THE HISTORY OF NEW BRIGHTON, PA

The following is excerpted from the 1938 Centennial Souvenir Book, the 1963 Quasquicentennial Souvenir Book, the 1988 Sesquicentennial Book, and the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph.

New Brighton is located on the east bank of the Beaver River, about two miles from its junction with the Ohio River. It is spread along and over four natural terraces and parts of six surveyor's plots called tracts. The terraces are respectively 30, 80, 125, and 215 feet above the low water line of the Beaver. The tracts were designated as numbers 91 to 95, in Leet's district of Depreciation Lands. The word ”Depreciation” does not refer to the quality or condition of the terrain. At the close of the Revolutionary War, the Continental money with which the soldiers had been paid was so depreciated as to be almost worthless. Whereupon Congress set aside for settlement a district west of the Allegheny River divided into tracts of from 100 to 300 acres which could be paid for by the ex-soldiers with the depreciated paper money at its face value, plus the actual settlement and improvement thereon. The surveyor in charge was Daniel Leet, hence the name of the district.

In 1788 a blockhouse was built by Colonel Josiah Harmer on the present site of New Brighton on the west side of Third Avenue below 14th Street. At that time, it was the most advanced position held by the United States in the Ohio Country.

Two English brothers named Constable, who were surveyors, gave us the name Brighton after their English hometown. However, the lands so named were then part of the present city of Beaver Falls.

By an Act of Assembly of Pennsylvania, a company was chartered on March 20, 1810 to build a bridge over the Big Beaver Creek (Beaver River).

The bridge was built in 1815, but destroyed in 1818 by high water and ice. No attempt was made to rebuild it and the charter was forfeited. On August 8, 1833, a new charter was granted and the bridge was rebuilt in 1835.

When it came time to build the bridge, it was found the bridge could not be rebuilt to conform to the charter because it required the bridge to be built “opposite the town of Brighton,” and now a township intervened between the town of Brighton and the river.

To overcome this, the bridge builders decided to lay out a new town on the east side of the Big Beaver Creek (Beaver River) to be called East Brighton. The citizenry soon popularized the name New Brighton, and as such the new town was incorporated.

Many of the first home builders in New Brighton came from Fallston and had excellent reasons for the move — floods. The great floods of 1810 and 1832 helped people living in Fallston realize that it was a habit for ”Old Man River” to go on a rampage frequently. The exodus from Fallston to the east side of the Beaver was postponed no longer than was necessary to prepare future homes.

New Brighton’s early settlers were of English and western European stock. Many were skilled tradesmen, drawn here by good factory sites, water power, and by the demand of their special skills. Others sought religious freedom and economic opportunities.

Almost from its inception, New Brighton became a manufacturing community, from which the pioneers and later the growing nation were supplied with articles of a wide variety. The abundance of water in the Beaver River furnished cheap power which was so much in demand on the frontier. Then too, the proximity of the borough to the Ohio River simplified the problem of transporting the finished products to the consumer. The story of the early industries of New Brighton is so closely linked with those of Fallston that both must be considered together, as one and the same development. Although the later network of canals, bridges, highways, and railroads provided easy shipping facilities on both sides of the river, the absence of these in the early days was an important consideration for the prospective manufacturer.

New Brighton’s early history was marked by a thriving and diversified industrial complex including flour mills, carriage works, foundries, a horseshoe nail factory, lumber mills, a paper mill, pottery works, and numerous others which kept the population employed. In 1830 a branch of the United States bank was located here. This brought a boom to the town, as did the Pennsylvania Canal.

The era of canal building in the United States marked a great forward step in transportation history. Whereas formerly the traveler, wearied himself jolting over the rough and uneven roadway in a crude stage-coach, now he might relax quietly in a comfortable seat on ship-board as the boat was drawn over the canal by the trotting horses on the towpath. In like fashion, the manufacturer now no longer needs to depend on the small slow wagons of the overland freighter, but could use large canal boats. So, the canal era brought cheaper and more rapid transportation, which meant much to the factory owner.

Ground was broken for the Beaver division on July 28, 1831 at New Brighton. It was considered such a momentous event in the history of Beaver County, that a great celebration was held in the grove near the foot of Thirteenth Street. With the opening of the Beaver division on the 28th of May, 1834, freight and passenger boats were placed in operation to New Castle. The opening of the Beaver division of the Canal started New Brighton on a period of prosperity which continued with slight interruption until the end of the century.

The opening of the entire Canal from Rochester to Erie in 1844, gave a marked impetus to manufacturing in New Brighton. Each remaining year of the 1840 decade saw new plants establish themselves in the town. Although the industrial growth of New Brighton had been quite rapid in the years immediately following the opening of the Canal, this expansion was to become still greater after 1850. The chief reason for this additional increase in commercial activity was due to the extension of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. New Brighton was the terminal of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad until 1853; and a large railroad car shop was operated here. Wrought iron passenger cars made by Merrick, Hanna & Company are believed to be the first metal railroad cars ever manufactured. It is said that New Brighton turned out more railroad men than any town along the route between Pittsburgh and Chicago.

During the Civil War, New Brighton was a transfer point for soldiers going to the front who came by canal boat from as far as Erie to go forward from the old station at 11th street. The town was always full of soldiers. During the period of the Civil War the town sent two companies to the front for three years’ service with uniforms made by the women of the town — Company H, Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves, Captain John Cuthbertson commanding, and Company C, Sixty-third Pennsylvania, with Captain Jason R. Hanna in charge.

