousands of years went by.
The soil was found rich and fertile by Iroquois Indians, who began growing corn, squash and tobacco, according to the borough's Web site.
Some of the early families to settle were the McClures, the Edmundsons, the Barackmans, the Flocklers, the Thompsons, the Pollocks and the Reeds - who also were farmers.
At one point in history, this area was claimed by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and George Washington, according to the Web site, which can be found at (
visit link)
Before Glassport was its own borough, the territory was part of Elizabeth Twp., then of Lincoln Twp., then Port Vue.
It became a separate municipality in 1902, comprised of 1.52 square miles, and the population of the town 10 years prior to that was 50 - which may have included some horses and cows.
Beginning of Industry
In 1894, United States Glass Co. chose Pleasant Valley as a site for its new factory. When this became a business called Glassport Land Co., the town started to be laid out and property was sold.
Most of the streets lining the borough are named for states and numbers, except for the Otto section, which follows N. Monongahela Avenue toward McKeesport to the W.D. Mansfield Memorial Bridge from Harrison Street.
According to the Web site, the manufacturing of glass became a reality, and people came to work and live in the town.
Items being manufactured included tobacco jars, butter holders, meter covers, battery jars and eventually soft-drink glasses.
The first suggestion for the town's name was Hylos - the Greek word for crystal.
The next idea was offered by glass firm officials - Glassport - to honor the company. One hundred years later, that name still stands.
Industry and the economy increased as the borough progressed in the early 1900s. These industries included coal, gas wells, water and rail transportation and coal and gas for energy.
As in any town with a growing economy, schools and businesses began appearing all over.
Several companies contributed to the industry and business of the new borough.
Workers came from all over the world, including Poland, Italy, Finland, the Balkans, Yugoslavia, Romania and eastern Europe.
Abundance of companies
* United States Glass Co. was the head business, located at the end of Seventh Street.
Passenger trains brought workers into town. The company was one of the largest hand-crafted glass manufacturing facilities in America before pressed glass became inexpensive.
A tornado in August 1963 struck the Glass House, which contained the main manufacturing operations of the glass company.
It was deemed too costly to rebuild and had to be closed.
* Coke ovens were located from Harrison Street, going up the Monongahela River.
Otto Hoffman, a German inventor, built the Bee-Hive Coke Works, according to the borough's Web site.
Source of the coal needed to produce coke and iron was the four mines on the hill above Red Row, or Erie Avenue.
* Another firm was Serverance Manufacturing Co., which produced bolts, spikes and rivets for iron work construction. The downfall of this business came when welding was developed and machine rivets were improved by others.
* Pittsburgh Steel Foundry was born in Glassport in 1899. It originally employed fewer than 50 workers, but this number grew to 3,200 four decades later to help World War II efforts.
The foundry produced armor steel, tank turrets, huge anchors for war ships and several war items.
There actually is one anchor displayed at the intersection of Ninth Street and Monongahela Avenue, which was placed there by Glassport Heritage Society.
In 1959 the company occupied the property from Third to Seventh streets, and it later became Textron Inc., then Pittron.
This plant had a chapel that was used for prayer and Bible study.
In November 1973, a large amount of molten steel accidentally was poured where men were working and, miraculously, no one was injured.
A book was written about this incident by Wayne Aldersonn, the plant manager, which later became a television documentary, "The Miracle of Pittron."
In 1974, a Milwaukee mining, drilling and construction equipment company that needed high-quality casting took over. The name eventually became Bucyrus-Erie Glassport and closed as other mills did in the 1980s.
* Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, with a roundhouse and YMCA along Broadway Avenue, was used to conduct routine maintenance and major steam locomotive repairs.
Train crews used the YMCA for layovers. CSX of Jacksonville, Fla., operates the railroad today.
* Pittsburgh Steel Co. came to the borough in 1900 and made hoops and band. The plant employed 270 people and occupied six acres. The facility could no longer compete with modern manufacturing methods and closed.
* The American Axe & Tool Co. manufactured various types of axes and handles. The company moved to West Virginia to suit labor expense needs and was not in Glassport for very long.
* Copperweld Steel Corp. was a manufacturing company with products in great demand for several years.
Five men from Rankin invented a process that used a layer of copper to the outside of steel.
The product could withstand corrosion.
The company grew rapidly and purchased the American Axe & Tool Co. to become part of Glassport.
In 1959, the company diversified to alumoweld, a similar product using an aluminum powder to cover the steel wire using an electronic process. Copperweld expanded to Ohio and Tennessee and continued to grow.
The downfall came in 1975 when a French conglomerate owned by the Rothchild family purchased the company and took control of Copperweld stock.
Other businesses in early Glassport industry included Coslov Scrap Metal Co., Griffin Oil Co., Stalling's Bakery, Ohio Barge Line and Eastern Standard Oil Co.
Larger businesses of recent times include Westinghouse Apparatus Service Plant along Broadway Avenue, Plotkins Plumbing Supply along Wall Street, Coal Unloaders along Wall Street, Builders Supply Co. along Harrison Street and Home Service Purchasing Inc. along Third Street.
The Great Depression
When the Great Depression occurred, Copperweld made it through the hard times, and the huge demand for the product became difficult to meet.
Glassport was hard hit by the Great Depression when the stock market crashed and business started to go downhill.
Factories started to lay off workers, and those lucky enough to have jobs worked two or three days per week at most.
During these times, a group of friends and neighbors called the Glassport Unemployed Council was organized by Sam Antico.
This group descended upon the relief association and demanded jobs, food and clothing. Some residents were given employment with the Works Program Administration and others with Citizens Works Administration.
