LAUREL MOUNTAIN BOROUGH HISTORY PART 1-E

LAUREL MOUNTAIN BOROUGH NEWSLETTER

Laurel Mountain Borough, Pennsylvania

Carolyn C. Holland, editor

 

LAUREL MOUNTAIN BOROUGH HISTORY  PART 1-E

                                     
In 1940, when the Park was pretty well built up, Lohr asked people to “buy him out,” said Foster. The sale, including the pool, tennis court and roads, created Laurel Park, Inc.
                  
A small cottage on the corner of the recreation area was rented out by Laurel Park, Inc. for revenue, Kinsey said. This was the cottage Craig Miller’s family rented between 1949 and 1956. Now gone, Miller noted that the vestiges

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THE TENNIS COURTS Part 1-D

 

The clay tennis courts, another Park attraction, were built “probably in 1931 or ’32,” Harwig reports. “They were among the finest in the area,” Rose said. “The lines were painted daily and the courts were rolled every morning to compact them. Players had to wear particular shoes.” They were used continuously, from eight a. m. until dark, signed up by the hour on a weekly schedule. Rose had the nine a. m. time slot years.
                  
Rose noted tennis tournaments in the Park drew players from all over Pittsburgh, “people like Joe Kristofe, who was number one at Pitt and _________ Marker, number one at the University of West Virginia.”
                  
Park residents declared Harwig the best player there, and claimed (the late) Homer Hoffman was good too. “You had better know what you were doing if you played here,” Allshouse said. “There was excellent tennis all the time.”
                  
Harwig, who “lived on the tennis courts,” won his Wilkinsburg High School WPIAL title in 1939. “I became the number one player at Carnegie Institute of technology,” he admitted.
 

Click on THE RING  to read a short romance story, and on  THE UNICORN: MYTH OR REALITY?  to read about the unicorn. 

THE COMMUNITY SWIMMING POOL LMB History Part 1-C

PART 1-C

Darr, Hegan and Lohr, interested in attracting summer people and selling real estate, had a brilliant idea for attracting clientele—putting in recreational facilities. Add a swimming pool and tennis court and people would come…

LAUREL MOUNTAIN PARK HISTORY 1-B: Entrance pillars and cottage names

The Park entrances had stone pillars at the entrances off State Road and Route 30. Initially it was protected by gates which Lohr “opened the first day school was out and closed on Labor Day,” according to Allshouse.
                  
“If you look closely at the pillars,

LAUREL MOUNTAIN BOROUGH HISTORY 1-A

When brothers-in-law Lawrence William (Bill) Darr and Charles B. Hegan purchased Ligonier Township acreage at the bottom of Laurel Mountain in 1926 some people asked: “Why are you building houses there? No one will ever want to live in rock pile!”

Eighty-two years later there are one hundred cottages exist in the community. Most have been remodeled and added to repeatedly and over 60% have changed

THE LAUREL MOUNTAINEERS FORM BORO 25 YEARS AGO-Part 1

“Why are you building houses there? No one will ever want to live in a rock pile!”

This was a frequent question and comment made by some people in 1926 when brothers-in-law Lawrence William (Bill) Darr and Charles B. Hegan bought ninety acres of land on a foothill of Laurel Mountain. They planned to develop the land into a cottage community,