Golf, before carts

Before golf carts, light bags and fewer clubs were the way to go. Shown are Harry Achenbach and daughter Mary in San Diego, Calif., in January 1951.

A social club in decay

The Sokol Club at 116 Main St. in Bentleville, Pa., in the years after it was abandoned.

Remember madras?

Madras sport coats were all the rage in May 1965, when this photo was taken near Lake Placid, N.Y. Shown are Darrow School lacrosse players, from left, Parker Burroughs, Chuck Neumeister, Steve Golding, Tom Johnson and Jim Renwick.

Waiting for a word

At the mouth of a coal mine circa 1910 in Finleyville, Pa.

The Oella

A wooden bridge that once crossed the Monongahela River is shown in the distance of this image of a sternwheeler moored at the Second Street landing in Monongahela, Pa.
(Photo courtesy of Monongahela Area Historical Society)

The whole clan

This is my favorite photo of my great-grandmother, Lucy (Ceney) McIntyre and three of her children taken in the Hendersonville, Pa., coal patch about 1915 in front of the Hendersonville Coal Co. boarding house that Lucy managed. Even though my great-grandmother was full-blooded English, she loved dressing up in the Scottish tartans of her husband Archibald’s McIntyre clan. The pennant being held shows Buster Brown and Tige playing tug-of-war with a stocking and says, ”Buster Brown’s Guaranteed Hosiery.” Left to right: Florence McIntyre (my grandmother), Mary Stewart McIntyre, Archibald McIntryre and Lucy (Ceney) McIntyre.

(Photo submitted by Pam Nixon of Whispers from the Past Family History Research Service, Westland, Pa.)

A bow in her hair

Dorothy Sine of Mt. Morris, Pa., also wore a watch pin on her dress for the circa 1900 portrait.

The Monongahela sophomores of 1912

Lois Sampson submitted this photo of the "sophmore" class at the Central Monongahela High School Building for publication in the former Daily-Herald newspaper in Monongahela.

Working men

Workers at Forgie Lumber posed for this photo in the yard that operated on Hall Avenue in Washington near the Chartiers railroad depot until about 1910.

Warrick's Grocery

Warrick's Grocery began operating in 1858 in this building that stood on the southeast corner of Wheeling and Main streets in Washington, now a parking lot of the Observer Publishing Co. The photo was thought to have been made in the 1860s, but that is not possible because a street-car rail is visible in the bottom right corner, and tracks were not laid along South Main Street before 1890, according to Scott Becker, director of the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. The building was razed in 1903, and the Warrick family continued to operate the grocery on the ground floor of the 4-story brick building that replaced it until moving in 1913 to the northwest corner of Wheeling and Main, where the business continued until the 1970s.

This photo has been retouched. It is possible that the photographer misspelled "Warrick," leaving out the "c" when he did so. Or perhaps the painter of the store's sign made the mistake.

Dorsey House

113 Cherry Avenue, West Brownsville vicinity, Washington County, Pa.

On the line

As if you couldn't guess by the hairdo, this photo was taken in 1946. Workers are painting glassware at the Duncan & Miller factory in Washington.

They mined the Ella

Charlie Gillingham, top right, was the blacksmith at Ella Mine in Sunnyside, Pa., about 1900 when this group photo was snapped. Frank Hepner, seated fourth from right, was the only other man identified in the photograph that was rescued from the trash when the Monongahela Daily-Herald newspaper closed in 1986.

Can you spare a dime?

This photo is of the interior of the Dime Savings Institution at 99 South Main Street in Washington. The S&L shared space with the Washington Electric Light & Power Co. in the early 1900s.

Sturdy stock

Louise Stewart poses for a snapshot with her horse, most-likely where she lived in Greene County, Pa., many, many years ago.

Minor league ball

The Red Birds, a semi-pro baseball team, from the Harbaugh collection, circa 1955. Does anyone out there have any information about this team?

An S Bridge

This is a colorized photograph of an S Bridge along U.S Route 40, the nation's first interstate highway, a view that could have been captured in Washington County, Pa. The shot of the bridge along the route otherwise known as the National Road was found under another picture inside an old frame purchased at a second-hand store in New Eagle, Pa. If you look closely, there are two old cars shown in the distance. It's interesting, too, to see how the power poles were partly painted white.

