Erie's History and Memorabilia

Before starting a successful car dealership in 1965, Erie native Louis John Porreco formed the Canadian Holiday Company of Erie in 1962, which would be in bankruptcy by 1964. The SS North American was purchased by the Erie Company in 1963 for cross-lake service between Erie, and Port Burwell, and Port Dover, Ontario, Canada. The North American operated out of the Port of Erie for less than a year, before she was retired in 1964. — Lou Porreco had ambitions to turn the ship into a casino. His ambition was never realized. On June 26, 1964, the ship’s mortgage was entered in foreclosure proceedings and the North American was attached by the United States Marshal. At the time of the Marshal's seizure of the ship, wharfage was supplied under a contract between the Canadian Holiday Company and the City of Erie Port Commission. This contract was terminated by written notice on August 17, 1964. The North American continued to lie at the dock when the United States Marsha...

In the years following up to, and through World War II, the Communist Party of the United States was very successful in organizing labor unions and its opposition to fascism, the party increased its membership through the 1930s, reaching a peak of about 75,000 members in 1940–41. The Communist Party’s involvement, along with the allegation of Organized Crime involvement, the image of labor unions was forever tainted in the eyes of the United States Government. Armed with this prejudice, the precipitated decline in manufacturing in Erie started after the war, in 1946, when union workers struck at both Hammermill and General Electric. With the advent of McCarthyism , in a backlash, Erie in the early 1950s passed an anti-subversive ordinance and General Electric fired a number of suspected communists, including the Erie United Electrical Workers president, John Nelson. In addition to the divisive strikes and red-scare crusades Erie suffered from the loss of manufacturing,...

The Coast Guard in Erie began as the United States Life-Saving Service. The Life-Saving Service was an United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian efforts to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers. It began in 1848, and ultimately merged with the Revenue-Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard in 1915. The United States Revenue-Cutter Service was established as the Revenue-Marine, and so named for over one hundred years, by the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, in 1790 to serve as an armed maritime law-enforcement service. The service operated under the authority of the United States Department of the Treasury until merging with the United States Life-Saving Service.The life-saving station at Presque Isle was primary a life-saving operation rather than a revenue-cutter service. Established in 1876, pursuant to an Act of Congress two years earlier, the station’s original location, was moved in 1878 to the more ...

Charles Manning Reed, the original owner of the Reed House hotel in Erie, was the son of Colonel Set Reed, who was one of Erie County's first permanent settler. Arriving in the summer of 1795 he started in business by establishing a trading post, saw mill, and an inn on the site of the 1753 French fort. Succeeding generations, namely Rufus and Charles Manning, would considerably expand the family's commercial enterprises. By the mid-1830s Rufus was already one of Erie's wealthiest men, owning extensive property throughout the borough, as well as interests in shipping, grist mills, lumber mills, distilleries, and stagecoach lines. Charles gave every indication of being an even shrewder businessman than his father. Charles Manning Reed lead the new direction in Erie's economic development and the shift in the Reed family's own social and business values. When Charles Manning Reed built the Reed House Hotel, it stood as a symbol of a town and of an entr...

Photos and Biography provided by Chris Larson Don Larson was a commercial artist in Erie in the 1960s and 70s. He attended college at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Larson did a lot of work for the Erie Zoo. He created the mosaics that decorated the entrance to the zoo, and the original artwork for the zoo’s train tunnel. Contributing artwork to the zoo’s aesthetic design was not Larson’s only accomplishment. He did the artwork for the Erie Sesquicentennial Commemorative plate in 1962, and a similar commemorative plate for the Erie Winter Carnival. He also did the original artwork for Troyer Farms Potato Chips, depicting the farmer holding a bushel of potatoes and the barn with a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign in the background. He did numerous signs, catalogs, and brochures for numerous companies and organizations in the northwest Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio areas. Larson also did a lot of work for WICU in the 1960s, which included artwork for the Pappy...

