{"id":275,"date":"2018-03-23T17:38:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T17:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/?page_id=275"},"modified":"2018-04-02T19:15:17","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T19:15:17","slug":"the-west-side","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mosaics.dickinson.edu\/steelton2001\/student-projects\/the-land-of-steelton\/the-west-side\/","title":{"rendered":"The West Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

“You had to see it to believe it.”
\n–William Pettigrew, Jr.<\/h3>\n
\"Photograph

The Canal along the West Side
Photograph from Stop, Look, Listen: Steelton, Pennsylvania<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

In the early 1870s, a Harrisburg ealty firm bought from the landowner Walter A. Trevoich a small piece of land next to a new steel company located between Front Street and the Susquehanna River.\u00a0 Shortly after the sale, the formation of a town began.\u00a0 In 1875, Purdy and Ewing named the area Ewington, but eventually, it was simply known as “Steelton’s West Side.”\u00a0 Little did everyone know that later in its history, the area would experience relatively harmonious racial and ethinic relationships, decades of steel making, several devastating floods, and eventually the demolition of all its buildings.<\/p>\n

Some of the first residents of Baldwin lived in the company houses located in “Furnace Row” near Locust Street in Ewington.\u00a0 They were immigrants from a variety of countries, and included Germans, Irish, Jews, Slovenians, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Croatians, and African-Americans.\u00a0 Despite their differences, they shared one common goal: they all came to find work at the steel mill.<\/p>\n

Ewington quickly developed into its own enclave, eventually containing its own churches, schools, hose company, hotel, lumber and coal yards, grocery stores, flour mill, and even a brewery.\u00a0 Even after the village was annexed to the Borough of Baldwin on March 25, 1882, it remained as its own entity.\u00a0 The West Side School, located at 315 Main Street, was one of the first schools built.\u00a0 Two years later, due to over-crowded conditions, the Major Bent School was erected.\u00a0 Both photographs below are from Stop, Look, Listen: Steelton, Pennsylvania<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\t\t