Thank you for doing these videos of McKeesport! During the 50's I used to visit my grandmother who lived on Jenny Lind St.. So sad what's happened to McKeesport and many other towns in western Pa..
At 8:20, I rented that store, it was called Dish Depot of Pa. Right beside Enn Cuts and the other end where the salon is was a temp soup kitchen. About the late 90's right over 2000. We had robberies there and even one break in from the soup kitchen through the overhead rafters. It's all changed again.
I was t,he Marine Corps Recruiter there 1967 - 1971 but we were at 506 Locust St not on. 5th Ave. I also remember the trains stopping all traffic when they went through town. My daughter was born at McKeesport hospital.
I was born mid-60's in McKeesport hospital. Spent my childhood in Glassport. I remember as a young boy (probably age 10 or so), my mom signed me up for swimming lessons at the big ole McKeesport YMCA. I'd take the bus (by myself) to McKeesport and walk the few blocks from the bus stop to the Y. If I was early enough, I'd stop by that "mall" you mentioned and check out places like a little pet store it had before my swimming class started. Sometimes my mom would give me a few bucks to eat at the McDonald's which I'd go to after swimming class ended. I think the McDonalds was the first one I ever ate at (we were more of a Winky's family, lol). I also remember us having to occasionally go to Helmstadter's for cub scout uniform stuff and I think later for school gym uniforms (shirt and shorts). I think there was a Woolworths (or some sort of five-and-dime type store) on the same block as Helmstadter's? And occasionally my mom would drag me into Jaison's or Cox's, usually the latter, when she needed to do some shopping for herself. As a little boy, I hated that! LOL.
I ever went to the YMCA with my dad who went swimming there. Seemed like a really massive pool if I remember. My mom took me swimming behind the hotel down by the Dunkin and supermarket, later became a old folks home.
Honestly a failure of local government, plenty of dying or dead coal and steel towns throughout PA, NY, OH, etc, but none look anywhere close to as bad. Sad, because it was a nice place once.
That’s because it’s corrupt in a system where they only hire friends. If the mindset was to actually help the City and to be fair and open to new ideas rather than keeping the same old boys locked into their positions, there’d be some actual progress.
But to be completely fair, once shopping malls came (like Century III in the 80s) and the mills were gone, small stores couldn’t compete with that economic condition. And because of its location which is unlike Homestead with Waterfront, there’s no geographical reason for people to come to McKeesport. It’s not on the way to anything or on the path to any major city. There’s no business coming to McKeesport. There’s no income base to support it. All that can’t be controlled by local government.
I remember when the railroad used to go through the middle of town. The parades would be cut off when a train bi-sected Fifth Ave. There were quite a few babies born in taxis which were cut off by trains. There was no other way to get to McKeesport Hospital.
the walkway between cvs and murphys that small building at the rear was sams superior restaurant best hot dogs ever from the alley side you could see the hot dogs cooking on the griddle , mustard chili and onions too bad its gone
It's so crazy that the richest company in the world is making phones in China but can't employ its fellow Americans in these towns in the country where the phones are sold and on the freeways where the products are shipped. That downtown could easily have a factory there.
I wonder if you can make a video of the area around Hamilton Street, as well as the alley behind 1400 Hamilton. It was the house that Philip Dorian committed suicide by blowing his house to smithereens. I wonder if anybody has been on that lot?
Sorry that McKeesport has declined. Looks like it was a nice place to live years ago. I live in south Central pa. Near harrisburg. I was watching for Steel City Collectibles but didn't see it. Might visit sometime. Thanks for the tour.
I live across the state near Philadelphia and I get a kick out of the different dialect out there (needs torn down?). I know soda turns to pop somewhere in the middle of the state. Great video, and I hope your town can rebound. It needs rebound.
Good job I was born and raised there, so sad what it looks like now. They need places for employment for sure. Did you eat hotdogs at Sams in the alley across from the side door of Murphy’s? I can’t believe that you still are living there, Bless your heart. Thank you for sharing this I enjoyed watching this.
