Vintage Christmas street lights hang on in North Belle Vernon
North Belle Vernon fire Chief John E. Garber is shown with the borough’s old-fashioned Christmas street lights.
Scott Beveridge/ Observer-Reporter
Monongahela once had Christmas lights on Main Street similar to those that survive in North Belle Vernon. Richard Bucchianeri took this photo in 1963.
BELLE VERNON – Firemen in North Belle Vernon modernized the borough’s Christmas street lights by adding a large illuminated ornament in the 1970s, but that update lasted only two years.
Residents wanted the original early 1950s design back, one that had a steel outline of a bell in the middle of the light strands, said borough fire Chief John Garber, who is raising money to replace the bulbs in the decorations.
“Tradition was always big here,” Garber said. “People liked the old ones better.”
Most of the mid-Mon Valley downtowns once had Christmas lights similar to those in North Belle Vernon that stretched high above main streets. Today, Monongahela, Donora and Charleroi have lighted plastic green wreaths or white snowflakes attached to utility poles or street lamps.
Those in this Westmoreland County borough were forged and welded together by local firemen who worked at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel in Monessen. There are two circles on each end to resemble wreaths and a bell in the middle of the strands of red and green lights.
Motorists traveling Interstate 70 east across the Speers-Belle Vernon Bridge are treated to a unique display of the lights that follow downtown Belle Vernon and snake up the steep Broad Avenue into North Belle Vernon.
“That little glow puts a smile on a few truckers’ faces on I-70 while they are going home for Christmas,” said Melanie Patterson, a local businesswoman who opened the doors to her home for a holiday tour this month to raise money for the new lights.
Garber estimates it will cost $11,000 to replace the 1,440 incandescent bulbs with the more energy-efficient LED variety. Each 50-foot-long strand contains 48 bulbs. It might cost more if the strands need to be totally rewired. The fundraiser has so far raised $3,500 toward the goal.
Garber said the lights are nostalgic and take older people back to the Christmases of their youths.
“It brings it all back,” he said.
Anyone interested in contributing to the fire department’s fundraiser can send a check to North Belle Vernon Fire Department, 535 Graham St., Belle Vernon, PA 15012.