Ambridge and Beaver Falls, PA (4/10/2021)

Saturday, April 10, 2021 (continued)

Ambridge, PA was incorporated in 1905 as a company town for the American Bridge Company. However, the area was settled in 1824 by the Harmony Society, founding the village of Ökonomie/Economy. The Harmony Society was a Christian religious sect that was persecuted by the Lutheran Church in Germany. Founder Johann Georg Rapp and his followers traveled to the United States to find a new home. They started in Harmonie, PA (from 1804 to 1815) then moved to New Harmony in Indiana (1815-1825). Their final move was to Economy back in PA, but the society was dissolved in 1904. Old Economy Village preserves Harmony Society history.

Old Economy's Harmonist Street of cobblestones

Feast Hall and Museum (1827) had a Natural History
Museum on the first floor that was open to the Society
for free and to the public for a ten-cent admission fee

Residence (1828) of Frederick Reichert Rapp, the
adopted son of Johann Georg Rapp

Residence (1826) of Harmony Society founder
Johann Georg Rapp aka George Rapp

Street sign with past and current names

Harmony Society Church (1828-1831, designed by
Frederick Rapp) was the second church built in Old Economy

Sundial at the Harmony Society Church,
now St John's Lutheran Church (KSS)

Carriage House (1960 reconstruction)

Greenhouse

George Rapp Garden with the Grotto (1831) is a metaphor
for the Harmony Society: the rough exterior belies
the elegant neoclassical interior (KSS)

George Rapp Garden Pavilion (1831)

A Family Shed was used as a food storage area, tool and
wood shed, chicken coop, cow stall, root cellar, and outhouse

Mechanics Building where the tailor and shoemakers worked,
as well as the printer; housed underneath is the wine cellar;
to the R in the photo is the bake oven

Granary that could hold a year's worth of grain

To the L is the Community Kitchen with a roof to cover
area that opened to allow steam to escape; and on the R
is the Blacksmith Shop with an anvil in view

New Brighton, PA is not the only town to have rows of
Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford'/Bradford Pear Trees

Beaver Falls, PA Carnegie Free Library (1899,
by Frederick J Osterling in neoclassical style
with Palladian influences)

Beaver Falls is the hometown of Joe Namath, NFL
Hall of Famer, who was born here in 1943

Bruce Mansfield Power Plant (coal-powered) closed in 2019;
Beaver Valley Power Station (nuclear-powered) is beyond

We stopped for lunch in Wellsville, OH to support its economy

Wellsville, is the birthplace of Kent's mother.

Wellsville has two traffic signals, but
this one is always blinking yellow

Next: Steubenville, OH.