Thank you for these videos it's very depressing to see my old Hometown looking like that I left there in 1985 if you ever get up by the Grandview area I'd be interested to see that
THANK YOU MR. GARNER.. That was amazing!!!! You brought back so many past memories as you drove around Grandview for incensed I also went to boy scouts at that church. My parents almost bought that pizza shop at one point in time, the bar that was down at the end of Grandview was called Cherry Lane. On your way back you went past Abraham Street. I grew up at 1714 Abraham Street. The empty lot near Mayfair I was empty when I grew up I remember of building forts in it. I appreciate it so much thank you sir
Behind BK was Radio Shack Also in mud town plaza was a pet shop and Dave's variety. Got my first good Timex in 3rd grade at Goodman's my grandma put it on her charge for my Bday
Lc green store use to be sam hot dog in the alley of Murphy. I saw the overpass was gone in mall area by burger king. I left in 82 and family left in 88 when the still mill w.tube works closed
Late 70's went to Helmstetter for you Scouting gear and took bus to the YMCA for swimming and summer camp... all safe no kid could do that today! Mckeesport should be blown away and start over!! sad to say
Wow, does this video ever bring back memories. My father operated his business on Fifth down the street from Coxes. I think that section of buildings was torn down many years ago.. I recall the Liberty theater almost next door. I saw JFK make his speech in the park next to The Daily News building when I was maybe 12 or 13. I remember seeing JFK at the podium. Thank you for this video. I can only visit via Google Earth now living out of state. I will return when COVID eases.
Could you do a drive through East Mc Keesport? Please. My dad grew up there..my grama lived there till the day she died. I loved that place. Thank you for the memories 😎🤟🏼🥰💕😁💜💜💜💜. Where is the church in East McKeeport that looks like it came out of an Aladdin movie? My grama lived in that neighborhood
There was a record and a instrument store and an Isleys. across the street from the Canapy. It was with The Memorial Theater. The Memorial Theater was a really nice and an ornate.
Hey, Walt, used to be Grandview bus, but didn't the street car once go out that way? Did it go down Grandview to end, then turn around? I know it used to come up Hartman, hug the hill on a trestle uphill parallel to the steep part of O'Neil Blvd, a long time ago. Seems streetcar came up Shaw crossed Coursing, up Union to Versailles? One line went up Jenny Lind.
Trollys went down Grandview. They went up Evans, and stopped in front of the fire station. There they waited for the next trolly to get there before the first one went back down Evans. The Jenny Lind street trolly went up to the end of Jenny Lind street. Then the driver had to lower one pole, and raise the other to go back downtown. There was a trolly turn around at the bottom of crawford village under the ramp for the Duquesne bridge. I belueve there are still some trolly tracks in that gravel lot. I don't remember any on hartman. But i have no doubt that they were there. A friend of mine who past away used to tell me that he would get on a trolly in Downtown Mckeesport and ride it out to Greensburg. He also told me about the trestle by O'niel blvd.
@@waltergarner346 Thanks A mass transit system before it's time(!), you know what I mean. Great that wherever you lived, you were within five or six walking blocks of a major streetcar line. As a little girl my mother lived in one of the houses along the steep portion of O'Neill boulevard -- the red and white one -- and she told me about the graded trestle behind the houses the streetcar rode to the hill top. Her mother used to give her $5 and two paper sacks and she would get on the streetcar at the top of Grandview and Versailles and ride down to Balsamo's, buy what she needed and ride/haul the stuff back. One of the major street car companies was based out at Olympia shopping center way back when, when that was an amusement park, until the coal mine fire shut it down. One could catch the Walnut Street line from downtown, out past the 15th Street bridge and ride out to the amusement park making sure to catch the last street car back at night. I didn't know that street cars were reversible. I thought they had a driver's cabin at the front only. Yes I'm aware of the turnaround on East 5th Avenue below Crawford Village. I just didn't know how the trolley turned around at the end of Grandview, or the one that went all the way out to Jenny Lind. Mom walked down daily from Port Vue to downtown McKeesport and rode and transferred street cars all the way into downtown Pittsburgh, where she then walked to her nursing school at Mercy Hospital. What a once proud industrious vibrant city and people. When I last visited Pittsburgh I mentioned to a waitress we were from McKeesport and she just kind of shrugged and walked away. I understand ... it's a shell of its former self.
