Looking Back: Mystery photos
While we had one anonymous caller agree with Jennifer Colbert’s guess that this photo was taken in Millsboro, Melvin Fox of Lover says that this is a photo of Fredericktown, where the ferry used to cross.
The Observer-Reporter used to run a weekly feature on Mondays called “Mystery Photo.” Each week, photos from our archives were published in hopes of gleaning information as to when and where the photos were taken, and oftentimes who was in them. Sometimes we solved the mysteries, sometimes we remained stumped. The three photos on this page are mystery photos. They are unmarked and undated prints that we came across in boxes of photos that were marked and dated. Even our staff was at a loss.
Melvin Fox of Lover says that this is an image of a coal tipple in Belle Vernon, near present day Route 201. Paul Keruskin emailed to say that it is the old Vesta 5 tipple below Vestaburg. John Danek of Charleroi says, “I suspect that (this photo) is of Naomi coal tipple, taken from a bluff on the east side of the Monongahela River facing south toward Fayette City in the background – which is itself almost completely covered by the structure. This was probably taken in the 1930s; I believe this structure burned in a fire after 1942. But, this is only a guess based upon stories of a few locals I have known, long since gone.”
Michael Andresky of Charleroi says that this “could be the old coal tipple near Fredericktown looking north. It looks like Route 88 on the left and the bend in the river appears to be the same.”
The only potential clue that we have is that we posted them on Facebook at the end of January, and we received an email from Jennifer Colbert, who thinks that the top photo was taken in her hometown of Millsboro. “I can make out the hotel near ramp to river (now closed but last named Landmark lounge) and the original Union Building school up on the hill in distance. The three story building in the far left of the picture along the river might be the James Emery Distillery. Just a hunch!” she says.
More agreeable guesses on this photo: Andresky feels it might be the old glassworks in Charleroi, taken from the Monessen side of the river. “I have seen an old picture of Charleroi at the Medical Center at 12th Street, the layout looks very similar.” Another emailer says this is Charleroi before 1965, when the Lock 4 dam was rebuilt. He sites the factory on the banks as the MacBeth-Evans glass factory, which later became Corning Glass. And, in the center, he says “is Ninth Street School, perhaps the most ornate, high-Victorian schoolhouse ever built – 14 towers and turrets.”
While we aren’t even positive that they were taken in the Mon Valley, the rivers are a hopeful clue that they were. If you have any idea when and where these images were taken, we would love to hear from you. Email Katie Green at kgreen@observer-reporter.com or call her at 724.229.2741. Likewise, if you have old photos from the Mon Valley that you would like to see on this page, please get in touch.