Pastoral farm, mill town until railroad rolled in
Those who commute to Cranberry Township or Interstate 79 via Route 68 likely have no idea they are passing through a borough with a rich, diverse and quirky history.
Evans City was born in 1832, when Thomas Evans bought 200 acres of the Boggs farm in an area known as Boggs' Mill.
Rita Reifenstein, secretary of the Evans City Historical Society's board of directors, said he named the acreage “Evansburg” and proceeded to begin selling lots in the little town he had laid out.
By 1835, Evans erected the borough's first brick building, which he used as his home, along Breakneck Creek at the corner of Main and South Washington streets in the current parcel occupied by a convenience store.
He also built a mill along the Breakneck, as he was a millwright by trade.“He had a number of apprentices and workmen under him,” Reifenstein said. “Mills were very important back then.”Evans' home eventually was torn down and replaced by the Waldorf Hotel, which was in turn torn down in the 1960s, Reifenstein said.Main Street was originally named Pittsburgh Street, as it curved to the south and followed the present-day Pioneer Road toward Pittsburgh at that time.The street leading to Harmony and Zelienople to the west was then called Harmony Street.“Evansburg had not grown a lot,” Reifenstein said. “It was a sleepy little town with a mill and farmers, until the railroad came.”
In 1878, a narrow gauge rail was laid by the Pittsburgh and Western Railroad from the north side of Pittsburgh — then Allegheny City — to Zelienople through Evansburg.Coal, lumber, grain and other materials were hauled back and forth between the two ends of the new railroad.“There was not a lot of travel by people at that time,” Reifenstein said.The Pittsburgh and Western Railroad failed after two years and went into receivership.“Probably because it didn't go far enough,” Reifenstein said.In 1887, the Baltimore & Ohio Co. leased the railroad from the former railroad's creditors, as standard gauge rail line was being installed in the late 1800s.In the early 1900s, passenger service began to pick up, and the B&O bought the rail line in 1932.Reifenstein said residents and commuters of a certain age will recall the unique train station on Main Street that was suspended over Breakneck Creek.Borough officials decided they wanted the train station to be positioned on the east side of the tracks after the original station on the west side had burned down in 1902, but no property was available.
“That's when they decided to have this ingenious design to build the train station over the creek,” Reifenstein said.At that time, the creek flowed 14 feet below the station's floor and did not affect the building even when the creek swelled to flood stage.“From the day it was built, it was the only railroad station in the country that was built over water,” she said.The station itself was unique, as cupolas on either end of the roof held watchmen who looked for trains coming from either direction, Reifenstein said.While part of the train station's platform still is visible, the station was torn down in the 1980s by the railroad company.Evansburg boasted three hotels on the corner of Main and South Washington streets: the Evans City Hotel, the Commercial Hotel and the Miller Hotel.The latter still stands and is now the district judge's office and courtroom.“The people coming through on the train could get off and walk to one of the three hotels and have a place to stay,” Reifenstein said.
Evansburg also boasted a trolley station, where passengers and freight could be efficiently moved between Pittsburgh and Evans City, Harmony, Butler and New Castle.Known as the Harmony Line, the trolley ran from 1908 to 1931.The line was instituted by Russell Boggs — a descendent of the farmer who sold Evans the land for the borough — and Henry Buhl, who owned the Boggs & Buhl Department Store in Pittsburgh with Boggs.The pair was looking to create an easy way to access the big city so merchandise from their department store could be ferried north to customers.Reifenstein, who is a member of the Marburger Dairy family, said her grandfather put cans of his milk on the trolley to be carried to Pittsburgh.“The problem was, you didn't have refrigeration,” Reifenstein said. “Sometimes it would get there in good shape, and sometimes it soured and couldn't be used.”She said if a passenger was getting off at the Marburger stop in Forward Township, they would put the empty milk cans on the platform for retrieval by dairy workers.“If no one was stopping at Marburger's, they would just throw the cans into the field,” Reifenstein said.She said the Evansburg trolley station was at the location of the building in front of the Evans City-Seven Fields Police station.Because of the arrival of personal vehicles and the Great Depression, the trolley ceased operation in 1931.
Reifenstein said Evansburg — which became Evans City in 1968 due to its similarity to Ebensburg in Cambria County — also experienced two oil booms in its early years.“Neither of them lasted that long,” she said. “The pool of oil below us wasn't that big.”She said photographs show hundreds of oil wells dotting the borough.“Everyone in town had an oil well in their backyard,” Reifenstein said. “Even the churches in town drilled oil wells.”The first oil and gas rush in Evans City started around 1875 and ended by 1893.The second lasted just two years, from 1915 to 1917.“It was exciting times,” Reifenstein said, “it just didn't last real long.”
The borough was without a community park until the 1970s, when a generous bequest by the Dambach Lumber family willed the site of the lumber mill to the borough for parkland.Reifenstein said remnants of Dambach Lumber remain in Evans City today.“If you go house to house, there's a certain connection of finished lumber that so many of us have, because it came from Dambach Lumber,” she said. “They did business in the borough for close to 100 years.”EDCO Park, which contains a swimming pool, pavilions, park space and more features, is named for Edward Dambach, who bequeathed the former lumber mill property to the borough.
Reifenstein said that although many longtime borough residents chuckle about it, the filming of the 1968 horror movie “Night of the Living Dead” in and around Evans City is a legitimate borough claim to fame.The late director George Romero expressed his appreciation for the borough's friendly residents many times over the years.Several residents appeared in the movie as ghoulish, flesh-eating zombies, which was a monster created in Evans City by Romero as the movie was filmed. The classic opening scene was filmed in the Evans City Cemetery, which is visited often by fans of the cult classic movie from all over the world.Those fans also saved the chapel in the cemetery — which is the only physical item remaining from the movie — when it was about to be torn down in 2013.Thanks to the fans' donations, the chapel was renovated to its original state.“Sometimes it's hard for non-zombie fans to understand how really dedicated zombie fans can be,” Reifenstein said.A historical marker designating Evans City as the filming location of the 1968 cult classic movie was installed in 2015 near the public library.
No history of Evans City would be complete, Reifenstein said, without mentioning the colorful people who have lived and worked there.She said Art Ripper was an artist who painted various family scenes, streetscapes and farm-scapes between the 1930s and 1950s. Ripper sold the paintings door to door, usually to his subjects.“Everyone had an Art Ripper painting,” Reifenstein said of growing up in Evans City.His son, Chuck, painted subjects in nature, many of which appeared on the cover of “Pennsylvania Game News” in years past.Select Chuck Ripper nature paintings also became U.S. postage stamps, Reifenstein said.Another notable borough resident and businessman was James Campbell, a haberdasher who created hats for women from 1946 to 1965.“In Western Pennsylvania, people came to Evans City to buy Campbell hats,” Reifenstein said. “He was raised in Evans City.”A notable living Evans City native is Barry Spithaler, and artist and musician known by many around the county as “Waldo Young.”Artifacts, artwork and information are available at the Evans City Museum, which is adjacent to the public library on Jackson Street. Those interested in touring the museum can call 724-538-3629.