In 1949, Robert Nuber, a beer-delivery truck driver earning $70.00 a week, brought home to his family the city’s first television set. Mrs. Nuber wasn’t so impressed with being the first family in town that owned a television, she feared that it was too expensive of a luxury, so she had the set returned to the store. She eventually relented and the set was returned to the Nuber home making them the very first ones in the city of Erie to own a television. At the time, when the Nuber family bought their television, WICU was the only television station broadcasting in the Erie area. It was the very beginning of television. There were only two locally produced programs that were broadcast twice a night, one of which was an amateur talent show. Except for two nightly programs, the station was mostly off the air. There was no network affiliation in the beginning, it was totally a local effort. Commercials were local and broadcast live. The entertainment was mostly local amateur act...

Leaving his home in Fairview, Joe Root moved to Presque Isle while still in his adolescent years — Presque Isle wasn't declared an official state park until 1921. Joe was one of the first permanent inhabitants to the peninsula, the only other resident was the lighthouse keeper who resided at the park during the late 19th century, he often had his tomatoes swiped by Joe. Joe built a number of shacks in various parts of the peninsula to suit the particular activity of any given day. He built his shacks out of driftwood and packing crates, and anything else that washed up on shore. He hunted and fished to support himself. Raw fish was a big part of his diet. When a dead cow washed ashore on Presque Isle, without cooking the animal, Joe reportedly consumed the animal without using any implements to eat it. He also ate local wild plants such as wild cattails, duck potatoes, spatterdocks, rice, blu...

On a Thursday morning, in October 20th of 1920, eight persons, six of them women, were killed, and nineteen others injured when a car of the Cleveland-Buffalo express , eastbound, left the track and sideswiped the second Pullman car of the New York-Chicago express , westbound, of the New York Central railroad just west of the Union Depot, on the morning of the 20th. As the New York Central train, No. 60, the eastbound express, was coasting into the station, the westbound express was pulling out. Suddenly one of the cars of the eastbound train was seen to leave the rail and crash into the side of the car in the westbound train. The heavy steel sides of the Pullman were torn away and the car thrown over on its side. Immediately, clouds of steam and dust arose and the passengers in the car were thrown into a heap as the car settled its open side pointing upward. As quickly as the dust settled, police and firemen, from their headquarters a block away, were using ladder in ...

The first railroad station in Erie was established in 1851, but it was soon replaced with a Romanesque-Revival style Union Depot  that was built around 1865 at 14th Street between Peach and Sassafras Streets. Four railroads provided service: the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad and the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad, which became parts of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR); and the Buffalo and Erie Railroad and the Cleveland and Erie Railroad, which became part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway and eventually a part of the New York Central Railroad (NYC). In its heyday, the station served nearly 52 passenger trains a day. Before dining cars were common, passengers would off-board the train for extended stops at the station's grand restaurant before continuing on their journeys. The first station was demolished and replaced by a new depot, one that was redesigned in the Art Deco style of the 1920s by architects Alfred T. Fellheimer and Steward Wagner, the new sta...

On September 27, 1960, Adoring fans met Senator John F. Kennedy at the airport. The Senator made a few remarks to the crowd that had greeted him, then proceeded to the Hotel Lawrence where he spent the night in Erie. In the following day on September 28, 1960, Senator Kennedy gave his campaign speech in front of the Hotel Lawrence. All the Catholic Schools were closed so the students could attend the downtown rally in support of the nation's first soon-to-be-elected catholic president. Thousands of people crammed the corner of West 10th and Peach Streets to see the future President of the United States. The Erie Daily Times that day devoted most of the front page of its final edition to the rally. Prior to Senator Kennedy's campaign speech he had breakfast with his supporters. During breakfast the Senator had a few words for his supporters. An amateur's silent video of Senator Kennedy giving his campaign speech in front of the Hotel Lawrence, at the corner of West 10th a...