New Eagle boasts a community feel
Hall Memorial Park provides residents with a convenient boat launch.
Ben Castor works the counter at Queen Anne’s Lace, a New Eagle antique store owned by his wife, Donna.
The New Eagle Volunteer Fire Department Social Hall.
The New Eagle natatorium in the community center before the pool was covered over and the building converted into the local fire department’s social hall.
New Eagle reminds Donna Castor of her childhood in West Mifflin when the region was dotted with vibrant downtowns.
“I love New Eagle,” says Castor, owner of Queen Anne’s Lace antiques store along the borough’s Main Street.”It is still like that here. It takes me back.”
The small town neighbor of Monongahela was incorporated in 1912 around the New Eagle Mine, which was named after the Old Eagle Mine directly across the Monongahela River in Forward Township, says local historian Terry Necciai.
A community center with an indoor swimming pool known as the Natatorium was soon constructed near the mine entrance, attracting a performance by swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, who was best known for portraying Tarzan in movies in the 1930s and 1940s, according to Necciai.
“Natatorium is a Latin word that means an auditorium for watching swimmers,” he says.
The pool was eventually drained and covered over with flooring, and the building enlarged to serve as the New Eagle Volunteer Fire Department Social Hall.
Meanwhile, a German immigrant nearly put New Eagle on the map for his flying machine that failed to take off a few years before the Wright brothers perfected the first airplane flight in 1903, Necciai says.
Professor William Schick, who taught music in Monongahela, built something akin to a jet engine and attached it to two egg-shaped wings inflated with hot air in a failed attempt to get it off the ground in 1897 at an athletic field in the borough.
The large crowd that showed up to watch the adventure ended up laughing and jeering at Schick after the hot air melted through soldering and he was forced to “accept defeat,” Necciai wrote in an article.
At the time of the 2010 census the bedroom community was home to 2,184 residents and it has always had less zoning rules and codes and more homemade houses than Monongahela, Necciai said.
The borough also is home to a park near the Monongahela River, the Larry “Tubby” Hall Memorial Park along Howard Street, a road that also serves as a popular boat launch. The park was named after Hall because of his community service and he was borough council president at the time of his death in 1990.
The Main Street, which also serves as routes 88 and 837, bring a steady stream of motorists through the downtown and its solid business district.
Chess Street runs parallel to Main Street, and it is home to Behanna Auto & Tire Service in a well maintained building constructed as a gasoline service center that dates to the early American automobile era.
“I have always loved old buildings,” says garage owner Debbie Behanna. “We have older customers come in here who worked here. It’s pretty cool.”
Behanna says she loves New Eagle and Monongahela because they still put up Christmas lights and schedule family-oriented activities throughout the year, creating a great sense of community.
Main Street also has been home since 1968 to Grilli’s Studio, a photographic portrait studio begun by Gene Grilli and carried on by his son, Chris.
“New Eagle is a nice, nice cozy community,” Chris Grilli says. “It’s a nice small town where everyone is pleasant, accommodating and easy to work with.”