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    Vandergrift
    Vandergrift
    Vandergrift
    Ebook141 pages32 minutes

    Vandergrift

    By Sara McGuire

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    About this ebook

    Established in 1895 when other factory towns consisted of shabby mill-owned structures and dirt streets, Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, was uniquely designed by the firm of Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot to be greener and more architecturally pleasing for residents. The town s early emphasis on green space and resident-owned homes was ahead of its time, and aspects of its history continue to surprise even residents.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMay 11, 2009
    ISBN9781439637524
    Vandergrift
    Author

    Sara McGuire

    Sara McGuire worked with the Vandergrift Improvement Program and the Victorian Vandergrift Museum and Historical Society on this book.

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      Book preview

      Vandergrift - Sara McGuire

      book.

      INTRODUCTION

      A pamphlet printed for the Vandergrift Chamber of Commerce in the 1930s states, Vandergrift is the culmination of a dream. The town was founded in 1895, but the dream that led to this point had its beginnings in a much earlier time. The individual responsible for this dream entered onto the scene in 1886. At that time, George Gibson McMurtry became the manager of the Apollo Iron and Steel Company located in Apollo, a town southeast of Vandergrift. The plant thrived as a manufacturer of galvanized iron with McMurtry as its director, and he was soon looking for a site for the establishment of another plant. The site he considered was a beautiful piece of farmland down the Kiskiminetas River from Apollo. He bought the 640-acre Townsend farm as well as the Hugh Jones, Laufer, and Varner farms in 1892. The next year, workers at the Apollo Iron and Steel Company went on strike. They felt they deserved higher pay than what had been agreed upon in a national union contract. In the meantime, land near the Apollo mill was purchased by two individuals planning on reselling it to the mill at a much higher price. In 1894, McMurtry’s desire for expansion, the strike, and a higher buying price for nearby land led him to finally begin to move forward with plans for the farmland he had purchased.

      One can only imagine what the land where Vandergrift now rests looked like in the past. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was home to Delaware Indian settlements and then cleared for farming. It was in this state that McMurtry first viewed the site. This parcel of land juts into the path of the Kiskiminetas River, which wraps itself around the seeming peninsula of hilly earth. What McMurtry meant for this land was not just a plant and accompanying grimy industrial town with rows of generic houses following a grid plan that was the common atmosphere of mill towns of his time. In a letter addressed to landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted in 1895 requesting his services in designing McMurtry’s dream town, Apollo Iron and Steel Company treasurer Wallace Bache made it clear that the town was to break free of the trends of the day. He writes, We desire to have a town that in many features will be unique, and in all respects more attractive than the average manufacturing town of the present day. In fact, we want something better than the best. Like other industrialists, McMurtry wanted to make a profit, but he knew the key to the success of his business would be healthy and contented workers. Therefore, the town he was setting out to create was to have all the comforts his employees could

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