CAN THIS HISTORIC-THEATER FACADE BE SAVED?

4 a.m. (EST) 04/10/2020

Today’s early-morning fire in the abandoned, historic Opera House/Theater on Market Street in Johnsonburg, PA, concerns all of us who care about historic preservation and revitalization in the borough, the region, and beyond.

Details about damage to the structure will emerge.

The Trust remains committed to our mission of revitalization. Towards that end, we support efforts to preserve, at a minimum, the facade of this 1892 Boomtown-Front Theater, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Johnsonburg, PA, Opera House/Theater, April 1st, 2019 (a year before the fire)

Johnsonburg, PA, Opera House/Theater, April 10th, 2020 (hours after the fire)

What's Your Brick-Block Story?

While the Trust continues to secure the Brick Block and plan for its future, this seems like a good time to reflect….

Lots of us know a great Brick-Block Story.

Here’s one--

My parents met in the Brick Block.  Dad was a confirmed bachelor, in his early-40s, just happy to have come back alive from WWII.  One of his first jobs, after the war, was helping in his brother’s busy appliance repair and sales shop, in the Brick Block.  Dad’s brother could fix anything.  According to Dad, Dad was the brawn, who, “moved refrigerators and things.”

One day, in walks Mom, who tells Dad she’s, “looking to buy a radio.”  Each knew the other’s family, but they’d never met because they were 13 years apart in age.  As he showed her radios, he later said, he was thinking, “I can’t ask her out.  I’ll be teased for stealing a kid off the street corner or something.”

Mom, in those days, was an announcer on WKBI’s radio station, which, for a while, had a studio upstairs in the Brick Block.  One of Mom’s promotions was “The Lucky Dollar.”  After writing down the serial number from a dollar in her purse, she bought something in Elk County, which put the bill in local circulation.  Then, she got on air to announce the number.  Whoever brought the lucky dollar to the station won a prize.  So, as Dad talked radios that day, he may have suspected Mom was plotting to plant a lucky dollar.

The way Mom told it, she wasn’t thinking about a lucky dollar and she wasn’t as interested in the radio as she was in Dad.  She’d wanted to meet him and this was a way to do it.  I believe she may have had to go back more than once, but, eventually, he got over his concern for their age difference and asked her out.  I’m glad he did and that the Brick Block was there to help it happen.

So, now--What’s your favorite Brick-Block Story?  In fewer than 300 words, which is about the length of the little tale above, please tell us your best Brick-Block Story. (To open the reply box for this blog post, please click on the title “What's Your Brick-Block Story?” at the top.) On the 1st of each month, the best story for the previous month will be determined by the highest number of “loves.”  In addition to the “love,” the prize includes bragging rights and knowing that you passed on a great story about the Brick Block, a building close to the hearts of so many.

Looking forward to the stories,

Megan

---

Please enjoy this Brick Block story that was originally posted March 2, 2020 as part of “What’s Your Brick-Block Story?” series. This story was posted on the Trust’s FB page and received the most “loves” by our followers.

~enjoy

Kevin Barwin’s Brick Block Story

A great big beautiful thank-you goes to local author Kevin (Regis) Barwin for sharing his Brick Block story in the Johnsonburg Press. He gives us a look into how this 45,000 sq. ft. structure was built as well as what shops and other businesses filled it.

I wonder what will be this historic building's next awe-inspiring adventure. -

The article was in Vol. 127, No. 35, Wednesday, February 19th, 2020 of the Johnsonburg Press.

Brick-Block Update--It's good that we're here.

Trust members and other volunteers have made their way into the belly and the bowels of the Brick Block.  It’s good that we’re here.  We continue to assess the situation, as we secure the structure for winter and plan for its return to robust health.  More to come....

—Megan

Megan Schreiber-Carter

How Similar the Past is to the Present

Vintage postcard in author’s collection of Market Street

This is a post recently on the Johnsonburg Community Trust facebook page:

While researching recently I read the below information being reminded how similar the present is to the past. We are restoring/revitalizing/preparing for shops and people for our future generations as our ancestors in 1890 were designing/constructing waiting for Johnsonburg to grow. 
How amazing and reaffirming for us as a community.

This write-up about the Brick Block is from a newsletter that was a part of Preservation Pennsylvania's 2015 AT RISK buildings. 

"Johnsonburg is a borough in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Lumber Heritage Region, where farming and lumbering still form the basis of the economy. Since the last two decades of the 19th century, the major industry in Johnsonburg has been paper.
The largest mill, which still operates today, was built more than 100 years ago by the Curtis Publishing Company, the Philadelphia based publishing company that produced the Saturday Evening Post and Ladies’ Home Journal, among others. But a number of other paper factories existed in the community, as well.
In 1888, Philadelphia paper manufacturers L. D. and M. M.
Armstrong established the Clarion Pulp and Paper Company to manufacture paper in Johnsonburg. Their factory opened in 1889 at the junction of the east and west branches of the Clarion River.

The same year, the Anderson brothers platted an addition to the unincorporated village south of their mill, where they began to develop what is downtown Johnsonburg today.

Designed by Philadelphia architect P. A. Welsh and built in 1890, the Anderson Brick Block was one of the first brick commercial buildings constructed in downtown Johnsonburg. This extraordinary building dominates the east side of Market Street for nearly ½ the length of the National Register listed Johnsonburg Commercial Historic District. The 12-bay brick building is two stories high, with a three-story bay accentuating each end. The second story is cantilevered over the sidewalk, creating an outdoor arcade.The facade of the brick building is trimmed in rock-faced sandstone, and each of the 12 bays has a wood-frame oriel window.

The mixed-use building has 12 commercial storefronts at
street level, and a series of apartments above. In 1891, the newly constructed building was vacant with the exception of an express office and stationery shop in the northern-most storefront, and an office on the second floor in the southern-most unit. In 1898, a post office had opened in the southern-most storefront. The building also contained a grocer, a meat shop, a jewelry store and a drugstore. One space was used for storage, and six spaces remained vacant.

By 1904, the building was fully occupied. It contained a hardware, a confectionery and a tobacco store, as well as two grocery, two dry goods, and two jewelry stores. The building’s commercial first floor also housed a restaurant, a tailor and the post office."

***Talking through the years with different long time residents of Johnsonburg there has been a back and forth of whether the correct developers were 'Armstrong or 'Anderson' of the Brick Block perhaps we can start a conversation here on which is correct.

- photo credit author, during this year’s luminary memorial lighting front of the Brick Block

-posted by Stephanie Distler , social media support for JCT
#JohnsonburgCommunityTrust #JCT #PAatrisk #history #PAWildsmade #PAWilds #lumberheritage #PreservationPennsylvania #PHMC
Pennsylvania Trails of History

More good news about the Brick Block—

As of today, the Brick Block’s pests have been managed--no more bugs, bats, cats, rodents or other vermin.  With this step, a great project to bring this classic structure back to health has begun.  Please stay tuned as we take the next steps necessary to secure the structure.

So much is going on with the Trust that it’s hard to keep up.  With this blog, we hope to make it easier.  You may find our blog posts at www.johnsonburgcommunitytrust.org.  (If you leave us your e-mail address, we’ll notify you when a new blog is posted by the Trust.)

— Megan Schreiber-Carter, JCT member