History, the common thinking goes, is about great events and

personages—wars and presidents, revolutions and inventors. But it is

much more than that—most broadly it is about preserving the memory

of human experience. Many memories often overlooked, though,

because they deal with the humble and every-day. They are thus at risk

of being never recorded and, once forgotten, lost forever.

One category that is often neglected yet is so vital to human culture

and experience are traditions of food and cookery. Knowledge and

expertise that was once regularly passed down from grandmother to

mother to daughter is now at risk of being forgotten.

We now live in an age where knowledge of cooking has been largely

removed from daily life. As best-selling food author Michael Pollan

points out, many Americans spend more time watching cooking shows

than in actual food preparation. Various trends, spanning several

decades, are blamed: generations of relatives living in different towns

let alone in the same household, women entering the workforce, greater

time demands made by careers, and a long, concerted effort of the food

industry to encourage purchase of ready-made or convenience foods,

whether at the drive-through or in the supermarket.

Alarming headlines of recent years include: “Millennials Don’t Know

How to Cook,” “The Traditional Cooking Skills that are Dying Out,”

“The Modern Destruction of Food Culture,” and so forth.

Surely, cookbooks preserve much of this knowledge, but they often

don’t record homestyle meals. Nor are they likely to include the hints

and techniques that, if grandma were peering over your shoulder, she

would be sure to remind you were the “right way” to prepare a dish. And,

when describing the notable dishes of a country or region, cookbooks

often include the disclaimer: “but every household has its own

variation.”

With Sharpsville’s strong representation of many ethnic groups, we

would especially like to preserve those recipes with a direct link to the

town’s immigrant ancestors. The Historical Society has in its archives

four cookbooks from local churches and women’s groups. But, being

from the 60s, and 70s, their recipes rely heavily on condensed soups,

jello molds, and the like: worthy now of their own sort of nostalgia, but

certainly not reflecting the traditional cookery of past generations. If you

have recipes that reflect one of the groups that make up Sharpsville—

Italian, Slovak, Irish, German, African-American, Yankee, and others—

we would like to include them in our archives. At the very least, if you

have an old dog-eared index card with one of Grandma’s favorites, take

it out and give it try sometime. And make sure to ask older family

members about their favorite memories of the kitchen and take care to

pass on this knowledge to the younger generations.

Sharpsville Area Historical Society Newsletter

Vol. IX, No. 1

May 2020

Upcoming Events

Due to restrictions on gatherings to help combat

the spread of COVID-19

Our ANNUAL QUILT SHOW, originally scheduled

for May 2nd

has been postponed until a later date

The following events are cancelled

until further notice:

GAMBLING SPREE BUS TRIPS

SATURDAY MUSEUM HOURS AT OUR HEADQUARTERS

MONTHLY MEETINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Interesting items may be viewed under the Archives

section of our website

www.sharpsvillehistorical.org

With Gratitude

A significant grant that will allow us to continue

the restoration of our historic headquarters was

made by:

Erie Insurance Group

Contact Us

website: www.sharpsvillehistorical.org

email: sharpsvillehistorical@hotmail.com

see our website for officers’ phone numbers

Headquarters: 131 N. Mercer Ave., Sharpsville, Pa.

Mailing address: 955 Forest Lane,

Sharpsville, Pa. 16150

Meetings are held the First Monday of the Month at

7:00pm at our headquarters

Building the Town

Annexation & Development

With Sharpsville’s borders mostly unchanged for close to a century, it can be hard to picture the borough any different

than it is now. Yet, the 1.4 square miles occupied by the town have had three significant additions—all at the expense of

Hickory Township. Indeed, Sharpsville along with the other incorporated municipalities in the Shenango Valley all at one

point belonged to Hickory Township (now Hermitage).

When Sharpsville was formed as a borough in 1874, the original northern boundary was, as now, the Shenango River. It

extended west to what is now 15th

Street. The eastern border was Mercer Avenue, before it made a jut along Walnut Street

to what is now Union Street. The southern boundary follows the current border between 15th

and 10th

Streets (in the

neighborhood of the dead-ends of 12th

and 13th

Street and extending in a straight line eastwards; Hittle Drive forms part of

that line as does Twitmyer Avenue (though at that time, Twitmyer was not yet part of Sharpsville).

While these borders remained static until 1909, we see earlier references to the Milliken Addition and Strawbridge

Addition to Sharpsville. Milliken’s added the section along Main Street, including the numbered streets, from First to

Seventh, and dates from either 1866 or 1869. Strawbridge’s continued further westward from Seventh to Eleventh Streets.