They worked on local projects - sewers for Vermont Avenue, road construction and other jobs.
Younger men joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, but even with this aid, families still were forced to go on welfare, according to "It Happened Here," a book being written by the borough's Centennial Committee.
Glassport Unemployed Council had an influence on the local labor movement and the formation of unions. The first Labor Day Parade was organized in 1937.
In 1939, union Local 1306 of Pittsburgh Steel Foundry went on strike, which lasted three months. The company tried to bring "strike breakers," but the labor movement of the McKeesport area came to the support of the union, the book states.
Eventually, factories started up again, and more jobs were available with salary increases and better working conditions.
The early beginnings
Before Glassport became its own municipality in 1902, it was simply part of another borough.
On Jan. 29, 1902, P.S. McMullen took a petition to court, with intentions to have the borough divided. The paper contained signatures of many residents from the area of the Youghiogheny River.
The court appointed a commission of three men, who arranged for a series of meetings, for the purpose of hearing arguments - why the borough should be divided.
On June 17, 1902, it was announced that Glassport borough was a reality.
Court approved a merger of Otto and Glassport, but put the new community under the jurisdiction of Port Vue until a special election was held July 29, an election for a corps of borough officers.
Now, the borough adjoins the Tenth Ward of McKeesport and includes all of the land along the Monongahela River between the Tenth Ward line and the original borough line of Port Vue.
The officers to be elected included seven councilmen, six school directors, one burgess, one justice of the peace, one high constable, one county constable, one assessor, one tax collector, an election board and an executive committee.
The following were elected: burgess, H.C. Griffin; council, George Pforsich, John F. Reed, W.F. Sparks, J.A.C. Sword, Patrick Kelly, Frank Chester, James J. Peyton and M.J. Webster.
Times have changed, politically, as most of these officials were Republican and today's Glassport councilmen mostly are Democrats.
"It Happened Here"
As part of the centennial celebration, the borough's Centennial Committee is putting together a book about the history of the borough called "It Happened Here."
The publication includes facts and statistics dating back to the beginning of the borough, along with officials, police and other people involved in the municipality since its inception.
Little information before 1851 was available for the book, but records show at that time, a house owned by Jane McClure was standing along the public road leading from Elizabeth to Glassport.
This farmhouse was considered the settling place of the first pioneers and early immigrants.
The oldest original house still standing in the borough is located at Seventh Street and Michigan Avenue, owned by the Wojciechowskis. It has been remodeled, but the original structure still remains.
Before Glassport became an official borough, the area had a rather dubious distinction. The first woman in Allegheny County - and only the second woman in Pennsylvania - to be hanged for a crime came from the area.
Charlotte Jones and her boyfriend, Henry Fife, were convicted of murdering her aunt and uncle, Elizabeth McMasters and George Wilson, in 1857.
The murder occurred on April 30. Jones reportedly knocked at her relatives' door and gained entrance, after she summoned Fife by whistling.
According to the story, Fife killed the old man with a dirk and beat the woman to death with a poker.
The criminals were hanged in Pittsburgh on Feb. 12.
There is a legend that on April 13 every year, if one stands on the site of the old log cabin at midnight, he or she will hear the echo of the whistle.
The book also contains information about several businesses that popped up in the borough, even before Glassport was its own municipality.
George W. Nizinski was one of the early borough businessmen. Born in Poland in 1872, he came to McKeesport nine years later. He was the proprietor of Hotel Nizinski Bar & Cafe (Hotel Conava), which was first in the city along Fifth Avenue until 1937.
He erected this business along Monongahela Avenue at that time.
The man also owned Nizinski Dry Goods/Clothing Store along Indiana Avenue in the mid-1920s.
The first post office was established in the borough in 1893, located in the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Station.
The ticket agent, Theodore C. Smith, also served as postmaster.
Because of the heavy load of mail for the industries, it was soon moved to its own headquarters in an old frame building at the corner of Seventh Street and Ohio Avenue, where Rosalind Russell served as post-mistress.
The post office was moved to 537 Monongahela Ave. in 1906 and remained there until 1916, when it was moved to 506 Monongahela Ave..
Finally, in 1963, the post office was relocated to 730 Monongahela Ave., where it currently serves residents.
As industries and businesses began to appear in Glassport, a need for a bank became evident.
Glassport National Bank was granted a charter to operate in 1899, and the bank was incorporated in January of 1906 with James Evans as one of the early presidents in 1902.
In 1915, the bank name was changed to The Glassport Trust Co.
This business, like the post office, went though a chronological series of changes.
In 1962, it merged with Peoples Union Bank & Trust Co., then in 1970 with Union National Bank of Pittsburgh.
These mergers have created a more-efficient banking system for the residents.
Where there is growth, there is a need for protection.
On Nov. 6, 1902, Glassport approved and enacted an ordinance creating the police department, with a duty of preserving the public peace, patrolling the streets and making arrests for all violations of the law.
The first police station was the old abandoned Pleasant Valley School Building.
The burgess was head of this department.
According to the Glassport publication, "The men of good character who serve as policemen must first take special training, and learn all police regulations, traffic rules of the borough, and a certain amount of the law. Police must also acquire knowledge in the use of firearms - weapons including tear-gas shells, riot guns and submachine guns, self-defense tactics and first aid."
The department has grown from one man to eight officers today. In 1902, the salary was $2 per day.
Now, according to the book, salary is $50 per day, plus benefits of insurance coverage, hospitalization and a clothing allowance. A pension fund was established in 1959 and has been updated.
The borough's first volunteer fire company - Citizens Hose Co. No. 1 - was formed in March of 1901.