Cambria City
Written by Bryan Van Sweden in the Marking Time category and the Winter 2022 issue Topics in this article: architecture and architects, Cambria City, Cambria Iron Works, churches, coal mining, Conemaugh River, immigration and immigrants, Johnstown, Johnstown Area Heritage Association, Johnstown Flood, Keystone Historic Preservation Grant, National Register of Historic Places, Pennsylvania Historical Marker Program, steel
Nestled between a bend in the Conemaugh River and a steep bluff, Cambria City is a distinctive, dense neighborhood that tells the story of hundreds of immigrants who came to work in Pennsylvania’s steel mills and coal mines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Following the founding of the Cambria Iron Works in 1852, investors purchased land across the river from the mill, subdivided it, and began selling house lots to the company’s workers. The company and the neighborhood both developed quickly. The iron works employed 1,500 workers in 1856, growing to 7,000 by the end of the century, and in 1861 Cambria City became an independent borough.
The first immigrants to move into the neighborhood were from Germany, Ireland, Wales and Sweden. Then around 1880, workers and families from southern and eastern Europe began to arrive. In 1889 disaster struck when the Johnstown Flood destroyed two thirds of the neighborhood’s homes and left more than 350 residents dead. Shortly after the flood, Cambria consolidated with Johnstown and five other small boroughs to create the City of Johnstown.
Each new group of immigrants quickly established churches to uphold their community’s religious traditions. As they recovered from the flood, these congregations constructed 10 churches between 1901 and 1922 — all within blocks of each other. These buildings provide a snapshot of Cambria City’s remarkable and changing ethnic diversity.
A view of Cambria City, showing three churches built for congregations from eastern Europe.
Courtesy of the Steeples Project
Germans established the first Roman Catholic parish there in 1859. St. Stephen’s, the neighborhood’s largest Catholic congregation, was founded by Slovak immigrants in 1891. In addition, Irish, Polish, Greek, Hungarian and Croatian residents all built their own Catholic churches. Slovak was also spoken in a Lutheran church, and Hungarian immigrants built a Reformed church. St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church served Carpatho-Rusyn Slavs, while Lebanese and Palestinian parishioners worshipped at a smaller Syrian Orthodox church. Many of the parishes built schools and convents and were associated with social and fraternal organizations.
These stone and brick churches stand out on Cambria City’s skyline, in striking contrast with the simple frame homes and storefronts that line the streets. Architecturally, the churches range from modest Gothic Revival and Romanesque Revival buildings to towering examples of the High Victorian Gothic, Renaissance Revival and Byzantine Revival styles. Many retain their elaborate interiors, including St. Columba, which features Felix Lieftuchter’s colorful murals depicting, in part, the struggles of steel mill workers.
A butcher shop in Cambria City, circa 1900, advertises its products in Hungarian and English.
Courtesy of the Johnstown Flood Museum Archives, Johnstown Area Heritage Association
Over the past 30 years, the Johnstown Area Heritage Association (JAHA) has worked to recognize, celebrate and preserve Cambria City, nominating the historic district for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and dedicating a Pennsylvania Historical Marker in 1994. In 2009, when the Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown consolidated the five remaining Catholic parishes into one and closed three of the buildings, JAHA, Partners for Sacred Places, and the newly formed Steeples Project moved quickly to begin planning for their preservation. A nonprofit organization, 1901 Church Inc., acquired the three former parishes and, supported by a Keystone Historic Preservation Grant from the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, coordinated a project to study the feasibility of adapting these buildings for new uses. Immaculate Conception, originally the German Catholic Church, reopened in 2012 as a special events facility. The former St. Casimir’s Polish Catholic Church has become a cultural center, hosting concerts and musical events and featuring a museum exhibit on the region’s ethnic heritage. And plans are in the works to use St. Columba as a theater for staging plays.
The Pennsylvania Historical Marker for Cambria City stands at 464 Broad Street in Johnstown.
Bryan Van Sweden served as a community preservation coordinator for the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office. He began working for PHMC in 1992 and during the last year helped to manage the Pennsylvania Historical Marker Program.