In 1871, it was reported that the “Strawbridge addition to Sharpsville thus far consists of 200 lots, of which over one-half

have been sold.” Two other sections named for James Pierce and his son Jonas, dated 1869 and 1872 respectively, are also

recorded. But since these “additions” were included in the Borough of Sharpsville’s original 1874 boundaries, they were

not annexations but expansions to the street plan of the town. Another relevant change happened shortly before Sharpsville’s

incorporation, though this involved a border. In 1870, a slice of land at the river bend, encompassing much of the Canal

Street flats area, was annexed to Hickory Township from Pymatuning Township. (What is now South Pymatuning was part

of Pymatuning Township until 1914.)

The development of a new town is measured, however, not just in the physical borders but in its population. With recent

decades of stagnant if not declining population, it is easy to forget an era when population growth was assumed. In the

twentieth century, the census enumeration for the borough grew from 2,970 (1900), 3,634 (1910), 4,674 (1920), 5,194

(1930), 5,129 (1940), 5,414 (1950), and to 6,061 (1960), before reaching a peak of 6,126 in 1970. (The population stands

at 4,415 as of the 2010 census.) Yet, even these figures fail to give a picture of the rapid growth in the town’s early years.

A 1873 newspaper report—when Sharpsville was but a locality with a post office, and a year before its incorporation—notes

that the population “is now over 2,000, having more than doubled during the past two years.” (This boomtown growth did

level off with the count in the 1880 census at 1,826, and 2,330 in the 1890 census.)

Despite these growing numbers, during the 19th century at least, Sharpsville’s original borders contained plenty of empty

tracts and room to grow. The map of Sharpsville from 1873, below, shows the lay-out building lots, both improved and

vacant. (Zoom in to see the detail on this and other images.)

Annexation & Development, cont’d.

Even as late as 1930, photos taken from the top of a blast furnace looking south show an almost pastoral landscape beyond Pierce Avenue.

Above is 7th St. intersecting with Main St. at the billboard (with Rossi Barber Shop next to it. The First Presbyterian Church is in the Middle distance. Below is 8th St. intersecting with Main.

Annexation & Development, cont’d.

The homebuilding during these early decades was often part of a real estate development. This is not a modern

phenomenon. In an older example, in 1896 the Oak Grove

Plan’s 27 fine residence lots were advertised. This was in the

area between of East Ridge Avenue and Line Street, between

Walnut Street and Mercer Avenue. In 1893, J.C. Mell offered

“Lots For Sale Cheap” along Pierce and Ridge Avenues,

between Tenth and Thirteenth Streets. The same year, Jonas

Pierce’s Edgewood Development was laid out, as shown in the

newspaper advertisement to the right; it touted the healthful air

and water of its hillside elevation. It even had a windmill,

reminiscent of the western prairie, to pump the well water. (In

the lower part of town, the stagnant water in the old canal was

considered disease-ridden, with malaria striking the borough

just nine years prior.) Both Pierce’s and Mell’s developments

promoted their proximity to the newly-opened streetcar line that

ran along Ridge Avenue to Sharon. Edgewood’s developer, Jonas

Pierce, even secured Borough Council’s approval for a small

streetcar station to service the new neighborhood.

If you are perplexed by Edgewood’s street layout, most were

never built. Nin-Ten Avenue, as indicated, was in-between

Ninth and Tenth Streets; if it extended further south in would

have included part of present-day Franklin Avenue. Orchard

Avenue corresponds to the western half of Quarry Way, and

Woodland Avenue is placed around the current location of

Pryde Avenue. Since the streets were never built as originally

laid out, we must presume that sale of the lots was slow.

Moreover, the Boston firm Sadler & Henderson later bought the

remaining Edgewood lots from Jonas Pierce and were still

offering them for sale in 1919: “All Large Lots $49 to $149.”

Yet, eventually Sharpsville would need to

expand its borders. The map shown to the left is

provided by the useful website

www.localgeohistory.pro. It shows the original

boundaries of the town, shaded in rose, plus its

three main additions that were carved off from

Hickory Township, outlined in blue to the east,

west, and south.