The completion of the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad in 1864 marked the end of the canal. The waterway could not compete with the railroad. The sharp decline in freight on the canal during the latter part of the eighteen-sixties shows the influence of the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad.

Company B, New Brighton, famed in the annals of war, dates back to June 1879 and during the Spanish-American War, Co. B was shipped to the Philippines. Again in 1917, Co. B was called into World War I service to help the Allied troops and win a “glorious place in the most brilliant pages of American History.”

Industrial New Brighton had been thriving and growing, and after World War I the veterans returned to a prosperous community. The town continued to prosper until a series of events proved disastrous in the late 1920’s.

Enamelers at the Standard Sanitary Co. went on strike just as the Great Depression began, so the company merged with American Radiator. It was no longer controlled by local interests and about 1,400 men were left jobless. Soon after other items also moved out of New Brighton.

Emerging from the depression, New Brighton observed its centennial in 1938 with a weeklong celebration. Flags and bunting bedecked the business section and residences. The week began with home-coming services in all churches Sunday morning. In the afternoon there was a band concert in Townsend Park, during which Miss New Brighton, Madeline Veiock was given the key to the borough by Burgess Tom Bishop. A union centennial church service was held Sunday evening in the school auditorium. Monday morning witnessed the largest Memorial Day parade in New Brighton’s history. That afternoon, there was a water regatta on the Beaver River, with outboard motor speed demons from all over the country competing. Monday evening Miss New Brighton led the grand march at the Centennial Ball in the Junction Park pavilion and an All Nations festival was held in the high school auditorium. A pageant, “A Century of Glory,” depicting the history of New Brighton in which 400 residents took part was given Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights at the Oak Hill athletic field. On Friday night, New Brighton firemen put on a show including a rescue of a man from the top of the Masonic Building. State motor police exhibited their driver testing machine. Saturday saw the end of the weeklong celebration with a four-hour parade watched by thousands of spectators who lined the curbs for three miles on main streets. More than 5,000 persons — Boy and Girl Scouts, American Legionnaires, and volunteer firemen — took part in the parade. Thirty-two bands and drum and bugles corps kept time.

Within three years after the celebration, the United States entered World War II, and New Brighton citizens concentrated their efforts on activities aimed at achieving victory and security for the nation.

The Civil Defense plan was started and air raid drills were held in schools. The townspeople were trained in home nursing and made surgical dressings at Kenwood, and a blood donor center in New Brighton collected more than its quota of blood to be processed into plasma.

The New Brighton Service Organization collected some $3,000 for the U.S.O., and 500 service kits were given to the men in the armed forces by local service clubs. The community bought a mobile kitchen for her sister community, Brighton, England.

New Brighton’s most precious contribution was in men and women for the armed services. By 1943, 10% of the population was under arms. Company B had again been called into service, and in 1944 landed with the 28th Division in France shortly after D-Day. A roll of men in the service was kept during the war, on a victory “V,” placed in the front of the Post Office.

Many of the returned veterans had hardly reaccustomed themselves to civilian life before they were again in the armed forces. From 1950 to 1953 the United States contributed the major part of the United Nations’ effort to halt aggression in Korea. Again, Company B was called into federal service. They were trained at Camp Atterbury, Indiana until the unit was sent to Germany.

Plans for the town’s improvement that had only been in the discussion stages during the WWII period began to materialize after the Korean Conflict. New annexes were added to Beaver Valley General Hospital and the Nurses home in 1955; a school jointure of Pulaski, Daugherty, and Fallston became a united district; the joint school board planned and completed a new Junior High School on the site of the Dawes-Meyer factory; a year-round recreational program was established with playground sites including baseball diamonds, basketball, and volleyball courts throughout the borough; retail merchandising saw the building of the Economy Supermarket on the site of the Townsend Club; local government dedicated the Sewage Treatment Plant.

From 1959 to 1988 brought numerous changes to New Brighton.

With the adoption of Ordinance #906, the form of government had evolved from a strong “burgess” (mayor) to a council-manager form of government with a borough manager. The Armory, home of Company B since 1908, was transformed into the municipal complex which houses police, fire and street departments as well as borough offices.

During the ’70s the downtown area had undergone a major facelift. New sidewalks, lighting, street signs, trees, and bench rest stops had been added to Third Avenue and businesses spruced up their storefronts. Many of the “old” buildings were removed in favor of “progress” — the Post Office Building on Third Avenue gave way to a bank; many older homes along 6th Avenue were demolished to create the Tom Bishop Apartments; the 10th Street Bridge was torn down for safety and the train station at 2nd Avenue and 8th Street was removed for traffic along 2nd Avenue; last the two-lane railroad bridge between New Brighton and Beaver Falls was replaced with a four-lane bridge.

In 1973, a new elementary and high school complex was built, it included the Sunrise Pool which had a removable roof, making it accessible in both winter and summer for use by the community and school. The previously built Junior High School was converted into the “Middle School,” and in 1977 tennis courts were added across from it. In 1987 a running track was added across the road from the High School complex. The “old” high school complex, the main building, “White House” Library, and Dawes Gymnasium were converted into the E.B. McNitt Apartments — a senior citizens complex.