THE GREAT JOHNSTOWN FLOOD OF 1889
PAGE SIX: SECOND PART OF WALKING AROUND JOHNSTOWN
We left the museum and went down Washington to Market as the next thing on my map was this church,
St. Mark's Episcopal.
The church is on the corner of Market and Locust and there had been an Episcopal church here which was destroyed by the flood.
It wasn't the church itself that I was looking for, though, but the fact that it was on the site of the destroyed church that Clara Barton
had the Red Cross hotel (below) built. This was actually to house the leading members of the town whose homes had been destroyed.
She figured that they were the ones who would get the town back on its feet and she wanted to give them a place to live and get
together to make plans for the clean-up, rebuilding, and the governing of the place.
This is Morley's dog, and was once a lawn statue in the yard of well-to-do Mr. Morley. It was washed away in the flood, later
found, and after some movings hither and yon has come to rest in a parklet on the corner of Market and Main directly across
from the rebuilt City Hall.
We ate lunch at a Subway on the south side of Main St. across from City Hall, then continued east on Main
to Central Park. Above is my first view looking north into the park. At the time of the flood it had over 100
large trees and a fountain, located where the new one is. Every trace of the park was obliterated and debris
was stacked up about 18 feet all over it. Within four days, though, it had been cleared and a tent city set up
to house the construction crews from out of town and some troops.
Standing just into the park, looking back across Main to Alma Hall, which survived the flood, a good thing as about
200 people had sought refuge there. James Walters, an attorney, had an office inside and when his home was destroyed
and he was clinging to a bit of debris, he was swept along and sent crashing through a window of the Hall...into his
very own office. Alma Hall was built in 1884 and so was fairly new at the time of the flood.
Looking across the central fountain toward Locust Street. A Mr. Pasquerilla gave the money to rebuild the fountain,
hence its name. The fountain at the time of the flood had four swans instead of the four lions, however.
Across Locust was the new Tribune Democrat office and Carl was enticed by the life-sized statue leaning on
its front wall. I wasn't up for extra steps at the moment and so I gave my camera to Melanie to go with him to
get this picture.
Leaving the park on the Franklin St. side to see the big Methodist church on the corner of Franklin and Locust.
This is the original Methodist church that was there during the flood. The flood came from the far side of it here and not
only did the building hold (though its first floor was terribly damaged inside), but it actually parted the waters enough so
that some structures in the lee of it also managed to survive or were less severely damaged. Alma Hall is one of the
buildings this side of the church.
With the Methodist church now on our right, we headed down Locust toward St. John's Catholic, the original of which
was terribly damaged and then caught on fire and burned (picture below). St. John's would have been one of the first
really large structures the flood hit as it came into town (from the left of the hill behind the church). We walked down to
the light there at Locust and Clinton as the Hulbert House Hotel where Captain stayed was just down to the right on
Clinton. St. John's is also where Letty's family would have gone.
Looking south down Clinton. The Hulbert House was on the left, three doors up from Main, so I figured it was
where the red brick building with the green awning is. That building was built about three years after the flood, so
I guess there was a nice empty spot for it as the picture below was taken from Locust at Main looking toward
the Methodist church.
The Hulbert House was new, was brick, four stories tall with a mansard roof, so would have been bigger than this building.
But it meant a lot to me to be seeing the site since I set a lot of my story inside the hotel. It simply entirely disintegrated as the
flood impacted it from its left.
Where the wagon and team are is where the Hulbert House once was.
We turned the corner westward on Main because that's how Captain would walk to Letty's. In the first block on the
south side is the Bantley Building, the one that now has the White Deer sign on it, and it survived the flood. The larger one
to its left was built shortly after the flood.
In this general area after the flood.
Looking west along Main. Captain would've walked (and waded and later swum) along here.
Turning south on Franklin because in my mind that was Captain's route, on the east side is the original Tribune office. The
editor of the paper, George Swank, watched the flood out the upper windows. For years he'd dismissed the threat of the dam
and written that even if the dam were ever to fail, Johnstown would only end up with two or three feet of water in its streets.
The corner of Franklin and Lincoln, where Captain would've turned to his right and continued on down Lincoln to Letty's.
On the south side of Lincoln was this...whatever it is...trough sorta sorta. I decided it must, um, be a buffalo watering trough and
so we kept alert for wandering herds the rest of the way down the street (we were heading back to the car).
On the South side of Lincoln there is now this Holiday Inn, which had it been there in 1889, would've been closer to Letty's for
Captain to have stayed in.
Just passing the last of the Holiday Inn, you can see the incline across the Stony Creek.
Looking down Lincoln the ridge across the Stony Creek that the flood impacted is clearly seen, so as the flood
passed over Lincoln and Letty's house, and recoiled off that, it would have flowed back across Lincoln again.
In the car now and on our way back down Washington to the Point, I took this view of the Carnegie Library now museum
out the windshield.
SOUTH SIDE OF THE DAM REMAINS; THE LAKEBED
NORTH SIDE OF THE DAM REMAINS; MUSEUM
THE INCLINE, VIEWS FROM THE TOP
GRANDVIEW CEMETERY'S UNKNOWN DEAD; THE GAP
BACK TO THE WATERS (Jo's story set during the flood)
BACK TO JO'S OTHER PLACE