Colonel Fred: The Handsomest Man in the Pennsylvania National Guard

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Colonel Fred: The Handsomest Man in the Pennsylvania National Guard A surprising number of the residents of Warren, Pa., remember Fred E. Windsor (1859-1936), though his name as well as his exploits have been long – if not deservedly – forgotten beyond the corporate limits. In the memory of Warrenites, he is the man on the borrowed white horse who led the Memorial Day parades in their youth, a relic and a reminder of the exhibitionistic optimism of...
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The Erie Warner: From Movie Palace to Movie House to Civic Center

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Erie Warner: From Movie Palace to Movie House to Civic Center Once upon a time, brightly lit marquees of movie palaces of Pennsylvania’s streets dazzled the eyes of pleasure seekers. Today, the genre, described as possibly “the most dis­tinctly American contribution to archi­tectural history,” is all but extinct. And when a survivor is found, as on Erie’s State Street, the structure is a reminder of the gaudy and the phony, the...
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L. V. Kupper: Dirt-Street Town Photographer

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on L. V. Kupper: Dirt-Street Town Photographer In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, northwestern Pennsylvania was predominantly a region of dirt-street towns, each serving a neighboring farm popula­tion. As such, these communities were home to blacksmiths, harness makers. and their like – practical mechanics whose utilitarian skills were very much a pan of the agricultural landscape. And among these champions of the useful...
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A One Night Stand to Remember – Or to Forget

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on A One Night Stand to Remember – Or to Forget Laurette Taylor, an actress who knew well of what she spoke, wrote, “There is no existence so devoid of meaning as ‘the one night stands,’ none so fatal to progress as any kind of forced and hurried travel­ing.” Yet of just such ingredi­ents was the theatrical experience compounded dur­ing the last quarter of the nine­teenth century. For these were the years of “the...
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Chin Up, Smile, Keep ‘Em Happy!

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Chin Up, Smile, Keep ‘Em Happy! With the construc­tion of movie palaces through­out Pennsylvania in the years immediately fol­lowing World War I, ushering – quite ordinary employment in the days of the nickelodeon – became a much-sought-after vocation. For it was then that movie house showmen first pronounced that service was the “personality” of show business, and that ushers were an individual...
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Styled For Worship: The Country Churches of Northwestern Pennsylvania

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Styled For Worship: The Country Churches of Northwestern Pennsylvania In Edinboro and Cam­bridge Springs they have disappeared, but at Harmonsburg, Polk, and Watsons Run they stand yet, as they do in Sugar Grove, Pleasantville, Utica, and elsewhere – country churches built by the Presbyterian congregations of northwestern Pennsylvania. Although neither found on registers of historic properties, nor listed in guidebooks of regional attractions, these houses...
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