The first area to be annexed, on February 2,

1909, was the East End (sometimes called

Irishtown); it encompassed the Twitmyer and

Covert Avenue area, as well as lots on Thorn

Avenue and the east side of Union Avenue. (A

small sliver was added in 1920 to include the

Annexation & Development, cont’d.

lots on the east side of Covert.) In 1919, Sharpsville’s boundary was extended west to include the area from 15th to 18th

Streets, along Ridge, Ashton, and Hall Avenues. This was known as Knight’s Addition or Annex, and was named by Martin

L. Knight, secretary of the Shenango Valley Street Railway Company. Growth in this area—too far to easily walk to the

business districts of Sharpsville or Sharon—was made possible by the construction of that streetcar line that connected the

two towns in 1893. A number of real estate transfers from Knight, beginning June 3, 1893, indicate the he saw the

investment potential of land along the new streetcar line. The designation as an “Annex”, however, was made long before

the actual annexation. A 1904 religious census of Sharpsville, for example, broke out separately Knight’s Annex (as well

as the West Side in South Pymatuning) from Sharpsville proper. Growth in this area was also influenced by the large number

of jobs only about a mile away at the Westinghouse plant in Sharon. Finally, the largest addition to the borough, to the

south, was added October 14, 1925 (after an unsuccessful attempt two months prior).

In 1939, a group of South Pymatuning residents proposed to Sharpsville Council that their section of the township be

annexed to the borough in order to gain access to water and sewer service. No action seems to have been taken on this

request.

Developers continued to play a part in the building of these newer parts of town. Reminders of these original

developments—whether by an active developer, or merely someone who owned a little acreage that was later subdivided

into lots—is given in the deed descriptions for many homes in Sharpsville. Examples include the Fye Plan of Lots on South

Fourth and Charles Street, the Paul DeSantis Plan of Lots going up the hill on Seventh, the Martin E. Cusick Plan of Lots

on Second Street near Buhl Park, and the William Perfett plan of lots along Eleanor Street. Out-of-state developers even

speculated in Sharpsville land. In 1925, lots in the Park Vista Plan, in the blocks of Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Streets

leading up to Buhl Park, were offered by the Miami Realty Auction Co. of Miami, Florida. They even sponsored a letter

writing contest “Why you should buy a lot in Park Vista”; first prize was won by Agnes Hunter, age 13.

The post- World War II building boom saw at times an almost frantic pace of building and development. From 1947 to

1955, 332 new homes were built in the Borough. Much of the residential construction continued to be done on lots

subdivided for development, often with contractors building the homes on spec. In 1950, Council gave approval for Calvert

Lumber Company to build thirteen new homes—two on Third Street, ten on Fourth Street, and one on Koehler Drive.

Builders Wade D. Mertz and Anthony Hoban, though competitors, each put up homes on alternating lots on Mayfield Road.

James McCracken laid out the lots in the much of the Wakefield-Koehler Drive and South Mercer Avenue area.

Aerial view ca. 1945 showing largely undeveloped area along 7th Street toward Buhl Park.

Annexation & Development, cont’d.

This growth was bound to slow, if for no other reason, there was no more land to add to Sharpsville. (The only

exceptions were two small residential lots, each on Hughes Alley, that were annexed in 1946 and 1953. These were

essentially “islands” of Hickory Township that were not contiguous with any other street frontage in the township.) By

1955, annexation of Hickory Township was dead. Twentieth century annexations were usually for the purpose of

obtaining sewer service for new developments. (Septic tanks and leachbeds work fine for larger, rural lots, but not for

closely spaced suburban lots.) With Sharon, Farrell, and Sharpsville having existing sewer systems, poor Hickory was

slowly being eaten away. Township supervisors had plans to build their own sewer system, but realized that this would

never get off the ground if their potential customers were continually being poached by neighboring municipalities.

These supervisors saw that if they graduated from a second-class township to a first-class township, a township-wide

referendum would be required to approve any further annexation requests from a neighborhood. After overcoming

various legal hurdles and petition deadlines, the referendum was passed overwhelmingly. Further loss of land was

essentially stopped and Hickory proceeded with its own sewer system.

Yet, there remains a curious attempt an annexation since. In the 1960s, it was proposed that the land of the Riverside

Cemetery be annexed to be within Sharpsville. Some of you may say—wait, the town’s cemetery isn’t in Sharpsville?

Others of you may nod knowingly and respond—none of the cemeteries in the Shenango Valley lie within the

traditionally incorporated municipalities—that is, disregarding the latecomer City of Hermitage since it was an

unincorporated township until 1983. (Originally Hickory Township, it was renamed Hermitage Township in 1976.)