At work

Welder at work, from the Harbaugh Studio. Date and location unknown.

Proud ferry pilot

The Fredericktown Ferry circa 1920 on the Monongahela River in Fredericktown, Pa. (Photo courtesy of Bower Brothers' Lounge in the Washington County village)

Civil War veteran

William D. Welch claimed to be 100 years old when this photo was made by the Harbaugh Studio in 1938. Wounded at Antietam, he recovered and returned to fight at Gettysburg and several other major battles. He lived for many years on a houseboat on the Monongahela River at Dunlevy and claimed to have spent 90 years along that river, the Ohio and the Mississippi and boasted that he knew "every lock, dam, shoal and snag between Pittsburgh and New Orleans."

He died in Cincinnati on Dec. 17, 1945, at age 113, according to his calculations.

Lulu was a card

Lulu Dreisbach was the wife of Bruce, a mysterious photographer who captured hundreds of images of Donora, Pa., steel-making in its early days. Click here for the rest of the story. Photo courtesy of the Donora Historical Society.

Up with hope, down with dope

The Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered the message, "Up with hope, down with dope," when he toured the Mon Valley by boat during his unsuccessful bid for the White House in 1988. This photo from the Observer-Reporter archives was taken on the Monongahela River near Monongahela, Pa.

Main Street, 1875

This is one of my favorite photos of downtown Washington. The photographer was standing in muddy South Main Street in front of the Bradford House, looking north. The buildings to the right are all gone – the Observer Publishing Co. is there now. The white building visible at the northeast corner of Wheeling and Main is the Valentine House, which burned and was replaced by the William Henry Hotel, where radio station WJPA is now.

Art and Little Jimy Morgan

Art Post, former owner of Waynesburg Auto Co., poses beside his "pride and joy" in Waynesburg, Pa., with his nephew, "Little Jimy" Morgan. From the scrapbook of Madge Sine Beveridge, a native of Mt. Morris, Greene County, Pa.

After the fire

Workers lounge on the grass a few days after the 1956 fire that destroyed a large part of the Duncan and Miller Glass factory in Washington.

A football between the knees

This photo of the 1919 Monongahela High School football team in southwestern Pennsylvania was found in the trash of the former Daily-Herald newspaper went it out of business in 1986.

Members of the club

In the early 1950s, service clubs were for men only, and just about everyone smoked. (From the Harbaugh Studios collection).

The banker boys

We don't have a clue as to the identities of the guys in this photo who presumably worked at the former Webster Bank that folded in Webster, Pa., during the Great Depression. It was found in the walls when the building was razed due to neglect about five years ago.
The image was taken by H.N. Odbert in his studio on Donora Avenue in Belle Vernon that wasn't big enough for the shot that also captured objects outside of the backdrop. Odbert was a native of Beallsville who also worked as treasurer in Monessen.

Glass workers

Here's another photo of the Duncan and Miller glass factory in Washington, taken in 1946.

Sharing a light

This photo is from the collection of the Dan Harbaugh Photo Studio, that came into the possession of the Observer Publishing Co. some time ago. I am fascinated by its blending of sweetness and revulsion.

Football at W&J College

Helmets? We don't need no stinkin' helmets! A shot from College Field in the late 1890s.

Days of glass

Glass blowers at work at the Duncan & Miller Glass factory in Washington in 1946

Dog people

This photo was taken somewhere in Washington County in September 1978. The photographer was Paul Carson, a staff writer for the Observer-Reporter who often wrote about outdoor life.

McDonald of yesteryear

This postcard photo is of the hotel that they just made the movie at in McDonald, Pa. Hotel Valentor, lots of people standing out side of the hotel, you can see the mud streets. – Hannah Bushmire Garrett

Mon steamer

The mighty Chieftain in the days of yore - lost during one of the Mon's floods.
Courtesy of the Charleroi Area Historical Society archives and the Mon Valley River Buff members. (Submitted by Nikki Sheppick)