Welcome to Connellsville
Youghiogheny Station
Adelaide Coke Ovens
Bigg Sixx Tavern
Title and Trust Co. of Western Pennsylvania building
Learning from previous trips, I decided to have a couple of minimal driving days on last fall's vacation. I didn't do much planning but Connellsville, Pennsylvania wasn't too far from where I was headed to next. It was also on the Great Allegheny Passage bicycle trail so I could on a bike ride.
Connellsville sits astride the Youghiogheny River. Good luck pronouncing Youghiogheny. Connellsville reached its peak about a century ago, when Henry Clay Frick had 375 coke ovens lining the river at the mile-long complex named after his wife, Adelaide. The population of Connellsville was over 20,000 back then, it is less than half that today. Allegedly, when Connellsville was the king of coke it more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the world.
The place must have been hopping with railroads. The Bigg Sixx Tavern is built into the support for an elevated railway that ran parallel to the Youghiogheny Station. The station today showcases glasswork from local artisans.
As you might expect with a formerly wealthy town that's lost more than half its population there were lots of decrepit, but beautiful old buildings downtown.
The B&O and Western Maryland lines were the most prominent railroads serving Connellsville back in the day. But the city was also served by the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie (I think this ended up being part of the Western Maryland track), Pennsylvania Railroad (later New York Central), and the Pittsburgh & West Virginia (later Burlington Northern). The bike trail is built upon the old Western Maryland track bed. It's also the line which was supported by what is now the front of the Bigg Sixx.
Posted by: Stilladog | 11 April 2010 at 09:43 AM