Sharon’s cemetery, Oakwood, is not in Sharon. (Actually, its office and maintenance building are, but the graves are

all in Hermitage.) A map of the Farrell-Hermitage border shows a curious zig-zag on Sharon-New Castle Road and an

odd island on Mercer Avenue; they carve out the cemeteries in the vicinity so that they lie within Hermitage. It has

been assumed that reason for this was some old state law forbade the location of a cemetery within a city or borough.

But is that the case?

No state law prohibited a burial ground from being located within a city or borough, though various statutes regulated

them. For example, the Act of April 18, 1877 permitted that: “When, by the growth of cities and the opening of

incorporated cemeteries in the vicinity thereof, or from other causes, any burial ground belonging to or in charge of any

religious society or church directly or through trustees therefor, has ceased to be used for interments, the courts . . .,

upon petition of the . . . trustees of such . . .church, . . . may direct the removal of the remains of the dead,” provided

proper notice is given, a majority of the parish members approve, and the removal is to permit the expansion of buildings

for religious purposes. On the other hand, the Borough Act of 1851 did grant to the local authority the power “to

Aerial view of 7th Street, mid-1950s, with new construction on Woodland and Mayfield.

Brown’s Greenhouse is in the lower left.

Annexation & Development, cont’d.

prohibit within the borough the burial or interment of deceased persons.”

Indeed, we see this in Sharon which had churchyard cemeteries behind the First Baptist and First Methodist. (Three

Catholic burial plots were also located in the Fisher Hill area, on North Oakland Avenue, Meek Street, and Brooklyn

Street. These graves were later moved to St. Mary’s Cemetery.) Dr. J.M. Irvine, one of the co-founders of Oakwood

Cemetery, lobbied the state legislature to pass an act in 1868 to prohibit burials within Sharon’s boundaries. Four

years later, the General Assembly passed another law to allow the graves behind the First Methodist Episcopal Church

in Sharon (at Irvine Avenue and Silver Street) to be removed to Oakwood, as the Methodist burying ground “is now

located in a populous part of said town, and from situation and size is no longer suitable for such purpose.” It is left

to speculation whether Dr. Irvine’s push to ban in-town burials was motivated by a desire to increase lot sales for

Oakwood Cemetery. But whatever the particular impetus behind the Sharon cemetery statute, the establishments of

Oakwood in 1866 and Riverside in 1872 were part of the Rural Cemetery Movement. This movement, started in the

1830s, joined together various interests—concerns over public health, freeing up city lots to accommodate growth, and

a reconsideration that a natural surrounding offered the tranquility more appropriate for a final resting place. The

park-like landscapes of this style of cemetery offered beauty and solitude away from the noise of the town, in contrast

to the somber, crowded churchyards they replaced.

Sharpsville, on the other hand, was still part of Hickory Township when Riverside Cemetery was founded in 1872.

The location for Riverside was personally chosen by General Pierce for being on a pleasant bluff, and not because it

stood outside of any municipal boundary. When the original borough lines were drawn two years later, there would

have been little reason to include acreage that did not add to the tax base. Likewise, as Sharon grew in size, it annexed

the land around Oakwood Cemetery but not the cemetery itself. A similar process can be seen as Farrell grew eastward

toward the cemeteries on Mercer Avenue and Sharon-New Castle Road.

This brings us back to the proposed an nexation of the eleven acres of Riverside Cemetery. The idea appears to have

first been broached at a February 13, 1962 meeting of the cemetery’s board. Since its members were from Sharpsville,

the interments were mostly Sharpsville residents, and there was a history of cooperation with the Borough, the idea

seemed natural and to some extent symbolic, though for the cemetery they would receive improved police patrols as

well as assistance with upkeep of its roads. Sharpsville would officially have a place to stage its Memorial Day

observation and Hickory’s police would be freed from patrolling a disconnected area. Initial inquiries to Hickory

Township were made then, but it was not until 1966 that the formal procedure of distributing a petition was begun.

The measure was place on the ballot, where it was received approval of both Sharpsville and Hickory voters in the

November 7, 1967 election.

Indeed, meeting minutes of the

Riverside Cemetery Board over

the next fifteen years show that it

was the understanding of both the

Cemetery Board and the Borough

Council that the annexation did

take place.

Yet, the belief that Riverside

still lies within what is now the

City of Hermitage, not only

persists but is general. While

some current maps position the

border correctly, the majority were

never updated and still show the

old boundary line. The confusion

can thus be blamed on the

inattention of mapmakers who

ignored this last addition to

Sharpsville.

Aerial view, ca. 1930, of Ridge Avenue, 15th, 16th and 17th Streets