John Kane is not a hospital. It is an Allegheny County skilled nursing facility. One of 4. Kane McKeesport, Kane Glen Hazel, Kane Scott, and Kane North HIlls
Not true. When the tax base leaves, and poor people can’t pay them, the city declines. Most liberal cities that have taxes have better living conditions. Take a look at Nashville Tennessee for instance, compared to the rest of their state.
Most of those old Victorian buildings need to be torn down. Don't waste any time deciding that keeping these old buildings is a good idea. It is not a good idea. The city needs to prepare for a city like Cairo, Illinois. Will settle down to a population of about 5,000 sometime in the next 30 years. The population decline is not over by a long shot.
It's very sad to see the condition of the town where I was born. I grew up in Elizabeth, and I had family in Glassport, and Dravosburg. It was always fun to take the bus into McKeesport when I was a kid.
When I was a kid, my mom and I would go shopping in McKeesport. My treat was lunch at the "Star" restaurant on Fifth Avenue. The train passed literally outside the front window of the restaurant......the whole building would shake when it went by. I took clarinet lessons at Progressive Music on Walnut St. The was also Sam Buchman photography across the street from the Famous....he did ALL the yearbook photos for just about every school in the Mon Valley. I saw "The Ten Commandments" at the Memorial Theater....when I went home, the bus stop was in front of the Famous. Also the Famous had an S&H Green Stamp redemption center on the second or third floor. As high school kids, we would drive around "brick Alley" about a hundred times on Friday nights. After our teenage dates, we would meet at the "Club Car"....a really cool stainless steel restaurant on Lyle Blvd....it may have actually been a real train car that was converted. Oh...there was also a floating bar on the water...I think it was called "Surfside Four." It's sad to see what McKeesport has become. Don't hold your breath for a revival....with no steel mills, it won't happen. Thanks for the tour....you do a really good job. Ron B. (West Mifflin....now in Las Vegas)
I thankyou for sharing your memories. I would love to share everyones memories. My Aunt Rachel would take me to the Star Restaurant. And she always ended up telling me to sit down when the train wrnt by. Because i would go look outside to see the train. My Mom would take me to the club car we would meet my Dad there. And it wasn't a real train car. It was made to look like one
Years ago McKeesport was a nice place to go they had the Redbox train restaurant there was a market down at the end of town there that I remember but lately anymore since yours went by drugs and violence and murder has been taken over McKeesport area nobody wants to live there that is the worst town to live in
How is it like in Versailles? I had a cousin that lived there up to 1968 when he died. He lived in 2nd street i believe. Could you do a ride down there? Best regards from Europe 😊
At one time, where McDonald used to stand at was an unemployment office. Where Burger King standard at one time that was an a rare room in the late eighties.
Hello Walt. I wonder if we ever met. I was class of 72. I would have been the 3rd generation to go into the mills....if I hadn't gotten the hell out in the 80s!!! Yes...I learned to skate at the 'Pali' ....also..saw the BatMan fight Mr. Clean fight there! Brick Alley poked out there...in 69 my buddies n I bought a bottle of moonshine from an OLD Black Man. Backdoor Slim!!! Three dollars! Sooooo many memories....many of them bad. You never covered where I grew up...the prettiest of all...Grandview Av neighborhood.! .
McKeesport had three 5&10 cent stores; G.C. Murphy, H.L. Greens, Grants. Helmsteaders was the other department store, besides The Famous. The Elks Temple Bldg. (next to the Famous) used to have a huge, ornate auditorium and ball room where they used to live live shows on radio station WMCK, which had large professional studios in the same building. WEDO was the other radio station, located next to Helmsteaders Dept. store. The city had three cinemas; Memorial, Victor, Liberty.
I grew up in the 80s - originally from Clairton, but my grandma was from McKeesport so we were there A LOT. I remember that big massive Elk that was on display at the Elks Temple Bldg. Seemed to be there forever (until I was in college?) and then it disappeared. I also remember that train car that was a travel agent on Lysle Blvd. That also seemed to be there forever (long after it closed). And then finally - it was gone!
