Erie's History and Memorabilia

The Downing Insurance Building was a refined structure at 9th and Peach Street. It was built in 1883 by Jerome F. Downing for $40,000, and later demolished for the redevelopment of Downtown Erie. The interior was in keeping with the exterior, elegantly and conveniently arranged, finished in attractive hard woods, and provided with stained glass windows. The ceilings were a lofty thirty-feet from the floors — tastefully decorated. The office force comprised some twenty-five clerks and assistants, a number of whom were employed with Mr. Downing from ten to twenty years. The office represented the Pennsylvania Fire Insurance Company, employing over 2,000 local agents with a territory that was comprised of fourteen states and five territories. Agents render their reports under the direction and control of the manager, Mr. Downing. Born on March 24, 1827, Jerome F. Downing was a native of Enfield, Massachusetts, and a lawyer by profession. He was reared on...

The Charles M. Reed House was located on the north side of West 6th Street, between Walnut and Chestnut streets. The house was demolished in 1970 to build what was then the Erie County Motor Club. Some of the original interior paneling and molding were incorporated into the dining and bar area of the ski lodge at Peek 'n Peak, Chautauqua County, New York. This house is not the Reed Mansion, which now is the Erie Club. This was the personal home of Charles Reed who was the grandson of the first settler of Erie, Seth Reed. This house, among other notable structures like the Hotel Lawrence, were demolished during the Redevelopment Phase of Erie’s history in the 1960s and 70s. A lot of homes that once belonged to the Settlers of Erie, or their descendants were lost. And I don’t mean some log cabin that they first lived in when they arrived, impractical to preserve and were long gone by the 20th century, but solid brick and mortar structures. Charles M. Reed was born,...

Constructed in 1857 by Heman Janes, the 157 year old home, at 125 West 21st Street, was the oldest house in the West 21st Street Historic District before being demolished by VL Holdings LLC on Saturday, April 12, 2014. An architectural-styled Italianate on a lot size of 11560 square feet, the house was 3883 square feet with 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It was one of the first homes built within the district that includes 34 contributing middle and upper class residential buildings, built between 1857 and 1939, in a variety of popular architectural styles including Queen Anne, Italianate, and Colonial Revival. Workers with the Lipchik Demolition company demolished the house after assurances was given by VL Holdings to the members of Preservation Erie, a Non-Profit Organization, that they were only demolishing a small building in the back yard of the property, which was not within the historic district. VL Holdings in the course of their discussions with Preservation Erie gave them t...

In September of 1983 Hamot Medical Center said it was protecting their property rights, when during a city council meeting, in the dark of night, they bulldozed the city's oldest building, Hughes Log House, a 176- year-old log cabin, at 136 East Third Street in Erie. "It's inconceivable to us that they would have done this," said John Claridge of the Erie County Historical Society. "For some reason or other they felt a definite threat to their right to do with their property as they saw fit." Preservationists had hoped to move the two-story house from the land the hospital were to develop, but were left only with a possible archaeological examination of the land. Many of the house's remains were taken by scavengers. "The reason it's such an affront is that Hamot couldn't care if this was a building built in 1 B.C. They have demonstrated absolutely no regard for the history of Erie," Patrick Cuneo, president of the Preservation Proje...